JERUSALEM: Israel’s president on Sunday said he has decided to give opposition leader Benny Gantz the first opportunity to form a new government following an inconclusive national election this month.

President Reuven Rivlin’s office announced his decision late on Sunday after consulting with leaders of all of the parties elected to parliament.

The decision raises questions about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future.

Netanyahu’s Likud emerged as the largest party in the March 2 election, Israel’s third in under a year. But with his smaller religious and nationalist allies, he received the support of only 58 lawmakers during Sunday’s consultations, leaving Likud three seats short of the required majority in parliament.

Gantz’s Blue and White received the support of parties representing 61 seats, a slim majority. However, those parties are also divided, and it is not clear whether Gantz will succeed in putting together a coalition.

He will now have a month to cobble together a governing coalition.Israel’s president on Sunday summoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his challenger, Benny Gantz, to an emergency meeting in hopes of breaking the deadlock that has paralysed the political system for the past year and could threaten the country’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

President Reuven Rivlin announced the meeting after a day of consultations with the country’s political parties ahead of his decision on who should lead Israel’s next government. With rival sides evenly divided following the country’s third inconclusive election in under a year, a unity government may be the only way out of the deadlock, which comes as the government confronts an increasingly serious coronavirus threat.

The president is responsible for designating the candidate he thinks has the best chance of being able to form a government by securing a parliamentary majority.

That task has been complicated by the results of the March 2 election. Netanyahu’s Likud party emerged as the largest single party, but short of a 61-seat parliamentary majority with its allies of smaller religious and nationalist parties.

Netanyahu’s opponents, representing a slim 62-seat majority, recommended to Rivlin on Sunday that Gantz be named the prime minister-designate. However, the opposition is deeply fragmented with the predominantly Arab Joint List and the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu among them giving Gantz slim odds of being able to cobble together a government.

Yisrael Beitenu’s leader, Avigdor Lieberman, and two members of Gantz’s own Blue and White, say they will refuse to be part of a government that relies on support from the Joint List. Another lawmaker originally supportive of Gantz has refused to endorse either side.

Lieberman told the president that he supports Gantz, but also called for the formation of an emergency unity government to deal with the coronavirus threat.

Netanyahu, in his caretaker role, has invited Gantz to join him in an emergency government. Gantz has left the door open to such an arrangement, but also dismissed the offers as insincere.

Facing a difficult decision, Rivlin summoned the two men to his residence late Sunday in hopes of breaking the deadlock. Earlier, he implored for a power-sharing unity deal.

Anyone who has watched the news in recent days understands that this is a time of trial, and that these are not regular consultations, he said. We must now deal with forming a government as soon as possible ... at this complex time.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2020