In what is being described as the most withering attack ever to have been launched here by a president on a serving prime minister, Israel's President, Mr Ezer Weizman, yesterday castigated Mr Benjamin Netanyahu's performance as leader and urged him to dissolve parliament and call elections right away.
In essence, the President, whose position is supposed to be merely ceremonial, has established himself as the Prime Minister's fiercest critic, a potent force bent on bringing him down.
In well-planned interviews with the Hebrew media, Mr Weizman accused Mr Netanyahu of destroying Israel's relations with moderate Arab states, of ruining the peace effort with the Palestinians, of prompting justified anger from the international community and of leading the country into recession.
He indicated that Mr Netanyahu had misled him - by giving him the false impression he intended to advance peace efforts when time had proved that this was not the case.
And he made it clear that he felt he had been used by the Prime Minister, despatched to put Israel's case to Arab neighbours such as King Hussein of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt, only to see that the promises he had been told by Mr Netanyahu to convey were not honoured by him.
Predictably, Mr Netanyahu rejected the presidential criticisms, insisting that he was working day and night to get "the best peace deal" he could for Israel, and that elections would be held as scheduled in the year 2,000, and not before.
Mr Weizman, in a counterattack, was derisive, and implied that nothing Mr Netanyahu said could be taken seriously. "So what," he scoffed at the Prime Minister's reaction to his comments. "So he said that."
Worryingly for Mr Netanyahu, several members of his own coalition are also in favour of advancing the elections, and the Labour opposition has already tabled a Knesset bill to facilitate this. While it is unlikely that Mr Netanyahu's coalition will now fall apart immediately, the presidential assault will hurt; Mr Weizman is tremendously popular, and most Israelis, polls suggest, are also growing impatient with Mr Netanyahu's reluctance to advance the peace effort.