Word: shas
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...SHAS E. Yishai...
...Netanyahu will have to build a ruling coalition that will inevitably be fragile. And because Kadima leader Tzipi Livni has ruled out a national-unity government with Likud, Netanyahu will probably look to parties even farther to the right than his own, such as the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party and the extreme Yisrael Beitenu Party of Avigdor Lieberman, who supports making Israel's Arab citizens take a loyalty oath or face losing their voting rights. (See a video about Avigdor Lieberman and his political power base in Israel...
...Sunday Livni, a onetime Mossad agent, conceded defeat, claiming she refused to be "blackmailed" by the demands of the fringe religious parties she was trying to woo. The religious parties, she said, were making "economically and diplomatically illegitimate demands." The ultra-orthodox Shas party was charging a high fee: they want Livni to increase child allowances for large religious families and remove the city of Jerusalem from peace negotiations with the Palestinians. "I refuse to pawn Israel's future for the Prime Minister's seat," she said after meeting Peres. "The public is sick of politicking...
...leaders in the next few days before he officially calls for early elections. Polls show that ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish Likud party has an edge over Livni's Kadima party. But Livni's advisers say that her refusal to give in to the "extortionate" demands of Shas and the other fringe parties could sway voters to her side. For years, Israel's big political parties have been unable to win solid majorities and, as a result, have found themselves at the mercy of the smaller parties' whims. Many Israelis now agree to a two-state solution with...
Next, Livni will turn her brusque charm on Shas, the ultra-orthodox party that was the most problematic member of Olmert's coalition. Shas was the main obstacle to Olmert's attempts to make peace with the Palestinians, and its leaders have already warned Livni that they will not join a coalition that divides Jerusalem into a capital for both Israelis and Palestinians. This will leave Livni as hamstrung as Olmert was in trying to follow the U.S.-sponsored road map for peace...