Netanyahu's Real Headache Will Begin Day After Elections
Once the elections are over, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to choose whether to create a narrow coalition with the ultra-Orthodox, or try to persuade reluctant center-left parties to join a wider coalition, writes Nadav Perry.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows full well that his headache won't end on Jan. 22 at 10 p.m. That's when the real headache will actually start.
In his thoughts, Netanyahu could very well be going back four years, to the days when things were much simpler. Back in the day — in the post-2009 elections — he was able, brick by brick, to assemble his dream coalition: many natural partners and a small cadre of left-wing opportunists. The latter consisted of the incumbent Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a host of other "job seekers" who joined the government, thereby willingly providing to him the "diplomatic license" with which he was able to venture out to the world.
