Regardless of some decent within the party, Labor narrowly voted to join the Likud-led coalition, officially giving Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu a majority of Knesset members supporting his bid for the Prime Minister. The unification talks with Labor increased pressure on Netanyahu, along with U.S. concerns for the new government, to pursue a peace deal with the Palestinians. Regardless, Netanyahu’s allegiance with the right wing parties also could derail the process through agreements to increase settlements, a prospect feared by peace proponents. However, critics of the coalition, which pulls parties together from the ideological right and left, accuse the future government of ideological bankruptcy and Barak as lacking character for agreeing to the union.
