The counting continues in Tuesday’s Israeli election, with exit polls showing a dead heat between Likud and Zionist Union, who are both projected to get 27 seats. 60 are required to form a coalition government.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is already claiming victory, having gained more seats than expected, while Isaac Herzog, the head of the Zionist Union, says it’s too soon to say where the count will end up.
President Reuven Rivlin is keen to see the two top lists join together in a unity government, saying he believes that only a unity deal will last, and anything else will mean another new election in the near future.
The election was such a nasty one, however, with Netanyahu angrily condemning the Zionist Union at every turn, that unification is going to be hard to stomach, and both sides are likely to try to get a majority without the other.
That means Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu Party is in more demand than ever, as their expected 9-10 seats are likely to be the pendulum on which ruling coalition and opposition swing.
Kahlon has made clear he wants the Finance Ministry portfolio as a minimum condition for joining either side, and he’s not ruling out backing either side. What other portfolios his party might get will likely grow over the coming days as he is courted by both sides.
FACTS
1. Israel government is so worthless that less then half of voters even show up at the polls.
2. Israel has the wealthiest voters the world has ever known.
3. In Israel as well as all democracies, the upper half of society hoards all the wealth.
4. Ability and desire to hoard wealth is in direct proportion to intelligence, establishing that wealth totally corrupts the mind.
SOLUTION — NEW LAW
a. No one of the upper half may vote or hold public office.
b. Government funded elections,
c. Lower half may hoard only 50% of the wealth. For if they had the power to hoard all the wealth, without a law to prevent it, surely they would do it.