Following Tuesday's general election, apparently won by Kadima leader Tzipi Livni but in which the right-wing bloc emerged as the largest, coalition talks started swiftly on Wednesday, with Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu meeting with Shas leader Eli Yishai, Israel Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, and United Torah Judaism chair Ya'acov Litzman.
Livni also held talks with Lieberman.
After the Netanyahu-Lieberman meeting on Wednesday evening, Israel Beiteinu MK Yitzhak Ahronovich said that his party had not ruled out recommending that President Shimon Peres give Livni the mandate to build the next government.
"We still haven't decided who we'll recommend, and we're not ruling out any Zionist candidate," he said.
Stas Meseznikov, another Israeli Beiteinu MK, was appointed as the head of the party's coalition negotiation team. The party has said it will focus its efforts on resolving terror and toppling Hamas control, advancing an Israeli citizenship law, issues pertaining to religion and state, and changing the system of government.
Also on Wednesday evening, the Likud leader told his faction members at their first meeting since the elections that he would not accept a rotation of the premiership.
Netanyahu reportedly said that Kadima could choose to join a Likud government.
Earlier in the evening, following his meeting with Netanyahu, Eli Yishai seemed confident that his party would sit in the government, but noted that no matter which parties would eventually form the coalition, Israel's new government would not be very stable.
Yishai told Channel 2 about his meeting with the Likud chairman, held on Wednesday afternoon, and said that they had discussed all the options for building a coalition.
"However it turns out, the government will not be very stable," said Yishai.
Yishai stressed that although Likud could theoretically form a coalition without Shas, such a move would be impracticable.
The Shas leader stated that he would not rule out sitting in a Likud-led government including Israel Beiteinu, noting that, "In the past, there have been more extreme combinations."
Yishai and Netanyahu agreed to work for the establishment of a broad coalition based on the nationalist camp. "Every party has its values, we will
