Hamas War

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Now For The Really Dirty Part

The voting was the easy part. In Israel's Election system, we vote for Knesset, parliament, Members but not Prime Minister, not the executive. The elected MK's then, post-election, wheel and deal to form a government. That's when the fun begins. It's fun for them I guess, since the big prizes go to those in the cabinet, the coalition.
Shimon Peres, as President, now has the power to decide who gets first crack officially.

But unofficially, the negotiations have been going on since before we even chose our ballot, put it in the envelope and placed it in the box.

There are 120 MK's Members of Knesset, and no party gets the necessary majority of 61 plus. There are just too many political parties.

Kadima keeps screaming that it "won," but with only one seat more than Likud, and neither of them getting even a quarter of the seats, they sound like bratty little kids squabbling in the playground.

The Likud's Bibi Netanyahu has been working hard to keep up good relations with the former Likud members who are now in Kadima.
There were no surprises on Wednesday night at Beit Hanassi, other than the fact that Kadima MK Tzahi Hanegbi, in a break with accepted practice, stayed behind after other members of the faction left the grounds to make way for the Likud.
Hanegbi lingered as a symbolic one-man welcoming committee for former colleagues Gideon Sa'ar, Silvan Shalom, Yuval Steinitz and Dan Meridor, as if to convey the impression that Kadima had already been awarded the mandate to form the next government.

Could this forebode a major change? Hanegbi is one of the most, if not the most, powerful wheeler dealers in Kadima.

Avigdor Lieberman has returned from his vacation to discover that the Likud can probably put together a coalition without him.

Stay tuned....

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