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Amir Peretz speaks during a Labor party convention before elections. (File photo - AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners April 3, 2006 |
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A revised election tally docked one parliamentary seat from Israel's Labor Party, from 20 to 19, stripping acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of a center-left Jewish majority for his planned pullout from Judea and Samaria.
However, the 10 seats held by Israeli-Arab parties, plus possible support from religious or center-right parties, should enable the plan to go forward if Olmert puts together the next ruling coalition as expected.
Arab parties had demanded a recount of ballots in some Arab towns. Following the new tally, Labor lost one seat, and the United Arab List's representation in the 120-seat parliament rose to four from three, the Central Election Commission said in a release.
The results from five polling stations were logged incorrectly, the release said.
Olmert, whose Kadima Party won the elections with 29 seats, wants to redraw Israel's final borders with Judea and Samaria by withdrawing from much of the territory.
With Labor holding 20 seats, Olmert could count on a majority of 61 seats of Jewish parties favoring the pullback. For a plan as controversial as the proposed withdrawal, Olmert would like to rely on the support of a Jewish bloc without having to turn to Arab politicians outside his coalition.
It's possible he would be able to persuade the ultra-Orthodox party Shas or a right-leaning party of Russian immigrants called Israel Beitenu to back his plan.
Labor, led by former union boss Amir Peretz, is the second-largest faction in parliament. Peretz is reportedly exploring the possibility of trying to form - and head - a coalition with religious and right-wing parties that, like Labor, want the government to spend more money on Israel's poor.
Peretz says the religious and right-wing parties have courted him, and that he has not approached them, Israeli newspapers and radio stations reported.
National Religious Party leader Zevulun Orlev said that ?in the coming years we need to focus on social rehabilitation and strengthening national social security," signaling his support for a Peretz-led coalition, Ynetnews reported. It was also reported that many Likud party members are not ruling out the possibility of joining a social emergency government proposed by Peretz.
Knesset Member Gideon Sa'ar told reporters: "What changed is that the Labor faction called on all factions to join a social emergency government. That?s something that didn't exist yesterday and we have to weigh it."
MK Gilad Erdan said: "Nothing should be ruled out. There is a faction meeting to decide what to do."
Labor party officials are slamming Peretz's efforts to form a coalition with the right. Jpost reported that Labor MK Matan Vilna'I called his "wayward" coalition efforts "completely illegitimate" and "idiotic." "I will not have a hand in any move of this kind," Vilna'i said in an interview with Army Radio. "People didn't vote for us so that we'd head a right-wing haredi government."
Other senior Labor members said that "Peretz is acting like a megalomaniac madman." They accused Peretz of hiding his intentions: "We were cheated. Only later was it possible to see the intention of Peretz and (MK) Eitan Cabel when they spoke about an emergency social government."
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