Lapid has just notified the president he is able to form a government

After a hair-raising dash to obtain the signatures of all eight parties for a coalition government, Yair Lapid was ready to meet the Wednesday midnight of his mandate. In the final hours, three major hurdles were set aside for now, so as to add the last three signatures. Yemina signed onto the deal after Ayelet Shaked was awarded first place on the Judicial Selection Committee in a rotation deal with Labor Leader Merav Michaeli, who takes over at the same time as Lapid becomes premier.  Labor is to be compensated with a deputy ministerial post. The Arab Ra’am list signed on the deal after its leader Mansour Abbas was satisfied with substantial gains for his community; while New Hope’s Gideon Saar added his signature against an assurance that the attorney general’s functions would be overhauled.

Some of these obstacles remain to be finally sorted out after Lapid presents the list to the president during the week leading up to the swearing-in of the new party before the Knesset. Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, in particular, needs to tackle dissidents in his party to retain the fragile 61 majority, before he can take his seat as first prime minister of the new “government of change.”