Having had his unprecedented offer to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians rejected by Mr Yasser Arafat at the Camp David peace summit, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, could now find himself voted out of office, in a no-confidence motion on Monday prompted by his moderate policies. This, in turn, would deal a critical blow to any remaining Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects.
If opinion polls are to be believed, Mr Barak is the Israeli public's preferred choice of Prime Minister - ahead of the official opposition leader, Gen Ariel Sharon, and the leader-in-waiting, the former prime minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, who lost power to Mr Barak barely a year ago. But in the Knesset, Mr Barak heads a minority coalition, and there is now a serious prospect of his being defeated in Monday's vote.
On the eve of the summit, an opposition no confidence motion won the support of most Knesset members who voted - 54 to 52 - but Mr Barak remained in power because the Knesset requires an absolute majority, that is 61 votes, to bring down a government.
Mr Barak's concern now is that a five-man faction, United Torah Judaism, which abstained last time, may vote with the opposition on Monday, and that his own Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, possibly along with his brother, Mr Maxim Levy, may defect, giving Mr Barak's opponents the 61 votes they need.
Israeli politics is tremendously volatile and, until Thursday, few analysts believed that Monday's vote posed a serious threat to the Prime Minister. But Mr Levy has indicated that he may announce his resignation after a scheduled heart-to-heart with Mr Barak tomorrow. The collapse of the Barak government would represent a hammer blow to the faint remaining peace hopes. At the very least, it would necessitate a lengthy timeout while Israel's opposing camps battle for power. And the campaign could end with the Likud back in government.
In such a situation, the Palestinian leader might come to rue his decision to reject a deal at the summit - a deal that, as President Clinton reportedly told him, in a last effort at persuasion, would have given him internationally recognised statehood for Palestine, a warm partnership with Israel, a solid stake in Jerusalem, and US backing and funding.
Mr Clinton's praise for Israel's stand at the peace summit along with more guarded comments about the Palestinians is drawing mixed reviews from analysts who say that a public show of support could help Mr Barak's government survive a political crisis. Mr Clinton warned Mr Arafat against making "a big mistake" by following through on repeated vows to declare an independent Palestinian state on September 13th, stressing that "our entire relationship will be reviewed".