President Reuven Rivlin tasked today, April 6, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the mission of composing the next government. On April 5, Netanyahu received a larger endorsement for the mission compared with Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid — 52 Knesset members supported his candidacy versus 45 for Lapid. New Hope and its leader Gideon Saar declined to recommend to the president a candidate. The two Arab parties — Raam and the Joint List — took the same course.
Apparently, Saar’s refusal to recommend either candidate pushed the Arab legislators to refrain from making their own recommendation. With Yamina recommending its own leader Naftali Bennett and with Saar recommending no one, Raam and the Arab Joint List could no longer tip the balance.
