Quds city (JERUSALEM), February 11, SPA -- Israel's two largest parties each claimed a mandate Wednesday after elections that saw a surprise first-place finish by the ruling Kadima party and dramatic gains by its conservative rivals, according to unofficial returns. Kadima's Tzipi Livni won more support than was predicted in the Israeli elections, according to a report of CNN. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's failure to assemble a ruling coalition for Kadima last year triggered Tuesday's elections. But she told supporters after the vote that the narrow edge Kadima appears to have held over the conservative Likud shows her party is "the common denominator of Israeli society." Livni called on Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu "to respect the choice of Israel's citizens ... and to join a unity government, led by us, that will be based on the large parties in Israel, left and right." But Netanyahu said the showing by Likud -- which appears to have more than doubled the number of seats it holds in the Knesset, Israel's parliament -- show voters have rejected Kadima's leadership, and he said conservative parties could form a majority when the results are in. "With God's help, I shall head the coming government," he said. "I am sure that I can manage to put together a good, broad-based and stable government that will be able to deal with the security crisis and the economic crisis." Unofficial returns gave Kadima a narrow lead over Likud, with the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu in third place and Labor -- Israel's founding party and Kadima's current coalition partner -- in fourth.
