Seven weeks after winning an hard-fought victory in Israel's election, and just hours before a constitutional deadline, Binyamin Netanyahu informed President Reuven Rivlin on May 6th that he had succeeded-just-in forming a new government. It is hardly the coalition of his dreams. He had been negotiating with the right-wing and religious parties to build a solid block of 67 seats in the 120-member Knesset. At the same time he put out feelers to the opposition Labour Party leader, Yitzhak Herzog, to create a broader national-unity government with 70 seats or more. In the event, he has ended up with the slimmest of possible majorities: 61 seats.
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