Former defence minister Avigdor Liberman whose party draws support from Israel’s largely secular Russian immigrant community, refused to join the government unless a military draft bill, crafted in the last Knesset, would be passed unaltered. The ultra-Orthodox parties dismissed this outright. Netanyahu needed 61 seats to form a governing coalition, but disagreements between secular and Halachic parties meant he was five seats short to form a coalition government by a 30 May deadline. A Halachic party is founded on Jewish law based on the Talmud, which is law passed down orally, not written. The deadline has passed, so the State of Israel is going to the elections again. In his comments following the dissolution, Netanyahu declared that Likud ‘will run a sharp and clear election campaign, and we will win.’