GUIDELINES for the new Israeli government were published yesterday that explicitly rule out the establishment of a Palestinian state, reject any compromise over Jerusalem, and provide for continued Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights.
With the publication of the guidelines, any hopes that the incoming rightwing religious coalition would chart a moderate course similar to its centrist secular predecessor were swept aside.
Barring further last minute personnel crises, the Likud Party leader, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, who defeated Mr Shimon Peres in elections last month, is to present his coalition for the Knesset's approval today. He had hoped to have his cabinet sworn in yesterday, but was forced to reconsider some ministerial appointments after senior Likud members threatened a mini revolt.
The new Knesset convened as scheduled, with the 120 members - 40 of them first timers - pledging their allegiance to the state.
Ironically, it fell to the defeated Mr Peres, as the oldest member of the House, to supervise the formalities, a quirk of fate that afforded him the luxury of a final prime ministerial address. He used the opportunity to repeat his assertion that comprehensive peace for Israel was now "within our grasp", and to urge the new government to reach out and grain it.
But Mr Netanyahu clearly subscribes to a rather different vision. True, the cabinet he is set to present today does not feature the bullying hawk, Mr Ariel Sharon, as its defence minister. Nor will Mr Rafael Eitan, another prominent hardline ex general, hold a first rank position.
But those non appointments appear to have more to do With internal rivalries (Mr Netanyahu feared giving Mr Sharon too important a position) and legal difficulties (Mr Eitan faces an indictment that bars him from most key ministries) than any attempt to indicate political moderation.
Once safely installed, the new government, Mr Netanyahu has been insisting, will pursue peace with all Israel's neighbours. His government guidelines echo this assertion, but feature provisions bound to complicate peacemaking, to say the least.
The Oslo accords governing the process with the Palestinians are not mentioned at all in the nine page document. Instead, the government pledges merely "to offer the Palestinians an arrangement enabling them to freely run their lives within a framework of self rule." Statehood is excluded, as is any deal on Jerusalem or on refugee rights of return. These clauses will not make pleasant reading for Mr Yasser Arafat.
Likewise, the guidelines feature a commitment to seek peace with hitherto hostile regimes such as Syria and Lebanon, but state that "the maintenance of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan will constitute a basis for any deal with Syria" - effectively scuppering any chance of an accord.
David Horovitz is managing editor of The Jerusalem Report
. An explosion killed at least six Palestinians and wounded nine in a building next to a refugee camp in south Lebanon yesterday, security sources said. A woman and a child were among the dead, witnesses said.