Netanyahu Returns Mandate to President as Deadline Expires

Israel on Wednesday entered a new phase in its ongoing political quagmire, after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, following a month of desperate attempts, updated President Reuven Rivlin at midnight that he had failed to form a government. Rivlin on Wednesday morning met with two other party chairs, right-wing lawmaker Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid, and consulted with the rest of parliament as to who next should be nominated to establish a government coalition. Lapid and Bennett have been negotiating a unity government, which would consist of right, center and left-wing parties and would unseat Netanyahu after 12 consecutive years in office. Yet it appears that Bennett, who is slated to serve first as prime minister in his theoretical rotation pact with Lapid, will have some trouble convincing his party members to join such a heterogenous coalition, with one lawmaker already announcing on Wednesday he opposed such a pairing. Meanwhile, Lapid appears to have 51 lawmakers backing him for prime minister, which still is not enough to form a majority government.