ISRAELIS go to the polls today in elections that will determine whether the Middle East peace process continues towards Palestinian statehood, or slides backwards into resumed conflict.
Some 31/2 million Jewish voters, and half a million Arabs, will vote for a new 120 seat Knesset, but it is the separate ballot for prime minister that carries real significance.
The Labour incumbent, Mr Shimon Peres (72), promises to continue the phased hand over of authority in the West Bank to Mr Yasser Arafat, and no longer rules out eventual Palestinian statehood. He also pledges to seek peace with Syria, to complete a circle of treaties with Israel's neighbours, even at the price of relinquishing the Golan Heights.
His challenger, the Likud leader, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu (46), rules out a withdrawal from the Golan. He says he will never grant Mr Arafat more than partial rule over the Palestinians, and he plans to encourage the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The Clinton administration has done its best to signal to Israelis that it favours the Peres government. Mr Arafat has expressed concern about the possibility of a Netanyahu victory. And Syrian state media yesterday called the challenger a "warmonger".
Nevertheless, the Israeli electorate appears deeply divided. The latest opinion polls last night predicted victory for Mr Peres by 2 or 3 per cent. But such surveys in Israel have a history of over estimating support for Labour and its candidates.
The two contenders spent most of yesterday visiting party branches, encouraging activists to bring as many supporters as possible to the polling booths today.
Typically, their campaign stops were low key. Mr Peres has fought a deliberately like campaign, seeking to portray himself as the calm, experienced veteran, sailing smoothly to victory. Mr Netanyahu has also kept appearances restrained, anxious to avoid sparking the raucous right wing rallies that preceded Mr Yitzhak Rabin's assassination last November.
Mr Peres has appealed to voters to return him to power to safeguard Mr Rabin's legacy. And victory would have been assured but for a series of Islamic extremist suicide bombings in Jerusalem in February and March which reignited Israeli scepticism about the peace process and rejuvenated Mr Netanyahu's campaign.
Evidence of the fruits of the Rabin Peres policies was provided just this week by the opening of a Tunisian "interest office" in Tel Aviv, the first formal diplomatic link between the two countries.
But that breakthrough was largely ignored amid the election hubbub, and while Mr Peres nurses his slender lead, it is the more vigorous Mr Netanyahu, boosted by stronger than expected support from ultra Orthodox leaders, whose campaign seem to have picked up momentum in the crucial final days.