The stand-off between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is promoting a bill to close down the new state broadcasting authority, Kan, and funnel its resources into the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who is promising to veto the bill, continues. The cabinet is due to debate the issue in its weekly meeting on Sunday. On Wednesday, the Economics Committee convened to receive an overview of the state of preparedness of the Kan broadcasting corporation, in light of the initiative to close it down and a letter the heads of Kan recently sent to Netanyahu, Kahlon, and committee chairman MK Eitan Cabel. During the meeting Cabel called the move to shutter the new broadcaster "such a cynical, such an opportunistic move." Cabel swore that he would fight the attempt to close down Kan. Kan Broadcasting Council Chairman Gil Omer said that it would be ready to go on air by January 2017. The Treasury, meanwhile, has prepared a 12-page document which it says proves that closing Kan down would cost the state hundreds of millions of shekels. Netanyahu and his associates insist that shuttering the new broadcaster before it begins operations would actually save the state money. It currently appears that if Netanyahu presents the question of closing the new broadcaster for cabinet approval, a majority of the ministers will support the bill. But the real fight is expected to play out in the Knesset, and at this point it is unclear how the Kulanu faction, led by the finance minister, will vote. On Tuesday, the Knesset plenum debated about whether or not to close down the new broadcasting authority. Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, the cabinet liaison to the Knesset, said that the government would present a work plan to rehabilitate the existing Israel Broadcasting Authority, adding that efforts would be made to prevent layoffs. "It's no disgrace to admit that establishing the new broadcasting corporation and dismantling the IBA was wrong, a mistake, but it's neither fair nor reasonable to insist on going through with the move," Levin said. "If we can rehabilitate the IBA and limit employee layoffs, we must do so," Levin continued. The Knesset opened the debate after Opposition MKs Karin Elharrar (Yesh Atid), Dov Khenin (Joint Arab List), Ilan Gilon (Meretz) and Nachman Shai (Zionist Union) submitted seven proposals regarding the closure of the new broadcasting corporation, which claimed that the prime minister was "trying to take control of public broadcasting and wants his own [broadcasting] authority." Levin said that the opposition MKs were not interested in saving jobs so long as they could attack the prime minister. "There are considerations other than money in public broadcasting. There must be pluralism and variety in public broadcasts. The current situation, as reflected by the new corporation, contains neither pluralism nor variety," Levin said.
