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Reuters
Benny Gantz is a former chief of staff of the Israeli military
The leader of Israel’s Blue and White party, Benny Gantz, has said he cannot form a coalition government, making a third election in a year more likely.
Mr Gantz was given a mandate by the president last month after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also failed to secure a majority in parliament.
Lawmakers now have 21 days to nominate a candidate with majority support.
Blue and White and Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party emerged from September’s election with almost the same number of seats.
President Reuven Rivlin called on the two leaders to form a national unity government, but they could not agree a power-sharing deal.
Before announcing that he had failed to secure a majority, Mr Gantz said Mr Netanyahu was rejecting unity and would “do anything to deteriorate us to a third election with a year”.
The prime minister said Mr Gantz had chosen to ignore the “will of the majority” to form a national unity government and warned that another election would be “institutional insanity”.
The effective kingmaker, Avigdor Lieberman, blamed both men for the deadlock and said his secular nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party would back neither of them.
Mr Gantz “was not prepared to accept the president’s plan” for a national unity government, while Mr Netanyahu “was not prepared to separate from his ultra-Orthodox messianic bloc”, he added.
Sixty-one seats are needed for a majority in the 120-seat parliament, or Knesset.
Without the support of Yisrael Beitenu’s eight lawmakers, Mr Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing and religious parties controls 55 seats.
Mr Gantz’s centre-left bloc has 44 seats without Yisrael Beitenu, and would require the support of at least nine lawmakers of the Israeli Arab Joint list to get a majority.