Does Anyone Understand Israeli Politics?

Now, I'm no expert on Israeli's political process. In fact, I know next to nothing about it. But that won't stop me from expressing my opinion on yesterday's election using only this New York Times article as my source. It's still gotta make me better informed than Fox News.

So to catch everyone up on the soap opera that's occurred ever since corrupt Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would resign, here's who the players are in this special election. There's Tzipi Livni (picture above) of the centrist Kadima party, who as the current Foreign Minister has been trying to negotiate peace with the Palestinians. Next, Benyamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party, who has already been Prime Minister. Finally Ehud Barak of the left-wing Labor party, who is also a former Prime Minister, and shares just as little love from Israelis.

Now, in Israel, it seems voters don't vote for the Prime Minister, but for seats of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. With 99% of the vote in this morning, the score was 28 seats for Kadima, 27 seats for Likud, 15 seats for further right-wing party Yisrael Beitenu, and just 13 seats for Labor. And that's out of 120 seats. Which means no one is likely to form the coalition needed to lead anytime soon.

So the situation is this: Livni marginally won, but she needs a coalition to lead, which she's already failed once to get. Netanyahu thinks he should be forming the coalition, cause he could get that other right-wing party on board. You'd think Livni could count on Labor, but apparently they're taking their 4th place finish as a mandate to be even more irrelevant. According to New York Times, they want to be the opposition party....to the only party that sort-of agrees with them. Even Republicans got behind Obama for about a week.

Listen, my Israeli friends tell me that all of the candidates are equally bad and unlikely to accomplish anything. But at the very least, Livni hasn't already tried and failed. Her insistence on talking to the Palestinians makes her the most Obama-like of the candidates, even if Netanyahu thinks he's Obama in web site design and rhetoric. So Israel, any chance you can get over stupid political mongering to get behind Livni and actually create peace in the Middle East? Or are you determined to make our political process look good?