As PM Netanyahu's mandate has expired, the president now has a choice between tasking the heads of Yesh Atid or Yamina with forming a coalition or handing the mandate over to parliament. If neither move proves successful, elections – Israel's fifth in two years – will be called.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fails to meet a midnight deadline to put together a new governing coalition, blames Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett's "refusal to commit to a right-wing government."
Joint Arab List members worry that Ra'am has closed a deal with the Likud to recommend Yamina leader Naftali Bennett to form the next government.
President Reuven Rivlin does not intend to hold another official round of consultations with party heads once Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mandate to form a government expires at midnight on Tuesday.
Bennett shoots back shortly after Netanyahu's post, saying, "I never asked for the premiership, I just asked Netanyahu to form a right-wing government, which we would have supported."
Sources who spoke to the Yamina leader in recent days tell Israel Hayom that if Naftali Bennett wanted to, he could have established a government for change in two days."
Rabbi Zvi Yisrael Tau, the spiritual leader of the extremist religious-Zionist Noam party, backtracks on previous statement denouncing any cooperation's with the Islamist Ra'am party, says it may be necessary as a left-wing government harbors a "host of threats" to Israel's character.
With Netanyahu set to lose his mandate to form the next government overnight Tuesday, President Reuven Rivlin "will evaluate things given the circumstances at the relevant time," official says.
Talks among members of so-called "change" bloc stall as parties disagree on division of ministerial portfolios. Meanwhile, Benny Gantz reportedly in talks to join Netanyahu in coalition government, sources say.
Given the prevailing expectation that PM Netanyahu is unlikely to receive an extension should he fail to form a government before his mandate expires, the party leaders sit down to discuss their various positions.