Netanyahu gets an extension

THE ISRAELI president yesterday approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a two-week extension to form a government.

Reuven Rivlin had initially given Netanyahu four weeks to form a government when MPs recommended him to be prime minister after last month’s parliamentary elections.

His deadline would have been tomorrow, but a two-week extension gives Netanyahu until May 29 to form a coalition.

It is not uncommon for a prime minister-elect to get an extension.

Netanyahu’s Likud party has said that reasons including the recent Jewish holiday of Passover and other national holidays were behind the extension request.

If Netanyahu succeeds in forming a government, he will begin a record fifth term and overtake David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father, as the country’s longest-serving prime minister.