Israel 2009: Government!
Likud leader Benyamin Netanyahu has ended up by forming a markedly right-wing plethoric government of 30 cabinet ministers. The coalition is composed of Likud, the secular far-right Yisrael Beitenu, the Labor Party (despite saying on election night it wanted to go into the opposition. Power is just too good), and two religious parties- the Shas and Jewish Home. The government received the confidence of 69 out of the 120 MKs in the Knesset.
Netanyahu is Prime Minister, but there are, in addition, 2 Vice PMs and 4 Deputy PMs. In terms of cabinet spots, Likud has Communications, Culture, Negev and Galilee Development, Economic Strategy (Netanyahu), Education, Environment, Finance, “Improvement of Govt Services”, Information/Diaspora/Fight against Anti-Semitism, Intelligence, Pensioner Affairs (again, Bibi), Regional Dev’t, “Strategic Affairs”, Transportation, and 2 without portfolio. Labor gets Agriculture, Defense (Barak keeps his spot), Industry/Trade/Labour, Minorities, and Welfare. Yisrael Beitenu gets Foreign Affairs (Lieberman), Immigration, Internal Security, Infrastructure, and Tourism. Shas get Housing, Internal Affairs, Religion, and 1 without portfolio. Jewish Home gets Science. So, the top spots are split evenly: Finance for Likud, Defense for Labor, and Foreign Affairs for YB.
This coalition will be lucky to survive for over a year.
I find it bizarre that the Labour Party went into government. They have experienced being the junior partner to both Likud and Kadima in the last decade, and it has led to disastrous results. The best thing they can do is go back into opposition and rebuild themselves. But they seem unwilling to cope with that.