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| - Israel's president Sunday summoned both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and main challenger Benny Gantz for an "urgent conversation" on forming a government, after calls for a unity alliance to tackle coronavirus. The summons by President Reuven Rivlin came after Gantz, who heads the centrist Blue and White party, secured recommendations from a majority of lawmakers to try to form a government, according to an AFP tally. A statement from Rivlin's office said he had invited both men to his official Jerusalem residence "for an urgent conversation this evening... regarding the possibility of immediately establishing a government." Rivlin may tap Gantz to try to form a coalition, which proved impossible following previous inconclusive elections, or could urge the two leaders to seek a short-term compromise to tackle the pandemic. The March 2 vote was Israel's third deadlocked election in less than year. In the Jewish state, a prime minister is not determined by the leader of the party with the most seats, but instead the leader who secures enough support from other factions to build a viable coalition in the 120 member parliament, or Knesset. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and its allies were left three seats short of the 61 they needed. Gantz has the backing of his own Blue and White party, along with the centre-left alliance Labour-Gesher-Meretz. The mainly Arab Joint List and the secular, nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party also threw their weight behind Gantz. "We are recommending Benny Gantz for a very simple reason," Yisrael Beiteinu's Avigdor Lieberman told Rivlin in a live telecast. "In the last election campaign we said that the most important thing was to prevent a fourth election. We also said that we very much support an emergency unity government." There is no guarantee that the disparate factions which recommended Gantz on Sunday can agree on terms for a stable coalition. scw/bs/dwo
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