Knesset

Ahmed Korei, who heads the legislature of the Palestinian quasi-state, on Monday visited the legislature of the Israeli state. The two institutions are just 8 1/2 miles apart, but judging from the commotion caused, Korei's short trip crossed a world of psychological and historical barriers.

About 1 million Arabs live in Israel as citizens of the Jewish state. Those who are old enough may vote in Israeli elections, and they regularly send a handful of their own to parliament. Yet Israeli Arabs feel like second-class citizens--a fact underscored these days by the fierce debate over whether an Israeli Arab legislator should be able to serve on a committee that handles sensitive security issues. When it first came up, the mere idea horrified some Jewish politicians.

Ehud Barak, the highly decorated army hero who stormed to a stunning election victory 50 days before, solemnly vowed Tuesday to forge a "peace of the brave" with his small country's Arab neighbors and then was sworn in as Israel's prime minister. Barak's inauguration marked the beginning of a new era in Middle East peacemaking as he placed the revival of long-stalled negotiations with Syria, other Arab states and the Palestinians at the top of an ambitious agenda.

For a few brief minutes, it looked as if the man known as a great survivor of Israel's political battles might pull it off once more. Just before the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, capped a stormy debate with an overwhelming vote for early elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waged a last, dramatic effort to save his crumbling coalition. He asked lawmakers for 72 hours to explore ways to form a government of "national unity" with the opposition Labor Party. It didn't work.

To understand how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power despite stagnant relations with the Arabs, strained dealings with Washington and Europe and numerous enemies inside his own Likud Party, it is instructive to look at the alternative. The Labor Party.

Debates in the Israeli parliament tend to be known more for their volume than their high tenor. So it was a surprise Thursday to hear speakers in the chambers being painstakingly polite, addressing each other as "Sir" and "Ma'am" and hewing to the rules of order as they conducted an emotional discussion on prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: I was invited to the party Aish HaTorah is throwing in your honor. All of Los Angeles was invited. But it is not my place and, frankly, I am not in the mood for a party. I am sorry about that, but I am more aggrieved about the deepening divide between American Jews and your government.

The Israeli parliament on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a bill to recognize only Orthodox conversions performed here, dealing a blow to Reform and Conservative Jews hoping to win official status for their movements inside Israel.

It could be said that no one is doing more right now to raise Israel's awareness of the problem of domestic violence than the deputy speaker of parliament, Haim Dayan. The former police officer backed a proposal last year to toughen spousal abuse laws. He even argued that a man who would beat his wife should have his "hands broken." Now the legislator has gone on national television to deny beating his wife.

After a last-minute brawl with his own allies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in Tuesday night, along with his Cabinet of largely right-wing and religious party leaders whom many Israelis and Arabs fear will halt Middle East peacemaking. Netanyahu's coalition government was approved by a parliamentary vote of 62 to 50 that was delayed for five hours in a dispute over the role in the new administration of hard-line former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.