Israel president to ask Gantz to form gov’t

ISRAEL’S president on Sunday tapped ex-military chief Benny Gantz to form a government, calling for an end to a year of political stalemate to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Reuven Rivlin’s announcement marked a setback for right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but did not necessarily spell the end of his tenure, the longest in Israeli history.

Gantz on Sunday secured recommendations to lead a government from 61 lawmakers in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament, in the wake of a March 2 election -- the third national poll in less than a year.

“Tomorrow, around midday, the president will assign the task of forming the government to (the) head of Kachol Lavan... Benny Gantz,” Rivlin’s office said in a statement Sunday, using the Hebrew name for Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party.

But there is no guarantee that the disparate forces who supported Gantz on Sunday will agree terms on a stable coalition, something that proved impossible following the two inconclusive elections last year.

Driven by the need to ensure a coherent policy response to the coronavirus pandemic, Rivlin therefore appears to be simultaneously pursuing a stop-gap option -- an interim unity administration involving both Gantz and Netanyahu.

He summoned the two rivals to a meeting on Sunday evening for an “urgent conversation”, which ended without agreement, but Likud and Blue and White said in a joint-statement the talks will continue on Monday.

The president emphasised the need to “intensify direct contacts.. between the Likud and Kachol Lavan negotiating teams, and welcomed both sides’ willingness to do so,” according to a statement by his own office after Sunday night’s initial meeting.