Tzipi Livni, who heads The Movement party, has begun cooperating with Shelly Yacimovich of Labor and Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid as the centrist/left-wingers are seeking to combine forces against the right-wing and chareidim.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday, 24 Teves 5773 commented “It appears the election campaign has begun once again,” aware of the significance of the three parties working in concert with one another. Likud is reportedly modifying portions of its campaign, directing it against the unified centrist/left-wing force.
The real fear is that if the forming bloc attracts a religious party, the latter may opt to recommend giving the presidential mandate for forming a coalition to the centrist/left-wing block and not the Likud/Beitenu bloc. The chareidi parties have already stated that since Likud is not committed to the chareidim, and the same holds true in reverse. The chareidim are not ruling out joining with the other parties as well. It all boils down to which party will do the most good for the chareidi tzibur.
A bit of background for clarification; After the elections, the heads of parties meet with President Shimon Peres and they recommend who should receive the presidential mandate to attempt to build a coalition. Generally speaking, this mandate is given to the party with the most seats but this does not have to be the case.
In the last election, Tzipi Livni emerged with the largest party, Kadima, with one seat more than Likud and she received the mandate. After she failed in building a coalition the mandate was handed to Likud and Mr. Netanyahu succeeded in his mission and he became prime minister.
Livni’s failure was due to Shas sabotaging the talks and if the Sephardi chareidi party wished to enter Livni’s coalition she would have become prime minister. This is Likud’s fear as the centrist/left-wing is uniting, realizing the bloc may now seek to woo the chareidi parties and if the latter recommend to the president to give the mandate to Labor, Yesh Atid and The Movement, this may very well occur. With the chareidim on board, they might succeed in forming a coalition and leave Likud/Beitenu in opposition.
Adding to Likud concerns is the fact that recent statements against Shas have left the party with the realization it will not be included in the new coalition. Yisrael Beitenu and Likud leaders have both stated that in the next coalition, the Housing Ministry and Interior Ministry will not remain in Shas’ hands and this leave Shas increasingly willing to speak to the leaders of the new centrist/left-wing bloc.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
That’s exactly the point, the chareidi parties are only interested in their personal agendas. They couldn’t care less about the Jewish People & Israel’s overall safety. When they begin to take our overall well-being seriously, then I’ll begin to take them seriously.