Israel elections 2013

biko

I don't see a thread on this which was odd as Israel is such a popular topic.

Anyway, the elections was yesterday and Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud won, but they had to go into collation/merge with Yisrael Beiteinu.
As the pools stand now, with not all votes counted - Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu claimed 31 seats, Yesh Atid 19, Labor 15, Shas 11, Habayit Hayehudi 11, United Torah Judaism 7, Hatnuah 6, Meretz 6, United Arab List-Ta’al 5, Balad 3, and Kadima likely to win 2 seats.

Yisrael Beiteinu is a secular nationalist party that takes a hard stance on the Arab-Israelis issue with the 2009 election credo "No loyalty, no citizenship".
One of the party's main policies is that of drawing the borders in such a way that areas with large Arab populations, such as the Triangle area and the Wadi Ara, both gained by Israel as part of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, would be transferred to Arab sovereignty. Known as the Lieberman Plan, such an arrangement would mean that the majority of Jews would live in Israel and the majority of Arabs would live in a future Palestinian state.

Likud's Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu's Liberman (Minister of Foreign Affairs), the two heads, must now work out how to work together. Netanyahu will probably be leader since Likud is bigger with Liberman as second in command.

Mr.Micro

biko wrote: »

I don't see a thread on this which was odd as Israel is such a popular topic.

Anyway, the elections was yesterday and Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud won, but they had to go into collation/merge with Yisrael Beiteinu.
As the pools stand now, with not all votes counted - Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu claimed 31 seats, Yesh Atid 19, Labor 15, Shas 11, Habayit Hayehudi 11, United Torah Judaism 7, Hatnuah 6, Meretz 6, United Arab List-Ta’al 5, Balad 3, and Kadima likely to win 2 seats.

Yisrael Beiteinu is a secular nationalist party that takes a hard stance on the Arab-Israelis issue with the 2009 election credo "No loyalty, no citizenship".
One of the party's main policies is that of drawing the borders in such a way that areas with large Arab populations, such as the Triangle area and the Wadi Ara, both gained by Israel as part of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, would be transferred to Arab sovereignty. Known as the Lieberman Plan, such an arrangement would mean that the majority of Jews would live in Israel and the majority of Arabs would live in a future Palestinian state.

Likud's Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu's Liberman (Minister of Foreign Affairs), the two heads, must now work out how to work together. Netanyahu will probably be leader since Likud is bigger with Liberman as second in command.

I cannot see much progress with that Netanyahu still in charge even with a reduced majority. Like bull in a china shop and as diplomatic to boot.

Lingua Franca

Netanyahu's ambitions make me fear for everyone in that part of the world, Israelis and arabs alike.

How would Likud have polled without Yisrael Beiteinu?

Seaneh

The reality is that Yisrael Beiteinu are just as right wing and extremist as Lukid, they just aren't profiundly religious.

Their mantra is "no loyalty; no citizenship" and they want to enact laws stripping conscientious objectors of their citizenship and denying Muslim and Christian Arab Israeli's citizenship and "giving them back" to Palestine.

In a lot of ways, they are even more scary than Lukid. A lot of their members are former atheistic JDL militants and fanatics.

The Israeli

Likud isn't that extreme. They just do a lot of show off - primarily done by Netaniahu and Liberman, but as you may have seen, it doesn't come into much effect. All their "no loyalty.." is BS. Habait Haleumi, for instance, have a more extreme stand, though they too want peace, but on their terms..

The biggest change that wasn't mentioned here, is that Likud - beitenu have shed 11 seats compared to their previous tenure. The seats have partly went to Habait Haleumi, and partly to Eish Atid.
Eish Atid (="There's a future") was established by a popular TV figure and a newspaper writer, Yair Lapid. Its agenda is fighting for a better economy for the middle class, recruitment of ultra religious Jewish citizens into the army or the national service (maybe the Israeli Arabs too into the national service, but they aren't clear about that), and lowering down the soaring housing prices.
There is some hope at the central-left wing that establishing a coalition of Likud, Eish atid, Habait haleumi and probably with Hatnua (Tzipi Livni) and Kadima could steer the government into renewing the talks with the Palestinians (Habait Haleumi could be an obstacle) and help dealing with the economical internal problems that are the main concern of the Israeli society at the moment.