Israeli politics ARE really complex, and unfortunately unless we have a great grasp of Hebrew, we only really get really filtered opinions on the parties.
Basically what happened was that Ariel Sharon split from Likud (Conservative) to make Kadima (Center-Right-ish) and then had a stroke and is now a vegetable. Kadima became led by other people and fell out of power, and is currently run by Tzipi Livni, and is basically no longer a viable concern. The Center-Left then split into a couple of different parties and Yesh Atid, which just sucked up most of Kadima's votes, is run by a former TV journalist. (It's basically like the Keith Olbermann party.)
The other big parties are Shas (ultra-conservative) and Jewish Home, which is basically the 'Settlers Are Awesome' party.
Anyway, as far as I understand it, Netanyahu cannot really put together a coalition without Yesh Atid, but Yesh Atid is too liberal to get along with Shas and Jewish Home. So he has to either moderate OR Yesh Atid can make a coalition with Labor, but then Yair Lapid (the TV journalist) would be Prime Minister and it sounds like he doesn't want to do it.
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Basically what happened was that Ariel Sharon split from Likud (Conservative) to make Kadima (Center-Right-ish) and then had a stroke and is now a vegetable. Kadima became led by other people and fell out of power, and is currently run by Tzipi Livni, and is basically no longer a viable concern. The Center-Left then split into a couple of different parties and Yesh Atid, which just sucked up most of Kadima's votes, is run by a former TV journalist. (It's basically like the Keith Olbermann party.)
The other big parties are Shas (ultra-conservative) and Jewish Home, which is basically the 'Settlers Are Awesome' party.
Anyway, as far as I understand it, Netanyahu cannot really put together a coalition without Yesh Atid, but Yesh Atid is too liberal to get along with Shas and Jewish Home. So he has to either moderate OR Yesh Atid can make a coalition with Labor, but then Yair Lapid (the TV journalist) would be Prime Minister and it sounds like he doesn't want to do it.