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Comment and Opinion

Economist – 21/01/2011

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“After Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition recently shrank from 74 seats to 66 in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, he insisted that his government had become stronger. Maybe so. But the opposition has got stronger too, as well as larger. Israelis who bank on peace through negotiation with the Palestinians may have a chance to revive.

The coalition shrinkage was caused by a split in the Labour party, always a restless partner. Labour’s leader, Ehud Barak, the minister of defence, quit his party, together with four other members of parliament, setting up a new faction called “Independence”. The reduced Labour party, now numbering just eight parliamentarians, has gone over to the opposition.

The shake-up, as Mr Netanyahu points out, makes his rightist-religious coalition more cohesive ideologically, and thus, he hopes, more disciplined politically. But by consolidating the hawks, the new alignment may also unify and perk up the doves in Israel’s aviary. There is a rare flutter of excitement on Israel’s left.”

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