JERUSALEM — Prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni, left, has called for new general elections in Israel, saying she failed to form a coalition government.

Livni, currently foreign minister, won the Kadima party primary in
September following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s resignation. But she
was unable to assemble a governing majority, and on Sunday said she
would not ask Israeli President Shimon Peres for more time to bring
coalition partners on board.

Livni had managed to bring the Labor party, led by Defence Minister Ehud Barak, on board, but she failed to reach an agreement with the Orthodox Shas party or other potential coalition partners, to pass the 61-seat threshold necessary to become prime minister.

Livni made her decision late Saturday night during a party meeting that included her main Kadima rival, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz. The meeting was called after Shas and Degel Hatorah, another Orthodox party, said they would not join Livni’s government. The Pensioners party also announced Saturday night that it was backing out of negotiations with Livni.

“After the primaries, I said that I believed in stability and was committed to seeing through the process of forming a government,” Livni told the cabinet meeting on Sunday. “Recent days have seen coalition demands become impossible, and there was a need to draw the line, to say, ‘No more.’

“I was prepared to pass budgets I believe in for needy families and social causes, but when it became clear that every person and every party was taking advantage of the situation to make illegitimate demands – both economic and diplomatic – I decided to put a stop to it and go to elections.”

Peres had three days to ask another lawmaker to try to form a new government within 28 days, but on Monday, he announced that would declare new elections at the opening of the Knesset winter session later that day.

The elections will likely be held in February or March. Until then, Olmert will stay on as caretaker prime minister. the rabbi said that his uncle, with whom he said he has a close relationship, made a decision to focus on other areas and that his “partner” at the time, the Sephardi chief rabbi, Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, served as a strong positive force in dealing with conversion issues.

A proponent of ethical kashrut before the issues at Agriprocessors – the kosher meat processor in Postville, Iowa, that faces charges for alleged child labour and immigration violations – became commonly known, Rabbi Lau said that a teudat kashrut (certificate of kashrut) for restaurants in Israel refers to food only.

“It’s not enough,” he said. “If we want to go in and have a coffee, I want to check if the manager in the restaurant gives his waiters complete rights. I want to check that people with disabilities have the ability to go inside that restaurant. How can I as a religious Jew sit in a restaurant that my friends cannot go in?”

He said about 200 restaurants in Israel have a certificate of ethical kashrut from an NGO called Maaglei Tzedek (Circles of Justice) in partnership with Beit Morasha.

Similarly, Rabbi Lau said, he is working with Maaglei Tzedek to look at ways in which synagogues and yeshivot can be more inclusive.

He believes that change “will take many years… but we can see a bit here, a bit there.

“We need to be part of the process.”

In related news, a poll by the Dahaf Research Institute showed Livni’s Kadima party would win 29 of parliament’s 120 seats, the same number it has now, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud taking 26, if elections were held today. A TNS Teleseker survey gave Kadima 31 seats to Likud’s 29. 

Both surveys said Labor, which now holds 19 seats and is the second-largest party, would win only 11 if elections were held this week. 

“I stand at the head of a rooted, values-oriented party, and I invite every citizen to think of what Kadima has brought us in its three years of existence,” Barak told Israel Radio Monday, rejecting suggestions that his party was considering a joint list with Livni’s.

Earlier in the day, Labor cabinet minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told a Tel Aviv radio station that “there’s not much difference between Kadima and Labor,” adding that in the current political reality, parties “must run as blocs and not run separately.”

The surveys showed the country’s right-centre and left-centre blocs fairly evenly split, a deadlock that has paralyzed peacemaking in the past.

Livni tried to avoid propelling Israel toward its third national election in six years by keeping the current government intact. But coalition partners, most prominently the 12-seat Shas party, used the situation to press for new demands that she refused to accept. In a meeting with President Shimon Peres on Sunday, Livni said she would not give in to what she called political blackmail.

Elections are expected to take place early next year, a year and a half ahead of schedule.

The surveys published Monday suggested that the public approved of Livni’s tough stand against the political horse-trading and did not reproach her for failing to marshal a coalition. But the advantage was narrow and could easily evaporate, especially if new Israeli-Palestinian violence erupts.

Netanyahu, who has been pressing for new elections for months, did not comment publicly after Livni officially abandoned her coalition-building efforts, but he was to have a wide forum when, as opposition leader, he addressed the nationally televised opening of Parliament’s winter session later Monday.

Commenting on the polls, Likud faction head Gideon Sa’ar said the contest between the two leaders would be tough.

“But I believe the majority of the public wants a new course… that will improve the country’s economy and security,” he told Israel Radio. 

With files from Ha’aretz.