The government of Mr Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly trying to arrange for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon before the Israeli elections on May 17th; a move that, if smoothly completed, would prove immensely popular and could virtually ensure his re-election.
Mr Netanyahu's Foreign Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, returned yesterday from a three-day visit to Russia, and vehemently denied that he had used the trip to discuss how Moscow could mediate an Israeli withdrawal with the other relevant governments in Beirut and Damascus.
However, Mr Sharon has been pushing strongly for Israel to withdraw from its self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon, the army is already reducing its troop deployment there, Russia has the connections with Lebanon and Syria to broker a deal, and this was Mr Sharon's second trip to Moscow in the past month.
The Ha'aretz daily yesterday detailed what it said was Mr Sharon's two-phase proposal. Phase one, to be completed before election day, would see Israel pulling out of Lebanon, and Syria guaranteeing that Hizbullah and other guerrilla forces there would refrain from attacking northern Israel. Phase two, after May 17th, would see a re-elected Mr Netanyahu restarting the long-stalled peace negotiations with Syria.
President Hafez al-Assad of Syria was supposed to have been in Moscow this week as well, but postponed the trip. Nevertheless, Ha'aretz reported, the Russians have pledged to convey Mr Sharon's plan to Damascus, where its acceptance will likely hinge on the question of whether a Netanyahu government would be prepared to relinquish the entire Golan Heights as part of a comprehensive Israel-Syria peace deal.
Mr Sharon has been steering foreign policy in increasingly pro-Russian directions in recent weeks, taking a gentler line on Russian military sales to Iran, pleasing Moscow by personally refusing to support NATO's military actions over Kosovo, and advocating a Russian role in the Middle East peace effort.
The shift is infuriating the US administration, but it could pay off on polling day were it to yield a deal on Lebanon.