MERETZ 5 seats is leftwing party not in the outgoing coalition

Likud backs a two-state solution to end the Palestinian conflict. Members often rebuff charges they oppose any negotiated peace by noting it was Likud leader Menachem Begin who secured Israel's first treaty with the Arabs, when he signed a pact with Egypt in 1979. The Gaza war has crimped Likud's poll lead, but Netanyahu, a former commando, was quick to identify himself with the war effort. LABOUR - Having ruled for the first half of Israel's 60-year history, driving expansion under leaders like David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, Labour then forged land-for-peace accords with the Palestinians in the 1990s under Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. Peres, now ceremonial head of state, defected to Kadima and the main party of the left could fade to third place amid disillusion following the violence of the past decade. With 19 seats, Ehud Barak has led Labour in its coalition with Kadima since he returned to politics in 2007. As premier in 1999-2001, the former army chief failed to clinch a final deal with the Palestinians and Labour was voted out as violence flared.

With its leader managing the offensive in the Gaza Strip, Labour has seen a big boost in popularity in recent opinion polls. A fixture in successive governments, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party effectively triggered the election by refusing to back Livni in coalition talks. Eli Yishai, who leads 12 members of parliament, blamed the new Kadima chief because she would not rule out sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians. She accused him of "extortion" for trying to secure more welfare benefits to help Shas's mostly poor supporters.

These are drawn from the fast growing community of religious Jews of Middle Eastern origin whose spiritual leader is the 88-year-old, Iraqi-born rabbi Ovadia Yosef. YISRAEL BEITEINU - Avigdor Lieberman's Russian-accented, gravel-strained Hebrew has been music to the ears of many of the million Israelis who came from the former Soviet Union since the 1980s. Now controlling 11 seats, the former aide to Netanyahu founded Our Home is Israel in 1999 (when Moscow's ruling party was called Our Home is Russia). He says Israel's 1.5 million Arabs and some of their land should be "swapped" for West Bank Jewish settlements. He quit Olmert's coalition in January over the start of talks with the Palestinians. Russian-speakers who back Lieberman include some who thrived in the hi-tech boom and others who survive on welfare.

Many do not observe Jewish ritual and oppose what they see as Orthodox attacks on their lifestyle. OTHER PARTIES - Nearly a third of parliamentary seats is held by minor parties. MERETZ (5 seats) is left-wing party not in the outgoing coalition. Along with a group of parties, HADASH, UNITED ARAB LIST and BALAD, representing Israel's Arab citizens and which together have 10 seats, Meretz supports making concessions for peace.