Tea leaves for possible new center-right Israeli government

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Headline 1: Kadima official says party may join coalition led by Likud

Tzipi Livni said Thursday, adding that her party has no intention of accepting a right-wing, ultra-Orthodox government. However, a senior Kadima official said the party probably would join Netanyahu's government eventually...

An associate of Netanyahu said Thursday that if Kadima agrees to join a broad coalition that he heads, he may exclude at least one right-wing party to avoid having a massive 93-person coalition. "Such a coalition would outrage the public and would be impossible to manage. Netanyahu would be forced to appoint about 30 ministers, which would make the Knesset almost redundant," the associate said.

"But if Kadima joins we could certainly do without the National Union (four Knesset seats) and perhaps another right-wing party," he said.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063804.html


Headline 2: Shas says would support including Kadima in Likud-led coalition

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063808.html


My analysis: Avigdor Lieberman may be the odd man out. Netanyahu's in the driver's seat, but he might feel he has to give up less to a cooperative 29 seat Kadima than to a cocky 15 seat Yisrael Beitenu.

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1. More tea leaves, this time for hard right government

Likud ready to meet Lieberman's central demands

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304770143&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

and

Kadima: We won't be fig leaf for a right-wing gov't

Top on the party's list of demands is the creation of a Palestinian state that would live side by side with Israel in peace, he said.

Fellow Kadima MK Yaakov Edri added that his party was not interested in joining a government that would simply say "no" to the steps necessary for the creation of that state, such as negotiations with the Palestinians and territorial concessions. It would be more dangerous to abandon those principles for which the party was created than it would be to join the opposition to fight a right-wing government which would likely fall within a year-and-a half, Sheetrit said.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304769292&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull