THE SADISTIC humiliation of Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, by his deputy, the Foreign Minister and supposed party colleague, Mr David Levy, reached a new peak yesterday.
Mr Levy announced at a televised government meeting that he would be resigning next week unless Mr Netanyahu found a cabinet post for the former defence minister, Mr Ariel Sharon.
The coalition meeting had purportedly been called to wish Mr Netanyahu good luck on his visit to Washington next week - his first since winning election at the end of May. The Prime Minister was utterly unprepared for Mr Levy's bombshell. Sitting alongside the Foreign Minister, he listened to the ultimatum with evident disbelief. Then, as the cameras moved in, he tried desperately to pull himself together, stuttering vaguely that this was hardly the forum to discuss such issues, and that negotiations over a job for Mr Sharon were continuing. But even as he spoke, Mr Levy was still undermining him, muttering cynically at his side about how days of private meetings had failed to resolve the issue. "We've been talking, and talking and talking," he murmured.
Yesterday's performance marked the second time in little more than a fortnight that Mr Levy has badly jolted the Prime Minister over the Sharon affair. On June 18th, as Mr Netanyahu was about to present his cabinet for Knesset approval, Mr Levy suddenly announced he would not take the Foreign Ministry job because Mr Sharon had not been offered a portfolio. An embarrassed Mr Netanyahu had to rush to and from the Knesset plenum sorting out the crisis, spoiling his day of victory. Finally, he begged Mr Levy to come on board and promised to put together a ministry of "national infrastructure" commensurate with Mr Sharon's abilities.
Since then, lots of negotiation has produced little progress, and Mr Netanyahu may have thought he could put off the issue indefinitely, keeping the bullying Mr Sharon forever in the cold. But Mr Levy's latest power play leaves him little choice but to accommodate Mr Sharon. Otherwise, he will fly off to see President Clinton leaving behind a real crisis, with plenty of disaffected members of his own Likud party willing to back Mr Levy and even bring down the government not only out of sympathy for Mr Sharon, but also because of their residual anger at what they perceive as Mr Netanyahu's cavalier treatment of many of his most loyal Likud supporters since the election victory.
Meanwhile yesterday, Mr Netanyahu's government began easing long standing restrictions on Palestinian workers crossing into Israel.
Some 25,000 Palestinians now hold permits to enter - a far cry from the 150,000 plus of three years ago.