Netanyahu signs up first two partners for coalition government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made strides toward forming a new government on April 29, signing coalition deals with two parties, a week before the deadline to present a cabinet.

His Likud party won a surprise victory in a March 17 election but its 30 parliamentary seats, although the most of any single party, still left him the task of forging a majority in the 120-member legislature in order to govern.
 
On April 29, he inked alliances with the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party and the centre-right Kulanu, putting a combined total of 46 seats under his command.
 
Kulanu leader Moshe Kahalon, who campaigned on a platform of social reform, was promised the finance portfolio, identical statements from his party and Likud said.
 
"In the forthcoming government we shall press ahead with reforms on housing, banking and work to narrow the gaps in Israeli society," they quoted him as saying at the signing ceremony.
 
Public radio said early April 30 that Kulanu would also receive the environmental protection and construction ministries.
 
A separate Likud statement announced the agreement with UTJ.
 
"I think that the agreement we reached is a good agreement," it quoted the ultra-Orthodox party's Yaakov Litzman as saying.
 
Ultra-Orthodox news site Kikar HaShabat said the deal included the contentious repeal of legislation enabling criminal sanctions against draft dodgers.
 
The radio said it was agreed that Litzman would serve as deputy health minister, while fellow UTJ member Moshe Gafni would head the powerful parliamentary finance committee.    

Historically, ultra-Orthodox men in full-time study at a yeshiva (Jewish seminary) have enjoyed...