Israel´s Netanyahu faces elusive prospect of stable gov´t

Meanwhile, it remains a question whether Yisrael Beiteinu and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party would get along well in the coalition.

Shas' spiritual leader reportedly branded Yisrael Beiteinu party chief Avigdor Lieberman "Satan," as the latter's advocacy of civil marriage and eased conversion has put the party on the opposite side of the Orthodox Jewish establishment.

Another notable factor, wrote political columnist Akiva Eldar on local daily Ha'aretz, is that such an administration would embark on "a collision course" with Israel's staunch ally, the United States.

Right-wingers hold hardline stances on the already sluggish Israel-Palestinian peace process, while the U.S. administration, under new President Barack Obama, has vowed to break the impasse and press for a solution to the historical conflict.

Livni, who led Israel's negotiations during the past year, was widely seen as the best choice to revitalize the peace talks.

"It would be much more difficult for the right-wing, even with determined American leadership, to advance the peace process. Not impossible, but very difficult," Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said earlier this week.

Should the alleged "collision" take place, it would be hard to predict how it would impact the Israeli public and the relations between the two countries.

Yet what can be predicted is that the chances that the Israeli government would benefit from such a scenario would be low.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei