Yitzhak Mordechai formed the ill-fated Center Party in 1999, and Sharon formed the centrist Kadima Party in 2005.

CNN: Israeli politics in tailspin over Iran

More likely to benefit is Tansu Ciller, whose True Path Party formed that ill-fated coalition with Welfare and is now in opposition.

ECONOMIST: Turkey

The IM, for example, which grew from an Islamic students' movement formed in the 1970s, draws support from young Muslims radicalised over the ongoing ill-treatment of co-religionists in Kashmir and over anti-Muslim pogroms by mobs in Gujarat nine years ago.

ECONOMIST: The commercial capital is blasted