Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon and hard-line rival Mr Benjamin Netanyahu battle today to lead Israel's ruling Likud party into a general election.
Opinion polls put Mr Sharon far ahead of his rival on the eve of a ballot of Likud's 305,000 members.
Victory would be the first step for Mr Sharon on the path to retaining the prime minister's post that he has held for almost two years, despite failing to quell a Palestinian uprising for independence or halt Israel's slide into economic crisis.
Battered by suicide bombings, Israelis shocked by the violence have moved to the right since the uprising began.
This has strengthened Likud and forced the center-left Labor Party into an uphill struggle to make an impact in the January 28th general election. It also ensures the winner in today's vote will be the front-runner to be prime minister after the election.
"I believe that I will be elected Thursday and then again in two months," Mr Sharon (74) said in an interview published by the Ma'arivnewspaper yesterday.
Three separate opinion polls yesterday showed Mr Sharon more than 20 percentage points ahead of Mr Netanyahu, despite his 53-year-old rival's attempts to portray the prime minister's leadership as disastrous for national morale.
"Despair is eating away at every segment of society," Mr Netanyahu, who was prime minister from 1996-99, told the mass circulation Yedioth Ahronothnewspaper.
Mr Sharon and Mr Netanyahu have both blamed Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat for the violence of the past two years. Mr Sharon has refused to meet Mr Arafat for talks and Mr Netanyahu says he wants the Palestinian leader exiled from the region.