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Laboring Lapid Launches Latest Leveraging Line, Looking to Lure Last Lawmakers Left  

Israeli lawmaker Yair Lapid, head of the center-left Yesh Atid party and former opposition leader, is plodding on in his uphill battle to form a government. On Wednesday, Lapid, who has one week remaining to present his coalition before returning the mandate to President Reuven Rivlin, announced he had clinched the support of yet another party, the left-wing Meretz, marking the second coalition agreement signed by Yesh Atid in two days. Similar pacts are expected to be reached in the coming days with other members of Lapid’s center-left bloc. Yet these anticipated partnerships won’t be of much use unless Lapid manages to ink a deal with Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Yamina party who, though promising to unseat Prime Minister Netanyahu, has so far wavered on joining a predominantly center-left coalition. If Lapid comes up short in his attempts to secure a 61-seat majority, and following Netanyahu’s failure to establish a government during his allotted time in April, Israel will in all likelihood soon head to its fifth election in just over two years.