Not only is Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, almost certain to be forced on Monday to call an early general election, but many of the most senior members of his own Likud party are now seriously considering bolting to another group, or trying to oust him as party leader.
That Mr Netanyahu's improbable 30-month survival act is now coming to its end was underlined yesterday when the Third Way, a four-member faction in his splintering coalition, formally decided that it will vote with the opposition on Monday, and thus ensure that the Prime Minister has insufficient support to keep his government together.
On Wednesday Mr Netanyahu essentially challenged his various renegade coalition colleagues to vote against him and condemn them all to elections. It seems clear that they are going to take up the challenge.
The remarkable turnaround in Mr Netanyahu's fortunes can be traced back to the October Wye River peace deal with the Palestinians, under which he agreed to relinquish more of the occupied West Bank to the Palestinians. Previously, Mr Netanyahu had been able to depict himself as reluctantly implementing peace deals he had inherited from Labour governments. But this was an accord he had negotiated himself, and the most uncompromising right-wingers in his coalition have not forgiven him for it.
Trying to pacify them by subsequently freezing the Wye deal, Mr Netanyahu has now infuriated the Palestinians, antagonised the Americans and lost the support of moderates like the Third Way members. Perhaps the key question of the imminent election campaign will be whether, in halting the Wye accords, he has shattered the image he will need to sell to voters: Benjamin Netanyahu, the tough but genuinely committed peacemaker. Mr Netanyahu's rise to power was meteoric and irresistible, and few pundits in Israel are writing him off now. But his own Likud colleagues appear to scent a new weakness about him. Two senior party colleagues, Mr Dan Meridor and Mr Limor Livnat, are already talking openly of challenging for the prime ministership, and several more are waiting in the wings. They could either bolt to a new grouping, or try to force out Mr Netanyahu.
The main opposition challenger, the Labour Party leader, Mr Ehud Barak, has made little impact on the electorate. His successor as army Chief-of-Staff, Mr Amnon Lipkin Shahak, is a much more attractive candidate, and regularly outpolls both Mr Barak and Mr Netanyahu. Mr Barak might have expected Mr Shahak to automatically join Labour for this campaign, but Mr Shahak has declined to do so, and is said to be planning to help found a new centrist alliance.