Knesset Divided: Netanyahu Scrambles to Keep His Job

Local Editor

A badly weakened "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrambled Wednesday to keep his job by reaching out to a new centrist after the Zionist entity's parliamentary election produced a stunning deadlock.

The results defied forecasts that "Israel's" next government would veer sharply to the right at a time when the country faces mounting international isolation, growing economic problems and regional turbulence.
"Israeli" media said that with 99.8 percent of votes counted, each bloc had 60 of parliament's 120 seats. Commentators said Netanyahu, who called early elections three months ago expecting easy victory, would be tapped to form the next government because the rival camp drew 12 of its 60 seats from Arab parties that traditionally are excluded from coalition building.

A surprising strong showing by a political newcomer, the centrist Yesh Atid, or There is a Future, party, in Tuesday's vote turned pre-election forecasts on their heads and dealt a setback to Netanyahu. Yesh Atid's leader, Yair Lapid, has said he would only join a government committed to sweeping economic changes and a serious push to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.
The results were not official, and there was a slim chance of a slight shift in the final bloc breakdowns and a possibility that Netanyahu would not form the next government, even though both he and Lapid have called for the creation of a broad coalition.

Under "Israel's" parliamentary system, voters cast ballots for parties, not individual candidates. Because no party has ever won an outright majority of parliamentary seats, the entity has always been governed by coalitions. Traditionally, the party that wins the largest number of seats is given the first chance to form a governing alliance in negotiations that center around promising Cabinet posts and policy concessions. If those negotiations are successful, the leader of that party becomes prime minister. If not, the task falls to a smaller faction.
Netanyahu's Likud-Yisrael Beitenu alliance polled strongest in Tuesday's election, winning 31 parliamentary seats. But that is still 11 fewer than the 42 it held in the outgoing parliament and below the forecasts of 32 to 37 in recent polls. Yesh Atid had been forecast to capture about a dozen seats but won 19, making it the second-largest in the legislature.

Addressing his supporters early Wednesday, when an earlier vote count gave his bloc a shaky, one-seat parliamentary margin, Netanyahu vowed to form as broad a coalition as possible. He said the next government would be built on principles that include reforming the contentious system of granting draft exemptions to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and the "responsible" pursuit of a "genuine peace" with the Palestinians. He did not elaborate, but the message seemed aimed at Lapid.
Netanyahu called Lapid early Wednesday and offered to work together. "We have the opportunity to do great things together," Likud quoted the Bibi as saying. Lapid also called for the formation of a broad government.
The goal of a broad coalition will not be an easy one, however, and will force Netanyahu to make some difficult decisions. In an interview last week with The Associated Press, Lapid said he would not be a "fig leaf" for a hard-line agenda on the so-called "peacemaking". A leading party member, Yaakov Peri, said Wednesday that Yesh Atid will not join unless the government pledges to begin drafting the ultra-Orthodox into the military, lowers the Zionist entity's high cost of living and returns to peace talks.
"We have red lines. We won't cross those red lines, even if it will cost us sitting in the opposition," Peri told Channel 2 TV.

That stance could force Netanyahu to promise overtures - perhaps far more sweeping than he imagined - to get peace negotiations moving again.
But a harder line taken by traditional and future hawkish allies could present formidable obstacles to coalition building.
The election results surprised "Israelis", given the steady stream of recent opinion polls forecasting a more solid hardline majority and a weaker showing by centrists. Netanyahu may have suffered because of his close ties to the ultra-Orthodox and perhaps from complacency. Many voters chose smaller parties, believing a Netanyahu victory was assured. Pollster Mina Zemah said support surged for Lapid in the last few days of the campaign, and he drew about 50 percent of his support from the right.

On Wednesday, the Obama administration said the US approach to the "Israeli"-Palestinian conflict would not change, regardless of the "Israeli" election results.
"We will continue to make clear that only through direct negotiations can the Palestinians and the "Israelis" ... achieve the peace they both deserve," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org