UPDATE: Jewish Current Issues has more (and better) about the election. My problem is, I just don't want to think about it; I'd rather clean my house. That says a lot if you know me well.
Based on past experience, these results might change slightly following the counting of special votes and the final distribution of the Knesset mandates. The votes to be counted last include those of the military, the hospital-bound, and the former Gush Katif residents, whose votes must be placed in double-envelopes and compared with national lists to ensure that they did not vote twice. The counting of these votes often causes changes in the final counts that benefit right-wing parties.
Kadima - 28 Knesset seats
Labor - 20
Shas - 13
Yisrael Beiteinu - 12
Likud - 11
Arab parties - 10
NU/NRP - 9
Pensioner - 7
United Torah Judaism - 6
Meretz- 4
DEBKA has interesting analysis:
Kadima stayed in the lead as returns came in from the general election held Tuesday, March 28. But as the night wore on and more votes were counted, the figure kept dropping. By the time 60% of votes were in, Kadima’s mandates had fallen to 28 in the 120-seat Knesset. Clearly, Olmert was losing clout for dictating terms to potential coalition partners for building a majority government. He will have to give away more portfolios than he would have liked and water down his programs to buy partners. For starters, Labor would expect to be accommodated with a strong say on the economy and the ultra-religious parties with benefits – not to mention obstacles to giving away land.On the morning of election-day, Olmert had one Palestinian answer to the call he made in his victory speech to Mahmoud Abbas to join Israel in talks and concessions for the sake of peace and a Palestinian state. The first Palestinian Katyusha rocket and Grad missiles were fired from the Gaza Strip. Supplied by Iran, they were aimed at Israel’s key port, oil terminal and power station at Ashkelon, causing damage, albeit no casualties.
Abbas has no control over the groups firing the missiles, including the al Aqsa Brigades of his own Fatah. His authority has slumped further since Hamas won the Palestinian election against his Fatah. A new Palestinian government won the confidence of the legislative council on Israel’s election-day. It was presented by Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, who warned Israel that pursuit of Olmert’s unilateral “convergence” policy (concentrating West Bank settlements in blocs) would be resisted by Hamas and the Palestinians by force of arms.
Therefore, even if the acting prime minister is able to overcome resistance at home to his program of evacuating the small and scattered Jewish locations on the West Bank, he will have to fight and win a war to get rid of Hamas.
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