MIDDLE EAST: It took Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon and his new Foreign Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, just 24 hours in government together to produce their first political spat. Yesterday, they clashed over the latest US proposal for a settlement in the Middle East.
In an unmistaken allusion to Mr Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, who called an early election on Tuesday, told a gathering of business leaders in Tel Aviv he would not countenance anyone who would harm Israel's international relations.
Mr Sharon said he would do nothing to imperil "the deep strategic understandings with the United States and the special relationship that has been woven with the American government".
Mr Sharon's comments came after Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday, just hours after being sworn in as Foreign Minister, that the American peace "road map" was not on the agenda, because of expected American action in Iraq.
Mr Sharon is deeply sceptical of the plan - a US envoy will be in the region next week to promote it - but has so far only expressed his reservations in private.
The two men are locked in a high-stakes battle for leadership of the right-wing Likud party, with the primary expected to take place in the next three to four weeks.
Opinion polls consistently predict Likud will lead the next government, meaning the leader of the party - if the polls pan out - will be the next prime minister.
In another snipe at the smooth-talking Mr Netanyahu, who is known as a savvy media operator, the Prime Minister said yesterday that "leadership is not built with words".
Mr Netanyahu has not been turning the other cheek. "I can say that of the last four prime ministers, I am the only one to have left the country in better shape than I received it," he told the daily Jerusalem Post yesterday.
Quizzed about the Prime Minister's performance, Mr Netanyahu, who has criticised Mr Sharon for being too soft on the Palestinian issue, said the country had experienced a "tremendous escalation of terror" under Mr Sharon, and that the economy was definitely "in worse shape".
The two men have also been squabbling over a date for their run-off. Mr Netanyahu wants it held in early December. Mr Sharon wants it as soon as possible, preferably within the next two weeks. The Prime Minister's logic is clear. The first opinion polls published after Mr Sharon announced elections, showed him leading Mr Netanyahu by 44 per cent to 38 per cent, and he wants to ensure that lead does not evaporate.