With the final polls in on Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu entered the final stretch of the election campaign with his well rehearsed “the rule of the right-wing is in danger” routine. He said outside the prime minister’s residence, in an impromptu meeting with supporters and echoed it a few hours later in an online video, where he warned that Benny Gantz and Y air Lapid’s Kachol Lavan are leading Likud by five seats and that they will sit in a coalition with Hadash’ Ayman Odeh.

We’ve seen it all before in 2015. Then, Netanyahu’s last-minute, “the Arab voters are moving in droves”, strategy delivered victory. But will it be as effective in 2019?

This time around, Netanyahu’s coalition is potentially based on seven or eight smaller parties, all hovering not to far above the threshold. The last polls before Friday’s cutoff had Likud and Kachol Lavan in a dead-heat and the right-wing-religious coalition comfortably ahead of the center-left bloc with around 65-55 in seats. Why is Netanyahu jeopardizing this at the last moment?

There a number of possible answers. Perhaps he doesn’t trust the polls or is in possession of what he believes is more accurate and less favorable polling? Is it because he wants to avoid the humiliation (for him) of winning but still not leading the largest party in the next Knesset? It’s not just potential humiliation. Netanyahu is gripped by the paranoia that even if he wins in coalition terms, should Kachol Lavan end up with more seats, President Rivlin will give Benny Gantz the first crack at forming a government.

Perhaps Netanyahu has polls showing Likud and its coalition in an even better situation than the media’s polls and he isn’t worried about losing partners. Instead, he’s trying to strengthen his hand in dealing with the other right-wing parties in the future coalition negotiations. It is in those talks where he is expected to also seek assurances that they will help him remain in power - even if the attorney general decides to indict him after the looming hearings.

Whatever Netanyahu’s reasons, his Gevalt Campaign will set the tone for the last days of campaigning. It will certainly cause his allies to panic. Those of them who keep Shabbat, will especially be infuriated that Netanyahu kicked it off on Friday afternoon, not giving them time to formulate a response until Saturday night.

>> Netanyahu vs. Gantz: Your comprehensive guide to the 2019 Israel election I Special coverage <<

Meanwhile, Kachol Lavan’s campaign has been trying to create some momentum with Gantz and his running mates Yair Lapid (who took a few hours out of the campaign to fly to Paris for a rather pointless photo-op with Emmanuel Macron), Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Yaalon are rushing around the country, telling their supporter that “victory is a meter away,” though that meter is looking like a pretty long one. And Labor’s Avi Gabbay, who is convinced that if he was the opposition’s main candidate against Netanyahu, he would be leading with ease, is running his own Gevald Campaign based on the prediction that Gantz is already planning to be a member of Netanyahu’s government.

With three days to go, we can expect much more of the toxicity, with a heavy dose of anonymous text-messages and rumor-mongering to manipulate turnout on Tuesday. Hold on.