The bottom of the barrel was struck on July 18, when an unidentified right-wing supporter tweeted that former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is running in the Sept. 17 Knesset elections, had a daughter out of wedlock in 1987, when he was serving as a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces. Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was among the 40 re-tweeters.

The fact that an “inciting prostitute-user who receives protection, lives a parasitic lifestyle and gets tight Shin Bet security" is a "disgrace,” the former IDF chief said at a launch event the same day for his new Israel Democratic Party. The festive launch turned into brawl between Barak and his former junior officer, a battle in which both are exposing their dark sides. For both of them, it is a struggle for political survival. Barak is performing poorly in the polls, which indicate his new party may not receive sufficient votes to get into the Knesset, and is fighting for legitimacy in the face of publications insinuating that he had nefarious contacts with accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Netanyahu is also fighting for political survival, but his situation is worse given the three criminal indictments hanging over his head.

In certain respects, this is a replay of the 1999 election campaign. Twenty years after Barak defeated Netanyahu for the premiership, the two are going at each other in another round. Barak is 77 and Netanyahu will turn 70 in October. The years have not dulled their historic rivalry. Barak was the mythological, celebrated commander of the elite Sayeret Matkal commando force when Netanyahu served under him as a junior officer in the same unit. For many years, Netanyahu revered Barak, who had also been close to his older brother Yoni Netanyahu, killed in the Entebbe hostage rescue operation. Admiration turned to bitter rivalry when Netanyahu decided to go into politics and became prime minister in 1996, but three years later, his former commanding officer kicked him out of office. Netanyahu swore to return, and kept his promise. Barak was defeated, eventually returning to politics and forming a strategic alliance with Netanyahu in 2009. Four years later, in 2013, Barak pulled out. Now he is back for a final round that will be the most violent and bitter of them all. They are lowering the bar every day. Anything goes; victory is all that counts, just as was the case when they served as commandos.

Barak’s July 17 campaign speech included a blatant attack on Netanyahu. There was nothing Barak did not throw in Netanyahu’s face. He accused him of employing sex offenders or “those who support pedophiles” (a veiled reference to Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, suspected of helping an accused Australian sexual predator evade extradition). Barak went on to recall the persistent accusations against Netanyahu of taking part in incitement that culminated in the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and further accused him of mounting attacks against anyone who does not share his views. Barak’s problem is that at the height of his assault on Netanyahu, and even as he was positioning himself as the country’s top fighter against corruption, some unappetizing scandals, to say the least, are coming to light and undermining his legitimacy. Among them are reports of him receiving money from Epstein, a Wexner Foundation donor, and his alleged socializing with the man while he was hosting young girls in his apartment.