JD: They weren’t able to form a coalition government. Talk to me and tell me what happened.
WM: Basically as we have gone over this many times and we’ll probably have to do it more because it’s a strange political system that we have in Israel especially for those of our devoted listeners who are living in America. It’s a Parliamentary system based on proportional representation of the votes of various parties. Therefore out of 120 members which make up the Knesset the Parliament you need 61 to form a government. And Mr. Netanyahu, this is the short version Jimmy, did not get 61. The main reason why was because he made all the deals necessary except for one party with 5 seats which was the Avigdor Lieberman Russian party. He refused to go in and Netanyahu went on television and lashed out at him.
JD: So now what? New elections some time probably in early September, is that what the plan is?
WM: The story is that we’re going to have to go to elections on September 17, which is exactly three and a half weeks before the Rosh Hashanah the New Year holiday which means we run into all these holiday seasons Jimmy. No one does anything on the holidays except celebrate the holidays. So I don’t know how negotiations go down then. But Jimmy it’s a long time until September and a lot of things can change.
JD: Winkie Medad in an effort to explain the political situation in Israel and the fact that new elections are coming.
