New Government in Israel

Israel is in the process of forming a new government. The political structure in Israel is quite different than here in the U.S. The President, currently Shimon Peres of the Kadima Party, has limited and largely ceremonial authority. The more powerful political leader is the Prime Minister. On February 10, elections to the (unicameral) legislature, the Knesset, were held. Parties are elected via proportional representation and twelve different parties won at least one seat (there are 120 total seats).

Generally, the leader of the party who wins the most seats in the election is asked to be Prime Minister. The Prime Minister must then form a government by nominating a cabinet. The newly formed government must then be approved by a majority vote by the Knesset. Thus, when no party whens a majority of the seats, which is often the case, the Prime Minister must negotiate with other parties to form a coalition government. The President decides who will be asked to be Prime Minister.

The Kadima Party, who has Tzipi Livni as leader, won twenty-eight seats - one less than they previously held. However, Livni had been previously asked to form a coalition government due to the resignation of current Kadima leader and Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and failed. Thus, Peres asked Likud Party leader and former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to form a government. Likud won twenty-seven seats (up from twelve) to regain significant strength.

Ok - so why is this important? Netanyahu and the Likud Party tend to be much more hawkish on Middle East policy. In particular, they are less supportive of a potential two-state solution with Palestine and have already begun to increase anti-Iran rhetoric. For more details, I encourage readers to follow some of the links above to the various Wikipedia pages.