On May 29, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forced the just-elected Israeli Knesset to dissolve itself and set a date, Sept. 17, for new elections. Netanyahu has spent his days and night since trying to think of a way to reverse that fateful decision after realizing that another round of balloting, only five months after his April 2019 election victory, could be a disaster.
Disbanding parliament just days after lawmakers had been sworn in was a Hobson’s choice. Netanyahu's legally mandated deadline for forming a new government expired at midnight on May 29, and he was out of options. Technically, he should have handed the mandate back to President Reuven Rivlin, who might then have asked another Knesset member to try his or her hand at forming a government. By law, Rivlin could have tasked the job to another Likud lawmaker or even tapped Netanyahu’s rival, Blue and White Chair Benny Gantz. Either way, it would have spelled the immediate end of the Netanyahu era.