Rivlin victory could spell the end for Netanyahu

Ynet news:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's worst nightmare became reality on Tuesday when his hated faction rival Reuven Rivlin was elected to be Israel's 10th president.

Netanyahu pulled out all the stops to avoid a Rivlin presidency, including attempting to do away with the position all together and offering the job to Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel who doesn't even have Israeli citizenship.

Netanyahu's worst fear would have been an axis formed by Rivlin and Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar that could have mustered enough political strength to replace the prime minister.

Sa'ar, a main architect of Rivlin's victory on Tuesday, will now be the front-man in the Likud party.

Along with MK Haim Katz, Sa'ar provided Rivlin with steady behind-the-scenes political support in the elections acting as the head of his campaign.

When Netanyahu pushed to cave the Presidency erased from Israeli policy to prevent Rivlin from winning the post, it was Sa'ar who thwarted the initiative.

At the moment, whispers are running through the political crowd that Sa'ar could stand as Netanyahu's eventual successor as prime minister.

Since the president holds the power to pick who will have the chance to build a coalition during elections (considering of course that no party wins a majority of seats in the parliament), the close connection between Rivlin and Sa'ar does, and should motivate Netanyahu to fear for his job.

This will, of course, be a difficult and complex process, one that Sa'ar and Rivlin may not decide to act on, but sources around Netanyahu are taking the threat seriously.

Tensions between Netanyahu and the president elect were obvious even in Rivlin's body language during the Prime Minister's congratulatory speech.

Rivlin barely took a moment to turn his head to look at Netanyahu.