Al-Quds, February 20, SPA -- Israeli President Shimon Peres tasked Benjamin Netanyahu Friday with forming a new Israeli government, and the prime minister-designate immediately called on political rivals "to put politics aside" and join with him in a wall-to-wall coalition, dpa quoted Radio of Israel as saying. Although Netanyahu's hard-line Likud Party had won only 27 of the 120 Knesset seats at stake in the February 10 election, one fewer than won by the centrist Kadima party of Tzipi Livni, he received the mandate from Peres after consultations with all political factions revealed that he has the best chances of forming a governing coalition.
