The Knesset is preparing to vote today for the dissolution of the Netanayhu government. Meanwhile, the family of a former prime minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin, are involved in an extraordinary dispute over who to back as Israel's next leader.
Mr Netanyahu is still hoping that, against all the odds, he will somehow cobble together a majority and survive the various no-confidence motions and bills to dissolve the Knesset that are due to be debated today. But with several moderates and several hardliners within his coalition saying they will side with the opposition, largely out of frustration with his handling of the peace process with the Palestinians, there is every likelihood that, by tonight, Israel will be heading for new general elections in the spring, more than a year ahead of schedule.
For Mr Ehud Barak, the leader of the opposition Labour Party who has been working relentlessly to bring down Mr Netanyahu, these should be moments to savour. Endorsed by Mrs Leah Rabin, the widow of the Labour prime minister assassinated three years ago, Mr Barak has already had campaign banners pasted up around Israel, pledging to form a government "for all the people, not for the extremists".
But rather than concentrating all his efforts on the battle to ensure that Mr Netanyahu is not reelected, Mr Barak is instead first having to beg another potential moderate candidate, Lieut-Gen Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, not to complicate the prime ministerial race by a separate challenge. It is a reflection of the Israeli centre-left's disaffection with Mr Barak that, before Lieut-Gen Lipkin-Shahak has even formally been discharged from the army, where he served as chief of staff until earlier this year, he is being urged to run for the prime ministership by all sorts of influential Israelis.
Most astounding, perhaps, is the news that Ms Dahlia Rabin-Pelossof, the late prime minister's daughter, is backing Lieut-Gen Lipkin-Shahak against her mother's favoured Mr Barak, and is even said to be contemplating running for the Knesset with him if he forms a new party.
Just a few months ago, it would have seemed inconceivable that Lieut-Gen Lipkin-Shahak would undermine Mr Barak in any way. It was Mr Barak, after all, himself an army chief of staff, who promoted the general to succeed him in the top army post. And it was assumed that, on leaving the army, Lieut-Gen Lipkin-Shahak would automatically join Labour.
On Saturday night, Mrs Rabin invited the two men to her home, in a vain attempt to get them together politically. They met again yesterday. Mr Barak issued a public appeal to "Ammon" to "join us". But Lieut-Gen Lipkin-Shahak would say only that "everything will be clear about my plans" when he was formally out of uniform - possibly as early as tomorrow.
In interviews yesterday, Mr Netanyahu was contemptuous of both men, confident that "the people will give us the majority" no matter who ultimately ran against him. But his problems, within his own Likud party, have been exacerbated by the now open opposition from his Defence Minister, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai, to his decision to suspend the Wye peace accords with the Palestinians.
Mr Mordechai absented himself from a cabinet meeting yesterday at which ministers issued a list of conditions to the Palestinians for resuming the process. These conditions, including the demand that the Palestinians renounce claims to Jerusalem as the capital of their independent state, were immediately rejected by the Palestinian leadership.
AFP adds:
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, decided yesterday to postpone a trip to Russia and Ukraine because of the crisis.