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(July 7) - Ehud Barak was sworn in last night as the nation's 10th prime minister, pledging in his maiden speech to the Knesset as premier to take "bold steps" to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and urging Syrian President Hafez Assad to work with him for peace. Barak also said that on the domestic front he would act to strengthen education and prevent violence. Some 42 days after the announcement of the election results, Barak's government was finally sworn in after he presented its policy guidelines. They were adopted in a vote of 75 to 29 with 11 abstentions after a five-and-a-half-hour debate. One Israel, Meretz, Shas, United Torah Judaism, the National Religious Party, Yisrael Ba'aliya, and the Center Party voted in favor. The Likud, Shinui, Yisrael Beiteinu, Am Ehad, and National Union voted against. The Arab parties abstained in protest against being left out of the coalition. Yisrael Ba'aliya's Roman Bronfman also abstained to protest the government's policy on religion and state. The Likud has already filed a no-confidence motion in the prime minister without waiting out the traditional 100-day period of grace. The Knesset also elected MK Avraham Burg as Speaker, making him, at 44, the youngest person to hold this position. He beat Hadash leader Mohammed Barakei by 100 to 10. Barakei said he ran only to protest "Barak's attempt to forcibly marginalize the Arab parties in the Knesset." In his speech, Barak went straight to the point about the peace process: "It is now our duty to finish the job and bring about a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, which has seen so many wars. It is our duty, to ourselves and our children, to take bold steps to strengthen Israel by ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. This government is intent on doing all in its power, taking every step and doing all that is necessary for Israel's security, achieving peace and preventing war. "It is our historic duty to use the window of opportunities opened to us and bring long-term security and peace to Israel. We know that a comprehensive and stable peace will occur only if it rests on four pillars at the same time: Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon - to a certain extent as one - and of course, the Palestinians. As long as the peace is not based on all four pillars it will remain an unstable non-peace. "The Arab states should know that only a strong and secure Israel can bring peace. From here today I call on all the leaders in the region to reach out to our outstretched hand and bring about the peace of the brave in a region which has known so much war, blood, and suffering. "To Syrian President Hafez Assad I say: The new Israeli government is firm in its intent to further as soon as possible the negotiations to reach an arrangement of peace and security - reciprocal and full - on the basis of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. We were bitter enemies in the battlefield. The time has come for an open and bold peace which will ensure the future and security of our peoples, our children and our grandchildren." Barak said the government would act to further the peace process on all fronts without giving one track priority, and that cardinal decisions would be put to a referendum. "I know not only the suffering of my people, but also recognize the suffering of the Palestinian people. My desire and aspiration is to put an end to the violence and suffering and to act with the elected Palestinian leadership, headed by Chairman Yasser Arafat, working in cooperation and with respect together to find a fair and agreed on arrangement for a coexistence of freedom, prosperity, and good neighborliness in this beloved land in which two peoples will always live," said the new premier. Barak stressed that Jerusalem would remain Israel's undivided capital under Israeli sovereignty. He said he feels that Morocco's King Hassan can also contribute to the peace along with US President Bill Clinton, Jordan's King Abdullah II, and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. On the home front, Barak promised to help promote equality among minority groups. None theless, the little heckling he faced came mainly from the Arab MKs, with Barakei telling him he was turning his back on the Arab sector. "[The government] rules out a whole sector of the public of 20 percent [of the population]," Barakei said. Two women MKs - Naomi Blumenthal (Likud) and Tamar Gozansky (Hadash) - also called out about the dearth of women in the government. Barak again said he would submit a bill to amend the Basic Law: The Government to provide for the addition of more ministers. However, his new justice minister, Yossi Beilin, later told reporters he opposes a move to expand the government for political expediency. Barak thanked the outgoing government and Binyamin Netanyahu, saying that, although there were differences of opinion between them and they differed in style, this had rarely affected their personal relationship and he hopes to remain friends. Barak also praised Burg as the new Speaker, although his preferred candidate, MK Shalom Simhon, failed to get the approval of the One Israel-Labor Bureau and faction. "The Knesset has gained a young and energetic leader who will leave his mark on the House," Barak said. Burg in the Speaker's chair seemed to get pleasure hushing MKs and keeping the new prime minister waiting when he wanted to address the House again from the plenum. Burg said it was "symbolic" that it was acting speaker Shimon Peres who handed the position over to him, as Peres had been his political mentor. The new Speaker in his maiden speech quoted his father, elder statesman and veteran politician Yosef Burg, who had been a deputy speaker in the first Knesset. He called on MKs to develop a culture of debate even when they disagree. He said the MKs must ensure the Knesset maintain its sovereignty as the guarantee of Israeli democracy, which he described as "fragile." The swearing-in ceremony took longer than expected, as all 17 Shas MKs got up to individually kiss their four ministers. They also jokingly offered their services to those ministers with small factions, such as the five-member National Religious Party, and hugged Center Party leader Yitzhak Mordechai, whose own MKs did not rush to embrace him. In a short speech, Netanyahu said he was leaving the Knesset after 11 years in its service, three of them as prime minister. He thanked Barak for his personal comments and wished him and the leader of the opposition, Ariel Sharon, good luck. He then left the room after shaking hands with several opposition and coalition MKs, without waiting to hear the speech of Sharon, who has taken over as acting Likud leader. Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, formerly director-general of the Prime Minister's Office under Netanyahu, remained stony-faced in his seat without saying good-bye to the outgoing premier. Sharon accused Barak of not acting in good faith in the coalition negotiations with the Likud, saying he had put party interests above national interests. Sharon said the government has the support of the Knesset, but the country is divided in two over its support for it. He also criticized the government for not emphasizing immigration in its guidelines. Four of the seven factions in the coalition are in power for a second consecutive term and four of the ministers in the Netanyahu government remain in the new one - Natan Sharansky (Yisrael Ba'aliya), Yitzhak Levy (National Religious Party), Eli Suissa and Eli Yishai (both Shas). Two others - David Levy (Gesher) and Yitzhak Mordechai (Center) - started out as members of the previous government, while Yisrael Ba'aliya's Yuli Edelstein, outgoing immigration and absorption minister, has been promised a cabinet seat after the government is increased. Immediately after the ministers were sworn in, they held a short toast and mini-cabinet meeting in the Knesset before heading to Beit Hanassi for a traditional group photograph. Unlike in previous years, the president invited all 120 MKs and not just the ministers. In toasting Barak and the new government, Weizman expressed the hope they would advance peace with Israel's neighbors. "I wish that you will move the process forward, that you establish contact with our neighbors, with the president of Egypt, with the king of Jordan, and with Arafat - that you believe in one another," Weizman said. Today the Knesset will begin the process of establishing committees, once the Knesset House Committee takes over from the temporary Arrangements Committee. House Committee chairman Avi Yehezkel (One Israel) said it could be Monday before the process is completed.
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Barak also promised anew to take the IDF out of Lebanon within a year, and to carry on with peace moves with the Palestinians, with a dramatic reference to what he called "the suffering of the Palestinian people."