On the centre-right, Likud, led by the prime minister, Binyamin, Netanyahu.
The attack came as members of Israel's dominant party, the hard-right Likud, went to the polls to re-elect their leader, Mr. Sharon.
As polls opened today, it looked as though Mr Netanyahu and his centre-right Likud party would struggle to beat main rivals the Zionist Union, who were ahead by four seats according to the polls.
On May 17 , 1999 Labor Party leader Ehud Barak (see Biographies), a former army chief of staff, became Israel's 10th prime minister, defeating the centre-right Likud incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu in an early general election by a resounding 12% margin.
He entered politics with the hard-right Likud youth movement, served on the City Council and worked under the famous Mayor Teddy Kollek on roads, planning and other municipal matters.
While the center-left Zionist Union — a coalition of the Hatnuah and Labor parties — leads Netanyahu's center-right Likud party by around two to four seats, being the largest single-party doesn't necessarily guarantee victory in Israel, where forming a government is a game of coalition building.
And it moves Netanyahu much farther to the right than Likud and Likud voters".
It is one of the paradoxes of Israeli politics that those of the right, the Likud, are generally less hostile to the presence of a large Arab population, so long as they control the land.
He tells us that he lives in Gilo and is chief of staff for Benny Elon, MP, chairman of the National Union-Israel faction, which is further to the right than Likud.
Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu, who leads the right-wing Likud party and whose governing coalition includes parties further to the right, might be unwilling or politically unable to make a deal, foreign policy experts said.
Mr Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party is in a tight race with the new centre-right Blue and White alliance.
