For Mr Netanyahu, admitting Labour into his coalition would seem an admission of defeat.
For Mr Netanyahu, Mr Sharon's co-option to the team completes some deft domestic manoeuvring.
The previous evening the reason for Mr Netanyahu's confidence had been made amply apparent.
Televised scenes of daily violence would furnish a perfect backdrop for Mr Netanyahu's more hardline campaign speeches.
Spurning America's good offices, and implicitly impugning its goodwill, are plainly an awkward corner for Mr Netanyahu to be painted into.
Barack Obama is believed to have been thinking of putting forward his own package of peace proposals that might be hard for Mr Netanyahu to embrace.
On the issue of Iran, though, Mr Lapid has expressed strong support for Mr Netanyahu, who has repeatedly warned of the danger of Iran's nuclear programme.
For Mr Netanyahu's more cynical critics this was a sign that the prime minister and his coalition were closing ranks behind a populist move designed to capture public sympathy.
Another ominous possibility for Mr Netanyahu, under discussion in Washington, has Mrs Albright, or President Clinton himself, presenting the American proposal officially, and publicly fingering Israel as the recalcitrant party.
The problem for Mr Netanyahu is that he might need the support both of Mr Lapid and of those parties who represent those ultra-orthodox communities and who fiercely defend their privileges.
For Mr Netanyahu though, who's campaigned under the slogan "A strong prime minister, a strong Israel", security is the most importance issue, with the perceived threat from Iran's nuclear programme at its heart.
For Mr Netanyahu, trying to steer clear of the theology and keep his coalition intact, the advantage of the proposed compromise is that it gives him a breathing-space until the crisis erupts again or another one breaks out.
Members of Israel's ruling coalition, meanwhile, have said they will pull their support for Mr. Netanyahu's government if the moratorium is extended.
Mr Obama is being criticised, even by Israelis and Americans on the left, for making demands of Mr Netanyahu that he should have known would never be met.
He muffed a half-chance for a deal with Mr Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, three years ago.
The parliamentary arithmetic does not sustain any alternative candidate for prime minister except Mr Netanyahu.
ECONOMIST: A few glimmers of hope amid the bickering and point-scoring
For one thing, Mr Netanyahu is notoriously opportunistic, a quality that can sometimes be turned to a common good.
It was an act done for the benefit of Mr Netanyahu, who had contended that previous acts of abrogation were inadequate.
For the moment, Mr Netanyahu is flinging himself into the secular-religious fray.
They chastise Mr Netanyahu for his recalcitrance.
ECONOMIST: Binyamin Netanyahu cocks a snook at the American president
But when, on Tuesday, Mr Sharon publicly re-offered his rival the foreign ministry for the coming three months, Mr Netanyahu surprised him by accepting the job, while insisting that he would not change his plans to fight Mr Sharon for the Likud leadership.
Mr Netanyahu called for an early election last October because he said bickering among his coalition partners made it impossible to pass a "responsible budget".
For Yisrael Beitenu to join Mr Netanyahu in a right-religious coalition in which its secular reforms would be stymied could well be seen as a painful betrayal by its voters.
In 1996, when he became prime minister for the first time, Mr Netanyahu's decision to open a tunnel alongside the al-Aqsa compound sparked a Palestinian uprising that left scores dead.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted a White House official as saying Mr Obama would not present a specific plan for the Middle East at his meeting with Mr Netanyahu on Monday.
The one difference, say the Palestinians, is that Mr Netanyahu was lambasted for these policies while Mr Barak has continued them with barely a murmur of disapproval.
Mr Netanyahu has called for much tougher sanctions against the Iranian regime and indicated his willingness to use force to stop Iran's nuclear programme if all else fails.
Surrounded by jubilant supporters at his campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv when the results came in, Mr Lapid immediately made overtures to Mr Netanyahu, calling for the formation of a broad-based government, one which would "bring about real change".
On Wednesday, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert questioned Mr. Netanyahu's approach to the election, where Mr. Netanyahu was widely seen to be criticizing Mr. Obama for not being tough enough on Iran and its nuclear threat.
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