Israelis Voting Tuesday in General Election - East Idaho News
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Israelis Voting Tuesday in General Election

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GETTY W 110311 BenjaminNetanyahuJPG?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1358847249693Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images(JERUSALEM) — As President Obama begins his second term, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t know until later Tuesday if he’ll continue as his country’s leader.

Israelis are going to the polls in a general election that will decide the fate of Netanyahu and his joint Likud-Yisrael Beitenu party.

Most pundits say the 63-year-old prime minister will return to office.  Although his party stands to lose some seats, Netanyahu will likely cobble together a new right-wing coalition with just enough of a majority in the 120-member Knesset parliament.

Although Netanyahu is too conservative for some Israelis’ tastes, he might wind up moving even further to the right in his next term because of the challenge posed by Naftali Bennett, the prime minister’s former chief-of-staff.

Much to the chagrin of the Obama administration, Bennett opposes any two-state solution to solve the perpetual Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also advocates annexing large swaths of the West Bank, which angers more moderate Palestinians.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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