Coalition talks loom for Israel’s Netanyahu

>>JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced Israeli media headlines suggesting power is slipping from his grasp after an election in which he trails his main rival with nearly all votes counted and as coalition talks loom to try to cobble together a governing majority.

The right-wing leader failed on Tuesday, for the second time in five months, to secure a clear election victory and the centrist Blue and White party led by ex-armed forces chief Benny Gantz rebuffed his calls to join a unity government on Thursday.

Near-final results released by the Knesset’s election committee on Friday showed Blue and White will be the largest single party in the new parliament with 33 of the 120 seats. That is two fewer seats than in the current parliament but Mr Netanyahu’s Likud Party fared even worse, winning 31 seats, down three from 34 before the ballot.

Israeli newspapers depicted the 69-year-old leader as in a weakened position, with headlines such as: “Himself Alone”, “Political Death Spasms,” and “Gantz Tells Netanyahu: Unity Under My Leadership.”

President Reuven Rivlin was set to this weekend start consultations with party leaders about their preference for prime minister, and will then choose the one he thinks has the best chance of putting together a coalition. His office said the talks “normally last around two days”, and he would then begin the process of inviting candidates to form a government.

Mr Netanyahu has dominated the political scene for more than a decade with tough security-first policies, an instinct for how to dominate news cycles at the expense of rivals, and frequent trips to Washington, Moscow and other world capitals.

There were only narrow differences in the two main parties’ campaigns on many important issues, and an end to the Netanyahu era would be unlikely to bring significant changes in policy on relations with the United States, the regional struggle against Iran or the Palestinian conflict.

Mr Netanyahu, a man known to his adoring Likud supporters as “the magician”, has survived difficult situations before.

Many analysts are waiting to see what manoeuvres he will try to prolong his political survival, not least to claim a public mandate in the face of possible corruption charges that prosecutors may bring within months. He denies any wrongdoing, accusing his critics of mounting a witch-hunt.