Of the three political dramas gripping the world right now, the most astounding may be in Israel, where President Rivlin, after the second election stalemate in five months, has just invited the incumbent prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to form a government. The predicament of Prime Minister Johnson and President Trump is child’s play. A rabbinic sage could search the Talmud without coming up with a more subtle solution than that upon which Mr. Rivlin has struck.

The background is that the leading party, Mr. Netanyahu’s right-of-center Likud, won one seat fewer in the Knesset than did the opposition party, led by General Gantz. Mr. Netanyahu, though, has won support from one more Knesset member than the general. Neither party, though, has won enough seats to form a majority. Nor has been able to find enough coalition partners to make up a majority. Nor convince the other to form a so-called national unity government.

To complicate matters, it looks like Mr. Netanyahu is about to get indicted for bribery and other matters. He would be immune while he’s prime minister, but could not remain as premier — or any other minister — if he’s under indictment. No one wants to go back to a third election, no matter how vibrant Israel’s democracy. So what does Mr. Rivlin, the head of state of the Jewish state, see as a way forward that will thread all of this.

Both Mr. Netanyahu and General Gantz have acknowledged the need for a “national unity government” in which the Likud and Blue & White share power and the prime ministership rotates — the first two years to one party, next two to the other. Both insist on going first, though, and both know that the question of who goes first is also the question of whether Netanyahu gets indicted now or later. If he doesn’t go first, he’s indictable, and if he does, he isn’t.

Enter Mr. Rivlin. It turns out that in the Israeli system, a prime minister has the authority, though not the obligation, to nominate a deputy prime minister. Mr. Netanyahu has yet to name such a deputy, who would get a mandate to step in as acting prime minister should the prime minister be unable, for one reason or another, function as premier. The nominated deputy premier has to come from the prime minister’s party and can be acting prime minister for up to 100 days.

If, after that, the prime minister has not returned to his post, a new prime minister would have to be chosen, whether by parliamentary negotiations or elections. Mr. Rivlin proposed that the Knesset change this law in two ways: first, that it extend the period of 100 days to an indefinite period; and second, that it repeal the clause about the deputy having to come from the prime minister’s party.

That’s all the taciturn Mr. Rivlin has said on this head, but our leg in Israel tells us that anyone reading between the lines grasps immediately what he is getting at — namely, that the Knesset change the law; that General Gantz’s Blue & White party agree to enter a coalition with the Likud and Mr. Netanyahu as premier; that Mr. Netanyahu appoint Mr. Gantz as his deputy; and that if Mr. Netanyahu is indicted, he be declared unable to function, making Mr. Gantz acting prime minister.

That would be at least for the duration of the trial, at the end of which Mr. Netanyahu could return to full office — if he’s acquitted. Of course, since the trial could drag on for years, and could well end with Mr. Netanyahu’s conviction, this would be unlikely ever to happen. All the more ingenious, though, because it would enable Mr. Netanyahu to retain at least the title of prime minister even if it’s without having the powers of one.

Whether Mr. Netanyahu has enough interest in a powerless title to accept it, this is beyond your editor’s ken. Mr. Rivlin’s presidential activism, which itself goes against the Israeli tradition, in which a president is supposed to be almost as above politics as a British sovereign, is unusual; so is Netanyahu’s reaction after Mr. Rivlin. Gone was the basher of the center-left of the hustings. A new Bibi was in view, however momentary it may prove to be.

Already Israel’s longest serving premier, Mr. Netanyahu was low-toned, conciliatory, realistically pessimistic about his prospects of going it alone without General Gantz. He seemed to be saying: “Look, I can’t do this by myself, and General Gantz can’t do this by himself. So we’re going to have to end up, one way or another, doing it together.” That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll accept Mr. Rivlin’s Talmudic triangulation — or be willing to let Gantz go first in a rotation pact.

Yet it may be that, given his aggressive campaigning as what some Israelis call “nasty Netanyahu” failed to get him the victory he’d sought, now he’s going to try to be more of a Mr. Nice Guy than General Gantz. And that, given his experience, he’s the better man for the job and that public opinion will then pressure General Gantz and the center-left to comprise rather than force the country into another round of elections. Then maybe the Solomonic Mr. Rivlin can land a consulting gig for America and Britain.

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Image: Drawing by Elliott Banfield, courtesy of the artist.