With just hours left before the deadline for forming a ruling coalition, and fearing that another lawmaker would be tasked by the president to form a government, Netanyahu races to dissolve the Knesset and call for a new election – the second in the same year - an unprecedented event for Israel.

Seemingly, at the heart of the impasse, is the issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students: Yisrael Beiteinu's Avigdor Lieberman, without
whom Netanyahu can't form a coalition, has refused to back down on the bill's terms, while ultra-Orthodox parties claimed they have already yielded enough ground.

There is no point trying to predict what will happen before the deadline because it is impossible to divine Lieberman's thoughts. Yet one thing can be said even now with some degree of confidence: The military conscription law and the crisis with the ultra-Orthodox is not the main story, but rather a cover for much deeper and driven motivations.

If it’s about hunger for power, vengeance or just plain sadism in dragging Netanyahu’s frayed nerves publicly through the streets, Lieberman has already achieved these goals, so a narrow (and terrible) right-wing government can be declared.