Practically anyone who had contact with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin in the past two years is familiar with his prophecy of wrath: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will never leave his position on his own free will, the president said. Instead, he’ll burn down the club first, he won’t take POWs and he’ll dismantle state institutions and leave behind scorched earth. Rivlin addressed the progress in the criminal investigation of Netanyahu’s dossiers and felt that the prime minister would fight to the bitter end. All those who heard the president express himself on the issue discerned deep fear of the damage that Netanyahu’s struggle could bring down on the state. All along, Rivlin’s view was that Netanyahu, unlike Ehud Olmert in 2008, would not resign before the serving of the indictment.

The president’s prophecy was fully realized: Netanyahu is fighting for his personal freedom with all his might and is more than willing to hit below the belt. He is trying to undermine and shatter the institution of legal adviser to the government as well as the police, the courts, the media and his political adversaries. Netanyahu pushes the “deep state” theory regarding his alleged persecution and talks about a “conspiracy” to depose him, supposedly backed by the New Israel Fund. Into all this, two consecutive election campaigns were pushed in April and September of 2019. After all this, Rivlin found himself standing as a barrier between Netanyahu and the continuation of damage inflicted on the country’s justice and law enforcement systems. This entire burden of thwarting Netanyahu’s damage to the country was placed on Rivlin’s shoulders, and he feels he is the only person capable of squaring the vicious circle in which the State of Israel finds itself.

This perception is what led Rivlin to make his dramatic, unprecedented offer to Netanyahu and Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz in the two meetings he held with them after the Sept. 17 elections. In effect, the president suggested changing Israel’s system of government and allow the simultaneous tenure of two prime ministers in a compromise power-sharing deal: One, Netanyahu, would continue to carry the official title, live in the Balfour Street residence and carry on as prime minister. The second person, Gantz, would be appointed the prime minister’s active “interim prime minister” — a kind of substitute surrogate. This new status would be anchored in a special, new law; today, there is no obligation to appoint a stand-in or deputy prime minister. This law would enable Gantz to receive all the relevant governmental authorities and jurisdictions from the official prime minister.

This complicated setup aims to circumvent the major obstacle that currently prevents Israel from resolving the unprecedented crisis: that the Blue and White party is not willing to join the government of a prime minister who is served with criminal indictments. Therefore, Rivlin suggested that only if and when Netanyahu is indicted will Netanyahu enter the “incapacitation” category and transfer all of his powers to his substitute, Gantz.