Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is scheduled to announce today, Tuesday, a candidate to form a new government, after consultations with political parties, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the most support, making him the one most likely to win the job.
The law grants Rivlin wide discretion in making his decision, and he announced yesterday that "moral considerations" may play a role in this regard, in a clear reference to the three corruption cases Netanyahu faces.
The Israeli elections held on March 23 - the fourth vote in two years - ended without Netanyahu's right-wing leadership and a possible coalition of his opponents winning a parliamentary majority.
The marathon discussions that Rivlin held with representatives of all parties holding seats in the Knesset did not break the political deadlock, and Rivlin's spokesman confirmed that the round of consultations had ended and that the president would issue his decision today, Tuesday.
Netanyahu's recommendation
Fifty-two lawmakers in the 120-seat Knesset recommended choosing Netanyahu, compared to 45 who nominated centrist politician Yair Lapid Liair, former finance minister and leader of the "There is a future" party, while 7 called for appointing the leader of the far-right Yamina party, Naftali Bennett.
Three parties, which gained a total of 16 seats, refused to name any candidate in their meetings with Rivlin.
Netanyahu has urged both Bennett and his former ally Gideon Saar, who founded the New Hope Party after defecting from the conservative Likud party, to join it to break the deadlock gripping the political situation in Israel.
Bennett showed no commitment to cooperating again with Netanyahu, with whom he had a tense relationship, and Sa'ar said that he would not work under Netanyahu's command, citing Netanyahu's corruption trial, which began on Monday.
Netanyahu - who denies making any mistakes - attended a part of the court session, and later repeated accusations that the prosecution case against him was "a coup attempt aimed at removing a strong right-wing prime minister" from office.
Political map
With Rivlin not resolving his decision yet, Lapid said on Monday that he had proposed entering into a coalition with Bennett, and under the agreement, he would assume the premiership first, with Lapid taking the position from him.
"Israeli citizens need to see that their leaders can work together," Lapid said in a televised address.
Bennett has yet to comment on Lapid's offer, and political commentators have said that such a deal could also pave the way for the right-wing Saar to join Lapid, with Bennett, who is a conservative like himself, at the helm.
In an unprecedented shift in the politics of forming political coalitions in Israel, it seems that it is impossible for the right and the opposition camp to form a government without the support of the Islamist party, the "United Arab List," led by Mansour Abbas, which won 4 seats.
Abbas said that he is open to all parties, but the hard-line right-wing religious Zionism party has ruled out participating in a government alongside the United Arab List, which makes the possibility of Netanyahu forming a government coalition more difficult.
Which candidate Rivlin chooses will have 28 days to try to form a coalition, and he can ask the president to extend the deadline for two weeks, and Rivlin can assign the task to someone else if the government is not formed within the specified period.