Bibi forms broadest coalition ever to govern Israel, cancels elections

[ag]

Well, in 2009 Kadima was the major party on the left - so it got some leftist vote. Now the major party on the left is Labor, once again. This was true even before the new coalition came into being - any reason to believe they are going to hold much of that electorate now?

[ag]

Haaretz is reporting that 5 Kadima MKs are all but ready to bolt - at least, if they get two more to go w/ them (you need 7 MKs not to be bound by the anti-defection law).  Interestingly, all five are somewhat "strange" ethnically, three of them ex-Soviet, but only one Ashkenazic: Russian (Orit Zuaretz), a Georgian (Nino Abesadze), a Mountain (Tat) Jew (Robert Tiviaev) as well as an Ethiopian (Shlomo Molla) and a Druze (Majallie Whbee).

In other news, outside Knesset, both Tzipi Livny and Haim Ramon (one of the key co-founders of the party from the "left" and the chairman of its Council) have left Kadima and are planning to form a new party.

[danny]

Haaretz is reporting that 5 Kadima MKs are all but ready to bolt - at least, if they get two more to go w/ them (you need 7 MKs not to be bound by the anti-defection law).  Interestingly, all five are somewhat "strange" ethnically, three of them ex-Soviet, but only one Ashkenazic: Russian (Orit Zuaretz), a Georgian (Nino Abesadze), a Mountain (Tat) Jew (Robert Tiviaev) as well as an Ethiopian (Shlomo Molla) and a Druze (Majallie Whbee).

In other news, outside Knesset, both Tzipi Livny and Haim Ramon (one of the key co-founders of the party from the "left" and the chairman of its Council) have left Kadima and are planning to form a new party.

If they succeed in finding two more MK's it will be very ironic as the law that allows just 7 to defect (instead of a third) is called the "Mofaz law" because it was originally passed to allow Mofaz to leave Kadima and join the coalition.

Livni's decision to leave looks really silly in hindsight as she could have split and led the new party, but instead will now be out of the knesset until at least the next elections.

Orit Zuaretz came when she was 4 in 1971 rather than the post USSR collapse immigration wave, no one thinks of her as Russian. And while the ethnic makeup might be interesting they have in common them being Livni loyalists.

[ag]

There seems to be quite a bit of a Jewish Agency flavor w/ the Livny crowd then. (Zuaretz included, BTW ).

[Dereich]

Wait, Livni's back into things? Didn't she say she was permanently out of politics like less then a week ago?

[danny]

Wait, Livni's back into things? Didn't she say she was permanently out of politics like less then a week ago?

When she resigned from the Knesset she said she would remain in public life so it's clear we haven't seen the last of her.

[RodPresident]

Maybe Livni left Kadima and resigned her Knesset seat to not be seen as a sore loser.