ISRAEL: Coalition games

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New Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni continues to shuttle back and forth among her fellow Israeli politicians seeking to build a governing coalition and assume the mantle of Prime Minister.

On Wednesday night, she met once again with Labor Party chief Ehud Barak.

Livni has about a month left to to pull things together, and negotiations have proceeded at a leisurely pace so far thanks to the interruption of a spate of Jewish Holidays; Rosh Hashana just ended and Yom Kippur comes next week.

Now you can put yourself in Livni’s shoes, thanks to the build-your-own coalition game on the website of Israel’s Haaretz daily newspaper.

So far, the game mostly amounts to a useful primer on all the players involved and their various strengths, weaknesses and mutual histories.

Here’s hoping that future upgrades will allow you, as Livni, to actively play all sides against each other, cut deals, issue threats and promise the Finance Ministry to three different people.

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

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