MAIN PAGE  WORLD    africa    americas    asianow    europe    middle east  U.S.  LOCAL  POLITICS  WEATHER  BUSINESS  SPORTS  TECHNOLOGY  NATURE  ENTERTAINMENT  BOOKS  TRAVEL  FOOD  HEALTH  STYLE  IN-DEPTH  custom news  Headline News brief  daily almanac  CNN networks  CNN programs  on-air transcripts  news quiz   CNN WEB SITES:  TIME INC. SITES: Go To ... Time.com People Money Fortune EW  MORE SERVICES:  video on demand  video archive  audio on demand  news email services  free email accounts  desktop headlines  pointcast  DISCUSSION:  message boards  chat  feedback  SITE GUIDES:  help  contents  search  FASTER ACCESS:  europe  japan  WEB SERVICES: Keyword Title Author		Select a Feature Related News Video archive Election Guide Message Board Readers' Poll Israel Primer Virtual Tour Photo Essay Search News Main Page In wake of election euphoria, Barak begins long road to power Barak shakes hands with a well-wisher while visiting the grave of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Tuesday RELATED VIDEO The Arab world breathed a sigh of relief with news of a new Israeli leader. CNN's Ben Wedeman probes the relationship between Arabs and Israel. (May 18) Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Jerrold Kessel reports on Israel in the aftermath of the election (May 18) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Wolf Blitzer reports on the challenges facing Barak (May 18) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Jerrold Kessel reports on the celebrations following Barak's victory (May 18) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Barak addresses supporters at Rabin Square (May 18) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the Israeli elections, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K  ISRAEL ELECTIONS:  Prime minister Barak (Labor) 56.08% Netanyahu (Likud) 43.92% Source: Israel Central Election Commission Preliminary returns for the 120-member Knesset One Israel - 27 seats Likud - 19 seats Center - 6 seats National Religious Party - 5 seats Shas - 17 seats Meretz - 9 seats Yisrael B'Aliya - 7 seats Hadash - 3 seats United Torah Judaism - 5 seats Arab Democratic Party - 5 seats National Union - 3 seats Shinui - 6 seats Israel Beiteinu - 4 seats National Democratic Alliance - 2 seats One Nation - 2 seats This breakdown, provided by the Israel Central Election Commission, is based on returns from 100 percent of the civilian vote. There were, however, 160,000 votes of soldiers, diplomats and prisoners yet to be counted. These returns are expected to change the Knesset election totals. Source: CNN  ALSO:  IMAGE GALLERY: A landslide onto shaky ground  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Israeli elections

May 18, 1999
Web posted at: 10:21 p.m. EDT (0221 GMT)

In this story: Coalition may seek to include Likud Palestinians expect progress within weeks Construction raises issue of Jerusalem RELATED STORIES, SITES

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Victory celebrations yielded to political power-brokering Tuesday as Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak faced the daunting challenge of forming a new government and living up to his promises of uniting a fractured nation and reinvigorating the Middle East peace process.

Hours after Israeli voters handed him a convincing win over incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Barak and his allies began plotting how to organize a viable coalition government.

Barak, a highly decorated general who assumed leadership of the Labor-led One Israel movement, spent his first day as Israel's future leader visiting two powerful touchstones: Jerusalem's Western Wall and the grave of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

He also took phone calls of congratulations from Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Jordanian King Abdullah, who hope Barak's election will speed up the peace process.

Barak has pledged to live up to Israel's promises in the U.S.-brokered Wye River land-for-security agreement, commitments that were suspended by Netanyahu in December.

Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, also of the Labor Party, predicted Barak would act swiftly to carry out the Wye accords.

Barak set the tone for his new administration Tuesday by paying tribute to Jewish tradition and praying at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.

He sang with a rabbi intoning Psalm 122, and slipped a note with a prayer into one of the cracks in the wall.

"At this place, Jews have prayed throughout the generations, and it is fitting that the message of brotherhood should go out from here," said the secular Barak, whose grandfather was a rabbi in Lithuania.

Later, on a visit to Rabin's grave, Barak placed a small stone on the black granite grave marker in the traditional gesture of mourning and remembrance.

Rabin, a soldier-turned-peacemaker who signed historic peace accords with Jordan and the Palestinians, was gunned down after a peace rally in 1995 by an ultra-nationalist Jew opposed to ceding land to the Palestinians.

"A circle has been closed here at Yitzhak Rabin's grave," Barak said. "A possibility has been opened to fulfill the legacy of Yitzhak Rabin, and I am committed to that path."

Coalition may seek to include Likud

With ballots counted at nearly 99 percent of more than 7,000 polling stations, Barak had 55.9 percent of the votes to 43.9 percent for Netanyahu, a landslide triumph by Israeli standards and one that exceeded almost all pre-election forecasts.

But with the next Knesset projected to be as divided as ever, Barak still faced a challenge in forming a ruling coalition.

"We want to form the widest government possible," said Yossi Beilin, a top official in Barak's Labor Party and an architect of interim peace deals with the Palestinians that Barak has pledged to revive.

Beilin said Netanyahu's post-election announcement that he would step down as leader of the Likud Party could pave the way for Likud to become Labor's biggest partner in a coalition. Under Netanyahu, back-room coalition contacts between the two parties failed to forge an alliance.

"I would not rule out Likud joining this kind of (coalition) government," Beilin told Army Radio.

According to preliminary results, parties aligned with Barak would have 51 seats in the 120-member parliament, while Likud and its allies would have 53, with the remaining seats belonging to centrist parties that could go either way.

A deal with Likud could enable Barak, whose One Israel bloc took 27 seats, to form a government without the third-largest faction in parliament, the ultra-Orthodox Shas movement.

Likud won 19 seats in the election, down from the 32 it had in the outgoing Knesset. Shas will have 17 seats, up from 10.

Barak has said he will not conduct coalition negotiations with Shas leader Arieh Deri, who just before the election was convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years in jail. Deri said Tuesday

Barak has 45 days to form a coalition and submit it to the Knesset. Netanyahu will remain caretaker prime minister until then.

Whatever the new government's composition, it will have to reach across the political spectrum, said legislator Haim Ramon of Barak's Labor Party.

"He has to form a wide coalition because he has very tough decisions ahead of him on all subjects," Ramon said.

The five-month campaign highlighted the country's bitter internal divisions, such as growing animosity between the secular and religious, Jews and Arabs, immigrants and veterans and Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews.

Palestinians expect progress within weeks

As Barak began the process of putting together a government, he faced pressure to act quickly on that agenda: A senior Palestinian official served notice Tuesday that Palestinians expect Barak to start delivering on peace agreements within two weeks after he forms his government.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinians anticipated the United States would resume intensive efforts to get the Wye River agreement implemented.

The Palestinians expect a trip to the region by U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross soon after Barak takes over, the official said.

Palestinians welcomed Barak's win over Netanyahu, but they were careful about expressing too much optimism.

"The essential element here is not to waste time," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. "It is also important to revive, in the minds of Palestinians and Israelis, hope in peace."

U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday the United States is eager to help Israel's newly elected prime minister pursue accords with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.

"I think the road map is out there," Clinton said, referring to the Wye agreement.

"And we'll do what we've always done. And I've been working at this for six years, and I'm looking forward to continuing," Clinton said during a White House picture-taking session with Jordan's King Abdullah.

Erakat said the Palestinians expected full and immediate implementation of the Wye accord, which calls for an Israeli pullback from 13.1 percent of the West Bank in exchange for security guarantees.

The Palestinians said they also expect the Labor-led government to halt expansion of Jewish settlements and cancel contracts for new ones.

Construction raises issue of Jerusalem

Underscoring the difficulty Barak faces, bulldozers Tuesday worked to clear land for construction of two Jewish neighborhoods in areas of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians for a future capital.

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Building plans in the Ras al-Amud and Har Homa neighborhoods have triggered Palestinian protests in the past and will pose a difficult test for Barak.

While Barak has said he will keep Jerusalem united under Israeli control, Palestinians said it could cast a pall over his peace efforts if he lets the construction in Ras al-Amud and Har Homa proceed.

"This is a terrorist act," Palestinian legislator Ziyad Abu Ziyah said. He said Israel's hard-liners were trying to "sabotage Barak's policy of resuming the peace talks before they even started," and demanded that Barak halt the construction.

Cries for unity ran through Barak's campaign, and he said he hoped to enlist enough political allies to reach a national consensus that would enable him to negotiate permanent peace agreements with the Palestinians and Syria.

He has also pledged to pull Israeli troops out of a south Lebanon occupation zone within a year.

Barak has mapped out a tough stance for negotiations on a final peace deal with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

He said again on Tuesday that he would retain Israeli control over all of Jerusalem, keep large blocs of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and ensure that a Palestinian entity would be demilitarized.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.