Posted on 02/10/2009 3:14:45 PM PST by Rastus
JERUSALEM – Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has declared victory in Tuesday's parliamentary election. Netanyahu told his supporters in a speech early Wednesday that he was proud of the gains by his hardline party. Exit polls show Likud coming in second, but in a better position to lead a coalition government because of a strong showing by other nationalist parties.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
From the Jerusalem Post—”We’ve turned into a significant party, the third largest in Israel,” Lieberman said. “It’s true that Tzipi Livni won a surprise victory. But what is more important is that the right-wing camp won a clear majority... We want a right-wing government. That’s our wish and we don’t hide it.” That sounds like his party will unite with Likud to form a government. It certainly doesn’t sound like he’d unite with Livni.
No one has won. They are now counting the actual votes. Tzipi has a two seat edge in the exit polls but a swing of one seat makes it a tie. Bibi is expected to win the army and seamen vote which comes in at the end. Also because of a screwup Tzipi’s surplus vote deal is wth the Greens which won’t have any surplus to give. Bibi could pick up a seat here.
Everyone’s talking as if Bibi has the best chance of forming a government because Shas, the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party, plus Lieberman, the rising right-wing party, will go with him. The election was called because Tzipi said to no to Shas’s attempt to extort bigger handouts for ultra-Orthodox families, who are notorious freeloaders. Warning that Bibi was going to capitulate to Shas won Tzipi a lot of support. The plot thickened when the Shas leader called Lieberman “satan.” Tonight he said he would exact revenge on them, meaning he may block their way to a government. If that’s the case Bibi does not have an advantage over Tzipi.
The result may be a rotating government with Bibi and Tzipi which worked for Shamir and Peres in the 80s who also finished in a virtual dead heat.
Excellent news.
And the military votes are last counted! Are the Israeli military votes generally to the right, as I would expect?
Very informative, thank you.
He’ll get to lead, but she’ll have to sit on his lap during sessions.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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This sounds very much like a win for Bibi.
It's a parlimentary system, everyone gets their own party.
If McCains party, along with Huckabees and Romneys get 64 seats, vs 56 for the Clinton and Obama parties, they will probably be the ones to form the government.
Of course Ron Paul and Cindy Sheehan would have their parties too, makes for an interesting "party".
Exactly. That’s how the British Parliamentary system works. Australia was governed by a coalition for many years: the Liberal-Country Party. In Australia, the Libs are the conservatives, by the way. The lefties are the Labour Party.
“For example, if the US had 4 parties and the vote breakdown was as follows:
Democrats: 24
Republicans: 23
Conservatives:15
Liberals:10
You could say that Republicans “lost” but when you add up Republicans and conservatives they have more votes and therefore will form the government.”
Except Republicans and Conservatives would be too busy throwing fire bombs at each other, we’d end up exactly where we are now.
Who's bringin tha beer?
Philly local boy makes good.
Think I’ll move to Israel.
They elected a REAL leader!
The Hahvahd Law Dean is now Chief Counsel, representing the President at the Supreme Court. What do you think HER entry fee was?
Wow, that’s a turnaround. Glad to hear it. This morning I thought his chances were non-existent.
I’m happy to hear this.
Likud’s website says they’re still over 3 hours left before the polls close. Isn’t the jury still out on who won the election for a while?
Huuh. Those records are classified and sealed.
Democrats: 24
Republicans: 23
Conservatives:15
Liberals:10Republicans and Conservatives: 38
Democrats and Liberals: 34
Thank you, that's a simple way of explaining something that's unfamiliar to most Americans.
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