In the Israeli equivalent of Spit- ting Image, the prime-time satirical puppet show Hahartsufim, a Knesset member, Mr Dan Meridor, is routinely depicted as a bit of a coward, his voice gradually fading away to silence whenever the going gets tough. When the same show wants to portray the former army chief-of-staff, Gen Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, it uses a puppet in army uniform with no face at all.
In the best Spitting Image tradition, these characterisations are not all that distant from reality. Mr Meridor (51), a former Likud justice and finance minister, is indeed widely perceived as something of a wimp. And since LieutGen Shahak (54) is only set to formally discharge himself from the army tomorrow, and has thus been barred hitherto from making political statements, he is pretty much a faceless soldier.
It is quite extraordinary, therefore, that as Israel now begins a long, bitter haul to general elections sometime between next March and June - having voted on Monday for legislation to dissolve the Knesset - this pair of far-from-formidable characters are being hailed by political pundits as the dynamic duo, the men to defeat the outgoing Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and his main Labour opposition challenger, Mr Ehud Barak.
Mr Meridor yesterday set about losing the wimp's tag, delivering some of the choicest criticisms yet heard of Mr Netanyahu's crisis-packed 31 months in office. Announcing that he was leaving Likud, the party for which his father too had served as a government minister, to campaign against the prime minister, Mr Meridor declared: "We have to save the country from the empty magic of Netanyahu."
His former boss, he said, had "not a gram of credibility left". Under Mr Netanyahu's leadership "lying has become the system", he charged. "Breach of promise has become the norm."
Mr Meridor said he hoped that Lieut-Gen Shahak would decide to enter politics. And the likelihood is that the two will team up in a new centrist alliance - provided, that is, they can reach an amicable agreement as to which of them would be that party's candidate for prime minister.
At present, both are doing well in the polls. But Gen Shahak, who has never made a political speech and therefore never alienated a potential supporter, can probably only lose ground, whereas Mr Meridor - seen as a pragmatic right-winger who would trade land for peace with the Palestinians, albeit with a heavy heart - is a known quantity.
For Mr Netanyahu, the departure of Mr Meridor is no great surprise, but a blow nevertheless. Mr Meridor remarked cuttingly yesterday that nobody believed in the prime minister any more - "not his enemies, not his friends . . . " Then he paused, and added, "if he has any left".
The fact is that the prime minister is haemorrhaging allies in the Likud, with ministers and even relatively anonymous Knesset members lining up to try and oust him or threatening to bolt for the new parties that are taking shape in the political centre and on the right.