Israel:
A new chance for peace

Over 100,000 Israelis packed Rabin Square in the heart of Tel Aviv 
following the elections on May 17 to celebrate the victory of the Labour 
Party. Labour leader Ehud Barak's resounding victory over Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu for the premiership was a vote for peace and a rejection 
of the anti-working class policies of the Netanyahu Government.

"The election results have created a historic opportunity for forming a 
government consisting of supporters of the peace process, without the Likud 
party and the extreme right wing, the enemies of peace and coexistence", 
the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of Israel said in a statement on 
the results.

"We call on Ehud Barak to base the guidelines of his government on the 
principles of peace, equality, democracy and solving social problems.

"The CPI and Hadash [the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality] will 
remain an active and consistent force for advancing peace, based on the 
establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and in the struggle 
against the forces of social-class reaction and conservatism, whose 
representation in the new Knesset has increased."

Thirty-one parties competed in the elections, with 25 winning more than the 
minimum number of votes required for representation (1.5 of the total 
votes).

One Israel (the Labour Party and its partners) will have the largest 
representation in parliament with 27 of the 120 seats. The left-liberal 
Meretz party retained its position with nine seats.

Hadash which includes the Communist Party and Jewish and Arab groups came 
under attack by nationalist and right-wing forces during the campaign. 
Their representation was reduced from four to three Knesset Members.

The conservative parties and fundamentalist parties (both Jewish and Arab) 
increased their representation: the Jewish fundamentalist party Shas went 
from 10 seats to 17; an alliance formed by the Islamic Movement increased 
its representation by one seat to bring it to five.

The extreme right-wing and settler parties were the big losers: the 
Netanyahu's Likud Party down from 34 to 19 seat; the National Religious 
party from 9 to 5 seats; and the pro-fascist National Union party won only 
three seats.

Barak won the premiership in a two way contest with 56 per cent of the 
vote, three minor candidates having pulled out of the ballot.

He has pledged to implement the American brokered Wye Agreement, signed by 
Netanyahu but never honoured, which provides for a further 13 per cent 
Israeli pullout from the West Bank and he's promised to evacuate southern 
Lebanon within 12 months.

He's publicly accepted the inevitability of a Palestinian state in the West 
Bank and Gaza Strip.

But Barak has also said that Jerusalem will remain the "undivided capital" 
of Israel including occupied Arab east Jerusalem and that no Zionist 
settlements will be dismantled in a final settlement with the Palestinians.

Barak's victory was welcomed by Arafat and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan. 
It was treated with caution in Damascus. And the Palestinians under 
occupation or in the refugee camps in the Arab world and conscious of 
Barak's background, will wait and see what this new Israeli leader actually 
does.

Barak was chief of staff of the Israeli army, retiring in 1995. Prior to 
that he headed the elite special forces unit Sayeret Metkil and had led 
Commandos, disguised as a woman, deep into Lebanon in 1973 to assassinate 
three senior Palestinian militants.

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Acknowledgements to New Worker, Israeli Communist Party and 
Communist Party of India (Marxist)