And the winner is… Bibi!

So Israel’s far-right political kingmaker Avigdor Lieberman has now informed Pres. Shimon Peres that his preference is for Likud’s Netanyahu. No real surprise there.
Probably no surprise in the fact that Lieberman, who formerly worked as a night-club bouncer and espouses rough-hewn racist political views, acted more like the king than the kingmaker in his conversation with Peres, laying down his own preferences for how Netanyahu should assemble his governing coalition.
The Haaretz account tells us that Lieberman told Peres,

“[There are] three possibilities from our point of view: A broad government, which is what we want. A narrow government, that will be a government of paralysis, but we don’t rule out sitting in it. And the third option is going to elections, which will achieve nothing.”

Meanwhile, Labour and Meretz decided not to recommend anyone for the PM slot. That put paid, I suppose, to any hopes Livni might have had that she could assemble a strong team going into the negotiations.
But really, does anyone in Israel think it makes any difference what Labour and Meretz prefer, at this point?
I hope these latest elections will put an end to Ehud Barak’s career as head of Labour, once and for all. He doubtless hoped that by launching the war on Gaza he could catapult himself (and maybe also, I suppose, his party; but don’t count on that) back into a more powerful position in Israeli politics. Instead, the war merely energized the most retrograde and belligerent emotions of the Israeli public; and the fact that he and his partners in the outgoing government didn’t “finish the job off”, in the parlance of the right wing, sent voters flocking to the rightist parties.
But, wheels within wheels, Haaretz also tells us that,

A Likud statement following [Lieberman’s] announcement said that Netanyahu would now attempt to convince Labor to join a coalition headed by him, and that a Netanyahu-Livni meeting would likely take place soon.
Kadima MK Yisrael Katz said party chairwoman Tzipi Livni would have to decide whether or not to join a government under Netanyahu.
“It is now up to [Livni] to make up her mind. Netanyahu has already made the magnanimous decision to ask her to join him in a broad coalition,” Katz said.

Magnanimous?? He probably hopes that a tamed Livni, serving in a subservient position under his premiership, can help ease his relations with Washington…
Livni responded by announcing that “Kadima won’t provide cover for a government of paralysis.” I suppose that includes paralysis in the so-called peace “process”, whose advancement she defined as a continuing concern for Kadima.
(Oh really? But I thought Kadima was at the head of the government over the past couple of years… and I haven’t seen them advance the peace “process” at all during that time… )
Bottom line: Expect a government of paralysis.