Netanyahu accuses Israel president of conspiring to topple him

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Jewish state’s president and a former minister of conspiring to have him toppled. “I know that a former Likud minister has been holding discussions with the coalition and concocted a subversive plot, with me winning a large victory at the next elections and him making sure I am not prime minister,” Netanyahu told a gathering of his right-wing Likud party celebrating his 69th birthday on Wednesday night, according to AFP. Under the scheme, President Reuven Rivlin would use his prerogative as head of state to name an alternative Likud candidate to head a post-election government. Gideon Saar, a former minister and leading rival within Likud, on Thursday publicly denied any such maneuver. Rivlin mocked it as “paranoia” on the premier’s part. Israel’s next legislative elections are scheduled for November 2019. Early polls could be held in case of a crisis within Netanyahu’s ruling Likud-led coalition.