RAMALLAH: Israel headed for political gridlock yesterday after its election produced rival winners. Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima party won the most votes but had little chance of building enough support for a coalition.
Right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu can get the support, but analysts said the likely coalition would prove dysfunctional.
Kadima party won 28 seats in the 120-member Parliament, just one ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud party, leaving the country facing perhaps weeks of political uncertainty. The final results will be published on Feb. 18. The two parties, however, dismissed suggestions of a leadership rotation between Livni and Netanyahu.
Meir Sheetrit, Knesset member of Kadima, told the Israeli Radio that rotation was “a bad thing.” “It is a kind of attempt to square the circle that usually doesn’t work,” he said. “I suggest refraining from performing tricks at the country’s expense.” He added that a right-wing government led by Netanyahu wouldn’t be able to function and would fall within a short time. Sheetrit said he believed a unity government led by Livni, with Likud and Labor, would be the better option.
Likud party lawmaker Silvan Shalom said “there won’t be a rotation.”
“Such a method is only chosen when the balance of power between the camps is 60-60. That is not the current situation, the victor is clear,” he told the Israeli Radio.
Shalom added that it was clear Netanyahu would be the next prime minister, but added that a unity government could be possible. An overall lurch to the right has made it more likely that Netanyahu will return to the nation’s most powerful post, but Livni immediately started coalition talks, meeting yesterday with ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman.
“This is an opportunity for unity that can promote issues that are important for our two parties. They agreed to continue their contacts,” Livni’s office said after the meeting with the Yisrael Beiteinu leader, who has emerged as a kingmaker after Tuesday’s vote.
Lieberman, who met Netanyahu later in the day, kept his cards close to his chest. “We will clarify our positions and will do our part in putting together a Cabinet as soon as possible,” he said after his talks with Livni.
Another who saw Netanyahu was Eli Yishai, head of the religious Shas party, which is a member of the current government but has fallen out with Livni over her refusal to keep the future of Jerusalem out of Middle East peace talks.
Hard-line parties gained ground on the back of the Gaza war and security concerns, and the right’s likely return to power could hamper US-backed efforts to revive the faltering Middle East peace negotiations.
Under Israel’s political system, it is the party considered best able to form a coalition — and not necessarily the winner of the most seats — which will be tasked by the president with forming a new government.
President Shimon Peres has said he will begin consultations next week.
Netanyahu can in theory rally 65 seats, including Likud’s 27, 15 won by ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu, 11 from the ultra-Orthodox Shas, five from the religious United Torah Judaism and seven from two extreme-right settler parties, Jewish Home and National Union. Livni can count on the support of 44 MPs including Kadima’s 28, 13 from Labor and three from the left-wing Meretz.
The remaining 11 seats are held by Arab parties, which are highly unlikely to join any coalition.
Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas said the results of the elections confirm that the, “Zionist community has elected the extremists.”
— With input from Hisham Abu Taha
