The unthinkable has happened. Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, hitherto the undisputed master-manipulator of the Israeli media, has been bested, David Horovitz reports from Jerusalem.
In a face-to-face televised debate on Monday night, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai - his former defence minister and now his would-be successor as prime minister in next month's elections - made Mr Netanyahu sweat, lose his cool, say things he didn't mean to say and punctured the myth that, in a TV studio, Bibi is invincible.
Mr Netanyahu came to the debate intending to attack the main opposition leader, Mr Ehud Barak, who had declined to participate, and began by mocking the absent Mr Barak as a coward. But Mr Mordechai, who was sacked in January when Mr Netanyahu learned that he was preparing to bolt the coalition, swiftly took control of the agenda, consistently branding the Prime Minister as dishonest and untrustworthy.
When the Prime Minister tried to claim credit for the fall-off in Islamist terrorism, Mr Mordechai scoffed that this had nothing to do with Mr Netanyahu who, he said, was generally too impatient to listen to the full security briefings at cabinet meetings. When Mr Netanyahu, trying to cement his hardline credentials, said he would not trade land for peace with Syria, Mr Mordechai laughed out loud and urged the Prime Minister to "look me in the eye", implying that the Prime Minister had been prepared for precisely such a trade.
When Mr Netanyahu cited low-sounding unemployment statistics, Mr Mordechai cited more accurate, higher figures. And when Mr Netanyahu claimed that his coalition had survived just fine since Mr Mordechai's departure "six months ago", his rival laughed and exclaimed: "Six months?!" Mr Mordechai was fired only three months ago.