A relieved Israeli Prime Minister resolved his coalition crisis yesterday, and pledged to spend the next few months in an accelerated quest for a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
The 17-member ultra-Orthodox Shas party, whose resignation from Mr Ehud Barak's government was due to take effect yesterday afternoon, revived its alliance with the Prime Minister's own Labour Party. Resignation would have left Mr Barak scrambling to maintain a parliamentary majority, and would probably have presaged general elections this autumn.
Instead of Shas departing from government, it is the 10-member, left-wing, secular Meretz party, a more natural political ally for Mr Barak, that is leaving.
The resignations of the three Meretz ministers take effect today, and the party will henceforth back the government from the outside.
There are two clear winners at the end of these turbulent weeks of political crisis in Israel: Shas and the peace process.
Shas has forced its nemesis, the Meretz Education Minister, Mr Yossi Sarid, the man who was refusing to allocate additional funds to its schools system, out of office and into the sidelines, and has now become an even more central force in Israeli politics. It grew from 10 to 17 seats in the 120-member Knesset in last year's elections, and its leader, Mr Eli Yishai, is happily predicting 26 seats next time.
"This is a victory for the people of Israel, the children of Israel, the Jewish law of Israel," declared Mr Yishai last night. Many secular Israelis, fearful of growing ultra-Orthodox influence, would beg to differ.
But they may find at least partial compensation in the fact that peace talks with the Palestinians - which have been overshadowed by the crisis and might have been halted had the coalition fallen - can now resume with new intensity. A summit between Mr Barak, the Palestinian Authority president, Mr Yasser Arafat, and President Clinton is being tentatively scheduled for two weeks from now.
"Historic decisions lie ahead of us," Mr Barak said yesterday.
If Meretz has been the unarguable victim of this crisis, outmanoeuvred by Mr Yishai, the Prime Minister's status is less obvious. Daily newspaper columnists are portraying a humiliated leader, forced to capitulate to Shas.
"This isn't the Barak government," runs a popular one-liner. "It's the Yishai government."
But Mr Barak seemed happy enough yesterday, and noted in a speech to his own party that he had safeguarded his majority without resorting to any underhand dealing. He praised the Meretz members as "true partners" who had made "a voluntary concession . . . that was painful for us and even more painful for them". And he has been assured by Mr Yishai that Shas will henceforth vote down opposition efforts to dissolve the Knesset and will offer support, in principle, for peace efforts.
After all, Mr Yishai noted last night, the Shas spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadya Yosef, "has ruled in favour of trading land for peace, for security". Mr Barak may also be quietly happy that his coalition is now an unlikely blend of moderate, immigrant, Orthodox and pro-settlement politicians, a broad-based government with support across the spectrum.