Israel faces prospect of a messy coalition

THE headlines in the major newspapers initially reported that Tuesday's parliamentary elections in Israel ended with a deadlock or "may be too close to call".

And, indeed, according to the exit polls neither of the two major Israeli political parties - the ruling right-wing Likud and the centre-left Zionist Camp opposition - emerged victorious on Tuesday night, and would each have apparently between 27 and 28 seats in the new Knesset (parliament).

But these numbers that point to an electoral stalemate of sort may prove to be misleading if one considers the domestic political environment, as well as the international environment under which the Knesset election took place.