Two More Weeks, and Labor Still a Possible Partner for Bibi?

It looks increasingly as if Binyamin Netanyahu may manage to bring Labor, or some rump of it including Ehud Barak, into a "unity" government at the last minute: he'll have to ask for the additional two weeks for forming a government, but it would salvage some pretense of unity despite the fact that the largest party in the Knesset, Kadima, is having nothing to do with it. As I noted here, and as Haaretz spells out here in a more recent report, a substantial chunk of Labor is having none of it. (And to give the other end of the political spectrum its due, here's a Jerusalem Post take on the divisions within Labor.) Obviously Barak would get the Defense Ministry, but with Avigdor Lieberman slated for the Foreign Ministry, Israeli policy could look very strange indeed. One wants to withdraw from the West Bank (that would be the Defense Minister) and one has urged bombing the Aswan Dam (that would be the chief diplomat). If so much were not at stake, it would almost be amusing to watch.

In the midst of all this, new revelations about civilian casualties in Gaza are coming out, and getting a fair amount of play in the Israeli press, which, to their credit, is not turning a blind eye. Netanyahu seems determined not to have a far-right only coalition, but without Kadima and with perhaps only half of Labor, it's going to be an odd-looking national unity front. The second and third biggest parties join with half of the fourth biggest and proclaim themselves a national government, excluding the biggest party?

As strange as it seems to me, Aluf Benn, who is one of the best analysts out there, says that Bibi and Barak are really political soul-mates of a sort. That's probably an unfair summary by me: read the whole article.

And since no government has yet been formed and the mandate is expiring, expect Netanyahu to ask for the additional two weeks. This drama will continue yet longer.