Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's decision arouses enormous…

Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's decision arouses enormous opposition from the Likud and most settlers, although the majority of Israelis at first strongly support him, especially since the agreement enables Israel to rid itself of the tumultuous Gaza Strip.

Peace diplomacy bolsters what has already been a period of strong economic expansion in Israel.

Austerity during the 1980s has wrung out bad debt and inefficiency at considerable cost.

Many kibbutzim, deprived of cheap credit and a subsidized water supply, have either failed or shifted from agriculture to light industry.

Koor Industries Ltd., Histadrut's industrial holding company, has itself fallen on hard times and defaults on a number of loans before it is restructured.

The Israeli government still controls half the economy, but the earlier socialist ideology, once the mainstay of Israeli politics, is clearly on the wane.