A SWING TOWARDS THE CENTRE

To me the most significant recent event of the week was the Israeli election. Candidly, I waited for the election results with a sense of dread: a further swing to the right which in turn would lead to Israel’s continuous isolation, strained relations with US, and the reinforcement of the general perception, especially on the campuses, that an organization such as Hamas, an undeniably terrorist entity, occupies higher moral ground than the Jewish state.  This did not happen. No matter what the right wing pundits say the electorate sent a clear and unambiguous message to Netanyahu: address the issue of an equitable distribution of service to the state and the issue of Israel’s standing in the international community. The first is clearly aimed at the religious segment of the population, which is exempt from compulsory military service; the second would necessitate a renewed commitment to the two state resolution of the conflict and a resumption of talks with the Palestinians.

I suspect that once the coalition has coalesced, we will begin noticing some encouraging trends.

Meanwhile, below is a table of political parties in the Knesset, their leadership and their place on the political spectrum.

Name of party	Leader	Position	18th Knes-set	19th Knes-set	COMMENTS
Likud-Beitenu	Netanyahu	Centre Right	42	31	Will lead the coalition.
Yesh Atid	Yair  Lapid	Centre left	0	19	Universal military service, resumption of talks. Dismantling of far flung settlements.
Labour	Shelley Yachimovich	Left of Centre	8	15	Favours resumption of peace talks; primary focus on economy and security
Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home)	Naftali Bennett	Extreme Right Settlers’ party	3	12	Settlers’ Party; Opposed to two state solution.
Shas	Reb Ovadia Yosef (Sephardi)	Zionist religious party	11	11	Supports two state solution
United Torah Judaism	Haredi-Ashkenazi rabbis	Non Zionist	5	7	Not really a party; coalition of Hassidic groups. Not likely to be in the forthcoming government.
Hatnua	Tzipi Livni	Centre Left	-	6	Broke away from Kadema to form the new party.
Kadima	Shaul Mofaz	Centre Left	28	2	Favours resumption  of talks; unlikely to be influential.
Meretz	Zahava Gal-On	Left	3	6	Roots in the hard left Mapam party. Committed to two state solution.
TA’AL United Arab List	Ibrahim Sarsur,	Represents the Islamic movement		4	Religious Muslim Party
Hadash	Mohammed Barakeh	Far Left. Former Communist party.		4	Two state solution and abandonment of Jewish state concept.
Balad	Jamal Zahalka	Pan Arab	3	3	Opposed to a Jewish State.
				120

 Coalition Partners in the previous, 18^TH Knesset:  Likud-Beitenu,  Habayit Hayehudi, (The Jewish Home), Shas,  and United Torah Judaism. 

61 IN TOTAL