Since taking office last year, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has battled on two fronts in the effort to finalize peace agreements with his neighbors. The obvious front involved the parties on the other side of the table: the Syrians and the Palestinians. But the other fight takes place within Israel itself. It involves Mr. Barak's coalition partners, his ostensible allies and maybe the more difficult of the two antagonists. This week, the strains within the Cabinet threatened to derail the peace process. A deal has been made and the differences papered over -- for now. But the government may have only postponed its reckoning and upped the ante in the process.
Although Mr. Barak won the job of prime minister in a landslide 11 months ago, his One Israel party took only 26 seats. He needed to fashion an unwieldy six-party coalition government to claim a majority in Israel's 120-seat Parliament. Key among those partners was Shas, a conservative religious party whose 17 seats made it the second-largest group in the coalition.
Mr. Barak was motivated by more than political expediency. The prime minister has said that he wants a broad national consensus behind any peace deal. Shas is critical to achieving that goal. It represents the Sephardic Jews from Spain and the Middle East who have been underrepresented in Israel's politics. Although some members oppose any meaningful concessions to the Palestinians, the party's religious leader has long favored a land-for-peace deal with some conditions.