Netanyahu Will Unlikely Be Granted More Time to Form ‘Israeli’ Government

By Staff, Agencies

So-called President of the Zionist entity Reuven Rivlin is not expected to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu additional time to form a governing coalition and will likely pass the mandate to Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz, Hebrew Channel 12 News reported on Friday.

As of Friday, Netanyahu had 12 days left to try to scrape together a Knesset majority after Rivlin tasked him with forming a government on September 25. If Netanyahu fails, Gantz will then be granted 28 days to try himself, the unsourced report said.

Rivlin has the option of extending Netanyahu’s mandate by 14 days, which he did after the previous round of elections in April.

Shortly after Rivlin tasked him with forming a Knesset majority, Netanyahu said he was considering returning the mandate, but has not done so. He may be hoping to take advantage of developments in his hearings with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, if, for example, the bribery charge against him is reduced to breach of trust, the report said.

Despite his legal woes — he is facing pending corruption charges in three cases — Netanyahu was tasked by Rivlin with trying to form a government based on the strength of his pact with right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties to negotiate as a bloc of 55 MKs. Gantz heads a bloc of 54 MKs from the center, left and Arab parties, but the 10 Arab MKs in that group would not join a Gantz-led coalition. Neither candidate has a clear path to a 61-strong Knesset majority without the other.

Talks between Netanyahu’s Likud party and Blue and White aimed at forming a unity government have gone nowhere.