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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel's Livni vows to form coalition quickly
2008-09-19
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni vowed on Thursday to start work immediately on forming a new coalition that will let her succeed the scandal-hit Ehud Olmert as prime minister.

After her election as the new leader of Israel's centrist Kadima party, with her narrow victory over party rival Shaul Mofaz, Livni said she would do her best for the sake of national stability. "Tomorrow, I will begin meeting with representatives of the factions in order to form quickly a coalition that can deal with all of these challenges that lie ahead," Livni told reporters outside her home after a final tally of Wednesday's Kadima vote. "On the level of government in Israel, we have to deal with difficult threats," she said. "The national mission ... is to create stability quickly."

Livni, considered to be a pragmatist, got 43.1 percent of the votes in a primary election Wednesday against reputed hawk Mofaz, the transport minister who received 42 percent. Her win does not automatically assure her the post of prime minister in the place of Ehud Olmert

Olmert, who telephoned Livni with congratulations, has said he will resign as soon as Kadima has a new leader. But the outgoing premier, who could be indicted for corruption, has also vowed to exercise his right to stay on in a caretaker capacity until Livni forges her own, new coalition government.

That process, involving deals with ambitious Labor party leader Ehud Barak on the left and influential Jewish religious parties on the right, could take weeks or months. Many believe there may yet be an early parliamentary election, which polls show Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud would win.
Posted by:Fred

#4  The sheetrit and dichter voters? Would you be so kind as to elaborate a little, liberalhawk?

OT, it seems there's a group in New York City that calls themselves liberalhawks. They plan on voting for McCain this election, from what I hear.
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-09-19 18:11  

#3  and btw didnt the right wing medial like Yediot, and Jpost, publish the same polls as the left leaning media? Or is lena someone to whom anything to the left of Arutz Sheva is leftie?
Posted by: liberalhawk   2008-09-19 14:01  

#2  the exit polls scewed up, but IIUC they were released after the polls closed. Why, I dunno, maybe a reverse bradley effect (sephardim reluctant to admit voting on ethnic grounds?) No evidence of a conspiracy.

So it was close, who knows how the sheetrit and dichter voters would have gone. A win is a win, as George Bush has told us.

Now its time to look forward.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2008-09-19 14:00  

#1  What the media does NOT tell us, is the fact that she won by 400 votes, and that happened only after the same liberal media published phony polls, that showed she was winning by double digits. So maybe we should learn and DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO POLLS, they only another tool to help their candidate to win..
Posted by: lena   2008-09-19 12:47  

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