Israel: For a brief moment, the parliamentarians shifted anxiously in their seats. Was Ariel Sharon, like his predecessor Ehud Barak in 2001, about to spring early elections on them in a dramatic political gamble?
The prime minister waited, agonisingly, as the speaker tried to hush the chamber. Then he ended the suspense: "There will be consequences," he warned, but made no mention of elections.
Mr Sharon had just suffered an embarrassing parliamentary defeat - due to the opposition of rebellious members of his own party - when his bid to push through three new cabinet appointments on Monday was rejected. Toward midnight, Mr Sharon resubmitted, successfully this time, just one of the appointments - the nomination of vice premier Ehud Olmert as finance minister.
The vote reflects the deep rift within the ruling Likud party since Mr Sharon announced his Gaza withdrawal plan 18 months ago. The divisions have made it increasingly difficult for him to govern and there was no let-up yesterday from the "rebels", the name given to anti-withdrawal Likud lawmakers, who began warning that they would only back the 2006 state budget if Mr Sharon agreed to new West Bank settlement construction.
"We want to see that this budget has the facet of the prime minister's broad vision, when he decided to sacrifice the Gaza Strip, and to build in Judea and Samaria [West Bank]," said Likud lawmaker Ehud Yatom.
As it becomes increasingly difficult for the prime minister to push through important decisions in parliament, so talk of early elections is growing. Some of the prime minster's associates spoke yesterday of moving elections forward, from November next year to May.
Since he uprooted all the settlements in Gaza in August, Mr Sharon has not stated clearly what he is planning in the West Bank. But speculation is rife again over the possibility he will leave the Likud ahead of the elections and set up a new centrist party that will push for a withdrawal in the West Bank. Even if he is re-elected to head Likud, Mr Sharon knows he will likely be saddled again with a deeply divided party.
However, he can expect some good news when the results of the Labour Party leadership primaries are announced tonight. Deputy prime minister Shimon Peres, who is in favour of continuing Labour's partnership with Likud in government, is expected to easily beat the leader of of Israel's Histadrut labor federation, Amir Peretz, who favours leaving the ruling coalition.