Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on March 30, 2015

Kulanu Ran on Platform of Economic Change

Getty Images

Big Fish in Small Pond: Led by Kahlon, the son of Libyan immigrants, the Kulanu party ran on a platform of economic change.

Jerusalem In Israels recent election, Yaakov Shalev, an 86-year-old Iraqi Israeli, broke his 38-year Likud streak to vote for a newcomer on the political playing field: the Kulanu party.

Kulanu means all of us in Hebrew, but the party has special resonance among Mizrachim, or Jews of Arab origin. Led by Moshe Kahlon, the son of Libyan immigrants, it ran on a platform of economic change in Israel, where urban Ashkenazim, or European Jews, out-earn Mizrachim by about 30%.

He wants to help the poor, said Shalev, who owns a picture frame shop in Tel Aviv. If hes Mizrachi or Ashkenazi, its not something I think about.

Indeed, Kahlon speaks to voters beyond his own ethnic group. In addition to drawing Mizrachi voters from the Likud, he also counts a sizable Ashkenazi base, likely pulled from Yesh Atid, another party focused on social and economic issues. While nearly every other midsized party shrank in the March vote, Kulanu garnered 10 seats in its first election.

He wants to take the Mizrachi story and integrate it into the collective story of Israel, said Nissim Leon, a sociologist at Bar-Ilan University who has studied Kahlons appeal with the Mizrachi middle class.

Kulanu, which posits itself as a centrist party, is a new option for Mizrachi Jews. Broadly speaking, Mizrachim have voted right since the 1970s, when widespread disillusionment with the socialist Ashkenazi ruling class propelled them into the arms of the Likud Party. Former Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begins so-called Project Renewal, which rehabilitated impoverished neighborhoods, cemented the partys Mizrachi base. Since the 80s, Shas, the ultra-Orthodox party, has also provided a home for religious Mizrachim.

Kulanu has drawn Mizrachim who feel disenchanted with Likuds economic record but cant bring themselves to vote for Labor, the party of their historic exclusion. One of Kahlons own campaign videos even depicted him as following in Begins footsteps, where Likud had faltered.

Continued here:

Are Kahlon and His New Party Here To Stay or a Passing Fad?

Category: Ashkenazi
Tags: