"What am I, retarded"? No Mr. Peretz, the people that voted for you are.

Now, all we can do is pray for Israel and hope for the best.

As these miscreant "leaders" divvy up the spoils Israel goes down the toilet. The failed leadership will bring disaster on the people if they don't stop them. For such a talented society they sure know how to pick miserable leadership. These are very dangerous times.

Hadith 1:14 (Bukhari) Narrated Anas: The Prophet said "None of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father, his children and all mankind."

Your whole story is just pure speculation!! As a provider of NEWS you should provide more news facts and a good deal less of speculative nonsence as published above!!! If Mr. Olmert is smart and wants to do the right and moral thing, he should first reconcile and apologise to Mr. Nathanayu, and offer him the Finance portfolio. Although the immature electorate punished Nathanayu, he was certainly not to blame for the ills that befell the country. The corrupt Sharon family deprived him of Likud leadership in 2003. Sharon after election, adopted Bush's dictate, which was 360 degrees opposite to his election undertakings, and when his word is is opposed he walks out!!! and quits the party. The irony is Bibi takes all the blame and all the flak!!! That's what is known as "Israeli Justice"

At least he doesn't want 12 families to rule the country.

Well, I think the ppl who didnt vote for Peretz r retarded. A person who promised to raise the min wage 2 1000$, what else do u ppl want? or I just figured it out, U r wealthy and dont care about the poor....

Olmert must keep the Treasury in his party otherwise the Israeli economy will go down the toilet. Olmert is a big fan of Australia's economic policies and hopefully he now has a mandate to use those principals in Israel to achieve a strong economy with low unemployment and fair wages for all who work, but no free rides for those who are able, but unwilling to work. I don't wish to give an economics lecture here except to say that you cannot simply raise the minimum wage as #8 suggests because that means that employers will only be able to afford to employ less workers. Not to mention, where will the money for this wage increase come from? Only by increasing taxes which means you are punishing people for doing well....

That's the question. You could hire Ted Turner or Michael Moore. They have lots of white flags and speeches written by Pascifist speech writers from Europe. Never failing to fail their people, by sitting in the pub, while the invading hoards, invade and imprison them. I never thought I would see the day that Israel would lose its will to stand up for itself. Europe has definitely rubbed off on Israel---to its peril!

To an ALL Labor & Kadima government!!!!!!!!! Finally we will have peace, the West Bank is next!!! Peace Now!!!

Peretz = the Electric Co. lobby Shas = the Government Dole Lobby Senior Citizens = The Higher Pension Lobby Kadima = the Anti-Israel Lobby Israeli citizens, get out your checkbooks!

You hit the proverbial nail on the head! These are indeed worrying times.

Shas and UTJ have an agreement that they will go into the government as a block, so while Kadima gains 18 seats for it's coaltion it also has to fully reinstate all of the cuts that affected the religious parties and agree to maintain the status quo in religious matters. It will be fun watching Kadima swallow the frog and then claim it is kosher. Start the count down to the next elections. I wager this one will break Barak's record.

The level of poverty is Israel is a disgrace. Much more emphasis should be given to social welfare and domestic issues than to the constant obsession with security and borders. The finance ministry should go to Labor or even possible Shas.

That will be the end of him. Livni has a much bigger, stronger and determined following in Kadima. If anyone is stupid enough to hurt a cell in her body they will get their comeuppance, next internal elections in Kadima. If Livni gives up the Foreign office on her own, and not because she again has to make the sacrifice, that's another matter, but we all know that she really wants the Foreign office (and more), so…..Olmert take heed.