Netanyahu Ends Effort to Form Government

Incumbent prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has, for the second time since April, ended his effort to form a coalition government and has handed back his mandate to do so to President Reuven Rivlin. While Rivlin will empower rival Benny Gantz, the political novice who heads the Blue and White bloc, to field a coalition of at least 61 seats in parliament over the next 28 days, it remains far from certain that Gantz will fare any better than Netanyahu. If he does, indeed, fail to form a government, the country will head to the voting booth for an unprecedented third time in one year. What has become an epic battle between experience – Netanyahu’s unmatched 13-years, 10 successive – and a former army chief-of-staff with no electoral experience is far from over.