“The centrist party of Israeli election challenger Benny Gantz rejected on Thursday an offer by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to join forces in a governing coalition under the incumbent. ‘We will not enter a coalition led by Netanyahu’ senior Blue and White leader Moshe Yaalon told reporters at an event attended by Gantz.”

“Israelis have voted for a unity government, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz said Thursday, adding that he intend to be the one to achieve this as head of the party that apparently has the most number of seats in the next Knesset.”

Haggai Matar writes, “Israeli military control over the day-to-day lives of millions of Palestinians in the West Bank, the siege on Gaza, and the structural discrimination against hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem are all here to stay. None of these three aforementioned groups were allowed to vote for the government that decides their fate.”

“A day after voting in the second parliamentary election in half a year, Israelis woke up on Wednesday to an uncertain picture of who would emerge as prime minister. It was impossible to predict what weeks of coalition negotiations and maneuvering would bring. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the centrist Blue and White party of former army chief Benny Gantz finished nearly even as the largest parties, but neither possessed a clear path to forming a coalition that could command a majority in the 120-seat parliament, known as the Knesset.”

“The right to speak directly after the prime minister? Meetings with all visiting heads of state? Monthly briefings from the Mossad? For the first time, the perks of being the opposition leader in the Israeli Parliament could go to an Arab lawmaker.”

“Voting patterns in some West Bank settlements like Kiryat Arba, that were considered to be Yamina strongholds, were more favorable than expected to the Likud. In April, 54 percent of voters in the Hebron-area settlement cast their ballot for Shaked’s New Right or Yamina’s antecedent, the Union of Right-Wing Parties, while 33% voted for the Likud. On Tuesday, Likud won the most votes in Kiryat Arba at 33%, narrowly beating the favored Yamina which garnered a disappointing 32% of the 3,300 votes cast.”

“In a brazen case of electoral fraud, a Likud representative was allegedly caught attempting to stuff a ballot box at a polling station in the northern Arab Israeli village of Fureidis on Tuesday. According to The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language site Zman Yisrael, an unnamed man arrived at the village polling station in the evening, claiming to be a Central Election Committee representative. Around 8 p.m. he asked the representatives of the various parties present to exit the room for a briefing, leaving behind only representatives of Likud with the unattended ballot box.”

“Retiring U.S. envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt is expected to arrive in Israel on Thursday amid negotiations over a unity government in the wake of Israel’s election, Channel 13 News reported.”

“Talal Awkal, an author and political analyst for the Ramallah-based newspaper al-Ayyam believes Greenblatt’s resignation will make no difference, because the US plan goes too far in supporting and adopting Israeli policy toward the Palestinian territories and peace process, and those behind it are still involved.”

“140 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons entered the 9th day of hunger strikes in protest against the decision by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to not remove jamming devices, according to Palestinian Safa News. The prisoners began the hunger strike over a week ago when the IPS refused to remove cellular jamming devices from prisons. Some of the prisoners are also not drinking water.”

“The Palestinian Authority faces a financing gap that could exceed $1.8 billion for 2019, driven by declining aid flows and the unresolved transfer of taxes and import duties collect by Israel on behalf of the PA,” it wrote. “The outlook for the Palestinian territories is worrisome,” Kanthan Shankar, World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza, said in a statement accompanying the report. “The severe liquidity squeeze has started to affect the PA’s ability to fulfill its responsibilities of paying its civil servants and providing public services.”