Word: likud
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...stormy meeting of Israel's Labor Party on Tuesday night, Ehud Barak pushed his party into joining a right-wing coalition government led by Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu. With Labor on board, Netanyahu's coalition, stitched together with an array of ultra-Orthodox and nationalist parties, now has a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. The hawkish Likud leader is likely to be sworn in as Prime Minister next week, ushering out his disgraced predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who faces possible corruption charges...
...younger cadres, the so-called rebels who opposed the marriage with Likud, say they won't split the party for now. But they may choose to vote against Netanyahu, and their own party chief, Barak, on key issues. (See pictures of Israeli soldiers in Gaza...
...Netanyahu has finally pieced together a majority of at least 66 Knesset seats. But there are no guarantees that his coalition will last its four-year term. Members of his own Likud Party are grumbling that Netanyahu has given away too many ministerial portfolios to woo both Labor and the hard-right party Yisrael Beitenu of Avigdor Lieberman, who is likely to become the next Foreign Minister, despite his extreme anti-Arab views. (See a TIME video on Lieberman...
...failure of major Israeli military operations - the 2006 war in Lebanon and this year's Gaza incursion - to reverse the rising power of these groups, the Israeli electorate has swung to the right, choosing more hawkish leaders in the recent election. Aides to Israel's Prime Minister-designate, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, are currently floating a proposal for a partial withdraw from the Golan in exchange for peace, a proposal that is likely to be met with derision in Damascus...
...Will Clinton and special envoy George Mitchell have a more difficult challenge as mediators if hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is Prime Minister? Historically, it has been more challenging for American Administrations to deal with Likud-led governments in Israel. But I never believed that, on issues that are central to you, you can afford to wait until there is a "ripe" environment. If the issue is central, diplomacy has to work hard to ripen the environment for a deal...