Between Hamas’s onslaught on civilians of the South and this week’s Remembrance and Independence Days, the coalition talks have not moved forward, meaning Netanyahu will have to ask for an extension.

After last month’s election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would form the next government as soon as possible. The implication was that he wouldn’t even need to ask President Reuven Rivlin for a two-week extension – he’d get it done in a month, because getting the coalition partners of the past four years back in his government would be easy enough.

The parties would get more or less what they had before, the coalition agreements could be mostly copied from the ones signed in 2015, and then the government would be on its way. And the Knesset – instead of waiting a month after its inauguration – could get to work in earnest: to assign members to its committees and start passing laws. Continue reading