the country" (sub-text: don't vote for that lunatic Lieberman).

But as Bibi demonstrated during his previous term as prime minister between 1996-99, while he may have the right stuff for a right-wing Israeli leader - impeccable Zionist lineage and military service with an elite commando unit - he is not the most adroit or decisive of politicians. "He never reckoned on Avigdor coming up so fast in his rear view mirror," one Israeli analyst told The First Post, noting that this misjudgement was all the more embarrassing because Lieberman was once a senior aide of Bibi's.

More than 90% of the Israeli public approved of the Gaza operation

Like Netanyahu, Lieberman has criticised Kadima for calling an end to Israel's 22-day war in Gaza before Hamas was crushed, and ironically, while neither of these super-hawks was involved in the decision to launch the Gaza offensive, they have emerged as the war's major political beneficiaries. By contrast, Kadima's leader Tzippi Livni and her Labour Defence Minister Ehud Barak are looking increasingly like electoral underdogs, despite their desperate efforts to "out-tough" the opposition.

Some astute observers see in this the reflection of a profound shift in Israeli society: for all the heavy cost in innocent Palestinian lives, more than 90 per cent of the public approved of the Gaza operation. An Israeli woman journalist who has campaigned for years against Israel's treatment of the Palestinians told the Guardian: "I'm amazed how (the war) doesn't haunt me."

Back in March 2002, following a series of terrorist attacks on Israelis by Palestinians, Lieberman, in his first stint as a junior minister in the Knesset, proposed an ultimatum: "If it were up to me, I would notify the Palestinian Authority that tomorrow at 10 in the morning we would bomb all their places of business in Ramallah, for example." To which Foreign Minister Shimon Peres responded that excessive military measures could lead to accusations of war crimes.

Lieberman was ridiculed by many at the time, but the recent strategy against Hamas in Gaza shows just how far public opinion has moved in his direction.

Lieberman clearly believes that his star is on the rise again, observing not long ago that he felt he was ideally qualified to serve in the pivotal position of Defence Minister. That is unlikely to happen, but his mere presence in the next government would send an unwelcome message to Washington, where President Obama has urged all candidates in the election to commit to an "aggressive" search for a lasting peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

That helps to explain why some of Netanyahu's inner circle are assiduously promoting the idea that Lieberman represents a dangerous loose cannon that could inflict serious damage to Israel's vital special relationship with Uncle Sam.