Forget peace: this cabinet's a disaster

On 10 February when Israelis went to the polls I predicted that whatever the outcome the cobbling together of a coalition government could go on for a very long time. I was right.

Now Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu has introduced his new government, the 32nd in Israel's 61 years as a state. It will be the grotesque progeny of an appalling electoral system and the kind of self-serving chicanery that makes Jacqui Smith and Tony McNulty look like model citizens.

Britain has a population of around 60 million, represented by 646 directly elected members of parliament and governed by a 23-strong cabinet. Israel, with a population of 7.3 million, has 120 members of Knesset, elected proportionately from party lists. Yet Bibi's new cabinet will comprise no fewer than 30 ministers, which he had to create to buy enough support for his extremely narrow, far-Right coalition.

Knesset officials are now seeking a long enough table. If its size is to reflect the egos of the main players it will have to be massive. Netanyahu himself will set the tone, his arrogance and complacency unabated by his removal from office a decade ago.

Running him a close second will be the Arab-bashing Avigdor Lieberman, whose extreme-Right "Israeli Home" party is now, alarmingly, Israel's third largest. The world will have to get used to having this thuggish former nightclub bouncer from Moldavia as Israel's foreign minister, despite him being under investigation for far worse financial offences than those which squeezed Ehud Olmert out of office.

But the jewel in Bibi's crown is Ehud Barak, the leader of what's left of Israel's once-proud Labour party. Esau famously sold his birthright to Jacob for a mess of potage. To remain as defence minister, Barak sold out his party for, well, just a mess - and one from which it may not recover.

The camel of a cabinet created by Netanyahu's desperation to regain power will be based on the raging ambitions of three men which will do nothing for Israel and less than nothing for any prospect of peace in the region. It will collapse amid bad-tempered public wrangling between its ill-suited components. No one else will be able to form a viable coalition either, leading to yet another premature election.

The main beneficiary of this turn of events will ultimately be Tzipi Livni. The woman who based her reputation on being "Mrs Clean" will, in opposition, be able to build on it as sleaze rages all round her. If she can stay out of trouble and appear reasonable and moderate, her Kadima party is bound to reap the rewards at the next election, which could come sooner than anyone thinks.

But the system ensures that she will find herself as shackled to an ultra-hawkish agenda as Bibi is today. So, if it's peace in the Middle East you're after, there's no point fretting about the government of Israel being led by a former furniture salesman, an Arab basher and a deceitful ex-general as opposed to a former Mossad agent.

It won't make any difference.