Kadmia, but close

Israel | Low voter turnout pushes an election too close for comfort in a country too small for a margin of error | Marvin Olasky

Four winners and one loser: On March 28 Israeli voters gave 28 seats in its 120-member legislature, the Knesset, to the incumbent Kadima Party and 20 to Labor, a socialist party. Shas, the largest ultra-Orthodox party, moved up to 13 seats, and a new party, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home), garnered 12. Likud, the conservative party led by Benjamin Netanyahu that just three years ago won 38 seats and ruled the roost, plummeted to fifth place with only 11.

Behind those five results are five stories. The top headline went to Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon's successor as head of Kadima ("forward" in Hebrew). Mr. Olmert, 60, and a professional politician for over three decades, has waited his whole life for the title that will now be his: prime minister (see "One election, two walls," March 25). Since polls earlier this year had Kadima winning 43 seats, and on March 17 the expectation was still 36 or 37, the lower total gives Mr. Olmert only a shaky hold on power.