Both were months in the making, and neither seemed likely. Efforts to form a unity government with the center-left Zionist Union, and hopes for new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, looked, for much of the last year, like pipe dreams set for failure.

Searching for a way to expand his limited coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been courting opposition leader Isaac Herzog on and off since the March 2015 general elections. While Netanyahu’s Likud had squarely beaten the Zionist Union with 30 to 24 seats, a rejectionist attitude by would-be coalition partners left the largest party leading a measly majority and searching for a way to bolster its rule.

Meanwhile, the French government was attempting to build its own alliances, insinuating itself into the quagmire of the Middle East peace game and proposing a new effort to kick-start the two-state solution after years of stalemate and stagnation.

Read the full article at Times of Israel