On the morning of May 16, just one day after he returned from Japan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in his office with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. On the agenda: the spy scandal, Iran’s nuclear program, diplomatic negotiations and a long list of other major security topics.

But the one thing on Netanyahu’s mind at that particular moment was something entirely different. He was focused on how to prevent Knesset member Reuven Rivlin, a member of his own Likud Party, from being elected president of Israel. Stopping Rivlin has become his “obsession.” He has been “running amok” about it over the past few days. And those are the terms used by senior members of the Likud and other top politicians who have spoken with Netanyahu about it.

It would be no exaggeration to say that in the last 10 days, Netanyahu — otherwise one of the world’s busiest leaders — has been mainly preoccupied with thwarting Rivlin’s bid to be elected president, since he sees it as the worst possible scenario. He focused on this throughout his entire trip to Japan, making endless urgent phone calls about it to the leaders of the other parties in his coalition.

Netanyahu’s original plan was to postpone the presidential elections by half a year. He wanted to use that time to find another candidate who would run for president on behalf of the Likud Party, and also to change the Basic Law regarding the election of the president. In effect, he wanted to eliminate the authority granted to the president to decide whom to charge with the task of composing the government, and to have that task automatically given to the head of the largest party.