Israeli president to hold talks ahead of PM decision

ISRAELI president Shimon Peres will hold talks with party leaders today before deciding whom he should ask to form a new government after an indecisive election, a statement released last night said.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Kadima party, and right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu have each staked a claim to be prime minister since the February 10 vote. Kadima won 28 seats in the 120-member parliament to 27 for Netanyahu’s Likud party. Despite Livni’s edge, Netanyahu appears to command the largest bloc of supporters.

Under Israeli law, Peres names the candidate for prime minister. He will begin consultations with members of the dozen parties elected to parliament after receiving the official results, his office said.

Peres will first meet members of Kadima and Likud, and consult with other parties tomorrow and Friday, the statement said. The law gives Peres until February 25 to name an Israeli lawmaker who becomes prime minister if he or she builds a ruling coalition. The candidate has 42 days to form a government and must then win parliament’s approval.

Past presidents have mostly chosen the leader of the largest party. The electoral stalemate means Livni and Netanyahu, a former prime minister, may choose to forge a coalition, politicians in both parties have said.

Livni and her allies have said they would not join a government headed by Netanyahu. Netanyahu insists he should be prime minister and that he could form a government without Kadima and with the support of a rightist bloc of 65 lawmakers.

Left-wing and centrist lawmakers who could be Livni’s natural allies have won 55 seats and not all have vowed to support her. Peres’s decision could depend on whom the largest far-right party, Yisrael Beitenu, with 15 seats, recommends as prime minister. That party has not said which candidate it will support and has been holding talks with both.

Livni said she wouldn’t take her Kadima party into a coalition led by Netanyahu without a commitment to promote a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

“Kadima will not join a government under Netanyahu that has an ideology that I am not a partner to,” Livni said. “I have no intention of being a fig leaf for a government of paralysis.” Livni favours pursuing peace negotiations with the Palestinians, while Netanyahu opposes major concessions and is sceptical about the chances of a political agreement.