Israeli Election 2013: Right And Left Blocs Tie
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The results of Israeli elections 2013 spell one of the narrowest gaps ever noted between the Right and Center-Left blocs in the Knesset – both blocs are about tie and one aspect is that Three Arab parties got 12 members to new Knesset. Now PM Netanyahu has a complex political reality and now stands before a difficult task: creating a stable coalition.
Israel's
2013 election saw record voter turnout. According to the Central
Election Committee, 66.6% of Israelis exercised their right to vote,a
turnout of 4 percent more than in the 2009 elections and the highest
since 1999.And results are following (My main source is 
):
The next government?
The first scenario for PM Netanyahu is the formation of a narrow right-wing government including his natural partners: Habayit Hayehudi led by Naftali Bennett and the ultra-Orthodox Shas and UTJ. Besides this alternative is narrow and thus fragile also PM Netanyahu's wife – Sara – for personal reasons will push to exclude Bennett from the coalition.
A
second scenario is the creation of a Right-Center-Left government (Yair
Lapid's Yesh Atid, Tzipi Livni's Hatnua and Shaul Mofaz's Kadima)
excluding the ultra-Orthodox parties. Still, sources close to Netanyahu
say that he fears forming a coalition without the ultra-Orthodox,
considered in his eyes and despite everything, natural partners and
political allies.
The
best scenario for Netanyahu is forming an broad government with his
natural right-wing partners and the Center-Left bloc. In this case, size
could also be a disadvantage and Netanyahu will struggle to set common
guidelines for all coalition members.
One
scenario is to form government without Netanyahu and his
Likud-Beiteinu. This Left-Center-haredi government could be led by Yair
Lapid who anyway is the big winner of elections.
The bottom line
Personally I expected a bit better result for Labor due the voter turnout. The predicted victory for Bennet stayed slim but the excellent result of reporter Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) was a surprice at least for me. In overall the outcome is interesting while it gives many alternatives to PM Netanyahu to form his next government.
My previous article about this topic
Israeli Elections 2013 As Jump Start For Peace Process?