With the Likud’s dramatic increase of its Knesset representation from 12 to 27 seats, and with the changes in other Knesset party representations, the 18th Knesset will see many new, and new-old, faces.
Likud
The Likud’s 12 MKs in the outgoing Knesset will all remain in the Knesset, and will be joined by 15 new members – some of whom were Knesset Members in the past. Among the latter are Benny Begin, son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin and a three-time MK from 1988 to 1999, and Dan Meridor, who served in five Knessets from 1984 to 2003. In addition, Gila Gamliel and Ayoub Kara were Likud MKs in the past who were not re-elected in 2006 after they refused to join Ariel Sharon’s Kadima party following the Disengagement.
New faces in the Likud include television journalist and religious-Zionist representative Tzipi Hotobeli, former IDF Northern Command CO Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Yossi Peled, World Likud Chairman and Beitar leader Danny Danon, former IDF Spokesperson Miri Regev, and former Netanyahu advisor Ofir Akunis.
Though Meridor, Peled, Regev and others are not particularly hawkish, a strong majority of the Likud's new line-up is of a nationalist bent.
Kadima
New faces in Kadima include Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski, former IDF Spokesman Nachman Shai (known as the National Calmer during the 1991 Gulf War), and lawyer-doctor Rachel Adato, a former Deputy Director of Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Knesset Law Committee Chairman Menachem Ben-Sasson was not elected to serve in the upcoming Knesset.
Religious-Zionists
The religious-Zionist camp will include only seven MKs as of the current count, but among them are four new ones: Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz and Dr. Michael Ben-Ari of the National Union, and Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkovitz and journalist Uri Orbach of the Jewish Home. They will join Zevulun Orlev, Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad in what might become a united bloc in the 18th Knesset.
The nationalist camp was disappointed to learn that MK Nissan Slomiansky of the Jewish Home/National Religious Party will apparently not be in the next Knesset. He was credited by sources in both the NRP and the National Union with ensuring funding for the country’s many Zionist yeshivot and religious schools. MK Effie Eitam, who joined the Likud but did not run in the current elections, is said to have reached an agreement with Netanyahu that will ensure such funding as part of the national budget – but it remains to be seen whether this will actually come to fruition.
Yisrael Beiteinu
Former Likud MK Uzi Landau, who served in the past as Public Security Minister, will serve in the Knesset on the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) list of Avigdor Lieberman. He lost his Knesset seat in 2006 when he fell victim to the Likud's collapse in the polls following the Disengagement; he had been fired from the Cabinet by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for refusing to support the Disengagement.
New MKs on Lieberman's list include Orly Levy, a TV hostess and a daughter of former Foreign Minister David Levy; former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon; and Russian-language TV personality Anastasia Michaeli, a mother of seven who immigrated to Israel 11 years ago and converted to Judaism.
Labor
In Labor, journalist Daniel Ben-Simon will be the party’s only new MK, while Culture and Sport Minister Raleb Majadele, Yoram Marciano and former Presidential candidate Collette Avital will not serve.
For the first time in ten years, MK Rabbi Michael Melchior, of the left-wing religious-Zionist Meimad movement, will not be in the Knesset. A former member of the Labor-Meimad faction, he ran this time not with Labor, but with an environmental group, which was not elected to the Knesset.
Meretz
Many in the right-wing were happy to learn that outspoken MK Zahava Gal'on, #4 on the extreme-left Meretz list, will apparently not be in the upcoming Knesset. The soldiers’ votes could still change this, however. Meretz MK Avshalom Vilan will also not be in the next Knesset. Instead, journalist Nitzan Horowitz will be a Meretz MK. Rumors that Horowitz may be pressured to resign to make way for Gal’on have been circulating.
The drop of the left-wing from 24 to 16 seats – Labor plummeted from 19 to 13, and Meretz fell from 5 to 3 – was greeted with shock by left-wing media sources. Some of them “credited” Tzipi Livni of Kadima with decimating the left-wing by taking away many of their votes.