Businessman Alfred Akirov applied this week for a permit to control Clal Insurance. The company is Israel’s third-largest insurance firm, managing some 250 billion shekels ($79 billion) of the public’s money. The application was submitted to the Commissioner of Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings, Moshe Barkat, who is studying it and, to the best of our knowledge, is considering whether or not to approve it. Akirov is a successful businessman, in Israel and abroad, in the real estate and hotel industries. He controls the publicly traded company Alrov, which has a market capitalization of 4.