Israel’s Blue and White coalition leader, Benny Gantz, has a growing opportunity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a growing problem.

Following Tuesday’s election, neither the centrist Blue and White party nor Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party command a parliamentary majority in the Knesset. Blue and White has 33 seats and Likud, 31. A parliamentary majority requires 61 seats. But while Netanyahu is calling on Gantz to join a unity government with Likud’s Ultra-Orthodox allies, Gantz is holding firm. Making matters worse for Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman — the head of a secular right-wing party whose eight seats offer a prospective majority — says any unity government must exclude the Ultra-Orthodox parties.

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