AFTER an extraordinarily acrimonious 12 1/2 hour debate, during which Prime Minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu was accused by several colleagues of betraying his ideology and his voters, the Israeli cabinet early this morning approved the Hebron peace accord 11 votes to seven.
The way is now open for an Israeli military pull out from most of the city in the next few days and for further West Bank withdrawals in the coming 18 months. Mr Benny Begin, the Minister of Science who led the critical chorus, immediately announced his resignation.
Mr Netanyahu had anticipated a bitter cabinet tussle but could not have guessed at the vehemence of some of his ministerial colleagues' sniping, which reportedly extended at one point to allegations that the Prime Minister was misleading them over the arrangements for further redeployments. There were even suggestions that US mediators might be giving conflicting assurances to the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
Nevertheless, the accord itself, concluded early yesterday by Mr Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat finally restores momentum to the Middle East peace process which had been stalled since the new Israeli government took power last May.
Smoothly approved by the Palestinian Authority last night, it marks the co option of at least part of the right wing of the Israeli political spectrum to the Oslo framework pioneered by Labour prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, bringing an overwhelming majority of Israelis behind the partnership with Mr Arafat for the first lime, and leaving the settlers and their hardline supporters angrily relegated to the margins.
Also marginalised are Hamas and other Palestinian rejectionist groups who, along with Syria, have predictably castigated the deal.
As Israel, under Mr Netanyahu's Likud led government, now moves forward along the path laid out by Mr Rabin, turning over 80 per cent of Hebron to Mr Arafat and then relinquishing further large swathes of the West Bank later this year and next, a revolutionary realignment of the Israeli political spectrum seems inevitable.
The far right elements of Mr Netanyahu's coalition are becoming his most vocal critics, with the more moderate people of the right moving closer to Labour to constitute a large centrist bloc.
The ideological watershed was evident during last night's vitriolic cabinet exchanges, in which one minister, Mr Natan Sharansky, spoke of "a sad day for Israel". Mr Begin accused the Prime Minister of abandoning parts of the Jewish homeland.
The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, will vote overwhelmingly for the deal today.
Hebron went to sleep on Tuesday night skeptical that Mr Arafat and Mr Netanyahu would find the formula for an accord that had eluded them for so many months, and woke up to the news that the deal had been done. Giant portraits of Mr Arafat were plastered around the town in anticipation of his imminent arrival.
Among the 500 Jewish residents, the mood was of deep dismay. A banner draped on a settler bus said: "Bibi is a traitor".
During the heated cabinet debate, Mr Netanyahu insisted that the revised Hebron deal - Mr Rabin signed the original version almost 16 months ago - was a marked improvement. Yet some of his key demands - the right to "cold pursuit" of suspected militants into Palestinian areas and for a Palestinian commitment to extradite murder suspects - have not been met.
Moreover, because the new accord is actually comprised of two documents, the Israeli Palestinian deal and an American letter (called a "Note for the Record"), a new factor has entered the equation. The US envoy, Mr Dennis Ross, acknowledged yesterday that he had "brokered" rather than "mediated" the deal - the decisive summit meeting yesterday morning began late because President Clinton telephoned both leaders to make sure they knew they had to give him an inauguration present.
The Americans are now full partners, rather than mere sponsors, of the peace process and will strive to ensure that the previous tradition of missed deadlines and breached commitments is over.
But if that three way partnership may prove important on the ground, the more telling three way partnership may well be that which now exists between the Palestinians, Labour and the Likud. Whether through miscalculation and international pressure or, less probably, by design, Mr Netanyahu has now embraced the Oslo process he opposed.
Pointing this out yesterday, Ms Leah Rabin, the assassinated prime minister's widow, urged Mr Netanyahu to beg her husband's forgiveness.