Word: knesset
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wasn't shy about his preference in last week's Israeli election: Ariel Sharon's heir Ehud Olmert and his centrist Kadima party. Kadima did win, but barely, capturing 29 of the 120 Knesset seats. "I wish Olmert had more seats," Abbas sadly told his aides. "Now he can't give us anything...
...wishes he had more seats too. Kadima's victory shows that a plurality of Israelis are apparently ready to sacrifice the ancient dream of a Greater Israel--stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River--for peace with a Palestinian state. But with his party far from a Knesset majority, Olmert will need other parties to back his plan for "disengagement" with the Palestinians--pulling out some Jewish settlements on the West Bank and creating permanent borders...
...wanted to win: Ehud Olmert, leader of the centrist Kadima party, and political heir to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has lain in a coma since January. Olmert's party did better than any other; but Kadima scooped up just 29 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. Opinion polls before the vote had suggested that it would win nearly 40. "I wish Olmert had more seats," Abbas told his aides. "Now he can't give us anything...
...Olmert?s wish can apply to the Palestinians - and to his prospective coalition partners. With only 28 seats for Kadima in the 120-seat Knesset, Olmert?s centrist party will need lots of friends, and plenty of prayers, to survive a full four-year term, political analysts say. A wobbly, Kadima-led government could end up being pulled in a dozen opposing directions by its future coalition partners. These will almost certainly include Labor (with 20 Knesset seats) and the Sephardic Orthodox party Shas (with 13) and possibly the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party (also with 13) representing the Russian...
...Israelis consider the results to be a foregone conclusion. The latest polls give acting prime minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party enough votes to clobber its rivals (though not enough for a majority); one weekend survey, conducted by the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth, predicts that Kadima will win 36 Knesset seats, Labor 21, and Likud will end up a distant third with 14 seats...