Mr Barak is now fighting to prevent the disaffection spreading to another of his motley coalition partners, the Russian immigrant party, Yisrael B'Aliyah.

ECONOMIST: Israel

He wanted millions of other Jews, especially Soviet Jews living undercover lives like his own, to make the same aliyah, or ascent, to populate and settle the young country.

ECONOMIST: Yitzhak Shamir

The next day, May 28, 1991, I stepped off an El Al plane at Ben Gurion Airport, and before reaching the passport check, I walked up the stairs of the old terminal building to the Ministry of Absorption's offices and officially made aliyah.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Jerusalem, the Eternal Front Line