Election Update – One Vote Margin

With 98% of the votes counted, Israel gave Kadima one more seat than Likud.

Kadima – 28
Likud – 27
Yisrael Beiteinu – 15
Labor – 13
Shas – 11
United Arab List – 5
United Torah Judaism – 4
National Union – 4
Chadash – 4
Meretz – 3
Bayit HaYehudi – 3
Balad – 2

Avigdor Liberman, the head of Yisrael Beiteinu, said that he intends to form a coalition with Likud. This 42 seat bloc is ahead of a potential Kadima-Labor coalition with 41. Shas always sells out for education, and UTJ and Ichud Leumi (National Union) will likely join the right wing parties. This would give a coalition of 61. UAL, Chadash, and Balad have 11 seats, giving the Arab parties about 9% of the Knesset. Meretz is just stupid. I hope they go away.