New try at Israeli gov’t to begin

Former army chief given go-ahead to form new government

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday night gave former army chief Benny Gantz the mandate to form the next government, after longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to recruit enough lawmakers to join his planned coalition.

“I promised to establish a liberal unity government and that is what I intend to do,” Gantz said after he received the mandate. He added that he would seek to establish a “national reconciliation government that can repair the divisions in our society.”

Neither Gantz nor Netanyahu currently has the required majority of at least 61 lawmakers backing them to form a government.

Given the stalemate, Rivlin reiterated his previous calls for a national unity government, including Netanyahu’s Likud party and Gantz’s Blue and White party, saying “there is no justification for a third election.”

“If a government is established, it is true that everyone will pay a price,” Rivlin said. “But if one is not established, the citizens of Israel are those who will pay the biggest price of all.”

Gantz, the leader of the centrist Blue and White party, has 28 days to complete the task of building a government in difficult circumstances after the Sept. 17 general election — the second in half a year — produced no decisive winner.

The Blue and White negotiating team has already invited the Likud negotiating team to a meeting on Thursday, the party said earlier Wednesday. Likud said it has accepted the invitation.

When Netanyahu renounced the mandate he blamed Gantz, saying he had rejected his efforts to negotiate with him.

There are numerous hurdles in the way of forming a unity government.