The Chareidi parties UTJ and Shas recommended to President Reuven Rivlin on Monday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu form the next government.

Earlier on Monday, the Likud recommended Netanyahu and the Religious Zionism party will recommend Netanyahu during their slot with Rivlin in the late afternoon, giving Netanyahu a total of 52 recommendations.

Yair Lapid is expected to have 45 recommendations by the end of the day – the members of Yesh Atid, Blue and White, Labor, Yisrael Beiteinu and Meretz.

Yamina recommended its chairman Naftali Bennett be given the mandate to form the next government.

Hadash, the largest party in the Arab Joint List announced earlier on Monday that it won’t be recommending anyone for prime minister.

Hadash and Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh had considered recommending Yair Lapid to form a government but said on Monday that he will not do so after Lapid considered the idea of forming a rotation government with Yamina head Naftali Bennett – “the extremist settler right.”

The other parties in the Joint List, Balad and Ta’al, are also not expected to recommend anyone to form the next government.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)