Israel's Netanyahu and rival deadlocked after election

Why it matters: Netanyahu has failed to get the right-wing bloc to a 61-seat majority — which would have allowed him to form a government that would grant him immunity from 3 pending corruption indictments.

• Gantz hasn't won either, so can’t easily form a center-left coalition.

The big picture: The results so far suggest that Avigdor Lieberman is going to be the kingmaker after the election.

• Lieberman has already announced he wants to form a secular national unity government with Gantz and Netanyahu both included.

Yes, but: Forming a unity government would be very hard because of Netanyahu’s legal situation ahead of a hearing on Oct. 3.

• Gantz ruled out joining a unity government led by Netanyahu during the campaign.
• Netanyahu says he won’t join a unity government led by Gantz.

The bottom line: If both Gantz and Netanyahu stick to their positions, Israel will be thrown into an even deeper political crisis — and potentially an election for the third time in a year.   

Go deeper: Read Axios' Israel election preview

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker