An unprecedented three quarters of Israelis are backing the new Middle East peace deal signed on Friday by the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat.
But the Jewish settlers who helped elect Mr Netanyahu as prime minister in 1996 are now casting around for a new leader to bring him down. And the opposition Labour Party, on whom he may depend for the survival of his government, has been infuriated by his latest criticisms of their earlier stewardship of peace efforts.
Mr Netanyahu flew home from the US yesterday afternoon, his new ally and Foreign Minister, Gen Ariel Sharon, by his side. He was welcomed at the airport by a choreographed display of support, featuring most members of his cabinet and the Israeli army orchestra.
After nine days of arduous negotiation, which reached a nadir on Friday in a sour confrontation with the Clinton Administration over the last-minute bid to secure the release of spy Jonathan Pollard, Mr Netanyahu could finally afford to relax. The morning paper, Yediot Ahronot, showed 74 per cent of the public backing the pact - higher support than was ever achieved for the Oslo peace process in the days of the late Yitzhak Rabin.
Yet at the press conference he immediately convened at the airport, Mr Netanyahu spoke with the aggressive-defensive air of a man with plenty to prove. He went out of his way to explain why this deal was vastly superior to the earlier agreements reached with Mr Arafat during Mr Rabin's term in office. The "mistake" of previous years, he said, of trading "land for terrorism," had now been corrected. Only if the Palestinians carried out their commitments, would they gain control of more territory. "They give, and only then do we give," he declared.
In one exchange with a reporter who asked him why he hadn't acknowledged a debt to Mr Rabin, assassinated by a right-wing extremist in 1995, the prime minister asserted that Mr Rabin's Labour government had promised the Palestinians 92 per cent of West Bank land, whereas he had now given up only 13 per cent.
Were Labour to oversee talks on a permanent settlement with the Palestinians, he went on, the Palestinians would gain control "of all the land of the state of Israel", and the Jewish presence would be dried out. It was not clear whether this was a slip of the tongue, whether he had meant to say that Labour would give up all the land of the West Bank, rather than all the land of Israel, but there was no immediate correction.
Mr Rabin's widow, Leah, watching his performance from a TV studio, immediately refuted the 92 per cent figure, calling it an "untruth" and lamenting that Mr Netanyahu "continues to incite against a prime minister who was murdered". The current Labour leader, Mr Ehud Barak, also responded angrily to the performance. While welcoming the new deal, he said Mr Netanyahu's delaying tactics had drained the goodwill out of the Israeli-Palestinian partnership and noted that the difficulties relating to the May 4th, 1999 date on which the Palestinians hope to declare statehood had not been resolved in the Wye negotations.
Other Israeli critics have also blamed Mr Netanyahu for insisting that President Clinton come to Palestinian territory to supervise the amending of the PLO charter - ensuring implied American recognition, at the highest level possible, to a state of Palestine in-the-making.
On the West Bank yesterday morning, groups of settlers, some of whom face increasing physical isolation with the new Israeli troop withdrawals, renewed their roadblocks against Mr Netanyahu.
Mocking the prime minister's assertion that he had "fought like a lion" for the best possible deal, one right-wing Knesset member, Mr Hanan Porat, sneered that "you fought like a lion, but you fell like a fly". Mr Netanyahu's own brother-in-law, Mr Hagi Ben-Artzi, said he himself would stand as a new right-wing candidate for national leadership.
In the Knesset today, several of the most hardline members of Mr Netanyahu's coalition are expected to begin drafting legislation for early elections. If Mr Netanyahu is to block this move, he will need Labour Party support. His remarks yesterday are unlikely to increase the prospects of a formal partnership, although Labour will vote to ensure that the new deal wins Knesset approval.