Mr Netanyahu also suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Yisrael Beiteinu leader, Avigdor Lieberman, with whom he has clashed repeatedly over the last year. Mr Lieberman, as Israeli foreign minister, vetoed several proposed candidates put forward by Mr Netanyahu for the vacant post of Israeli ambassador to the UN. Instead, he has effectively forced Mr Netanyahu to appoint the ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, to the UN post, at the same time refusing to accept Mr Netanyahu's close adviser, Uzi Arad, as Mr Prosor's replacement in London.

More problems lie ahead. At a closed meeting of his faction in early February, Mr Lieberman declared that he would "go all the way" on key issues, including legislation-which Shas opposes-that would allow the army rabbinate to conduct religious conversions. According to Channel 10 television, Mr Lieberman told the meeting that the price for passing this law in its second and third readings "may be the dissolution of the government".

These developments within the coalition suggest that Mr Netanyahu may have erred in pushing the Labour Party out of the coalition, even though the defence minister, Ehud Barak, remains in government at the head of a rump four-member faction (Atzmaut). The leader of the Histadrut, Ofer Eini, who is closely affiliated with Labour, no longer has any interest in keeping the government afloat and is likely to cause trouble for the prime minister in the months ahead. Meanwhile, Mr Lieberman feels more powerful than ever and could, if he wishes, single-handedly bring down the coalition. Although he may not yet be ready to leave the government, he seems to be preparing the ground for his exit-perhaps when a formal indictment for alleged corruption is served against him, as is reportedly imminent.

Mr Barak's standing was further weakened when his candidate for army chief of staff (COS), Yoav Galant, was forced to stand down after the state comptroller accused him of appropriating state-owned land for private use and then lying about it. Mr Barak fought hard to keep Mr Galant's nomination on track, even proposing to appoint an interim COS to provide Mr Galant with more time to clear himself. However, Mr Galant eventually realised that he had no choice but to withdraw, and the recently retired deputy COS, Benny Gantz, was awarded the post.