Former head of anti-poverty commission joins Kahlon's party
In joint press conference, Eli Alalouf says 'the strength of our society is based on us treating all areas of the state equally' but that unique solutions need to be found for different populations.
Alalouf, 69, discussed the reasons behind his decision to join Kahlon at a press conference Thursday, saying "it all started in a meeting with Moshe several years ago when he was welfare minister. I saw he was extraordinarily well immersed in the issues. It was love at first sight. Thank you, Moshe, for agreeing to let us launch this joint campaign. I'm happy and proud to be your soldier, and I'm first and foremost a soldier of our society.
"The strength of our society is based on us treating all areas of the state equally. We must ensure to seek justice," he said. "The Israeli society is very complex and we have to develop a unique mechanism to respond to each one of the populations making up our state.
"The housing issue is deteriorating into poverty. There hasn't been construction of public housing for over 20 years. Even splitting the rent doesn't allow one to rent an apartment, but no one is addressing that. We developed such communities and others and we forgot about them ... The periphery is a term we must blur out," he concluded.
Kahlon added that "over the past decade, we're seeing a constant rise in the rates of poverty in Israel. We reached the dubious achievement of third place in poverty among developed countries. I have no doubt that the right leadership, with some minimal sensitivity to the weaker classes and the needs of the middle class, would have brought us to a different place, one much more respectable.
"Poverty, and the fact young couples can't get an apartment, are problems in the lower classes and in the middle class, but it's also a national problem. The problem is moving up, it's hurting Israel's national strength. There's a failure we all need to address."
Former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren announced Wednesday he is joining Kahlon's newly minted center-right party considered to be this elections go-to swing party.
Alalouf and Oren are just the first of many expected to announce they are joining the party, which is currently polling at around 10 Knesset seats. Kahlon vowed he would form a party comprised not of politicians but professional 'doers'.
