Netanyahu fails to woo the Kadima faithful

Binyamin Netanyahu fails to woo the Kadima faithful
James Hider

Binyamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he had failed to enlist the main centrist party into his new Government, leaving him at the head of a far-Right coalition of nationalist, settler and ultra-Orthodox parties.

Talks between the designated Prime Minister and Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Kadima party, ended in stalemate, with Ms Livni saying that she could not accept Mr Netanyahu’s rejection of negotiations on creating a future Palestinian state alongside Israel. “Two states is not an empty slogan. Unity is not just sitting in a government together – it also means sharing a way,” she said.

Mr Netanyahu still has a month to announce the final shape of his coalition but it looked increasingly as though he will be left with Yisrael Beitenu as his main partner. Backing them up will be an alliance of smaller parties such as Shas, the main ultra-Orthodox faction, which wants to strengthen religious values in the state, and parties such as National Union, which represents the Jewish settlements in the West Bank – considered illegal by the international community.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5818228.ece