Election night at Labor headquarters: Yitzhak Rabin proclaims victory to jubilant supporters in June, ending 15 years of Likud dominance in Israel. Rabin Leads Israel Toward The Center Israelis were fed up with Shamir, but is the new prime minister moving too fast? fter 15 years of Likud leadership, with its ter- ritorial ideology, Israel voted to change course in June, putting Yitzhak Rabin at the helm of a new government which has taken a sharp turn toward the political center, if not left. The national political campaign was characterized by periods of ennui and short bursts of nastiness, with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Likud party alleging that Mr. Rabin, 70, a former military hero as well as former prime minister, suffered a nervous breakdown before the 1967 Six Day War and is prone to alcoholism. But the election results were sober- ing for Likud, indicating that Israelis were fed up with Mr. Shamir's hunker- ing-down, status-quo form of leadership in the face of American pressure to be more forthcoming in peace negotiations with the Arabs. Voters saw in Mr. Ra- bin a pragmatist straddling the center in Israeli politics. Considered a hawk within Labor, he was able to instill a sense of security (he was, after all, a mil- itary man and former defense minister) as well as a willingness to compromise with the Arabs — up to a point. In his first major address to the Knes- set after his election, Mr. Rabin ac- knowledged to Palestinians that their lives have been difficult and urged them to take seriously Israel's offer of limited self-rule rather than following the ad- vice of the Palestine Liberation Orga- nization and holding out for the "delusion" of statehood. He also warned Israelis not to con- tinue their belief that "the whole world is against us." He called on his coun- trymen to "overcome the sense of iso- lation that has held us in its thrall for almost half a century." President Bush, whose relationship with Mr. Shamir was cold and dis- trustful, wasted no time in showing his pleasure with Mr. Rabin, inviting him to his summer home in Maine in Au- gust. There the two smiling men an- nounced an agreement on the $10 bil- lion U.S. loan guarantee (see separate story), which had been used effectively in a carrot-and-stick manner by the Bush administration over the course of the last year. Many American Jews were enthusi- astic about Mr. Rabin and his attention to warming U.S.-Israeli relations, giv- ing him high marks for the speed in which he turned the tables on the Arab states. Through a series of confidence- building gestures toward the Palestini- ans and a swift halt to much of the settlement building that characterized the Likud government, he managed to put the onus on the Arabs for delays in the peace process. But some U.S. Jewish leaders were concerned about Mr. Rabin's scornful attitude regarding the importance of American Jewry in effecting Mideast policy. A former Ambassador to the United States in the 1970s, he believes that the key to the Jerusalem-Wash- ington relationship is on the executive level and he reportedly chastised the American Israel Public Affairs Com- mittee, the pro-Israel lobby in Wash- ington, for mishandling the loan guarantees. At home, Israelis felt the government Mr. Rabin formed is a bit schizophrenic. Arch-enemy Shimon Peres is foreign minister, Aryeh Deri, an Orthodox Shas party leader facing legal troubles is in- terior minister, and the controversial Shulamit Aloni, considered anti-reli- gious and in favor of a Palestinian state, heads the education and cultural min- istry. Settlers in the Golan as well as the West Bank are fearful that, in the course of the peace talks, he may be willing to give up land in hopes of achieving peace. But for the most part, Israelis feel that Yitzhak Rabin has their best interests at heart and that he will continue to walk that fine line that got him elected.