Netanyahu Said Mulling Minority Government amid Coalition Impasse

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is considering a minority government of just 60 lawmakers out of the country’s 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, as attempts to form a majority coalition of at least 61 seats have reached an impasse, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported, citing unidentified sources from Netanyahu’s Likud party. Such a coalition would lack the Yisrael Beytenu party of Avigdor Liberman, who has not budged on his demand to draft religious men into the army, putting him at odds with the country’s two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, which together are a given as members of any Netanyahu-led government. Legislation on this issue caused Liberman to leave the last government, which helped precipitate early elections. Netanyahu has until May 29 to form a government, after which President Reuven Rivlin could turn to a different lawmaker, likely to be de facto opposition leader Benny Gantz, to try his own hand at forming a government. If Gantz, too, is unsuccessful, new elections will likely be called.