THE embattled Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu was dealt a harsh new blow at the weekend by a close member of his own family.
Mr Netanyahu is already being attacked from both sides of the political divide castigated by the international community, the Arab world and moderate Israelis for stalemating peace efforts, and by his own natural right wing constituency as he moves closer to approving the overdue Israeli military redeployment in Hebron.
But now the criticism is coming from nearer home. His brother in law, Hagai Ben Artzi, who has served as a key adviser, has accused Mr Netanyahu of betraying his principles and his supporters.
Mr Ben Artzi has announced he is quitting Mr Netanyahu's Likud party, and was last night due to move home, demonstratively into the heart of Hebron, from where he vowed to prevent "the despicable deed" the Israeli government planned to carry out there removing most of its troops, and handing control of most of the city to Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
The Hebron deal is virtually completed, and the US mediator, Mr Dennis Ross, was working towards a final draft last night.
Mr Ben Artzi, brother of the prime minister's wife Sara, is an Orthodox Jew well connected to the Orthodox Jewish leadership, which helped Mr Netanyahu win the near total support of that sector of the Israeli electorate in last May's elections. Now, Mr Ben Artzi said, he wanted to apologise to the rabbis he had urged to vote for his brother in law.
"They were persuaded that he wouldn't betray Hebron," Mr Ben Artzi said.
"But there has been a total collapse of the commitments Bibi and the Likud made to the voters."
Mr Ben Artzi's deeply wounding accusation of betrayal underlines the prime minister's plummeting status with those who helped bring him to power. And as Israel has marked the first anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in recent days, similar voices to those heard warning of Rabin's demise a year ago have been predicting the same fate for Mr Netanyahu if he goes through with the Hebron withdrawal.
One Hebron area Jewish settler, Mr Aryeh Bar Yosef, said cynically in a weekend TV interview that he was "very afraid" for Mr Netanyahu's life, and then stuck up his thumb in endorsement as he chanted the name of Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amii.
An Israeli TV satire show showed a tailor stitching together an SS uniform for Mr Netanyahu, implying that his death was at hand - days before Rabin was killed, extreme right wingers distributed a photomontage of the prime minister in SS uniform.
Apart from growing concern for Mr Netanyahu's well being, Israeli security sources say they fear extremist Jewish efforts to prevent the Hebron pullout could include attacks on Palestinians possibly even efforts to blow up Muslim holy sites atop the Temple Mount.
In the 1980s, a Jewish settler underground group which carried out several attacks on Arabs, conceived precisely such a plan, but was intercepted. The former members of this group, and other known right wing extremists, are being closely monitored by the security services.
Yesterday in Hebron, two settlers opened fire near the Cave of the Patriarchs; no one was hurt. They said their car had been attacked with stones.
On Friday night, 11 settlers made their way into a Palestinian restaurant in Jericho and began praying; they were extricated by the Israeli army.
Preoccupied with the threats posed by Jews, the Israeli security forces have also closed off the territories for several days because of fears of attacks by Muslim extremists. Islamic Jihad has been vowing to avenge another assassination - that of its leader, Fat hi Shikaki, presumably by Israeli agents, in Malta a year ago.