Israel Matzav

The third largest party of the Center-Left

For this she's going back into politics? Personally, I'd rather practice law.

The Tzipi Livni Party, which the former Kadima leader formed with great fanfare Tuesday, would win no more seats than United Torah Judaism, according to a Smith Research poll conducted Tuesday and Wednesday for The Jerusalem Post and the Globes business daily.

The poll of 500 Israelis representing a sample of the adult population found that Livni's party would win six seats, much less than she envisioned when she declared herself the only possible alternative to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at a press conference Tuesday.

Livni's party swallowed up retiring Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Independence Party and took away seats from Yesh Atid and Labor. Livni's former Kadima party would not pass the electoral threshold.

But The Tzipi Livni Party, as her associates asked that it be called, would only be the third largest list on the Center-Left, trailing Labor, which would win 20 seats and Yesh Atid, which would win 10.

The poll found that Livni's party would take no seats away from the Center-Right bloc, which remained strong with 68 mandates, up three from the current Knesset.

Two comments: The Tzipi Livni party? Good grief. Well, no one ever said that the woman has no ego.

And the implosion of Kadima is amazing. It is the largest party in the current Knesset, and yet it likely won't even make the threshold. That's amazing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:39 PM