Current Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni appears to have a razor thin majority though forming a government coalition may be easier for Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing party. Netanyahu would undoubtedly create more complications for the US and any efforts at peace in the region though Livni may not be much more helpful to the process either. For the moment, both parties will be seeking coalition partners so the new government may not be finalized for weeks.
Israeli elections produced the tightest of races with Tzipi Livni, the centrist foreign minister, emerging only narrowly ahead of her right-wing rival Binyamin Netanyahu.
Both candidates claimed victory early today, each promising to lead a broad, national unity government. A long struggle for power now lies ahead as each seeks to forge enough support for a coalition government.
With 99% of the votes counted, Livni's Kadima party had 28 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, with Netanyahu's Likud opposition party only one seat behind on 27. Early exit polls suggested Livni had a narrow lead, but also accurately forecast that right-wing parties had fared best overall.
Even though Livni won the elections she may yet lose the government. Her party has the largest number of seats but she may not become prime minister if, as expected, the right-wing parties can together muster a larger coalition.
Avigdor Lieberman, the far-right leader, came in third with 15 seats, a sizeable gain for him. Behind him came Ehud Barak, the Labour leader and defence minister, whose party had just 13 seats, one of its worst election results.
"Everything is wide open and up for negotiations," said Mitchell Barak, a pollster from Keevoon Research. He said a national unity government, bringing together the main parties, was most likely. "The only question is who is going to head it," he said.
