Midnight deadline approaches for Israeli coalition to unite and challenge Netanyahu
CNN
A coalition of Israeli opposition parties were approaching a midnight deadline on Wednesday to form a government, in the most serious challenge yet to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rule.
The idea that Israel's longest-serving leader could be unseated became a reality on Sunday, when Naftali Bennett, leader of the small right-wing party Yamina, confirmed he was working toward a coalition agreement with Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist party Yesh Atid. Under the country's election laws, the president can give a party leader 28 days to form a coalition. President Reuven Rivlin had tasked Netanyahu to form a government after the vote, but the Prime Minister was unable to command enough support to control Israel's parliament, the Knesset. President Joe Biden on Sunday delivers his first commencement address of the 2024 season at Morehouse College, where the president may for the first time in months have to confront the angst that’s been percolating on college campuses nationwide toward his administration’s policies on the Israel-Hamas war.
Arab and Palestinian Americans left a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday night frustrated they did not have a clear understanding of how the Biden administration might act upon their concerns as the Israel-Hamas war devastates the civilian population in Gaza, participants told CNN.