Israeli Parties Jockey for Coalition Positions; US Impatiently Awaits Green Light for Resuming Palestinian Talks

Following the easy stage – the election process – each Israeli party is assessing the amount of political currency it holds as negotiations with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his party for places in the to-be-formed-government are underway. The incumbent prime minister will doubtless be given the mandate by the president to cobble together the coalition of more than the 61-seat parliamentary majority it needs to form the new government. But each potential coalition partner will present the prime minister with its own set of demands based on the relative strength it brings to the table. Local media reports indicate that for personal reasons, Prime Minister Netanyahu would be willing to send the right wing “Jewish Home” party headed by a former chief-of-staff in his office to the opposition in order to establish a more centrist cabinet – a move that would arguably be welcomed by the international community including the United States, from which intense pressure from the second-term Obama White House and new SecState John Kerry is expected. Underscoring the oddities of the Israeli system in which voters cast ballots for parties rather than candidates, Shaul Mofaz, head of the nearly-defunct Kadima party (which plummeted from 28 seats in the last government to 2 seats in last week’s election), stands to receive a top-level position in the new cabinet, in part to allow the election’s big winner, first-timer Yair Lapid, to abide by his promise that he would not be the only center-left party in the Netanyahu government; and in order to provide a greater – albeit still slight – margin for Likud in the event its list-partner “Israel is Our Home,” is separated from Likud by party head Avigdor Lieberman, leaving it with a mere one-seat advantage over Lapid’s second-place “There is a Future” party.