UPI en Español  |   UPI Asia  |   About UPI  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Three Israeli PM hopefuls talk unity

  |
 
Israeli Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, shown at a campaign event in Jerusalem Feb. 5, 2009. (UPI Photo/Debbie Hill)
Israeli Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, shown at a campaign event in Jerusalem Feb. 5, 2009. (UPI Photo/Debbie Hill) 
License photo
Published: Feb. 9, 2009 at 7:48 AM

JERUSALEM, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- All three candidates to be Israeli prime minister said they would from a unity government should their parties come out on top in Tuesday's election.

Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu, Labor leader Ehud Barak and Kadima chief Tzipi Livni told national television viewers Sunday they'd assemble wide national unity governments, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

"I think we (Likud) are going to form the next government," Netanyahu said during a televised forum on Israel's Channel 2. "I have no agreements with anyone but I have faith in the good sense of the Israeli voter, who understands that we want a stable government with a backbone and wants our leadership."

"The public so wants to see unity between Labor, Kadima and Likud in the next government," Barak said.

Livni said she'd consider bringing Avigdor Lieberman's ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu into a coalition, even with his controversial stance of denying citizenship to Israeli Arabs deemed to be disloyal, Haaretz reported.

"I will sit in a government set as I dictate, according to the ideology of Kadima. Anyone who wants can join this way," Livni said.

Topics: Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
New York Fashion Week 2013 U.S. Open 2013 50th anniversary of the March on Washington
Celebrity families of 2013 MTV VMAs 2013 Style Awards
Additional Top News Stories
Video
1 of 17
NLDS St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh
View Caption
St. Louis Cardinals starter Joe Kelly delivers a pitch through the sunlight in the first inning of game 3 of the NLDS against the at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 6, 2013. The series is tied at one game each. UPI/Pat Benic
fark
Woman lures ex-boyfriend to her bedroom by undressing, striptease; her jealous new lover stabs him...
Tragic accident or not, let's raffle off a gun to raise money for this guy's legal defense. That...
There are horrible, tasteless ways to tease your newscast. And then there's this
Spending over a decade studying and training to attain one of the most respected and valued jobs...
FARK party in Chicago. Monday, October 7. Going to the Art Museum, getting pizza and drinking (OF...
Neighbors say that the arrest of a crack-dealing elderly woman has made their neighborhood a better...