Let’s make a deal, Israeli-style.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began trying to cobble together a new, middle-of-the-road government yesterday after a stunning setback in national elections.
Final returns showed Israelis were split right down the middle:
Sixty seats in the next parliament are expected to go to right-wing and religious parties favoring Netanyahu, and the other 60 seats will go to leftist, centrist and Arab Israeli parties.
To govern, Netanyahu, of the Likud Party, which got 31 seats, needs a coalition of at least 61 seats, and he promised to seek “as broad a government as possible.”
His first phone call was to ex-TV host Yair Lapid, leader of the new, centrist Yesh Atid (There is a Future) Party,, which shocked political analysts by finishing second, with 19 seats.
But Lapid had said he would join only a government that revives peace talks with the Palestinians, which have been dead since Netanyahu was elected in 2009.
On the other hand, Lapid rejected an appeal from the leftist Labor Party, which garnered 15 seats to finish third, to deny Netanyahu a majority. “I want to take this off the table. We won’t create an obstructionist bloc,” he said.