The race for building a supportive political bloc is in full force. Likud
Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu met
with Shas Chairman
Eli Yishai on Wednesday in a bid to pull together a rightist bloc for a coalition.
However, this move came at the same time as Kadima Chairman
Tzipi Livni,
wasting no time, met in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem with Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman
Avigdor Lieberman, whose party won 15 seats in the next Knesset, putting them in a key position for building the coalition.
At the end of her meeting with Lieberman, Livni said, "The public decided and established who it wants to see as the prime minister. This is an opportunity for unity that can promote the issues that are important to you as well."
The two agreed that they would continue to speak. Wednesday afternoon Livni will confer with senior officials in Kadima in regards to putting together a coalition.
Since Tuesday's vote, Livni has held talks with faction leaders and senior political officials from across the spectrum in an attempt to put together a coalition and to topple the rightist bloc Netanyahu is trying to build. Wednesday morning Livni spoke with Meretz
Chairman Chaim (Jumes) Oron.
Upon leaving her Tel Aviv home Wednesday morning, Livni said, "The nation voted en masse and I feel the huge responsibility to translate the power given me into action that will promote the country and unify the nation."
Kadima is hard at work in its coalition-building bid in trying to convince the various political factions to recommend to the president that Livni build the coalition as the prime minister. They will have to overcome the fact that according to the non-final official results the rightist bloc has 65 seats.
Yisrael Beiteinu met to consider its coalition options. Lieberman reported, "I met this morning with Tzipi Livni and will meet this afternoon with Netanyahu. We will clarify our positions and will give our part to putting together a cabinet as soon as possible."
The Yisrael Beiteinu chairman added, "The country has been paralyzed for a half year now, and a country during elections cannot take care of the security situation or of the economic situation. We are without a budget in the midst of the economic crisis." The party's coalition negotiation team will be determined during its meeting.
Netanyahu for his part is trying to take advantage of the Right's strength by creating a national camp that will petition the president to place the work of building the next coalition on Netanyahu's shoulders. The Likud chairman is slated to meet with Lieberman Wednesday afternoon.
Netanyahu met Wednesday morning with Shas Chairman Eli Yishai, who had declared prior to the elections that he would support Netanyahu's candidacy for the premiership.
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