Netanyahu leads Israel vote

JERUSALEM: Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli premier, has reached out to a new centrist party after his right-wing bloc lost eleven seats in the Parliamentary elections.
Netanyahu's rightwing Likud won 31 seats on a joint list with the hardline nationalist Yisrael Beitenu of former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, but the Yesh Atid party led by former journalist Yair Lapid claimed second place.
Yesh Atid's performance, just nine months after its creation, has turned Lapid in Israel's newest political star.
But it is a blow for Netanyahu, who had sought a bulletproof rightwing majority that would give him freedom to manoeuvre on key foreign policy issues including Iran's nuclear program and peace with the Palestinians.
Lapid's campaign emphasised economic reform and universal military service, but his party also favours negotiations with the Palestinians, and could force Netanyahu to moderate his economic policy and take a new line on peace talks.
Israel has come under increasing pressure to seek renewed negotiations with the Palestinians, with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius repeating that call yesterday.
But the Palestinians expressed caution over Lapid's showing.
"I don't see a peace coalition or a peace camp emerging now and revitalising itself," Palestine Liberation Organisation official Hanan Ashrawi told reporters.
Coalition negotiations are expected to be delicate, particularly as the Knesset's 120 seats are evenly split between the rightwing and centre-left blocs, and Netanyahu is likely to reach across the aisle to Lapid.