FORWARD: Moments after exit polls confirmed his surprise second-place showing in Israel’s January 22 parliamentary elections, political neophyte Yair Lapid faced his giddy supporters and declared: “A serious responsibility has been placed on our shoulders tonight.”
That’s for sure. With left and right exactly tied at 60 seats each in the 120-seat parliament (with 99.8% of votes counted at press time), Lapid essentially gets to decide who will be Israel’s next prime minister.
He can bring his 19-member caucus of moderate liberals across the aisle to prop up the staunchly conservative incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu, who came in first with 31 seats but lost his old majority. Or he can join with his fellow liberals, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich, to form a new majority, presumably after wooing over a few defectors from the right. Either option is perfectly legal. Both entail betraying one or more of his core principles. It’s all up to Lapid… (more)
