(Photo: Flash90)

Netanyahu’s veneer of political impenetrability was riddled with buckshot last week with reports that he fears Likud party rivals are undermining him politically.

Supposedly, Bibi’s reluctance to call new elections even though he has a commanding lead in the polls stems from an irrational fear that President Reuven Rivlin will bypass him and choose the head of the second-place party (Yair Lapid, polls say) to form the next government. Under Israel’s parliamentary democracy, the president decides who gets first crack at forming a coalition, and Netanyahu and Rivlin have been on poor terms for years.

Next, Netanyahu reportedly lashed out at Gideon Saar, a popular figure inside the Likud even after a three-year time-out from politics. Saar recently announced his comeback, and Bibi and Saar had a public spat over Netanyahu’s accusation that Saar is plotting to wrest the party leadership away from him before the next election.

Both reports were leaked from internal Likud deliberations, with the purpose of making Netanyahu look paranoid. Judging from the gleeful manner in which the media picked up on them, the leaks achieved their purpose.

However, Netanyahu is a seasoned operator. He knows politics is a cutthroat business and when meeting with the party faithful, he should be expected to take every possible contingency into account.

Netanyahu was once the beneficiary of presidential discretion after the 2009 election, when Tzipi Livni beat Bibi by one seat, yet President Shimon Peres did the math and asked Bibi to form the next government, knowing he was the only one who could do it.

But this time, Netanyahu is polling 15 seats ahead of his nearest rival. Rivlin, a lifelong, card-carrying Likud member, isn’t going to betray his own party’s interests or subvert democratically held elections to select a distant runner-up over the election winner.

Gideon Saar is one of the nice guys of politics who has long since ceded the prime ministerial throne to Netanyahu as long as Bibi wants it, or as long as he stays out of prison.

The fact that the leaks occurred prove that Netanyahu’s paranoia is justified. The debate should be over whether Bibi has a handle on the correct threats or he should be looking over a different shoulder.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 733)