Free Republic

According to the near final results of the votes of soldiers, diplomats, and prisoners that were being tallied Thursday morning, Jewish Home will be awarded a 12th Knesset seat, making it the fourth largest faction in the Israeli parliament. The seat will come at the expense of Arab party Ra'am-Ta'al, which goes down to four seats. With the twelfth seat, Bayit Yehudi, the representative party of the National Religious sector, matches the sector's historic record number of Knesset seats, achieved in 1977, when the National Religious Party received 12 Knesset seats.

The disastrous results in Israel's election are yet another example of the right cannibalizing itself. It's not the first time this happened in Israeli political history or American political history or European political history. It's an ongoing theme whose motto is still, "No enemies to the left." What the "mainstream" conservatives fear most of all is a drift to the right. Some of this is the whimper of whipped dogs. Every party to the right of Stalin has had to spend decades fending off accusations that it was the second coming of the Third Reich, the KKK and Genghis Khan....

JERUSALEM – In a stunning setback, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line bloc fared worse than expected in a parliamentary election Tuesday, exit polls showed, possibly forcing the incumbent Israeli leader to invite surprisingly strong moderate rivals into his government and soften his line toward the Palestinians. TV exit polls showed the hard-liners with about 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament, a bare majority, and the counts could change as actual votes are tallied. The unofficial TV results had Netanyahu winning only 31 seats, though he combined his Likud Party with the far-right Yisrael Beitenu for the voting. Running separately four...

Israel goes Leftward as Right bloc's majority razor-thin; voter turnout 66.6%; Likud Beytenu plummets; Labor polled to get 17 seats, Bayit Yehudi 12, Shas 11, Livni and Meretz 7 each, UTJ 6.

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerged the bruised winner of Israel's election on Tuesday, with his hawkish bloc unexpectedly losing ground to resurgent center-left challengers, exit polls showed. They suggested the Israeli leader's Likud party, yoked with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu group, would still be the biggest bloc in the 120-member assembly with 31 seats, 11 fewer than the 42 they held in the previous parliament. If the exit polls compiled by three Israeli television channels prove correct, Netanyahu would be on course to secure a third term in office, perhaps leading a hardline coalition that would promote Jewish...

Turnout is highest since 1999. Netanyahu is favored to win his 3rd term as PM.

Palestinian officials largely view Benjamin Netanyahu’s expected re-election with despair, fearing the Israeli hard-liners’ ambitious plans for settlement construction over the next four years could prove lethal to their dreams of a state. Some in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ circle hold out hope that President Barack Obama will re-engage in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and, freed from domestic electoral considerations in his second term, get tougher with Netanyahu on settlements. One aide suggested Europe is ready to jump in with its own peace plan if Washington is not. But short of trying to rally international opinion, it seems Abbas can do...

....Netanyahu is expected to redefine his "natural partners" after the upcoming election, shifting from a nationalist government to a more leftist one. The Ma'ariv newspaper quoted senior Likud members as saying that because of a need to focus on issues such as the economy and due to pressure that is expected to come from US President Barack Obama in regards to the peace process, Netanyahu is expected to shift his coalition more towards the center-left in an effort to build as broad a coalition as possible. "Netanyahu would prefer to give up the religious parties, especially in light of the...

JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel's prime minister on Wednesday dismissed President Barack Obama's reported displeasure with his hardline policies toward the Palestinians, a sign that the two could be headed for a showdown. Polls suggest Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to win Israel's elections next week and continue in office. This week an American columnist with close ties to the White House described Obama's disdain for Netanyahu, warning that Israel's all-important relationship with the U.S. could suffer in unprecedented ways if the Israeli government doesn't change its policies. Such a clash would come at a tense time when regional developments appear to...

In light of Netanyahu's support for Romney, prime minister's associates fear US president will take revenge against him if re-elected. Republican hopeful promises to make Israel his first destination if he wins Senior Israeli political officials are bracing for the results of the US presidential elections as many estimate that the elected president will affect the 2013 Knesset elections. In light of Benjamin Netanyahu's support for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, the prime minister's associates fear that US President Barack Obama may take revenge against him if re-elected and support his political rivals.

The largest opposition party in Israel, Kadima, just joined Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's coalition, obviating the need for elections in September, and turning Bibi into something akin to what only Iran has previously had: a Supreme Leader. (Granted, one supreme leader came to power democratically, and the other did not.) Bibi now stands to be the strongest prime minister of Israel in recent history. The newly-elected leader of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, recently said he would never in a million years join a coalition with Netanyahu, so this was inevitable, I guess. Speculation is rampant about why Bibi brought in Mofaz....

In a surprise turnabout, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to cancel the early elections he had called just 24 hours before and instead form a unity government with the opposition party Kadima, Israeli officials said Tuesday. The decision shocked much of Israel's political establishment, which was gearing up to dissolve the parliament, or Knesset, and launch campaigns for a Sept. 4 vote. By joining the government coalition, newly elected Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz avoids facing voters amid polls indicating that his centrist party would lose more than half its Knesset seats. Just a month ago, Mofaz declared he...

For the last twenty years Israel has been swept into an obsession with few parallels except to the Dutch Tulip economy. Except instead of tulips, its commodity of choice is an even more insubstantial thing, the faint promise of peace. Peace fever is the disease consuming Israel as surely as the Black Death took Europe. If the Dutch traded fortunes for flowers, the Israelis have traded away most of their territory for worthless pieces of paper that last about as long as tulips do. Mostly, like Madoff's investments, after they wither and die it turns out that they were never...

In a stunning reversal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off early elections Tuesday after reaching an agreement to bring Israel's main opposition party into the government, a move that puts a more moderate face on his hawkish coalition.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition chairman MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) reached a surprise agreement early Tuesday morning to form a national unity government. The move came as the Knesset was preparing to disperse for early elections, which were expected to be scheduled for September 4. Under the agreement, Kadima will join Netanyahu's government and commit to supporting its policies through the end of its term in late 2013. Mofaz is expected to be appointed deputy prime minister, as well as minister without portfolio.

Kol Yisrael radio reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Opposition leader MK Shaul Mofaz have reached an agreement to form a national unity government.

I srael’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling early elections so that he and his government will be free to deal with Iran’s nuclear program this September-October, one of Israel’s best-informed political commentators said on Friday night. Netanyahu is set on Sunday to announce that he is dissolving parliament and calling elections for September 4 — a year ahead of schedule. In the weeks immediately after that vote, said well-connected commentator Amnon Abramovich on the top-rated Channel 2 news, Netanyahu will head a transition government at home and have no need to worry about voter sentiment, and he knows that...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared victory Tuesday night after polls closed. "Today the real Likud won. We proved that our strength is in our unity. We will continue to lead responsibly for better education, economy, and security for all the citizens of the State of Israel," he said. The prime minister was leading initial counts Tuesday overnight, after rainy weather kept polls open later than schedule. According to Army Radio, Netanyahu led challenger Moshe Feiglin at 63 percent. Netanyahu's rival garnered 36% of votes, according to the initial count.

Many people don’t understand what’s happening now in Israeli politics, so here’s a brief, and non-partisan, appreciation. Compared to the past, there’s far less difference between the three main parties. This is largely due to the objective situation, which is rather inflexible. It is easy to characterize some as rabid right-wingers who throw away chances for peace and others as rabid left-wingers who are ready to make too many concessions. Neither argument is correct except for the fringes, which are not going to shape Israeli policy. I am tempted to add that abroad, the left thinks we’re evil, while the...