For a few brief hours of relief, Israel's embattled Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, relaxed on Sunday night in the warm embrace of his party's most loyal activists, basking in the applause of his Likud central committee supporters, and delivering a blistering televised prime-time attack on the Palestinian leadership and his local political opponents.
But yesterday, Mr Netanyahu was back in the mud. He was hit by the most dramatic defection yet from the top ranks of the Likud, he saw three top ministers meet in semi-secret sessions to weigh their own defections and, just to round off a dreadful day, he failed to win a Knesset majority for next year's budget.
The latest departure from his shrinking group of senior Likud figures, as Israel begins the long, bitter haul to general elections next May, was that of Mr Beni Begin, once Mr Netanyahu's minister of science.
Mr Begin's announcement that he was leaving to lead a right-wing challenge for the post of prime minister was no great surprise - he has been a withering critic of the Prime Minister since resigning from the cabinet almost two years ago - but it was hugely dramatic nonetheless. For Mr Begin's father, the late Menachem Begin, was the founder and long-time leader of the Likud party, the man who steered it from the political wilderness to the mainstream of government, its first prime minister in 1977.
It is highly unlikely that Mr Begin junior will emulate his father. But his challenge will deprive Mr Netanyahu of right-wing votes when the elections come round, and given the utter unpredictability of Israeli politics right now, every new blow could prove highly significant.
While Mr Begin is now gone, three serving Likud ministers - Mr Yitzhak Mordechai (Defence), Mr Limor Livnat (Communications) and Mr Silvan Shalom (Science) - seem to have at least one foot out of the door.
The three held two meetings yesterday, and are clearly contemplating joining last week's celebrity Likud defector, Mr Dan Meridor, in a centrist alliance that is likely to be spearheaded by the former chief-of-staff, Gen Amnon Lipkin-Shahak. Mr Mordechai strongly intimated that he might have bolted already, were it not that he would then have to resign his cabinet post. And that could leave Mr Netanyahu as acting defence minister until election day - a prospect Mr Mordechai clearly considers appalling.
Mr Netanyahu insisted yesterday that his party was "very solid". And the central committee certainly gave him a rapturous reception on Sunday. But if the brooding ministerial trio do abandon him, Mr Netanyahu will be left with Mr Ariel Sharon as the only senior figure by his side. And Mr Sharon, until he was given the Foreign Minister's post two months ago, was almost as scathing a critic of his as Mr Begin.