Mr Ehud Barak was sworn in as Israel's 10th prime minister yesterday, immediately pledging to implement a stalled peace deal with the Palestinians and to usher in a bright new era of Middle East peacemaking.
"The supreme aim of this government is to bring peace and security to Israel," he declared from the Knesset podium, vowing to "take any path" necessary "for the achievement of peace and the end of war". The Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, frustrated by Mr Barak's hardline predecessor, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, over the past three years, quickly responded by announcing his readiness to work with the new Israeli leader toward "the peace of the brave". Mr Barak, who has already spoken with Mr Arafat by phone, is expected to meet him in the next few days. The new prime minister underlined the contrast between his policies and those of Mr Netanyahu by using his inaugural address to revive last October's Wye Plantation peace accord, frozen by the last government, under which Israel is committed to an interim withdrawal from a 13 per cent section of the occupied West Bank.
"The previous government," he noted, "did not have the strength" to implement the deal. "Our duty is to finish the job and move on to a comprehensive peace." In partnership with Mr Arafat, he said, he would work to "put an end to the suffering" of the Palestinians.
Mr Barak is also to meet President Clinton this month and King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt - leaders of the two Arab neighbours with whom Israel has full peace treaties.
Mr Barak pledged to work for permanent peace accords, too, with Syria and Lebanon, citing UN resolutions that provide for land-for-peace solutions. And he repeated his pre-election vow to bring Israel's troops home from the so-called "security zone" in South Lebanon within a year. "I call upon all regional leaders to stretch out their hands to our outstretched hand," he said.
Seven weeks after trouncing Mr Netanyahu in general elections, Mr Barak presented a seven-party coalition government, embracing 75 of the Knesset's 120 members, the largest peacemaking government in Israel's history. His 18-strong cabinet has drawn a barrage of criticism, from within the coalition and without, because it includes no Arab members and only one woman, and because several leading members of Mr Barak's One Israel party have been given relatively marginal jobs or no jobs at all.
In a minor sign of their displeasure, his party colleagues rejected his choice of Knesset Speaker, the anonymous Mr Shalom Simchon, and instead voted in the more charismatic Mr Avraham Burg.
Mr Barak also used his speech to bid a gracious farewell to Mr Netanyahu, who announced his resignation from the Knesset. Mr Netanyahu's successor as Likud party chief, Mr Ariel Sharon, made an exceptionally bitter address, charging, somewhat bizarrely, that "although the government has a clear majority in the Knesset, it does not have a majority among the people".
