ONE of Mr Benjamin Netanyahu's first appointments, when staffing the inner circle at the prime minister's office a month ago, was that of Mr David Bar Illan, the editor of the right wing, English language daily, the Jerusalem Post, as a senior adviser.
Mr Bar-Illan, a gentlemanly former concert pianist, was well known as a vehement critic of the Oslo accords with the Palestinians. He had for years used his newspaper's editorial columns to heap scorn on what he perceived as the naive, overly compromising and ultimately dangerous peace policies of first the Rabin, and then the Peres, governments.
What was extraordinary about Mr Bar-Illan's appointment was not that he was named as Mr Netanyahu's media adviser, rather the other part of his official title, adviser on policy planning. Were Mr Netanyahu to follow Mr Bar-Illan's advice on substantive policy, his would be a remarkably hardline administration.
With the clear exception of Syria which has blasted Mr Netanyahu in a daily offensive that began as soon as the election results were clear most Arab nations were prepared initially to give the new prime minister a chance, prepared to believe that the harsh rhetoric of the campaign trail would be replaced with pragmatism once he settled down.
But as Mr Netanyahu returned last night from a five day visit to the United States, few doubts remained about the prime minister's stance on relations with Israel's Arab neighbours. The land for peace formula, the heart of the Rabin and Peres led peace process, has been torn out. Mr Netanyahu made clear his feeling that Israel has been far too flexible in the past, far too ready to accommodate Arab demands. Now, he indicated, it was his task to extricate Israel from the mess of the Oslo accords, to start making demands of his own.
Now that the Arab world is drawing the reluctant conclusion that Mr Netanyahu is every bit as much a right wing idealogue as he has always said he was, the process of reconciliation is already starting to unravel. The Gulf states are reconsidering normalisation plans. Jordan and Egypt, which Mr Netanyahu is set to visit soon, are increasingly nervous. Syria, aware that a Golan Heights deal is no longer on the agenda, is refusing to return to the negotiating table - and in the absence of negotiation, tension between these most implacable enemies can only rise.
As for the Palestinians, they are now reduced to exchanging, with Mr Netanyahu's aides, tit for tat lists of alleged breaches of the Oslo accords.
In Gaza, the biting closure orders deepen the frustration. Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, would bring all this up in talks with Mr Netanyahu - if only the Israeli premier would consent to meet with him.
In interviews this weekend, Mr Arafat railed against Mr Netanyahu's latest demands to close Palestinian offices in Jerusalem. "We have agreements that they should keep," he said. Such protest statements are unlikely to move Mr Netanyahu, however, nor to satisfy the bitter Palestinians - especially if Jewish settlers win government approval for new plans to triple their West Bank numbers.
Sooner or later Mr Arafat, who saw his first peace partner murdered, and his second rejected by the Israeli public, may have to make a stark choice to lead Palestinian opposition to the new government's policies, or to muddle along and risk being swept aside, perhaps violently, by his own angry people.