Ehud Barak,
Becomes Israeli Prime Minister

Ehud Barak in government
By Donnacha DeLong

Ehud Barak was decisively elected Prime Minister of Israel in May 1999, ousting the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. He was faced with a unsteady situation as, under Mr Netanyahu's administration, all deals with Israel's neighbours were frozen, negotiations had all but collapsed and the security situation had deteriorated with increasing numbers of attacks by militant groups. Mr Barak was elected on a platform of seeking final settlements in the country's disputes with the Palestinians, Lebanon and Syria.

Despite the landslide victory of his Labour Party, Mr Barak declared that he wanted to create a broad-based coalition and entered talks with the leaders of minority parties across the political spectrum. The eventual government was composed of seven parties, embracing ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews and left, centre and right-wing parties. This unlikely grouping was to prove very difficult to hold together, as disagreements surfaced in relation to domestic and external policies. Mr Barak initially angered Arab Israelis by failing to appoint any Arabs to his cabinet, despite the fact that Israel's Arab minority had voted unanimously for him. However, within a month, he had appointed an Arab Israeli to the position of Deputy Foreign Minister, as well as appointing three others to positions in the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.

Within a month of his taking office, Mr Barak had met with a variety of Middle Eastern and world leaders. These included Egypt's President Mubarak, Jordan's King Abdullah, US President Clinton and, at the funeral of King Hassan II of Morocco, the new King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, and the Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. He first met the Palestinian President in July and the two men vowed to overcome obstacles to peace. After the first meeting of the two sides in seven months, which took place in Egypt, Mr Barak pledged to implement the Wye River Agreement, which had been signed by Mr Netanyahu, but not implemented. When he travelled to Washington a few days later, Mr Clinton offered to help give impetus to the peace moves in the Middle East.

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