On Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu asked Israeli President Shimon Peres for two more weeks in order to form a government. Within the past few days, Netanyahu stirred the political pot here in Israel when he asked Ehud Barak's Labor party to join his government. He offered Barak the strategic post of Defense Minister. One of the reasons Netanyahu gave for the political gambit was that Labor, Likud and the rest of his government in the making would be stronger in facing Israel's biggest menace, Iran.
Despite his reasons, Netanyahu's move angered many within his own Likud party who wondered if 1 Likud and Labor could work together on ideological grounds and 2 why Netanyahu offered more ministerial posts to Labor than to the Likud.
This is all just one more example of how hard it is to form a coalition government in Israel. In the end, it's a simple question of math. You add up enough political parties in your coalition to get 61 seats in your government. However, if you need to get one party with just a few Knesset members in order to get those 61 seats, they can wield tremendous power. Some demand enormous concessions like cabinet positions or money for their particular constituency in order to join the government. One observer has called it "earmarks on steroids." Then once the government is formed, they can threaten to bring the government down by withdrawing from the coalition at any time. That's why for the past several weeks, Likud negotiators have sat down with a number of parties to join the government. That's where all the political horse trading takes place. It's a messy way to form a government but that's the way it works here in Israel.
However, overarching the political machinations going on sits the existential threat facing Israel. Iran could have a nuclear weapon within a year. Combined with that is the potential to put that device on a Shahab 3 ballistic missile that could strike anywhere in Israel. That's why many believers around the world are praying for the peace of Jerusalem these days and for the kind of government Israel needs "for such a time as this."