Israeli Elections

The results of yesterday's elections in Israel (also from here):

Kadima 28 (center)
Labor 20 (left)
Shas 13 (sephardi religious)
Yisrael Beytenu 12 (center-right immigrant party)
Likud 11 (right)
National Union - National Religious Party 9 (right leaning religious)
Pensioner's Party 7 (think AARP)
United Torah Judaism 6 (religious)
Meretz 4 (left social democratic)
United Arab List 4 (Islamist Arab)
Hadash 3 (communist leaning mostly Arab)
Balad 3 (Arab)

A coalition needs 61 seats in the 120 seat Knesset to form a government.

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared victory for his centrist Kadima party in Israel's elections Tuesday, vowing to act on his own if necessary to draw Israel's final borders and "painfully" uproot Jewish settlers if negotiations with the Palestinians are not possible.

His party was broke away from the Likud Party, under the guidance of Ariel Sharon, and has pushed for moderation and a solution to the Palestinian conflict involving withdrawal from many Israeli settlements (about 70,000 people in the West Bank) and a final line of division demarkated by a wall that does not quite follow the traditional West Bank-Israel proper dividing line.

Likud, as a result, lost a massive amount of support going from the largest party in the Knesset with 38 seats, to the fifth largest party with just 11 seats.