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8:59 AM EDT
March 19, 2015
(Bloomberg) -- While the results of this week’s Israeli elections may suggest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are gaining popularity, a closer look shows little has changed.
Netanyahu’s Likud party jumped to 30 of parliament’s 120 seats from its current 18. The increase came at the expense of smaller parties with similar ideologies. Voters may have accepted the prime minister’s argument that votes cast for such factions would boost the chances of the center-left Zionist Union forming the next government.
“Netanyahu brought home the supporters in his camp and succeeded in preventing the hemorrhaging of votes from Likud,” said pollster Rafi Smith. “He did better than 2013 in his own camp and this is what brought him these results.”
The Zionist Union’s capturing of 24 seats, which it termed a tremendous achievement, was similarly little more than a reshuffling of votes among Israelis who favor a peace deal with the Palestinians, according to Smith.
The Labor Party, the core of the Zionist Union, has 15 seats in the current parliament. Its partner in Zionist Union, Hatenuah, had six, and the left-of-center Meretz lost one of its current six seats in Tuesday’s race. This week, three parties won a total of 29 seats.
The breakdown into center-right and center-left blocs also shows that the ideological divisions in Israel and its 120-seat parliament remain broadly intact. Final election results published Thursday by the Central Elections Committee show Netanyahu and his traditional center-right and ultra-Orthodox allies commanding 67 seats.
“I don’t think there was an ideological shift,” Smith said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net Amy Teibel, Ethan Bronner
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1Ev438C
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