Hours to the deadline, Netanyahu scrambles to assemble coalition as the Jewish Home party plays hardball.

Here are the five reasons Israel’s coalition talks have gone down to the wire.

“It’s not every day that a politician gives up the most desirable portfolio and chooses to go to the frustrating opposition; but Lieberman will now have the pleasure of watching Prime Minister Netanyahu, who was crowned king of the world only last week, struggle with a 61-MK coalition,” writes Sima Kadmon.

“There have been governments in Israel with a tiny majority that allowed themselves to make big moves; but Netanyahu is not Begin, he is not Sharon, and he is definitely not Rabin,” writes Eitan Haber.

“Zionist Union has a mandate from its voters to end the rule of Likud,” write the editors of Ha’aretz. “Joining the coalition would be a betrayal of that mission.”

Surveys show that Palestinians believe that corruption is increasing under the Palestinian Authority, which has not even held required presidential and parliamentary elections.

“Now that Palestine is recognized as a state, the next bold step for Palestine is to confer citizenship on its stateless refugees and enter into bilateral agreements with other states regarding the status of Palestinian citizens in each country,” writes Fateh Azzam.

Israeli settler organization Ateret Cohanim took over a building comprising three apartments in the central quarter of the Silwan neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem Jerusalem Wednesday morning.