With the clock striking midnight in Israel tonight, the mandate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received from President Rubi Rivlin to form a government following the March 23rd election, has officially expired. For the past month and a half since the election, PM Netanyahu, who is the leader of largest political Party in Israel - the Likud -has been trying relentlessly to form a government. In order to do so, he needed to convince at least 61 Knesset Members, who constitute a majority to join a coalition led by him as Prime Minister. In the past, Netanyahu has been successful doing so multiple times. This time however, some of Netanyahu's usual political partners refused to join him in a coalition, mostly due to disagreements regarding his COVID-19 policy in Israel, as well as claiming that he has been in office for too long and it is time pass the torch on to a successor. Now that Netanyahu's Mandate to form a government has expired, it returns to President Rivlin, who will decide whether to grant it to the head of the second largest Party, or to send Israel to another set of elections in September. 📸 Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90