PERES FORMS NEW GOVERNMENT

In an attempt to accelerate the peace process, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres named new cabinet ministers and forged a new coalition within the parliament, aligning his Labor Party with the pro-peace Meretz bloc and two members of a right-wing faction. TIME's Johanna McGeary reports from Jerusalem: "Peres is making the right decisions. The coalition is essentially the same coalition Rabin had before he was killed. Peres is in a very strong position right now, because of the reverberations from the assassination. Peres is riding on that. He also very wisely moved some younger Labor Party leaders into the Cabinet. A particularly smart move was elevating Ehud Barak to foreign minister, which positions him next in line to be Prime Minister. Barak is much like Rabin in that his claim to power is his military background. Barak is the most decorated soldier in Israel's history and he's also very smart. Israelis know and trust Barak. In the end, whether the Labor Party stays in power and the peace process succeeds depends on the Palestinians. If there are only a few dead Israelis at the time of the election, it stands a good chance of working. If there is a lot of terrorism, then there will be problems. The general feeling about Peres is that he wants to do whatever is necessary. The question will always be: can he make deals that Israelis trust?"