The Financial Times and Evening Standard both cover Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last-minute coalition deal with Jewish Home to form a Likud-led government. Both the Times and Guardian suggest that Jewish Home’s influence could lead to an attempted increase in West Bank settlement construction. The Independent and Independent i both report comments by senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who alleged that Israel’s new government will “bury the two-state solution.” The Daily Mail says that foot-dragging over the prospects of peace talks will place Israel’s government on a collision course with the White House. In the Financial Times, former-White House Middle East coordinator Philip Gordon writes that only Netanyahu himself rather than pressure from Washington can ultimately bring about peace.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph online includes a comparison between the Israeli and UK electoral systems. Rob Pinfold of Kings College says that Britain can learn from Israel that coalitions can work, but that narrow majorities are unlikely to last.

The online editions of the Guardian and Financial Times both report that the US Senate yesterday approved legislation which would see Congress handed a 30-day review of any nuclear deal which is concluded between Iran and the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany).

The Guardian online says the Pentagon has confirmed that US forces have begun training a small number of Syrian fighters to take on ISIS. The same publication says that there are reports of three new chemical attacks by the Assad regime on the Idlib province, killing around 80 people.

The Daily Mail reports that Israel has sent a team of ‘medical clowns’ to help the relief efforts in Nepal. The medically-trained clowns visit injured children to provide medical support and a psychological break for injured children.

In the Israeli media, the focus remains on the fallout from the announcement that Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this week formed a narrow single-seat majority government. Haaretz calls it an inherently “troubled” government while Maariv speculates that secret talks are continuing between Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog over the possibility of Zionist Union eventually joining the coalition. However, the top item in both Yediot Ahronot and Israel Hayom is the scramble for ministerial portfolios within Likud. With coalition partners having been handed a variety of ministries, both publications say that a number of Likud MPs are making the case for senior ministerial appointments.

Israel Radio news reports that US President Barack Obama has congratulated Netanyahu on the formation of a new government and said that he looks forward to them working together. The same outlet covers comments made by United Nations Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon who said he is keen to examine the possibility with Netanyahu of resuming peace negotiations. However, Israel Radio says that Ban and the White House were also critical of an announcement yesterday to push ahead with the construction of homes in the Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.