Once the dust settled, it transpired that the outcome of the Sept. 17 elections and the resulting political deadlock could not have been more complex. However, with the final voting tally published Sept. 24, it turned out that the imbroglio was even worse, with the ruling Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gaining an additional Knesset seat for a total of 32, and the ultra-Orthodox Yahadut HaTorah party going down one seat to seven in all. That precludes the option that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz (33 Knesset seats) would form Israel’s next government with the ultra-Orthodox parties but without the Likud. Such a combination would not offer Gantz the 61-seat majority he needs.

This deepening entanglement could lead Israel to one of the strangest and most intransigent crises in its history: a constitutional deadlock, with no candidate able to form a government, requiring yet another election, the third in just over a year. This scenario, which would have seemed unimaginable just a few months ago, is emerging before our eyes.

Given this state of affairs, President Reuven Rivlin, whose position under Israeli law is largely ceremonial and devoid of real political power, has become the key figure. By law, the No. 1 citizen is the one who decides which candidate to task with forming the country’s government. Generally, this is a pro forma exercise, with the leader of the biggest party getting the nod, but not this time, when neither man has a clear chance of garnering sufficient support for a majority coalition. Thus, Rivlin has become the only one who could potentially resolve the bind in which Israel finds itself.

The president has risen to the challenge. In recent days he has played the role of a stubborn matchmaker trying to force an intransigent couple who despise each other into a marriage of inconvenience. After consulting with the leaders of all the elected parties, Rivlin decided he would not ask either of the two to form a government and would take time in a bid to weld these two together into forming a unity government. He called them in for a joint meeting at his official residence, sitting with them for the first half hour and then making a dramatic exit and leaving them alone. His office announced that both men were invited to dinner Sept. 25. This evening, Rivlin gave the nod to Netanyahu, tasking him with the formation of the new government.