Israel heads to new election: Third in twelve months as stalemate continues

Israel headed on Wednesday towards the ballot boxes for a record third time in 12 months.

As expected, there was no last-minute miracle as President of Israel Reuven Rivlin's deadline for government formation expired overnight.

Interestingly, even before the deadline lapsed, the Israeli parliament passed a preliminary vote to dissolve itself.

The fresh elections will now be held on March 2 in 2020.

He has vowed to win big, this time around.But in reality, Netanyahu faces an uphill battle.

So what does this hat-trick of polls mean for Israel.For Netanyahu, it means more time in office.

He will be looking to reinforce his position by going ahead with his plan to annex the west bank.

As long as he is the prime minister, Netanyahu has immunity from prosecution.

For the general public, this means yet another trip to the polling stations.

Public anger has been growing against the political class for not being able to find common ground.

But recent opinion polls indicate that much of that anger is directed at Netanyahu than his opponent Benny Gantz.

Gantz's blue and white is likely to win more seats than Netanyahu's likud party according to the poll.But he is still likely to fall short of the majority mark.