Israel to hold rerun elections in September as Benjamin Netanyahu fails to form coalition

Israel slid into political chaos Thursday after scandal-ridden Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed in his efforts to form a new coalition government – and moved to make sure his main rival wouldn’t get to try to do so in his stead.

That means that only seven weeks after the last Israeli election, a new one is now on the horizon.

The chaotic developments not only cast a cloud over the political future of Netanyahu – a Houdini-like figure who in the past has been able to wriggle his way out of almost any political tight spot – but also darkens already dim prospects for a Mideast peace deal, which US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been tasked with crafting.

The bizarre second-election scenario, the first of its kind in the country, was set in motion when Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, held a late-night vote to dissolve itself, with the prime minister having missed a deadline to form a governing coalition.

To do that, he would have needed to cobble together a majority in the 120-seat chamber. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had given him six weeks to form a government, with a deadline of midnight Wednesday.

If that deadline had passed, Rivlin would have given another lawmaker, almost certainly Netanyahu’s main electoral rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, a chance to put together a coalition.