Denounced as a liar and a fraud by some of his erstwhile political colleagues for signing a new peace deal with Mr Yasser Arafat and branded a traitor by right-wing extremists, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday shrugged off concerns he might now be in danger of assassination. "Only a very, very small minority" were inciting against him, he said. And no responsible national leader, he added, could allow concerns about personal safety to affect policymaking.
But if Mr Netanyahu sounded determinedly unruffled, many other Israeli leaders are deeply concerned about the prospect of a second political killing, three years after prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was gunned down. President Ezer Weizman said he worried about Israel "repeating our terrible mistake".
And leaders of the Israeli right, though endorsing demonstrations against the new peace deal, with its provision for an Israeli withdrawal from another 13 per cent of the West Bank, urged their supporters to keep their protests within democratic boundaries.
Though he is one of Mr Netanyahu's harshest critics, Knesset member Mr Hanan Porat yesterday called on Orthodox rabbis to issue a collective statement making clear the paramount sanctity of Jewish life. In the past, the Orthodox rabbinical leadership, much of which strongly opposes the relinquishing of West Bank land which it regards as God-given to the Jews, has refrained from issuing such joint statements.
Despite pleas for restraint, yesterday's funeral of Mr Danny Vargas, murdered by Palestinian gunmen on Monday outside his settlement of Kiryat Arba, featured several calls for revenge.
The Kiryat Arba settlement head, Mr Zvi Katzover, asserted that Mr Netanyahu bore a degree of blame for the death - as a consequence of the agreement with Mr Arafat. The Palestinian Authority yesterday arrested two suspects in the killing, but Mr Katzover said he feared Mr Arafat would soon set them free.
Israeli police, meanwhile, are tracking a suspect in Monday's killing of Palestinian villager Mr Mohammed Zalout, bludgeoned to death and dumped outside a Jewish settlement. His funeral yesterday was followed by clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths at two refugee camps near Nablus.
Controversy surrounding the new peace deal, signed at the White House last Friday, has prompted much talk of Mr Netanyahu's coalition collapsing, and new elections being held.