The Labour Party leader, Mr Ehud Barak, was elected Prime Minister of Israel yesterday in a political landslide. Crushingly defeated, the outgoing prime minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, conceded that he was beaten before a single vote had been counted, just 30 minutes after the polling stations closed and, sensationally, immediately resigned as leader of the Likud party.
Mr Barak's massive victory, the most dramatic political shift in a generation, ends three years of Netanyahu government marked by internal frictions, confrontation with the Palestinians and strained relations with much of the international community.
Mr Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority President, sent a message of congratulation to the new Prime Minister, and the chief Palestinian negotiator, Mr Saeb Erakat, said he now hoped for a speedy revival of negotiations. President Clinton telephoned Mr Barak to congratulate him.
As the night wore on, tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square - where Mr Barak's mentor, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated in November 1995 - to wave Barak and Rabin placards and celebrate a victory they saw as a vindication of Mr Rabin's peace policies. Ms Leah Rabin, the murdered prime minister's widow, said she was "full of joy and satisfaction" at Mr Barak's victory. "I have been waiting a long time for this moment."
When the polling stations closed last night and the vote-count began, Israeli state television predicted a huge 58.5 to 41.5 per cent victory for Mr Barak, while the second national TV station, Channel 2, also showed the Labour leader far ahead of his rival, 57 per cent to 43 per cent.
As the first genuine results were computed early in the morning, indications were that Mr Barak's final margin of victory might be even greater.
The polls also showed centre and left-wing parties faring well in the battle for seats in the 120-member Knesset, which will enable Mr Barak to quickly build a majority coalition.
Labour itself was heading for about 30 seats. Mr Netanyahu's Likud party, by contrast, was set to lose a large chunk of its seats, mainly to the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which was closing on Likud as the second largest party in the Knesset.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Barak had said he believed the Israeli public wanted "to see a new way of governing . . . to see change, unity, hope". However, even his own Labour party supporters were staggered by the scale of their victory.
Mr Netanyahu had been defiant until the end. Asked early in the day by a reporter what had gone wrong with his campaign, he replied: "Who said anything had gone wrong?" To the TV crews who trailed him all day, he repeated: "We will surprise you."
The election of Mr Barak will have a revolutionary impact on Israeli foreign policy. He has vowed to revive the Rabin-initiated peace process by rebuilding the partnership with Mr Arafat which Mr Netanyahu destroyed, and working together with the Palestinians toward a permanent peace accord which could include the establishment of an independent Palestine.
Mr Netanyahu opposed independence for the Palestinians, provoked gun battles in the West Bank and Gaza with the secretive opening of an archaeological tunnel near Jerusalem's Temple Mount in 1997, and was ready to risk more violence last week in a bid to close Palestinian offices in East Jerusalem, a move blocked by the Israeli Supreme Court.
Mr Arafat, who had done his best to stay out of the Israeli campaign, curtly urged Israelis yesterday morning to "elect peace", a clear hint at support for Mr Barak. Palestinian officials had indicated in recent weeks that were Mr Netanyahu to have been re-elected, they would soon unilaterally declare statehood, a move which would likely have set Israel and the Palestinian on course for further confrontation.