Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s mandate to form a government following an inconclusive election has expired, giving his rivals a chance to take power and end the divisive premier’s record tenure. Netanyahu, on trial over corruption charges he denies, had a 28-day window to secure a coalition following the March 23 vote, Israel’s fourth in less than two years.
The 71-year-old’s right-wing Likud party won the most seats in the vote, but he and his allies came up short of an absolute majority in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
The results delivered by a deeply fractured electorate left Netanyahu with a daunting path towards 61 seats, as voters broadly chose not to reward him for a successful coronavirus vaccination campaign.
President Reuven Rivlin’s office said in a statement that Netanyahu had “informed (the presidency) that he was unable to form a government and so returned the mandate to the president.”
Netanyahu also could have made up the numbers by making peace with his estranged former protégé, the religious nationalist Naftali Bennett, and convincing Likud defectors in the New Hope party to return home. New Hope’s leader Gideon Saar maintained that his party was committed to ousting Netanyahu. Bennett, a multi-millionaire former tech entrepreneur, said Monday he could have endorsed Netanyahu to preserve right-wing governance but saw no path for the prime minister to clinch a viable coalition. Likud on Wednesday blasted Bennett for what it called “his refusal to form a right-wing government.” (AFP)
{Matzav.com Israel}
