International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Nov. 26, 2002

Projected to be a clash of titans, the brief Likud primary between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is winding down this week with fewer than expected fireworks, as a confident Sharon has succeeded in convincing most party faithful to keep him at the helm.

Fighting an uphill battle in the polls after a three-year "time-out" from politics, Netanyahu continues to position himself to the right of Sharon in a bid to court traditional Likud hawks, while the current premier appears comfortable claiming the center ground in hopes of winning the party more Knesset seats in the January general elections.

With only a couple day's left until the Thursday polling, Netanyahu charged over the weekend that Sharon was intent on reviving the national unity government with the left-of-center Labor party, whose dovish new chairman Amram Mitzna would be appointed head of the defense ministry. The Netanyahu camp suggested this coalition would accede to a Palestinian state via the Madrid Quartet's latest "road map" to a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sharon responded that Shaul Mofaz, the popular ex-IDF chief of staff and newly appointed defense minister, would retain that post in a new government, even if Israeli election laws prevent him from running on the Likud's Knesset list. Sharon tried to appear above the fray, while aides said the Netanyahu campaign tactics exhibited a last-minute "desperation."

Netanyahu also played perhaps his best card, reminding voters in media interviews that under his previous term as prime minister from 1996-1999, Palestinian terrorist attacks fell off sharply. But when this message appeared on campaign posters sprinkled around Jerusalem over recent days, not everyone was impressed, with one Likudnik suggesting to The New York Times that it showed "a total lack of respect" for the victims of terror.

Amid the sparring over serious policy differences on security, the two also have portrayed their opponent as a "terrific" choice for foreign minister. When they sat beside each other at the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Sharon made a point to praise Netanyahu's decision to invite foreign ambassadors to a Jerusalem hospital to visit the wounded from last Thursday's suicide bus bombing in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood.

On Monday, both Sharon and Netanyahu repeated their offers to bring the other on as foreign minister if elected, feeding the notion among the Likud rank-and-file that by electing one, they can receive the other as well.

Given such a choice, veteran New York Times commentator William Safire concluded in a column this week that most Likud faithful would decide "Sharon now, Bibi later."