Israel dissolves parliament, sets new election

Israeli lawmakers missed the Wednesday deadline to form a new government, triggering an unprecedented third round of parliamentary elections in a year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party failed to reach a power-sharing agreement or pick a new leader over the past three weeks. Lawmakers voted to dissolve the parliament, known as the Knesset, and schedule a new election for March 2, 2020.

How did Israel get here? The country held its legislative elections on April 9. Netanyahu was expected to ride the results to a historic fifth term as prime minister, but he didn’t secure a parliamentary majority and instead called for a snap vote in September. In the second election, Netanyahu and Gantz’s parties came out nearly even, and neither managed to pull together a coalition government. It seems unlikely the March vote will yield better results.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s analysis in WORLD Magazine of how Netanyahu leveraged the Golan Heights to pick up more votes.