More than a year has passed since the fateful elections of April 9th, 2019 when no government was elected for the first of what now seems to be three consecutive elections. The 21st Knesset was voted in and so were the 22nd and 23rd Knessets. With no government able to be formed by the deadline of the mandate that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz had on Wednesday evening, Israelis are now seriously looking at the unthinkable, a 4th election with the Covid-19 Coronavirus crisis raging in the background.

Following stalled talks between the Blue and White faction and the Likud faction on Thursday, President Reuven Rivlin has set August 4 as the date for the fourth round of elections should the two parties continue to fail at creating a unity government.

According to reports in the Israeli media, the negotiations have faltered over the Likud’s demand to pass legislation to protect Netanyahu from possible rulings by the High Court of Justice which might invalidate him either as prime minister or later as deputy prime minister due to his criminal indictments.

With the failure of Gantz to fulfill his mandate, it is now up to the Knesset to decide upon a leader who will form a government. Anyone of the 120 MKs could be tapped to do so assuming that they gather 61 other MKs who will stand behind them and support them.

On Thursday, the President’s office released a timetable according to which the Knesset must decide on a leader to form a government by May 7 and they must notify the Speaker of the Knesset, currently Gantz himself of the position by May 8. The date of August 4 was selected as the date for the next election, as it allows for a three-month campaign and is the first Tuesday after Tisha B’Av.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)