Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a new governing coalition by a Tuesday deadline, prolonging Israel’s political stalemate and raising the possibility that his record run as the country’s longest-serving leader might come to an end.
Netanyahu’s 28-day window to build a government after not winning an outright majority in March elections expired at midnight. With the midnight deadline having passed, President Reuven Rivlin can assign the coalition-building task to another member of parliament. That is widely expected to be Yair Lapid, 57, whose centrist Yesh Atid party placed second to Netanyahu’s Likud in the March 23 vote. Netanyahu, 71, has been in office since 2009 and also served for three years in the 1990s. He has been fighting to hold the helm through four inconclusive elections since 2019 and is on trial for criminal corruption charges he denies.
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