Israeli media: Kadima wins at polls (CNN.com)

Wednesday, March 29, 2006 Posted: 0454 GMT (1254 HKT)

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's 4-month-old centrist Kadima party took the largest share of parliamentary seats in elections Tuesday, according to Israeli media.

The party, formed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon late last year when he broke from the Likud bloc he helped form in the 1970s, earned 28 seats, giving Kadima the most seats in the 120-member Knesset.

The Israeli media were reporting early Wednesday that with 99.5 percent of the vote counted, Tuesday's other big winners were the Labor party with 20 seats; Shas, a party comprising ultra-Orthodox Sephardi Jews, with 13 seats; Yisrael Beitenu with 12 seats; and Likud with 11.

At a victory rally Wednesday after the exit poll declared Kadima the winner, Olmert reiterated his promise to define Israel's borders in the next four years -- with or without Palestinian input -- by evacuating small Jewish settlements in the West Bank and annexing larger ones.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/28/israel.election/index.html

Between Kadima and labor that's about 48 seats. They need 13 more for their coalition. That sounds kind of steep, especially with Likud and the Shas being the other two big winners. I'll admit I'm not that up on the political process in Israel, but can they get 61 for majority?

"Exit polls released as polling stations closed at 10 P.M. Tuesday showed center-left parties gaining a total of between 62 and 66 seats, with Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima winning 29 to 32 seats, Labor 20-22 seats, Meretz five and the Arab parties seven to eight seats."

Ha'aretz

I think this is a very positive sign. This also doesn't include a few other parties, that may join the coalition...we will see over the next few days/weeks. Abbas seems to be pleased and has already called for talks with the new government.

I appreciate it.

they are Israeli citizens and might be potential coalition partners. There are a whole bunch of minority parties in Israel (which is unicameral) - it would've been nicer of Kadima had won forty seats and Labor 23 or so but I think it'll still be okay. Public sentiment in Israel is, I think, moving firmly in the centre-left direction of disengagement.

sorry

Where will this lead?

We can only hope and pray it will lead to the end of the violence and death!

My tentative feeling is that the emergence of a third, "centrist", major party in Israeli politics could act as a consensus-building force - at the very least, it lessens some of the influence of the hard right. As long as they accept that as being the will of the Israeli people. That's what I hope at least. But Ehud Olmert is a bit of an unknown quantity to me and I have mixed feelings about his pre-election record.

He would've made Sharon look like a member of Labor by comparison.

ist and he used to be a conservative but has moved to the center, as has most of the country. One event to move him: When he was mayor of Jerusalem, his family and friends warned him not to dig and open a tunnel from one Jewish holy site to another underneath a Palestinian area but Olmert did it anyway. The result was a street battle that lasted for days and a lot of people were killed on both sides.

That event seems to have been a turning point and Olmert has moved more to the left and become a centrist. His wife, grown children and friends were interviewed and said that even when Olmert was conservative, he would listen to them but it was difficult for all when he went against their advice. Now the friends, family and Olmert are usually of one mind. I think this is a very good sign. Also, the former were correct about Olmert's actions re: opening the tunnel and he's more likely to heed their advice in future because of it.

I also like the guy because he is a family man. The whole family gathers for Shabbat dinner on Friday night with usually 15 people gathered around including his grown daughter with her female partner.

Take it from me, it is tough to have a family member who is right when you're left. I have to give it to Olmert that he kept the lines of communication open and has moved to his family's views.