On Sunday, Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, asked ex-military chief Benny Gantz to form a government, calling for an end to a year of political stalemate to help tackle the Coronavirus pandemic and
This announcement marked a setback for right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but did not necessarily spell the end of his tenure, the longest in Israeli history.
Netanyahu was in January formally charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, becoming the first Israeli premier ever indicted in office.
Netanyahu’s trial had been due to open on Tuesday, but Jerusalem’s District Court said that given the severity of the global pandemic it had been instructed to hear “only urgent matters”.
“Tomorrow, around midday, the president will assign the task of forming the government to (the) head of Kachol Lavan… Benny Gantz,” Rivlin’s office said in a statement Sunday, using the Hebrew name for Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party.
