Right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday accepted a mandate to form Israel's next government and immediately called for a broad, national unity coalition with centrist and left-wing partners. Netanyahu quickly named Iran as Israel's main threat. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas announced that the PLO will not deal with the new Israeli government if it is not committed to peace; while Hamas said that Israel has picked the most extremist politician to lead the country.
Netanyahu, 59, leads the Likud party. He was prime minister in the 1990s and now has six weeks to put together a parliamentary majority for a second turn at the helm.
Likud more than doubled its seats in the election 10 days ago in which the security of the Jewish state was the paramount issue, after a 2006 conflict with Hezbollah Islamists in Lebanon and a war with Islamist Palestinian Hamas in Gaza last month. But there was no clear winner.
" I call on Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni and Labour Party chairman Ehud Barak and I say to them -- let's unite to secure the future of the State of Israel "Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu |
The electorate's rightward drift, however, gave him a better chance of achieving a majority with like-minded parties.
But his nomination by President Shimon Peres on Friday was a break with Israeli tradition, which has always given a governing mandate to the leader of the first-placed party.
Seeking unity govt
" It would be a coalition that doesn't allow me to pursue my path, the path of Kadima as we promised the voters. A large government has no value if it does not have a path "Kadima leader Tzipi Livni |
"I call on Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni and Labour Party chairman Ehud Barak and I say to them -- let's unite to secure the future of the State of Israel. I ask to meet with you first to discuss with you a broad national unity government for the good of the people and the state."
Livni has so far shown no interest in joining a Netanyahu coalition.