By Charles Snow

The marriage of convenience in May between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s five-party right-wing coalition government and the centrist Kadima party – described by one rival as “the most contemptible and preposterous zigzag in Israel’s political history” – which boosted the government’s majority in the 120-seat Knesset to an unprecedented 94, ended in mid-July with a divorce over the issue of conscription. That still left Mr Netanyahu with a healthy and ideologically cohesive parliamentary majority of 66, but the prime minister evidently feels he can do better, since on 9 October he announced that “in the face of the turmoil around us, security and economic…I have decided for the benefit of Israel to hold elections now” (i.e. in January or February rather than in October, as originally scheduled). Mr Netanyahu’s motives were presumably electoral, since surveys indicate that if the elections were held today the current coalition could increase its parliamentary majority to 68. But as far as the rest if the world is concerned, it is the impact of the elections on Israel’s plans for Iran that is the main focus of attention. Mr Netanyahu would say only that Israel must “ensure Iran won’t have an atomic bomb.” His deputy, Dan Meridor, was slightly more forthcoming: “the Iranian issue is a main issue, not only for Israel but for the US, Europe and Arab countries. It must continue to be addressed, and the election will not interfere with that.”