Midnight Deadline Looms as Netanyahu Struggles to Form Coalition

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has until midnight to form a governing coalition after the surprise withdrawal of a former ally left him short of a majority.

Netanyahu’s Likud is in talks with the right-wing Jewish Home party, the last faction the premier needs to secure a parliamentary majority. If he can’t present a coalition to President Reuven Rivlin by the end of Wednesday, Isaac Herzog, whose Zionist Union has the second-biggest bloc, could get a chance to form a government.