The new Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, has taken office declaring his "supreme aim" is to bring peace and security to Israel and its neighbours. He knows "millions of eyes" in the Arab world are watching, and he has promised to "strengthen Israel's security by putting an end to 100 years of conflict in the Middle East."
Peace-loving Israelis, Palestinians, their neighbours, and Israel's friends have long been frustrated by the hard-line stance taken by Mr Barak's predecessor, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Barak bid a gracious farewell yesterday to Mr Netanyahu, who has announced his resignation from the Knesset. Nevertheless, many must be relieved that the new coalition, disparate though it may be, does not include Likud, and that Mr Barak was able to form a cabinet without turning for support to Mr Ariel Sharon, the hawkish successor as leader of Likud.
The new coalition represents a wider section of the Israeli electorate and society than any government this decade. Already Mr Barak and the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, have spoken by phone. Last October's Wye Plantation agreement was frozen by the Likud-led government. Mr Barak accuses the Netanyahu administration of not having the strength to implement the accord, under which Israel agrees to an interim withdrawal from 13 per cent of the occupied West Bank. Now Mr Barak promises "to finish the job" and, in partnership with Mr Arafat, to "put an end to the suffering" of the Palestinian people.
But Mr Barak also holds out the hope and promise of a real and enduring peace with Israel's neighbours. Already he has arranged meetings with President Clinton and with Israel's two friendliest neighbours, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt. Now he is promising to work for permanent peace accords, too, with Syria and Lebanon on the basis of trading land for peace. The new Prime Minister appears to be willing to implement his election campaign promises to bring Israel's troops home from the occupied "security zone" in southern Lebanon within a year, and has offered an "outstretched hand" to Israel's most elusive neighbour, President Assad of Syria.
But if Mr Barak hopes to achieve enduring peace with Israel's neighbours, he may find more difficult problems inside Israel's own borders. His seven-party coalition may be the largest government in Israel's history, but it has drawn criticism from all sides because it includes no Arab members, because it includes only one woman, and because several leading members of Mr Barak's One Israel party, as well as the architects of the Oslo peace peace process, have been given relatively marginal cabinet posts or no jobs at all.
On the other hand, Mr David Levy, who abandoned Mr Netanyahu to ally himself with Mr Barak before the elections, has been rewarded with his return to the Foreign Ministry. On foreign policy, Mr Levy is a Moroccan-born dove who can win the confidence of Israel's Arab neighbours; at home, he is capable of winning over both the working class voters who had drifted away from Labour and the religious Sephardic Jews who had been alienated in recent years from Likud-led governments. The new government must be good news for Israel's neighbours. It waits to be seen whether it is good news for Israel's citizens.