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Source close to Tzipi Livni, the new head of Israel’s ruling Kadima Party, accused the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party of having “deceived the entire country” in the wake of today’s announcement that they would not be joining a new coalition government headed by the would-be Prime Minister Livni.
Livni said yesterday that she would call for new elections if a coalition deal was not completed by Sunday. Kadima was reportedly investigating a coalition without Shas, but that has been abandoned in favor of new elections, and Livni told President Shimon Peres today that the coalition efforts had failed and urged him to announce new elections. Peres is expected to do so in the next few days.
