The surprise 8 May marriage between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing Likud party and the center party Kadima headed by former defense minister Shaul Mofaz – which raised the majority of Mr Netnayahu's coalition in the 120-seat Knesset from 66 to an unprecedented 94 – has ended after two and a half months in an acrimonious divorce over the issue of the military conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews. (Kadima favors it, Likud apparently does not.) As Mr Mofaz put it in his 17 July letter of resignation to Mr Netanyahu, "because of narrow political considerations, you chose the alliance with the (ultra-Orthodox) over an alliance with the Zionist majority." However, Mr Netanyahu's reversion to right-wing type does not herald any change in policy towards the Palestinians or Iran, since he never took advantage of his alliance with Kadima to distance himself from the parties of the secular and religious right in the first place.

Charles Snow