The Israeli Knesset voted today to hold new elections on Sept. 17, just five months after the last one, after the head of the leading party failed to build a governing coalition for the first time in the nation’s history.

Why it matters: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to attract enough support after his Likud Party and its right-wing allies won the April 9 Knesset elections threatens political gridlock just as the country faces daunting domestic and international challenges, including rising tensions with Iran and the imminent start of US-led negotiations on a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the unprecedented electoral do-over will only further inflame domestic discord. Under the law, Netanyahu had until midnight today to cobble together a government before his rival Benny Gantz of the Blue and White opposition party got to a chance to give it a try; instead, Netanyahu pre-empted that by initiating the snap elections.

Diplomatic fallout: The Donald Trump administration had been complaining it didn’t have a Palestinian partner for its peace process. Now it’s not clear it will have much of an Israeli interlocutor either. After delaying the release of the plan until after the April elections, the US administration is planning to help launch it with a Palestinian financial summit in Bahrain next month. Netanyahu is due to meet Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner Thursday in Jerusalem to discuss preparations, but the prime minister’s transitional government is not expected to be able to decide on any big diplomatic moves.