article_snippet: For months, everybody attacked the centre-left Zionist Union party.
article_snippet: the centre-left Zionist Union party sends a message that the people of Israel will decide for the people of Israel.'
article_snippet: Israel is divided between two major groups of voters - right wingers and religious parties that tend to take a hard line toward the Palestinians, and parties focused on establishing a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement.
article_snippet: The left wing appeared to have slightly more seats, but would rely heavily on a new Arab list that has said The left wing will not sit in a coalition.
article_snippet: A Zionist Union party supporters raises his hand to his face in disappointment.
article_snippet: This election season has amplified the bitter divide between hard-liners and moderates in Israel.
article_snippet: The outgoing Israeli parliament and the latest opinion poll .
article_snippet: The leader of the party which secures most votes does not necessarily become the next premier -- as in 2009 when the centrist Kadima party then headed by former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni effectively won the vote but lost the election in a race which brought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to power for a second term.
article_snippet: Under Israel's complex electoral system, the task of forming a government does not automatically fall to the Likud party with the largest number of votes, but to the MP or party leader with the best chance of cobbling together a coalition with a parliamentary majority of 61.