President Rivlin will ask Netanyahu to form his fifth government

President Reuven Rivlin said Tuesday that he would ask Binyamin Netanyahu to form Israel’s 34^th government on Wednesday, after the Likud leader won a 65-member majority (in the 120-strong Knesset) through recommendations from the right-wing and religious parties consulted by the president. Although Likud and Blue-White ended almost neck and neck in the hot contest for the April 9 election, Netanyahu scooped majority backing. Labor and far-left Meretz (totaling 45) recommended entrusting Blue-White’s leader Benny Gantz to lead the next government. The Arab 10-member bloc declined to recommend any Israeli leader.