Right now if Bibi were forced to hold an election he would enter it looking like a haredi stooge especially when the king of opportunism Yair Lapid opens his mouth. Combine that with Leef & her social justice camp who would support Labor or an even scarier prospect Meretz Bibi couldn't win. Mofaz hasn't had anytime to build up an image that says Kadima is electable and so his party will go into meltdown and we will have a huge Labor victory. I imagine if there is an election called for now We would see a coalition led by Labor which includes Meretz, Lapid and the small party known as Kadima. Bibi, Liberman and the religious will all be left sitting on the sidelines only able to watch as we get a far left government ( Shelly Y is from the far left ) with Daphne Leef as some kind of unofficial behind the scenes minister Bibi needs to ditch the religious & nationalists now and for a slim coalition with Kadima, Liberman & Barak. Not exactly the most right wing coalition but it will give him at least a fighting chance to win the next election but without that extra time he will lose.

i think that you are mistaken. do the math. if elections are held today, meretz, labor, lapid & kadima combined will get a total of 46 seats. Bibi will still be asked to form the next coalition even of the "right/religious camp" has only 49 seats.

Demanding that Haredim serve starting at 18 is very important because otherwise they will all get married before 23 to avoid serving. Netanyahu is maneuvering, but I think Mofaz (with or without Olmert) is outmaneuvering him. Public vote will flow to Kadima now and this will be positive. Time for a strong, dominating centrist party in Israel, one that can form a government without religious parties in the coalition. Let's see if Kadima can accomplish that. I am optimistic it can happen and wish Mofaz well at it.

Maybe we should focus the statistics this way: "Hilonim represent about 75% of the population and orthodox ... haredis just a 25%. If the goverment agree to give a chance to all the yeshiva students to drafted at the age of 23, perhaps some hilonim will argue,,,wait a minute, and why we should do it at 18? So, to find a consensus about what age is more convenient for each one, doesnt means that everyonje have to agree collectively with Mofaz or Netanyahu. So, lets do it simple. Mens should join the tzava at 20 and for three years (religious or not, and this will be nice also for the hilonim) and women at 18 for two years, considering that women love to marriage young, :-) what about that Zionist Forever? you should vote for me lol

By leaving the coalition, Mofaz will be committing political suicide. Kadima will be history. Lkud will win the next election, and will form a coalition government together with the religious parties. It is time to realize that the best soldiers we have are those who study Torah leshmoh. ERETZ YISRAEL BLI TORAH HE KEGUF BLI NEHSAMA!

this sorry party led by olmert who mofaz knew was a coward without one shred ofunderstanding of fighting, zero, yet mofaz did nothing to change his thinking. Most of the rest were and are a sorry bunch of rear enders from sheetret, to shai to hasson to bar-on topping it all of by ultra left livni who has little understanding like olmert of a map, of land, of borders, zero, nothing. A few kadimites will go back to likud chastened. Mofaz, a lacklustre general who though game is not sharp has no idea political matters. abbas should be offered peace for peace and that israel will be making claims for the west bank and part ofeast bank as it is part of the homeland, historically and from san remo. Sattelitte channel should educate west bankers on this point as they do not know.

The Tal Law issue should not be a reason for a split in the Super Coalition. To navigate a ship through choppy waters you need a united crew and a motivated and supported captain on the bridge.

He had every choice NOT to enter Netanyahu's government. As an expert on "integrity", he must have been aware that Netanyahu's integrity is so close to his own.

The fact that the Religious were so uncompromising will hurt the parties who supported them badly in the next election. Their arguments against service were counter to history. In Europe people studied and they were not saved. Also in King Davids time and even Rabbi Akiva fought NOT JUST STUDIED. Other religious say if there was no Israel they could live in peace with Arabs. Apparently more current history they do not study. In Islamic countries 90% of ALL minorities were eliminated over the past century. One has to blame the leadership in the Religious community. They see what they want to see and are about as objective as a lion that has not eaten for a month is about his next meal.

To make a summary draft of all chardim is stupid. It is better to start slowly and with experience build it up. With the exception of the loonies in Meah Sharim, most chardim will eventually come around if the army can give them what they want and NEED.

Kadima has lost its meaning. If it stays in the govt, then the MKs in it have positions until the next election when the party will disintegrate. If it pulls out of the govt then they'll be former MKs waiting for their party to disintegrate. Lapid's new party will pull the vast majority of previous Kadima voters (who haven't moved to the right and a lot of them have) and the new Labour party will pull in those who are more left of center. Kadima is utterly irrelevant at this point on its own.

You math sounds like you are from the US. Israeli math is different. Netanyahu repeatedly stabbed his voters in the back while implementing the Meretz platform. Like after Olmert seized power or when Rabin was elected, many good Zionists won't vote because democracy doesn't exist in Israel. The day after the election, the extreme Left will offer Shas everything they want: quadruple subsidies, recognizing Shas yeshivot as sayeret matkal, who knows. Netanyahu will be remembered as a man who could have gone down in history as a great leader, but preferred to be remembered as a failure and an idiot.

What happens when Kadima does decide to quit the coalition en bloc? New elections? I don't suppose Bibi will be able to pull the same stunt twice and manage to find some other party willing to ''enlist''. The Israeli political system is not really transparent to me, so if someone could help out here I would be grateful.

It seems like Israel is creating its own chaos at the moment Syria is spiraling out of control...... Are you serious?????

This really does show just how pathetic the political system is in this country and how it has its priorities all wrong. Mofaz is going to quit the coalition which is going to mean the end of Kadima at the next election not because of would haredi be made to serve but would it happen at 22 or 26. Personally I think it should have been 25-26 give these boys some growing up time because they come from sheltered backgrounds. In the case of the haredi a more mature soldier is probably a better soldier anyway. It shouldn't even matter what age they enlist as long as they do because they still serve. Haredi study then go off to the army, seculars go to the army and then study at the end of the day everybody is still putting in the same time just who does studying first and for how long. What is going to happen now is Kadima will quit and Bibi will have no choice but to kill the whole Tal Law reform full stop because Shas are not looking for age compromises they are looking to reinstate the Tal Law. The nationalists will give Bibi trouble with the Levy Report try force him to annex Judea & Samaria and inherit the millions of arabs living there. There is no way the government is can survive now, Mofaz gave Bibi an extra couple of months because the coalition was already splintering. Before the end of the year Shelly Y will be PM with a coalition of Meretz, Lapid and whatever is left of Kadima which won't be much. Once again we have proven with this stupid corrupt system it is impossible for a government in this country to last much more than 2.5 years.

. Hokos Foukos and this Tzipi livni's pride and joy will be gone, Not a minute too soon

bibi is blind when it comes to barak whether its what he has actually done military in land battles or strategy. He advised to bring in kadima to dilute lieberman and shas and now bibi has egg on his face. Barak is good on bold moves usually in ruanning away. he ran away from a training accident, he withdrew from lebanon chaotically, he was not able to rescue idf soldiers trapped. Bibi must have been a lousy soldier to place so much trust on barak. Small operations maybe-large land battles and poltical strategy-forget about it. Yhe public will not vote for the livnis and labour tired oslo refrain. Feiglin should quiet down some of the religious and shift to pm of all the peolpe. Mofaz is out, lapid is an olmert journalist-exactly same MO and same bullst. Feiglin, lieberman and gillerman can run for th ePM ship. Bibi had his chance but killed his future by forcing barak on israels, a man who israelis do not want anymore in any visible role.

Likud will lose the election over this. Bibi for a short time will keep together his coalition with the religious but Shas want the reinstating of the Tal Law not should the age of enlistment be 22 or 26 and they make up about a third of the coalition without Mofaz so if Bibi says no they will pull out forcing Bibi to hold an election. If Bibi does allow Shas to have their way then he will come out of this looking like a haredi stooge and the voters will make him pay for it. He has Yair Lapid the master of opportunism ( who may even end up controlling the second largest party ) looking to take Likud votes and Shelly Y who is far left and sure to get the support of the social justice crowd. Without Mofaz and another year in office Bibi cannot survive and Mofaz is a fool because without Bibi and a year in the coalition Kadima cannot survive. They needed each other and Mofaz has thrown it all away.

He has done everything to betray the clear vote to the right given by the Israeli electorate, first by calling in Barak and keeping out Eldad, lehavdil; then he tried the sudden Kadima card, another alliance with the extreme left as soon as his father, z"l, passed away... What will it take for the blind Israelis to understand that he is just an unprincipled zig-zag-yahoo?

Unfortunately, people think that the age thing is splitting hairs and semantics. Please remember that the average age that Haredim get married is 19-20. By the time they would go into the army at 23, they would have an average of 2 children. What does this mean? I will tell you: Married men with families who are in the regular conscripted army earn a salary of about 5000 NIS including child support, as opposed to 300 NIS that the normal soldiers get. They also get a reduced service and receive benefits like not staying on Shabbat, placing more of the burden on the unmarried soldiers with them. Do the math - it is another way to squeeze more money out of the taxpayer, while they can say: What do you want? You wanted us to do the army, didn't you? So pay up!

Kadima with 29 MK goes out....We have now a coalition of 94 Mks.... 65 Mks will still remain in the coalition...a majority in the Knesset and no need for new elections..unless Bibi decides that he wants them.....

Let's simplify the next election. The two most under represented groups in terms of turnout are secular Jews and Arabs. If these groups overcome their traditional apathy the left bloc can pick up 3-5 seats. The outcome would not be a leftist government but some grand coalition of Likud, labor and what ever emerges in the center. The Haredim and perhaps the settlers will be out in the cold.

Iran is laughing at the internal Israeli squabbles and proceeding full speed ahead with the bomb.

Recent polls show Kadima will win as few as 3 mandates in the next election. Bye bye Kadima. It's been miserable knowing you. Labor will not do nearly as well as it hopes, either. Overall, this will strengthen the centre right Israeli majority.

Yoou will lose everything now