Labor To Be Included In Netanyahu Coalition

The Muskogee Politico's Israel Update

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Israeli Prime Minister designate Binyamin Netanyahu will have at least a 66-seat majority coalition in the Knesset. Today, the Labor Party's Central Committee voted 680 to 507, giving Labor the green light to join Netayahu's coalition.

With Labor's 13 seats, along with the ultra-religious Shas Party's 11 seats, the 15 seats of ultra-nationalistic (and predominately Russian immigrant) Yisrael Beitenu, and Likud's 27 MKs, Netanyahu guaranteed 66 seats. With the addition of Labor, Netanyahu's government will be decidedly more centrist, as the other potential coalition partners (Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism, and Nation Union) were much more nationalistic, and on the right wing of Israeli politics.

In the agreement, Ehud Barak (Labor chairman) will retain his Defense Ministry post.

Latest Israeli Results

Here are the latest results from the Israeli elections as of 4:15pm CST (taken from Arutz Sheva):

Results updated to: 12:15 a.m. (4:15pm CST)

Nationalist/Religious Bloc	Knesset Seats
Likud	25
Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home)	15
Ichud Leumi (National Union)	4
Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home)	4
Shas	11
United Torah Judaism	4
Total for Nationalist/Religious Bloc	63
Left-wing Bloc
Kadima	27
Labor	13
Meretz	4
Ra'am Ta'al (Arab party)	3
Balad (Arab party)	2
Hadash (Arab/Jewish party)	2
Total for Left-wing Bloc	54

Initial Reports: Kadima Leads, but Right beats Left

According to initial exit polls and results, Tzipi Livni's Kadima party leads Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud by about 2 mandates (seats). Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu is currently being reported as having 14-15 mandates, and Ehud Barak's Labor party is fourth, with about 13.

So far, the exit polls say...

Right-wing parties:

• Likud: 27-28
  
• Yisrael Beiteinu: 14-15
  
• Shas: 9-10
• National Union: 3
• Jewish Home: 3-4
• United Torah Judaism: 5

Other left-wing parties:

• Kadima: 28-30
  
• Labor: 13
  
• Meretz: 4-5
• Ra'am Ta'al (Arab): 2-4
• Balad (Arab): 2-3
• Hadash (Arab): 4, or none

That gives the right-wing, most likely supporting Netanyahu for Prime Minister, 61-65 mandates, and the left-wing, supporting Livni, about 49-59 seats. However, there are rumors that the Arab parties may not join any coalition, protesting the banning of other Arab parties considered to be "anti-Israel". If so, the left-wing could potentially receive as few as 45 seats.

This gives Netanyahu a very good chance at becoming the next Prime Minister, in spite of Likud coming in second to Kadima.

Updates will be provided when they come in.

Israel Update: Elections on Tuesday

The Muskogee Politico's Israel Update

Tuesday, February 10th, is the national election in Israel. The control of the Knesset, and the next Prime Minister, will be decided in the vote.

Israel has a parliamentary system of elections, more like Great Britain than the United States. For a party to gain seating in the Knesset, they must receive approximately 2% nationally, which would give them two seats. A party that gets anything below that threshold does not receive seating, and is essentially thrown out of the reckoning.

Currently, the parties of Likud, Kadima and Israel Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) are the leading parties; the candidates for Prime Minister are, in order of party listed above, Binyamin Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni, and Avigdor Lieberman.

Below, I've put together a rolling graph of the public poll results since the first of the year.


As you can tell, Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party has made tremendous progress, surpassing Ehud Barak and the Labor party, traditionally one of the strongest parties. However, Yisrael Beiteinu is not expected to place higher than third.