Timeline Jewish History - Modern Israel & the Diaspora (1948-Present)

Modern Israel & the Diaspora
(1948-Present)

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Timeline of Jewish History:
Modern Israel & the Diaspora

(1946 - 1949)

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Click on a Year: 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949

Other Periods: 1950's | 1960's | 1970's | 1980's | 1990's | 2000's | 2010's

1946

July 4	Mob attack against Jewish survivors in Kielce, Poland. Following a ritual murder accusation, a Polish mob kill more than 40 Jews and wound dozens of others. This attack sparks a second mass migration of Jews from Poland and Eastern Europe to DP camps in Germany, Austria and Italy.
August 1	The IMT passes judgment on the major Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg. Eighteen were convicted, and three were acquitted. Eleven of the defendants were sentenced to death.
October 16	In accordance with the sentences handed down after the convictions, ten defendants are executed by hanging. One defendant, Hermann Goering, escapes the hangman by committing suicide in his cell.

1947

April 2	Britain requests special session of the General Assembly to consider future government of Palestine.
May 15	General Assembly establishes a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP).
July 11	The Exodus 1947 ship carrying 4,500 Jewish refugees sails for British-administered Palestine from southern France, despite British restrictions on Jewish immigration. The British intercept the ship and force it to proceed to Haifa in Palestine and then the French port of Port-de-Bouc, where it lay anchor for more than a month.
August 31	UNSCOP issues majority report recommending partition of Palestine with an internationalised Jerusalem; minority report recommended federal scheme
September 8	Ultimately, the British take the refugees from the Exodus 1947 to Hamburg, Germany, and forcibly return them to DP camps. The fate of the Exodus 1947 dramatized the plight of Holocaust survivors in the DP camps and increased international pressure on Great Britain to allow free Jewish immigration to Palestine.
September 29	Arab Higher Committee formally rejects UNSCOP plan.
October 2	Jewish Agency formally accepts UNSCOP partition plan.
November 29	As the postwar Jewish refugee crisis escalates and relations between Jews and Arabs deteriorate, the British government decides to submit the status of Palestine to the United Nations. In a special seccion on this date, the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into two new states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The decision was accepted by the Jewish leadership but rejected by the Arab ledership.UN approves partition plan by a vote of 33-13 with 10 abstentions to create a Jewish and Arab state.
November 30	Arab mobs attack Jewish quarters in Jerusalem and Arab irregulars begin operations against Jewish cities and settlements.

1948

March 19	U.S. proposes suspension of partition plan and calls for a special session of the General Assembly to discuss trusteeship for Palestine.
April 1	Security Council calls for truce in Palestine and special session of the General Assembly to reconsider future of Palestine.
May 13	The Arabs of Jaffa surrender to the Haganah forces
May 14	Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel (May 14). U.S. recognizes Israel de facto. David Ben-Gurion announces the establishment of the State of Israel in Tel Aviv and declares that Jewish immigration into the new state would be unrestricted. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews immigrate to Israel, including more than two-thirds of the Jewish DPs in Europe.
	End of British Mandate. Arab armies invade Israel.
	President Harry S. Truman recognizes the State of Israel within its first hour of existence.
May 17	USSR recognizes Israel.
May 19	Jerusalem is cut off by Arab forces.
	War of Independence (May 1948-July 1949).
May 20	General Assembly Committee appoints Count Folke Bernadotte as mediator for Palestine.
	Brandeis University is founded in the U.S. as first nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored, institution of higher education.
May 28	Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem falls to the Jordanian Arab Legion.
May 31	Israel Defense Forces (IDF) formed.
June	Congress passes the Displaced Persons Act, authorizing 200,000 DPs to enter the United States in 1949 and 1950. Though at first the law's stipulations made it unfavorable to Jewish DPs, Congress amended the bill, and by 1952, thousands of DPs enter the United States. An estimated 80,000 Jewish DPs immigrated to the United States with the aid of American Jewish agencies between 1945 and 1952.
June 1	First convoy reaches Jerusalem along “Burma Road.”
June 11	First cease-fire proclaimed - Four week truce commences.
June 22	Altalena fired upon and sunk off the coast of Tel-Aviv.
July 8	Arab League refuses to renew truce; fighting resumed and Israel gained on all fronts.
July 9	First cease-fire end.
July 21	Second cease-fire proclaimed.
August 14	Arab countries reject Israeli peace proposals .
August 17	First Israeli coin minted.
September 17	UN mediator Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte murdered in Jerusalem by Lehi fighters. Succeeded by Dr. Bunche.
September 20	Bernadotte Plan published by UN.
September 27	The first batch of Spitfire planes is shipped from Checkoslovakia to Israel. These planes would play a pivotal role in Israel's War of Independence.
October 15	Second cease-fire ends.
October 15	Fighting breaks out in Negev; the Egyptian army driven south.
October 19	Security Council orders an immediate cease-fire.
October 22	Israel and Egypt agree to cease-fire.
November 8	First census indicates 712,000 Jewish residents, and 69,000 Arab residents in the State of Israel.
November 16	Security Council calls for armistice talks.
November 18	Israel accepts call for armistice.
December 11	General Assembly establishes Palestine Conciliation Commission, reaffirms decision on Jerusalem and calls for repatriation or resettlement of refugees.
December 17	Beginning of “Operation Magic Carpet” to bring Yemenite Jews to Israel.
November 22	Fighting breaks out in Negev. Egyptian forces driven beyond mandatory borders, but retain the Gaza Strip.
	Mass immigration from Europe and Arab countries: 1948-52.

1949

January 7	Fighting ends in Sinai. Israeli forces withdraw from Sinai following British ultimatum and U.S. pressure.
January 13	Israeli and Egyptian delegations meet in Rhodes for armistice talks, chaired by Dr. Bunche. Armistice agreements begin with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon.
	Jerusalem is declared the capitol of Israel and is divided under Israeli and Jordanian rule.
January 21	First Knesset (parliament) elected. Ben Gurion heads the Labor led coalition.
January 30	Britain, New Zealand and the Netherlands recognize Israel de facto. Australia and Chile recognize Israel de jure.
	U.S. recognizes Israel de jure.
February 1	Israel ends military governorship in Jerusalem.
February	Chaim Weizmann is elected Israel's first president. First meeting of the First Knesset.
February 24	Armistice agreement signed with Egypt.
March 9	David Ben-Gurion presents first government to the Knesset.
March 23	Armistice agreement signed with Lebanon.
April 3	Armistice agreement signed with Jordan.
April 25	Trans-Jordan becomes The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
April-June	First round of Israel-Arab talks in Lausanne under auspices of Palestine Conciliation Commission.
	The Weizmann Institute is inaugurated in Rehovot.
May 11	Israel admitted to United Nations as 59th member.
July 20	Armistice agreement signed with Syria.
August	Second round of Israel-Arab talks in Lausanne is deadlocked.
August 17	Theodor Herzl's remains are brought to Israel and interred on Mt. Herzl, the newly created Israeli official cemetary.
August 25	Birthdate of Jewish rock Legend Gene Simmons.
November 9	Professor Yigal Yadin appointed second IDF Chief-of-General Staff.
December 9	General Assembly votes for internationalization of Jerusalem under Trusteeship Council administration.
December 13	Government decides to hold its Knesset sessions in Jerusalem and declares Jerusalem to be Israel's capital.
	Umm Rashrash, today Eilat, is captured by the IDF.

(1950 - 1959)

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Click on a Year: 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959

Other Periods: 1940's | 1960's | 1970's | 1980's | 1990's | 2000's | 2010's

1950

	As American Jews move to the suburbs, they build new synagogues. Joining a synagogue becomes the chief expression of Jewish identity. In 1930, a mere 20 percent of American Jewish families belong to a synagogue; by 1960, nearly 60 percent do.
January 16	Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg recognize Isael de jure
January 23	Knesset by 60-2 vote, establishes Jerusalem as Israel's capital
April 4	UN Trusteeship Council approves statute for the internationalization of Jerusalem.
April 24	Jordan annexes West Bank, including East Jerusalem
April 28	Britain recognizes Israel de jure
	The Knesset moves from Tel Aviv to King George St. in Jerusalem.
May 25	U.S., Britain and France issue Tripartite Declaration on Middle East
June 17	Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen initial Collective Security Pact, calling on them to assist an Arab state under attack.
July 5	The Law of Return is enacted
November 14	First nationwide municipal elections after independence
	The West Bank unites with Jordan.
May 19	Operation Ezra and Nehemiah brings Iraqi Jews to Israel
	Fifty-fifty deal between Aramco and Saudi Arabia.
	Trans-Arabian Pipeline completed from Eastern Province oil fields to Mediterranean coast.

1951

April 12	Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Rememberence Day established on 27th of month of Nissan
May 18	Security Council calls on Israel to halt Huleh drainage project pending arrangements to be fixed by the Mixed Armistice Commission. Fighting erupts between Israel and Syria in demilitarized zone.
July 20	King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on suspicion of planning peace talks with Israel.
July 30	Elections held for the Second Knesset
September 1	Security Council calls on Egypt to end its blockade of Suez Canal to shipping to and from Israel. Egypt refuses to comply
September 13	Palestine Conciliation Commission opens another round of talks in Paris with Israeli and Arab delegations
September 28	Israel offers non-agression pacts to Arab states, calls for direct negotiations and offers compensation for Arab refugee's property
	The Hula Valley reclamation program begins turning swamps into arable lands.
	Egged bus transport cooperative is founded.
October 7	David Ben-Gurion presents his government to the Knesset
November 21	Palestine Conciliation Commission announces failure of the talks
December 24	Libya proclaims independence
	Mossadegh nationalizes Anglo-Iranian in Iran (first postwar oil crisis)
	Safaniya field, world's largest off shore oil field, discovered in Saudi Arabia.

1952

	Operation Coresh brings Iranian Jews to Israel.
	The Israel Atomic Energy Commission is established.
January 1	Seven armed terrorists attacked and killed a 19-year-old girl in her home in Beit Yisrael in Jerusalem
January 7	Knesset summoned to approve broader negotiations with West Germany: Menachem Begin leads stormy demonstration against negotiations
January 9	Knesset supports negotations by 61-50
May 13	The first graduating class of physicians is awarded degrees at Hebrew University.
July 23	Free Officers carry out Coup d'etat in Egypt; oust King Farouk
July 28	Egypt proclaimed Republic
August 11	Hussein proclaimed Crown Prince following illness of King Talal. Council of regents appointed
August 12-13	Yiddish writers and other Jewish cultural figures are executed in the Soviet Union on “Night of the Murdered Poets” on orders from Joseph Stalin in the basement of the Lubyanka prison in Moscow.
August 18	Ben-Gurion welcomes Egyptian revolution in Knesset
September 10	Israel and West Germany sign Reparations Agreement in Luxembourg
November 9	President Chaim Weizman dies
December 8	Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi sworn in as President, after Albert Einstein declines a request from Ben-Gurion to serve.
	Israel participates in its first Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland.

1953

	The Academy for Hebrew Language and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) are founded.
	Egyptian republic proclaimed, Nasser takes over: 1953, 1954
	The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Authority is established.
February 12	USSR breaks diplomatic relations with Israel
	Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for conspiring to deliver U.S. atomic bomb secrets to the U.S.S.R.
May 13	U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles visits Israel
June 7	A youngster was killed and three others were wounded in shooting attacks on residential areas in southern Jerusalem.
June 9	Terrorists killed a resident of Lod, after throwing hand grenades and spraying gunfire in all directions. On the same night, another group of terrorists attacked a house in Hadera.
June 11	Terrorists attacked a young couple in their home in Kfar Hess and shot them to death.
July 20	Relations with USSR restored
August	Unit 101, an IDF special force unit, is founded and commanded by Ariel Sharon to combat ongoing terror attacks by Arab fedayeen.
August 19	Mossadegh falls, Shah returns in Iran.
September 2	Israel starts work on Jordan River project. Syria complains to Security Council
October 15	President Eisenhower appoints Ambassador Eric Johnston to help establish regional water development project based on Jordan River
October 20-28	U.S. halts economic aid to Israel until it halts work on the Jordan River project. Israel complies and aid resumed
December 7	Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister and is replaced by Moshe Sharett as Prime Minister and Pinchas Lavon as Defense Minister

1954

	Yad Vashem Holocaust museum opens.
	Stern College for Women, the first liberal arts women's college under Jewish auspices, opens in New York City.
	The founding of the Conference of Major Jewish Organizations indicates a galvanization of Jewish lobby in the U.S.
January 1	“Katzner trial” opens in Jerusalem District Court. (Malkiel Greenwald was accused of libelling Dr. Rudolf Kastner regarding his alleged collaboration with Adolf Eichmann in Hungary, in 1944).
January 22	USSR vetoes Western draft resolutions at Security Council permitting Israel to resume work on River Jordan project.
March 17	Terrorists ambushed a bus traveling from Eilat to Tel Aviv at Maale Akrabim, opening fire at short range. The terrorists boarded the bus, and shot each passenger, one by one, murdering 11.
March 20	USSR vetoes Western draft resolution at Security Council calling on Egypt to comply with 1951 resolution on Suez Canal
April 17	Colonel Nasser becomes Prime Minister of Egypt
Summer	Eleven Jews are arrested in Egypt on suspicion of planting bombs around Cairo. Two are hanged. Though Israel denies involvement, it is later learned Israeli Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon was behind the spy ring; Lavon is forced to resign over the operation, which becomes known as the “Lavon Affair.”
September 28	Egypt seizes Israeli ship “Bat Galim” at Port Said.
October 6	Israel offers at the UN non-aggression pact with Arab states

1955

	Soviet bloc begins first arms sales to Egypt and Syria.
January 2	Two hikers killed by terrorists in the Judean Desert
February 17	Lavon resigns as Defense Minister amidst controvery over espionage scandal involving Israeli agents who were executed in Egypt
February 21	Ben-Gurion returns to government as Defense Minister after Lavon's resignation.
February 24	Baghdad Pact signed between Turkey and Iraq.
	Development town of Dimona is founded in the Negev by 36 immigrant families from Morocco and Tunisia.
February 28	Following intensified raids into Israel, IDF raids Egyptian military installations in Gaza
March 24	One young woman killed and 18 wounded when terrorists threw hand grenades and opened fire on a crowded wedding celebration in Patish
April	Israel excluded from participation in Bandung Conference of Asian and African nations
May	Bar Ilan University, with its emphasis on Jewish heritage studies, opens in Ramat Gan.
June 22	Dr. Israel Kastner, a Hungarian Jew, was found guilty by a district court of collaboration with the Nazis; the decision was eventually appealed and overturned for lack of evidence
July 26	Elections for the Third Knesset, Ben-Gurion again becomes Prime Minister
July 27	Bulgarian fighter pilots down an El Al civilian airline, killing 58 people
September 27	Egyptian-Czechoslovak arms deal announced
October 11	Arab League rejects Eric Johnston's Jordan River plan
October 18	Premier Sharett applies to U.S. for permission to purchase arms
October 20	Egypt and Syria sign mutual defence treaty
November 2	Ben-Gurion again becomes Israel's Prime Minister
	Nasser objects to terms of Western offer to finance the building of the Aswan Dam.
December 6	Israel protests to Security Council, in note dated 22 November, continued Egyptian attacks from Gaza Strip
December 26	Cairo announces beginning of implementation of defence pacts with Syria and Saudi Arabia

1956

	Sudan & Tunisia gain independence, as well as Pakistan Republic.
	Israel begins laying on oil pipeline from Eilat to Ashkelon.
	Oil discovered in Algeria and Nigeria.
January 18	Nasser announces new constitution for Egypt and pledges to re-conquer Palestine
January 25	Ambassador Eban requests permission from Secretary Dulles to acquire arms in the U.S.
March 12	Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia announce plans to coordinate their defense
April	UN Secretary General tours Middle East in an effort to reestablish armistice. Cease-fire achieved between Israel and Egypt on 19 April and with Jordan on 26 April
April 7	One young woman killed when terrorists threw 3 hand grenades into her house inAshkelon.
	Two killed when terrorists opened fire on a car at Kibbutz Givat Chaim.
April 11	Three children and one youth worker killed, and five injured, when terrorists opened fire on a synagogue full of children and teenagers in Shafrir (Kfar Chabad).
April 29	Egyptians killed 21-year-old Ro'i Rottenberg from Nahal Oz
May 6	Jordan and Egypt announce plans to unify their forces
May 9	Dulles tells NATO in Paris that the U.S. would not sell arms to Israel directly in order to avoid U.S.-USSR confrontation in the Middle East
May 31	Syria and Jordan sign military agreement
May-October	France delivers arms to Israel under secret agreement with tacit U.S. approval
June 24	Nasser elected President of Egypt
July 20	U.S. refuses aid and credits for Egypt Aswan High Dam, Britain adopts similiar position
July 26	Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal.
September 12	Terrorists killed three Druze guards in Ein Ofarim.
September 23	Four archaeologists killed and 16 wounded when terrorists opened fire from a Jordanian position at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel.
September 24	Terrorists killed a girl in the fields of the farming community of Aminadav, nearJerusalem.
October 4	Five Israeli workers killed in Sdom.
October 8	Egypt and USSR reject proposals for international supervision of Suez Canal
October 9	Two workers were killed in an orchard of the Neve Hadasah youth village.
October 25	Egypt, Syria and Jordan announce establishment of unified military command for “war of destruction against Israel.”
October 29	Sinai Campaign launched with Great Britain and France
	Kfar Kassem massacre of 47 Arab civilians violating a curfew
November 2	General Assembly calls for cease-fire in Egypt, withdrawal of foreign troops, restoration of freedom of navigation
	Tel Aviv University is opened.
November 4-5	End of Sinai Campaign. Gaza Strip and Sinai occupied. During the campaign, thousands of Jews are expelled from Egypt and come to Israel.
November 5	General Assembly establishes United Nations Emergency Force
November 6	Israel completes occupation of Sinai save for strip along Suez Canal
November 7	General Assembly calls on Britain, France and Israel to withdraw from Sinai and Suez Canal zone, President Eisenhower demands Israeli compliance. Premier Bulganin threatens Israel
November 8	Terrorists opened fire on a train, attacked cars and blew up wells, in the north and center of Israel. six Israelis were wounded
December 21	Last British and French troops leave Egypt
December 24	Beginning of Israeli forces withdrawal from Sinai

1957

	France helps Israel create nuclear research program in Dimona; a nuclear reactor is constructed.
	National telephone dialing between Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa is introduced.
January 5	Eisenhower Doctrine unveiled “to deter Communist aggression in the Middle East area.”
January 22	Israel withdraws to mandatory border with Egypt, holds land strip to Sharm el-Sheikh and Gaza Strip
February	U.S. pressure on Israel to withdraw from Gaza and Sharm el-Sheikh. General Assembly considers sanctions against Israel
February 18	Two civilians killed by terrorist landmines near Nir Yitzhak.
February 28	U.S.-Israel understanding on freedom of navigation and UN administration for Gaza Strip
March 1	Foreign Minister Meir announces to General Assembly Israel's readiness to withdraw from all Egyptian territories
March 6	Israel withdraws from Sinai and Gaza. UN forces (UNEF) along border
March 8	A shepherd from Kibbutz Beit Govrin was killed by terrorists in a field near the kibbutz
March 10	IDF withdraws to armistice lines
March 11	Egypt re-appoints military governor for Gaza
March 15	Egypt announces Israel not permitted to navigate through newly reopened Suez Canal
April 14	Eilat-Beersheba oil pipeline inaugurated
April 16	Two guards at Kibbutz Mesilot are killed by terrorists who infiltrated from Jordan.
May 20	A terrorist opened fire on a truck in the Arava region, killing a worker.
May 29	One killed and two wounded when their vehicle struck a landmine in Kibbutz Kisufim.
	Ben-Gurion announces in Knesset Israel's acceptance of “Eisenhower's Doctrine.”
June	Serious border clashes on Israel-Syria border
	Arab boycott of all firms selling goods in Israel.
	United States attains world's largest Jewish population.
August 23	Two guards of the Israeli Mekorot water company killed are killed in Kibbutz Beit Govrin.
October 29	Mentally deranged man throws a hand grenade into the Knesset. Five ministers are injured
October 31	Huleh swamp drainage project completed
November	Israel completes Huleh reclamation project
December 21	A member of Kibbutz Gadot was killed in the kibbutz fields.

1958

	The first supermarket opens in Tel Aviv on Ben-Yehuda Street.
	The Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University opens in Jerusalem.
	Immigration from Eastern Europe starts to grow, primarily from Romania.
January 15	Supreme Court verdict in Kastner trial
February 1	United Arabic Republic established through merger of Egypt and Syria.
February 11	Terrorists killed a resident of Moshav Yanov near Kfar Yona.
February 14	Jordan and Iraq form Arab Federation
March 8	Yemen joins United Arab Republic
March 20	Syria fires at Israeli workers engaged in widening Jordan River bed
	The Knesset passes the first Basic Law to established and define the electoral system.
April 5	Terrorists lying in ambush shot and killed two people in Tel Lachish.
May 26	Four Israeli police officers and a UN officer killed in a Jordanian attack on Mt. Scopusin Jerusalem.
July 14	Iraqi monarchy is overthrown in revolution, King killed. Civil war in Lebanon. Jordanand Lebanon appeal for U.S. military aid.
July 15	U.S. marines land in Beirut; British paratroopers land in Jordan
August 2	Arab Federation dissolved by Hussein
August 4	First International Bible Quiz held in Jerusalem
October 25	U.S. ends its military intervention in Lebanon
November 7	Syrian artillery shell Israeli settlements in Huleh Valley
November 17	Ambassador Eban again proclaims Israel's readiness to compensate Arab refugees even before peace settlement.
	Syrian terrorists killed the wife of the British air attache in Israel, who was staying at the guesthouse of the Italian Convent on the Mt. of the Beatitudes.
December 3	A shepherd killed and 31 civilians wounded in an artillery attack on Kibbutz Gonen.

1959

	Heichal Shlomo - seat of the Chief Rabbinate - is inaugurated.
	The Carmelit subway is inaugurated in Haifa.
	The USSR officially declares it will not allow Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel.
January	Fatah is established by Yasser Arafat and associates.
January 23	A shepherd from Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan was killed.
February 1	Three civilians killed by a terrorist landmine at Moshav Zavdiel.
February 26	Egypt detains Liberian Ship Captain Manolis in Suez Canal with cargo from Israel to Ceylon and Malaya.
March 13	Egypt detains German ship Lialot in Suez Canal with Israeli cargo to Malaya and Phillipines.
March 24	Iraq withdraws from Baghdad Pact. Pact is re-named CENTO on August 18.
April 15	A guard was killed at Kibbutz Ramat Rahel.
April 27	Two hikers shot and killed at close range at Masada.
May 21	Egypt detains Danish ship Inge Toft, confiscates cargo destined from Israel to Hong Kong and Japan
September 6	Bedouin terrorists killed a paratroop reconnaissance officer near Nitzana.
September 8	Bedouins opened fire on an army bivouac in the Negev, killing an IDF officer, Captain Yair Peled.
October 3	A shepherd from Kibbutz Heftziba was killed near Kibbutz Yad Hana.
October 5	Egypt tells UN that Israel will be permitted to use Suez Canal after Palestine refugee problem is settled
November 3	Elections for the Fourth Knesset
December 19	Egypt detains Greek ship Astypalea in Suez Canal. Nasser disavows previous promises to UN Secretary General to allow passage of Israeli cargo on non-Israeli ships.
	A series of riots with an ethnic-socio-economic basis takes places in a Haifa suburb, Wadi Salib.
	The Navy's first submarine, the Tanin (crocodile), arrives in Haifa.
	Habima is declared the national theater of Israel.

(1960 - 1969)

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1960

	Theodore Heuss is the first German president to visit Israel.
	Founding of the Jewish Reconstructionist movement (as a distinct denomination;Mordecai Kaplan): 1960s.
	Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University Medical School inaugurated at Ein Kerem,Jerusalem.
	Letters from the Bar Kochba archive are discovered in a dig in the Judean desert.
	OPEC founded in Baghdad.
January 18	Egypt announces USSR will finance second stage of Aswan High Dam.
February 20	Jordan opposes in Arab League creation of a Palestinian entity.
March 10	Ben-Gurion meets with President Eisenhower at White House.
April 26	Terrorists killed a resident of Ashkelon.
May 23	Adolf Eichmann is captured in Argentina by Israeli agents of the Mossad, who bring him to Israel for trial for his involvement in Hitler's extermination of the Jews.
	Ben-Gurion announces in Knesset capture of Eichmann.
July 23	Shah declares that Iran recognizes Israel de facto.
July 25	Egypt breaks its ties with Iran.

1961

	Operation Yachin bring Moroccan Jews to Israel as Morocco leaglizes immigration to Israel.
	Israel's first nuclear reactor becomes operational at Nahal Sorek.
January 11	The Egoz, a ship bringing Morccan Jews to Israel - sinks.
March 16	IDF raids Syrian positions east of Sea of Galilee, following Syrian shelling.
April 9	Security Council condemns Israel for Galilee raid.
April 11	Eichmann trial begins at Beit Ha'am in Jerusalem.
	Israel Beer, military historian and advisor to the Minister of Defense, is arrested for spying for the USSR and is sentenced to 15 years in jail.
August 15	Elections for the Fifth Knesset.
September	Civil war in Yemen - Egypt and Saudi Arabia intervene.
September 28	Syrian military coup d'etat breaks up the UAR.
December 11	Eichmann found guilty.
December 15	Eichmann sentenced to death by hanging, the first and only person in Israel to receive the death sentence.

1962

	Haifa University is opened.
	Archeological excavations commence at Masada, under the direction of Professor Yigal Yadin.
	United States' sale of Hawk missiles to Israel is concluded.
April 12	Terrorists fired on an Egged bus on the way to Eilat; one passenger was wounded.
May 31	Adolf Eichmann is executed in Israel for his part in the Holocaust.

1963

	In a landmark Supreme Court decision, the Ministry of Interior is ordered to recognize the marriage of a Jew and a Christian performed in Cyprus.
February 8	Pro-Egyptian Colonel Arif overthrows Qassim regime in Iraq
March 8	Officers group connected with Ba'ath party takes over power in Syria.
March 20	Knesset calls on West Germany to forbid its scientists to aid Egyptian missiles and arms development.
April 17	Egypt, Syria and Iraq agree on new federation; also call for liberation of Palestine.
April 23	President Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi dies.
May 21	Zalman Shazar becomes Israel's third President.
June 16	David Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense and retires. He is replaced by Levi Eshkol.
June 24	Prime Minister Levi Eshkol presents his government to the Knesset.
July 22	Nasser renounces Egypt's federation agreement with Syria and Iraq, and denounces Syria's Ba'ath party.
November 18	Military coup in Iraq; Arif becomes President.

1964

	Student Struggle for Soviet Union founded following U.S. march to protest Soviet anti-Jewish policies.
January 5	Pope Paul VI visits Israel as part of a Middle East Tour.
January 14	United Arab Summit in Cairo establish Unified Military Commando to prepare for war against Israel.
May 28	The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded in Jordanian-controlled EastJerusalem.
June	The National Water Carrier begins operations, bringing water from Lake Kinneret in the north to the semi-arid south.
June 2	Eshkol ends two days of talks with President Johnson in White House.
June 3	Israel wins the Asia Soccer Cup, beating South Korea 2-1 in the final.
July 9	Ze'ev Jabotinsky's remains are interred on Mt. Herzl.
September 5-11	Arab Summit conference in Alexandria agrees on measures to divert Jordan River headwaters.

1965

	President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the Immigration Act of 1965, abolishing the national origins quota system.
	Arafat's Fatah begins the “armed struggle” against Israel, undertaking its first cross-border attack on January 1.
	Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba proposes recognition of Israel.
January 1	Palestinian terrorists attempt to bomb the National Water Carrier - the first attack carried out by the PLO's Fatah faction.
February 12	West Germany announces suspension of arms sales to Israel.
May 11	The Israel Museum in Jerusalem is founded as the country's national museum.
May 12	Israel and West Germany establish diplomatic relations.
May 18	Eli Cohen is hanged in Damascus after being found guilty of spying for Israel.
May 31	Jordanian Legionnaires fired on the neighborhood of Musara in Jerusalem, killing two civilians and wounding four.
June 1	Syria declares: Only solution for Palestine - elimination of Israel.
July 5	A Fatah cell planted explosives near Beit Guvrin, and on the railroad tracks toJerusalem near Kfar Battir.
July 15	Chief of Staff Rabin says Israel has effectively deterred Arab States from diverting Jordan River headwaters.
	Teddy Kollek becomes Mayor of Jerusalem; he is re-elected six times and serves 28 years.
November 2	Elections for the Sixth Knesset.
December 29	U.S. confirms sale of tanks to Jordan.

1966

	The new Knesset building in Jerusalem is inaugurated.
	The Coca-Cola Company announces it will open a plant in Israel in defiance of the theArab Boycott.
May 2	Konrad Adenauer visits Israel.
May 16	Two Israelis killed when their jeep hit a terrorist landmine in Northern Galilee. Tracks led into Syria.
May 18	Eshkol declares in Knesset that Israel will not be first to introduce nuclear weapons to Middle East; calls for limitations on regional arms build-up.
May 19	U.S. confirms sale of jet fighters to Israel.
July 13	Two soldiers and 1 civilian killed when their truck struck a terrorist landmine near Almagor.
July 25	Serious clashes between Israel and Syria, followed by inconclusive Security Council debate.
November 4	Syria and Egypt sign mutual defence treaty providing for joint command.
November 13	Israel raids Samu village following incursions from Jordan.
December 10	Israeli writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon receives the Nobel Prize in Literature with a German-Jewish author, Nelly Sachs.

1967

	Ben Gurion University of the Negev is opened.
January	Heavy fighting along Israel-Syria borders.
April 7	Israeli aircraft shoot down 7 Syrian Migs.
April 11	Security Council deplores Arab attacks on Israel.
May 7-14	Reports circulating in Tel Aviv of pending Israeli attack against Syria
May 13	UAR recieves intelligence reports, apprarantly from Soviets, warning of Israeli attack on Syria.
May 14	Nasser declares alert in Egypt and bolsters his forces in Sinai. UAR chief-of-staff flies to Damascus.
May 15	Egyptian forces continue pouring into Sinai, UAR forces stand on alert, deployment begins.
May 16	Israeli's begin to show concern over UAR deployments towards Sinai . Propoganda campaign begins in UAR and spreads across the Arab world.
May 17	Egyptian President Nasser orders UN forces to evacuate the Gaza Strip and Sinai. Reports of UAR troops being withdrawn from Yemen to Sinai. Israel begins mobilization.
May 18	UAR calls for the United Nations Emergency Force to withdraw from Egyptian territory.
May 19	UN Emergency Force withdrawn at Egypt's request. Israel declares partial mobilization.
May 20	Nasser declares alert in Egypt and state of emergency in Gaza. Unites with 111 other Arab nations two of which (Syria and Iraq) openly called for the destruction of Israel. Sixth fleet carrier task groups directed to move eastward towards Crete.
May 21	UAR mobilizes reserves.
May 22	Egypt declares the Straits of Tiran closed to Israeli shipping.
May 23	Eshkol warns Egypt of gravity of blockade.
May 23	Security Council adjourns, having failed to take any action on Middle East crisis.
May 30	Egypt and Jordan sign mutual defence pact in Cairo.
June 1	National Unity Government formed; Moshe Dayan appointed Defense Minister.
June 2	Joint-Chiefs-of-Staff permits Sixth Fleet to commence in-port upkeep periods, reflecting relaxation of tensions.
June 3	Iraq joins UAR-Jordan defense pact.
June 4	UAR and Iraq forces enter Jordan
June 5	Israeli air force pre-emptively attacks Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air force bases; efectively neutralizing them. IDF ground forces attack Egyptian forces in Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol conveys message to King Hussein of Jordan through UN Chief of Staff in Jerusalem that Israel has no intentions of attacking Jordan. At 10:20 Jordan launches attack on Israel.Following Jordanian artillery and small arms attacks and a Jordanian incursion into the DMZ in Jerusalem, IDF forces commence operations against Jordanian military positions in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. MOLINK exchanges with Soviet leaders begins. UAR and Jordan begin concocting and disseminating false intervention charge. Crisis in Benghazi where British troops rescue trapped Americans. Crisis at Wheelus AB.
June 6	Egyptian forces continue pouring into Sinai. Initial U.S. military moves negative, to avoid giving impression of U.S. intervantion. JCS disapproves movement of Amphibious Force from Malta,. Algeria, UAR, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen break relations with the U.S. Algeria and Kuwait ban all shipments to the U.S. and the U.K.
June 7	Jerusalem reunited.
June 8	IDF completes deployment in Sinai (including the Gaza Strip). Cease-fire declared with Egypt and Jordan as fighting continues with Syria. USS Liberty mistankenly attacked by Israeli Air Force.
June 9	IDF forces move against Syrian forces on the Golan Heights.
	President Nasser resigns, withdraws resignation some hours later.
June 10	IDF completes deployment in the Golan Heights; cease-fire declared with Syria. USSR and other East European nations, except Rumania, sever diplomatic ties with Israel.
June 12	Israel announces it will not withdraw to 1949 armistice lines before peace is achieved by direct negotiations.
June 19	President Johnson Outlines 5 point U.S. peace plan.
June 27	Knesset passes the Protection of Holy Places Law.
June 28	Israel proclaims unification of Jerusalem.
June-June	Draft resolutions denouncing Israel as aggressor, calling for evacuation of liberated territory are rejected by the General Assembly.
August	Arab summit in Khartoum state: No negotiations with Israel, no peace with Israel and no recognition of Israel.
	Open Bridges policy across the Jordan River bridges, for goods and people, is instituted.
September 1	Arab summit conference in Khartum proclaims policy of no peace, no recognition and no negotiations with Israel.
October 12	Sea-to-sea missiles fired from Egyptian missile boats sink Israeli destroyer "Eilat."
October 25	Israeli artillery destroys Egyptian oil refineries in Suez.
November 22	UN General Assembly Resolution 242 is adopted.

1968

	Egypt's War of Attrition against Israel: 1968-70.
	Israel TV transmits its first broadcast, the 20th Independence Day military parade.
	Jews return to Gush Etzion, abandoned after its capture by the Jordanians in 1948.
	Jews return to Hebron, abandoned after the Jewish massacres in 1929.
	Polish government outlaws Jewish language and institutions.
January 27	The Israeli Navy submarine Dakar and crew disappear at sea en route from England.
February 7	Eshkol ends two days of talks with President Johnson in Texas.
March 12	Nasser proclaims three stage doctrine of struggle against Israel.
	Israeli army attack on PLO base at Karameh, Jordan.
May 26	First Jerusalem Day celebrated.
June 22	Prime Minister Levi Eshkol declares that the Jordan River is Israel's security border.
	Labor party is formed from the union of Mapai, Ahdut Ha'avodah and Rafi.
July 17	PLO's Palestinian National Council adopt covenant calling for Israel's destruction.
July 22	The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) carries out the first hijacking, diverting an El Al flight to Algiers. 32 Jewish passengers were held hostage for 5 weeks.
July	Ba'thists seize power in Iraq.
September 4	One killed and seventy-one wounded by three bombs that exploded in Tel Aviv.
October	Hijacking for El Al aircraft en route to Algeria.
October 8	Foreign Minister Eban offers nine point peace plan at UN General Assembly. Egyptrejects plan and demands that Ambassador Jarring work out a timetable for Israeli withdrawl from disputed areas.
October 27	Fighting breaks out again along Suez Canal, Suez oil refineries again hit.
November 19	Israel allows return to disputed areas thousands of refugees who fled to Jordan in theSix Day War.
November 22	Twelve killed and fifty-two injured by a car bomb in the Mahaneh Yehuda market,Jerusalem.
December 2	Heavy fighting erupts on Israel-Jordan borders.
December 4	Israel aircraft attack Iraqi artillery units in Jordan.
December 26	Arab terrorists attack Israeli airliner in Athens.
December 27	U.S. announces sale of Phanton jets to Israel.
December 28	IDF raids Beirut airport, destroying 13 airliners without loss of life.

1969

February 18	Israeli airliner attacked in Zurich.
February 21	Two killed and twenty injured by a bomb detonated in a crowded market in Jerusalem.
February 26	Levi Eshkol dies suddenly.
February 4	Yasser Arafat elected chairman of the PLO.
March 7	Golda Meir becomes Prime Minister after Eshkol's death.
April 19	Soviet missiles installed in Egypt, following announcement by Nasser that Egypt has completed rehabilitation of its army and is moving to stage of active defense.
April 23	Egypt repudiates cease-fire along Suez Canal.
May 11	Jordan forbids terrorist raids against Israel from its territory, following Israel warning and raids.
July 7	UN Secretary General U Thant proclaims that war of attrition is taking place along Suez Canal.
July 20	Israel airforce begins bombing targets inside Egypt.
July 31	Israel repels Syrian attack in Golan Heights.
August 21	Al-Aqsa Mosque damaged by arson.
August 23	Nasser calls for all out war against Israel.
August 29	American airliner hijacked to Damascus; two Israeli passengers detained .
September 1	Coup d'etat in Libya overthrows monarchy. Moammer Qaddafi heads Revolutionary Command Council.
October	Secret U.S.-USSR talks on Middle East peace. Talks fail when Nasser rejects plan.
October 13	Israel proposes home rule for West Bank, retaining responsibility for security.
October 22	Four killed and twenty wounded by terrorist bombs in five apartments.
October 28	Elections to the Seventh Knesset.
December 9	U.S. Secretary of State Rogers announces American Plan for peace in the Middle East.
December 12	Israel rejects Rogers plan.

(1970 - 1979)

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1970

	Israel participates in the Soccer World Cup finals.
February 2	Heavy fighting on Golan Heights
February 22	Palestinian terrorists blow up Swissair jet in mid air
March	USSR steps up missile shipment to Egypt
April	Israel announces Soviet pilots are flying operational missions for Egyptian airforce
May 9	Israel warns against installation of Soviet missiles close to Suez Canal
May 22	Terrorists attack schoolbus, killing 12 (9 of whom were children), and wounding 24 in Avivim, Israel.
June 25	Secretary Rogers discloses U.S. initiative to end war of attrition along Suez Canal for 90 days and resumption of stalled Jarring mission
July 23	Egypt, after Nasser visit to Moscow, accepts U.S. initiative
July 26	Jordan accepts U.S. initiative
August 4	Israel accepts U.S. initiative, is assured of continued military and economic aid from the U.S.
August 7	Cease-fire goes into effect on Suez Canal
August 7	Egypt violates cease-fire by moving missiles into “stand-still” zone. Israel protests to U.S.
August 8	American-brokered cease-fire ends War of Attrition with Egypt
	Refusenicks are sentenced to death in the USSR for hijacking an airplane.
September	Heavy fighting between Jordanian army and Palestinian terrorists. Syria invades Jordan. U.S. moves Sixth Fleet to Eastern Mediterranean
	Black September: clashes between Jordanian forces and the PLO, in an attempt by the PLO to take control of the country, end in Jordanian victory; the PLO regroups in Lebanon.
September 6	Three airliners holding over 400 passengers were hijacked, and taken to the Jordanian airport by the PFLP. The hostages were released in exchange for terrorists held in Germany, Switzerland, and England
September 16	Hussein proclaims martial law in Jordan and installs military governments to fight terrorists
September 18	Prime Minister Meir meets President Nixon. Israel refuses to return to Jarring talks until Egyptian missiles are withdrawn
September 27	Arab heads of state agree on formula to end hostitilies in Jordan
September 28	President Nasser dies, succeeded by Anwar Sadat
November 5	UN General Assembly calls for 90 day extension of cease-fire and resumption of Jarring talks

1971

	The Black Panthers movement becomes active in Israel among North African Jews, and begins protesting against social conditions; violent demonstrations erupt in Jerusalem.
	The three millionth citizen arrives in Israel.
	Demands of Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel continue to intensify.
February 15	Sadat formally informs Jarring Egypt willing to envisage peace arrangement with Israel - on his conditions.
February 26	Israel informs Jarring it is keen to negotiate peace arrangements with Arab states but cannot give prior committments on borders and other items to be negotiated. Jarring mission deadlocked
April	Fighting erupts again in Jordan between the King's forces and Palestinian terrorists
April 17	Egypt, Syria and Libya sign agreement to form Federation of Arab Republics
May 27	Egypt and USSR sign 15-year treaty of friendship and co-operation.
July 23	Sadat is granted full powers by Arab Socialist Union to take action to recover Arab lands from Israel.
August 12	Syria breaks off diplomatic ties with Jordan following border clashes
November 28	Jordanian Premier Wasfi Tal assassinated in Cairo by Palestinian terrorists.
December 2	Prime Minister Golda Meir meets President Nixon in Washington

1972

	Ordination of first (Reform) Jewish woman rabbi in U.S.
March 15	Hussein announces plan to make Jordan federal state. Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Libya reject the plan
April 6	Egypt breaks off diplomatic relations with Jordan because of Hussein's federal plan.
	Special paratrooper unit of the IDF, dressed as Arabs, free hostages on a hijacked Sabena plane in Lod.
May 9	Palestinian-inspired Japanese terrorists murder 27 people (including 21 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico) at Lod Airport.
July 18	Sadat terminates services of Soviet military advisers
August 31	Anti-Semite Bobby Fischer wins the World Chess Championships
September	Stepped up Soviet military shipments to Jordan, including misiles for the defense of Damascus
September 5	Eleven Israeli athletes are murdered at the Munich Olympic Games by Black September, a terrorist group affiliated with Fatah. (The same group also hijacks a plane en route to Tel Aviv and holds the passengers and crew hostage for 23 hours. The hostages are rescued by IDF counterrorism commandos.)
October 15	Israel strikes at terrorist bases in Jordan and Lebanon
October 29	West Germany releases Munich killers after German airliner is hijacked
November 1	USSR agrees to restore missiles to Egypt's air defence system

1973

	Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards (CJLS) of the Rabbinical Assembly approves minority opinion allowing women to count in a minyan; by 1996, fully 83% of Conservative synagogues counted women in their minyan.
	Saudi government buys 25% participation interest in Aramco.
March 1	Prime Minister Meir meets President Nixon in Washington
March 1	Palestinian terrorists kill U.S. Ambassador, his deputy head of mission, and Belgian diplomat in Khartum
March 28	Sadat proclaims himself military governor of Egypt, and declares martial law
May 24	Ephraim Kazir becomes Israel's fourth president.
September 13	Thirteen Syrian MIG-21 planes downed in aerial battle off Syrian coast.
October 6	The Yom Kippur War begins with Egyptian and Syrian forces attacking across 1967 ceasefire lines (Egypt crosses Suez Canal, Syrian forces attack Golan Heights
October 6-7	First naval battle in history fought with only missiles between Israel and Jordan. All Syrian ships sunk; no Israeli losses.
October 7	Syrian attack contained
October 8	Israeli counter-offensive in Sinai fails
October 10	Syrian forces driven back in Golan. Israel stablizes new line in Sinai
October 12	IDF advances to within 28 miles from Damascus
October 13	IDF repels Jordanian and Iraqi forces fighting with Syrians in the Golan Heights
October 15	First IDF forces cross Suez Cana
	Countering massive sea and air lift of Soviet arms to Egypt and Jordan, U.S. starts air lift to Israel
	Israel's military attache in Washington is killed by terrorists.
October 17	Arab Oil Embargo announced. Arab oil producing states announce 10 percent reduction in oil production and impose total embargo on U.S. and Netherlands.
October 17	Sadat proposes a cease-fire
October 19	President Nixon asks Congress to appropriate $2.2 billion for emergency aid to Israel
October 20	Israel expands its bridgehead on West Bank of Suez Canal, besieging Third Egyptian Army
October 22	UN Resolution 338 is passed. First cease-fire declared on southern front. Fighting continues
October 24	Second cease-fire declared on southern front; cease-fire on northern front.
October 25	President Nixon orders world-wide alert as fear of Soviet military intervention on Egypt's behalf mounts.
October 25	Security Council establishes UNEF to supervise cease fire.
October 31	Premier Meir arrives in Washington for talks with President Nixon and Secretary Kissinger
November 11	Truce agreement (6 point agreement for the stabilisation of the cease-fire) signed withEgypt at "Kilometer 101."
November 15	Exchange of POWs with Egypt.
November 18	Governement decides to set up state commission of inquiry (Agranat Commission) into the beginnning of the war.
December 1	David Ben-Gurion dies and is buried at his home in Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev.
December 21	Geneva Peace conference on Middle East opens.
December 31	Election of the Eighth Knesset.

1974

January	Shuttle diplomacy by Dr. Kissinger to bring about Israel-Egypt separation of forces agreement
January 18	Israel-Egypt separation of forces agreement is signed in kilometer 101 on the Cairo-Suez road
January 18	Sinai Disengagement Agreement signed between Israel and Egypt.
March	Continued war of attrition along the Israel-Syria cease-fire line
March 4	Israeli army deployed along new lines in Sinai in accordance with disengagement agreement
March 18	Arab states lift oil embargo on the U.S.
	Saudi government incesases its participation interest in Aramco to 60%.
April 11	In Kiryat Shemona, Israel, 18 are killed, 8 of whom were children, by PFLP terrorists who detonated their explosives during a failed rescue attempt by Israeli authorities.
	Golda Meir’s government resigns, including Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Foreign Minister Abba Eban, after the criticism of the government's handling of the Yom Kippur War.
May 15	Terrorists murder 26 people (22 of them children) at a school in Ma'alot.
May 31	Golan Heights Disengagement Agreement signed between Jordan and Israel.
June 3	Yitzhak Rabin becomes Prime Minister.
June 16	U.S. President Nixon visits Israel. First visit from U.S. president.
June 18	IDF completes its withdrawal from the “Syrian bulge” in the framework of the Israel-Syria Disengagement of Forces agreement
July 1	Rabin proclaims there is no room for another state between Israel and Jordan
	U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation is founded.
	Ordination of first Reconstructionist Jewish woman rabbi, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. She serves a joint Conservative-Reconstructionist-affiliated congregation, making her the first woman rabbi to serve a Conservative congregation.
August 10	President Ford assures Israel the U.S. will honor its committments
September 10-13	Prime Minister Rabin pays an official visit to Washington, holds talks with President Ford and senior administration officials.
October 14	The General Assembly votes 105 against 4 to invite the PLO to participate in the debate on the “Palestine question.”
October 26-30	Arab summit conference in Rabat determines that the PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian Arabs and removes Jordan from a future role in the West Bank
November 1	Reacting to the Rabat decisions, Israel announces there will be no talks with the PLO
November 13	Arafat before the General Assembly calls for the liquidation of Israel and the establishment of a “secular democratic Palestine”
November 14	Gen. George S. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff comments that Jews exert too much influence in the U.S., because Jews “own, you know, the banks in this country, the newspapers.”
November 18	An IAF helicopter crashes in Haifa bay. The crew survives.
November 20	UNESCO condemns Israel for its archaeological digs in Jerusalem.
November 22	PLO receives observer status at the UN.
December 10	71 Senators condemn recent UN resolutions against Israel

1975

	Good Fence Policy instituted between Israel and Lebanon.
	Israel unveils its first locally manufactured figher jet, the Kfir, on Independence Day.
	The 100,000th immigrant from the USSR arrives.
	The West Bank city of Ma'ale Adumim is founded.
	Settlers establish the town of Elon Moreh without the authorization of the government, which evacuates them.
	Saudi, Kuwaiti, and Venezuelan concessions come to an end.
March 6	Terrorists murder 18 civilians and three IDF soldiers in an attack on a Tel Aviv hotel
March 22	Talks with Secretary Kissinger are suspended. President Ford announces a review of U.S. arms deliveries to Israel
March 29	Sadat announces the opening of the Suez Canal on June 5
April 10	President Ford pledges another effort for peace in the Middle East
April 13	The start of the 1975-76 civil war in Lebanon
May 11	Israel and the European Economic Community sign an agreement giving Israel Associate Membership
July 4	Terorist bomb kills 15 people (including two children) at Zion Square in Jerusalem.
June 5	The Suez Canal is reopened for navigation
June 10-11	Rabin holds talks in Washington with President Ford
	“Black Muslims” in America cultivate Sunni recognition.
	President Gerald Ford signs legislation including the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which ties U.S. trade benefits to the Soviet Union to freedom of emigration for Jews.
September	First residents move into Yamit
September 1	Second Sinai agreement signed with Egypt. Israel-Egypt interim agreement is signed in Jerusalem and Alexandria. An Israel-U.S. protocol is also signed.
	Israel becomes an associate member of the European Common Market.
October 10	Israel signs the military protocol after U.S. Congress approves U.S. presence in Sinai. Abu Rudeis oil field handed to Egypt
October 22	Joint Israel-Egypt military commission meets for the first time in Sinai
November 10	UN General Assembly passes a resolution declaring Zionism to be a form of racism.
November 13	Terrorist bomb in Jerusalem kills seven.

1976

January 12	The Security Council opens Middle East debate. PLO invites, Israel boycotts the sessions.
	The U.S. vetoes a draft resolution in the Security Council. The discussion ends with no resolution being adopted.
January 26-29	Prime Minister Rabin pays an official visit to the U.S., addresses a joint session of Congress
February 22	IDF completes withdrawl under the Interim Agreement
March 22	The U.S. vetoes an anti-Israel draft resolution at the conclusion of a Security Council discussion on the situation in the West Bank
March 30	Land Day is marked by Israeli Arabs for the first time.
April 12	Elections are held in 24 municipal and local councils in the West Bank
June 27	Air France airliner enroute from Tel Aviv to Paris is hijacked after a stop over in Athens. It is flown to Entebbe.
July 3-4	IDF troops mount dramatic rescue of hostages taken to Entebbe, Uganda. Three passengers and the commander are killed during the operation.
July 11	Israeli Rina Mor wins the Miss Universe competition.
August 5	Israel and the U.S. initial an agreement for the supply to Israel of two nuclear reactors.
August 11	Terrorists attack El Al passengers in Istanbul airport
September	At its sixty-sixth session held in Cairo, the Arab League Council accepts Palestine, as represented by the PLO, as a full member of the Arab League equal to all other members
October 21	Jewish novelist Saul Bellow is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
December 10	The General Assembly adopts a resolution for a nuclear free zone in the Middle East
December 21	Prime Minister Rabin submits his government's resignation, after controversy erupted when F-15 fighters landed after the onset of Shabbat.

1977

	The first Jewish civilian settlement in Gaza is built
	U.S. Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund  (BARD) and theBinational Industrial R&D  (BIRD) Foundation are established.
March 7-9	Prime Minister Rabin visits Washington for talks with President Carter
March 9	President Carter announces new U.S. policy for the Middle East
April 7	Yitzchak Rabin announces his resignation as Labor Party leader following allegations of foreign currency violations.
April 7	Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team wins European championship for the first time.
May 10	A Yassur helicopter crashes during exercise near Jericho and 54 paratroops are killed.
	The United States adopts anti-boycott legislation.
May 17	Likud party wins elections held for the Ninth Knesset. This markes the first loss of power for the Labor Party.
	Likud forms government after Knesset elections, end of 30 years of Labor rule.Menachem Begin becomes Prime Minister.
July 6	The U.S. rejects Israeli request to sell 24 Kfir fighter-bombers to Ecuador.
July 13	Sadat says he will end the state of war with Israel only after complete Israeli withdrawl and will consider a peace treaty 5 years after last Israeli soldier leaves the territories.
July 19-21	Prime Minister Begin and President Carter confer in Washington and reach agreement on the need for Israel to negotiate with the Arab states in the framwork of a Geneva conference in the fall of 1977.
August 8	Carter says that if PLO accepts Resolution 242 in its entirety, the U.S. would then start discussions with this organization.
August 9	Israel rejects any idea of PLO participation in the peace negotiations even if it accepts Resolution 242.
August 9	Jewish serial killer David Berkowitz, known as the Son of Sam, is caught.
October 1	U.S. and the Soviet Union issue a joint communique on the Middle East, which is welcomed by Arabs and criticized by Israel.
October 13	Jewish-American physicist Rosalyn Yalow wins the Nobel prize in Physiology/Medicine for her work dealing with insulin research and diabetes.
October 28	Israel government launches new economic program, floats the pound and makes it freely convertible, controls on foreign currency abolished.
November 9	Israeli jets attack PLO base near Tyre. President Sadat announces his readiness to come to Jerusalem to address the Knesset.
November 11	Begin broadcasts to the Egyptian people and invites Sadat to Jerusalem for peace talks.
November 15	Begin sends written invitation to Sadat to come to Jerusalem. Sadat says his trip is a holy mission.
November 19	Visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem.
November 20	After praying at the al Aksa mosque Egyptian President Sadat addresses the Knessetcalling for Israeli withdrawal and the establishment of a Palestinain state.
November 21	Sadat meets with Knesset factions and in a press conference with Begin calls on Israel to make drastic decisions to reciprocate his visit. Begin-Sadat agreed communique says “no more wars.” Sadat leaves for Cairo.
December 5	Egypt severs diplomatic relations with Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen in retaliation for their decision to suspend relations with Egypt in protest against Sadat's initiative. The “rejectionist” Arab states conclude a 5-day summit meeting in Tripoli.
December 14	Cairo conference opens. PM Begin arrives in U.S. for talks with President Carter on the Israel peace plan.
December 16-17	Begin and Carter confer in Washington. Sadat invites Begin for talks with him in Egypt
December 25	Prime Minister Menachem Begin confers with Egyptian President Sadat in Ismailiya,Egypt.
December 26	Ismaliya summit concluded with a joint Begin-Sadat press conference. Disagreement over the Palestinian issue prevented a joint communique.
December 28	Carter praises Begin peace plan, but prefers a Palestinian homeland or entity linked toJordan.

1978

	Israel wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
January 1	Karnei Shomron settled by Gush Emunim.
January 4	Carter and Sadat meet in Aswan, issue the “Aswan proclamation” calling for the recognition of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and their participation in the determination of their future.
February 2	Carter administration will propose to Congress a package deal for the sale of jet plans to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
February 15	U.S. threatens to withdraw Israel request for jet planes if Congress blocks sale to Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
March 11	Coastal Road Massacre: Arab terrorists hijack buses on the Haifa-Tel Aviv road leaving 37 civilians dead and scores injured. Begin postpones his U.S. visit and Weizman returns home.
March 13	PLO forces flee Southern Lebanon. Beirut calls on UN to ward off an Israeli attack, U.S. declines to cite PLO as responsible for the bus attack.
March 14	Israel Defense Force crosses the Lebanese border, seizes a strip of 7 miles along the border. Begin says IDF will remain in Lebanon until an agreeement reached ensuring the area no longer serve as terrorist base.
March 16	Operation Litani launched in southern Lebanon
March 19	IDF takes over entire Southern Lebanon to the Litani River as U.S. seeks Security Council Resolution that will dispatch an international force to replace the IDF. Security Council adopts Resolution 425 calling for immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon and the stationing of a UN force there.
March 21-22	Begin and Carter hold two days of talks in White House. U.S. and Israel are in disagreement over a number of issues. UN forces arrive in Southern Labnon.
April 11	IDF starts withdrawl from Lebanon
	Peace Now is founded.
April 19	Yizhak Navon become Israel's fifth president.
	Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer receives Nobel Prize.
May 15	The Diaspora Museum opens in Tel Aviv
May 16	Senate approves the sale of warplanes to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Israel expresses its regret, Arab leaders are pleased.
July 9	Egypt transmits to Israel its Six Point Peace Plan based on the return of Gaza to Egyptand the West Bank to Jordan. Israel rejects the plan.
	Camp David Accords include framework for comprehensive peace in the Middle East and proposal for Palestinian self-government.
September 6-17	The Camp David conference ends in the signing, at the White House, of twoagreements: the first dealing with an Israel-Egypt peace treaty and the restoration of Sinai to the latter; the second, a framework agreement establishing a format for negotions on a five-year autonomy regime in the West Bank and Gaza region. Israel-Egypt peace talks to begin shortly with the aim of signing the treaty no later than 17 December.
September 9	Jewish film pioneer Jack Warner dies.
September 25	The Israeli Government approves the Camp David agreements by an 11-2 vote. Commerce and Industry Minister Hurwitz resigns.
September 27	The Knesset approves the Camp David agreement by a vote of 84 for, 19 against, 17 abstentations.
October 12	Opening of the talks at Blair House on the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Talks run into difficulties over teh linkage between the treaty and developments in teh West Bank and Gaza; oil supply for Israel, a target date for teh establishment of the autonomy and Egypt's demands for early Israeli withdrawal.
November 21	The Israel Government adopts the text of the Peace Treaty, but Egypt introduces new demands regarding teh stages of withdrawal from Sinai and the oil rights Israel is to have on wells it discovered and developed in Sinai.
	American neo-Nazis receive permission to march in Skokie. After Supreme Court denies Skokie's request to cancel the march, the Nazis hold a rally in Marquette Park, Chicago instead.
	Natan Sharansky is convicted of espionage and receives a 13 year sentence.
December 10	Prime Minister Begin and Egyptian President Sadat are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1979

	The Hebrew University returns to its rebuilt pre-1948 campus on Mount Scopus.
	JTS Faculty Senate tables issue of ordaining women because of “provoking unprecedented divisions . . . . The bitter divergence of opinion threatens to inflict irreparable damage.”
	A revolution in Iran forces the Shah to flee and an Islamic Republic is created under Ayatollah Khomeini. Americans are taken hostage and held for 444 days in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
March 1-4	Begin-Carter talks in the White House. After initial serious disagreement, a last minute solution is reached on some remaining issues.
March 10-13	President Carter visits Israel and wins additional concessions from Israel.
March 14	President Sadat accepts the last minute changes brought from Jerusalem by President Carter, thus paving the way for teh signing of the peace treaty.
March 19	The Israel Government approves the text of the peace treaty.
March 22	The Knesset approves the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty, by a vote of 95 for, 18 against, 2 abstentations, 3 absent.
March 26	Peacy treaty between Egypt and Israel signed in Washington, D.C.
	Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty signed and Arab relations with Egypt are severed.
April 2-3	Prime Minister Begin pays an official visit to Cairo, meets with President Sadat.
April 30	The first Israeli vessel flying the Israeli flag sails through the Suez Canal. President Carter again terms Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria an obstacle to peace and contrary to international law.
May 25	El Arish is handed over to Egypt within the implementation of the first phase of Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Israeli and Egyptian negotiators meet in Beersheva for the first round of the autonomy talks in the presence of Secretary of State Vance.
June 27	In an air battle over Lebanon, Israeli air force plans down six Syrian MIG 21's.
July 2-3	Newly appointed U.S. special envoy for the autonomy talks, Robert Strauss, meets with Prime Minister Begin in Jerusalem and President Sadat in Alexandria.
July 10-12	Prime Minister Begin and President Sadat meet for two days of talks in Alexandria.
July 19	The U.S. and the USSR agree to replace UNEF in Sinai by UNTSO. Three days later Israel announces its objections to the plan.
July 24	The Security Council terminates the mandate of UNEF. Members of this force will be replaced by UNTSO. Israel opposes the plan saying it is not an acceptable alternative multi-national force. Israel's objections are termed by the U.S. as “misconceptions.”
August 3	The IDF destroys three terrorist bases in southern Lebanon.
September 24	Israel air force planes, on a reconnaissance flight over Lebanon, clash with and down four Syrian MIG 21's.
November 7	Ambassador Sol Linowitz succeeds Robert Strauss as the U.S. special envoy for the autonomous talks.
November 15	Mt. Sinai and the Saint Catharine region are returned to Egypt two months ahead of schedule.
November 25	Israel returns the Alma oil field in A-Tour to Egypt.
December 31	Following a meeting between President Carter and Defense Minister Weizman, the U.S. announces the addition of $200 million to the $2.2 billion loan included in the special aid to Israel in teh wake of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty
	Saddam Hussein becomes Iraq's head of state.

(1980 - 1989)

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1980

	Saudi government acquires 100% participation interest in Aramco.
January 5	Egypt appoints Saad Mortada as its first ambassador to Israel. Dr. Eliyahu Ben Elissar will be Israel's first ambassador to Egypt.
February 10	The Israeli cabinet affirms the right of Israeli Jews to settle in Hebron.
February 18	Embassy of Israel opens in Cairo.
February 21	The first Egyptian diplomats arrive in Israel to open the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv
February 24	The lira is replaced by the shekel (1 shekel = 10 lirot).
March 1	The Security Council adopts a resolution calling on Israel to dismantle existing settlements and discontinue establishing new settlements. The U.S. votes in favor. Later President Carter disavowed the vote saying it was the result of communication failure.
March 3	Israel inaugurates commercial air links with Egypt. Israeli and Egyptian officials initial in Cairo a five year cooperation agreement in the spheres of culture, education and science.
March 11	An Israel-Egypt agreement on tourism is signed in Cairo.
March 14	An Israel-Egypt civil aviation agreement is initiliated in Tel Aviv.
March 18	A contract for the sale of Egyptian oil to Israel is signed in Cairo.
March 30	An Israel-Egypt transportation agreement is signed in Tel Aviv regulating sea and land movement of people and goods.
April 30	The U.S. vetoes a Security Council draft resolution calling for the creation of a Palestinian state
May 2	Terrorists in Hebron kill seven Jewish students and wound 16 others. The mayors of Hebron and Halhoul are deported to Lebanon for incitement.
May 8	The Security Council votes for a resolution calling on Israel to rescind the deportation of the mayors of Hebron and Halhoul. The U.S. abstains
May 25	In an interview in The Washington Post Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia says that if Israel would declare its intention to withdraw from areas occupied in 1967, “Saudi Arabia would do its utmost to bring the Arabs to cooperate and work for a full settlement.”Begin invites Fahd to come to Jerusalem and address the Knesset.
June 2	Two West Bank mayors are injured in bombings by members of the Jewish underground.
July 30	Basic Law: “Jerusalem, Capital of Israel” is passed, strengthening the 1967 annexation of the eastern part of the city.
August 20	The Security Council votes to condemn Israel for the passage of the Jerusalem law and urged all nations not to recognize it. The U.S. abstains.
September 20	A conference of Islamic foreign ministers is held in Fez. They agree on a plan to force Israel out of the UN and to lead a holy war against Israel.
October 17	Israel and the U.S. sign an agreement guaranteeing the supply of oil to Israel in times of specified emergencies.
December 31	Israeli planes strike at terrorist bases in southern Lebanon. Two Syrian planes are shot down.

1981

January 28	Six Israelis are wounded by Katyusha rockets fired at Kiryat Shmona from Lebanon.
March 2	Israeli jets attack terrorist targets near Tyre following katyusha attack on Kiryat Shmona.
March 27	Maccabi Tel-Aviv basketball team wins European Champions' Cup.
April 28	Israeli jets down two Syrian helicopters near Zahla in Lebanon. Prime Minister Begin explained the action as an effort to prevent Syrian domination of Lebanon
April 29	Syria introduces S.A. 6 ground to air missiles into the Bekka Valley in Lebanon. Israeli planes attack targets in south Lebanon
June 7	Israel Air Force destroys Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak just before it is to become operative.
June 10	The U.S. suspends arms deliveries to Israel in the wake of the Baghdad raid.
June 20	The Security Council condemns Israel for the raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor.
June 30	Israel elects the tenth Knesset. Likud wins 48 seats, Labor 47. PM Begin starts talks for the formation of the new government.
July 15	In heavy shelling of northern Galilee, 3 Israelis are killed in Nahariyah and 17 wounded in Kiryat Shmona.
July 24	Israel accepts a cease fire proposal brought by Ambassador Habib. In ten days of shelling six Israelis were killed, 65 wounded. Heavy damage caused to homes, factories and public buildings.
September 6-16	Prime Minister Begin, accompanied by Ministers Shamir, Sharon, and Burg visit Washington for talks with President Reagan and his senior advisors on U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia and U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation agreement.
October 1	Diary of Holocaust survivor Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life: the Diary of Etty Hillesum, is finally published.
October 6	Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated in Cairo. Israeli leaders eulogize the late president. Hosni Mubarak succeeds him.
October 9	U.S. court in Los Angeles issues a final ruling that Jews were definitely gassed to death in Auschwitz.
October 27	Israel and Egypt conclude three days of discussions on the normalization process, led by Defense Minister Sharon and Egyptian Foreign Minister Kamal Hassan Ali. Series of agreements are signed.
October 29	Israeli condemns a U.S. Senate vote to approve sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia.
November 2	In a speech to the Knesset, Prime Minister Begin rejects Prince Fahd 8 Point Peace Plan.
November 30	Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with U.S. for military and civilian cooperation.
December 14	The United States sells AWACS radar planes to Saudi Arabia after a divisive battle with the pro-Israel lobby. Golan Heights Law passed.
December 18	The U.S. suspends the implementation of the strategic cooperation agreement. The Security Council calls on Israel to rescind forthwith the Golan Heights Law.

1982

	OPEC's first quotas established .
February 2	The U.N. General Assembly condemns Israel for the passage of the Golan Heights Law.
February 15	The Knesset expressed its regret over U.S. sale of F-16 and Hawk missiles to Jordan.
March	Israel proceeds to dismantle and remove its civilian settlements in northern Sinai.
April 3	An Israeli diplomat is assassinated by terrorists in Paris.
Mid-April	Students and a few families are the last holdouts in Yamit. About 200 soldiers clash with 200 protesters barricaded on roofs.
April 21	Israel downs two Syrian MIGs over Lebanon, bombs terrorist bases in Sidon.
April 23	The Sinai town of Yamit is leveled, completing withdrawal from Sinai.
April 25	Israel's three-stage withdrawal from Sinai completed. President Reagan congratulates President Mubarak and Prime Minister Begin on the new phase of Israel-Egypt ties.
May 9	Israeli jets bomb terrorist targets in southern Lebanon for the first time since July 24, 1981. Northern and Western Galilee are shelled by PLO artillery.
May 16	The Israeli embassy in Kinshasa, Zaire, is re-opened after diplomatic ties resumed.
June 3	Israel's ambassador to London, Shlomo Argov, is wounded in a Palestinian terrorist attack.
June 4	Israeli airplanes raid terrorist targets in Beirut and southern Lebanon. The PLOretaliates by massive artillery bombardment of the entire northern border causing heavy damage.
June 6	Operation Peace for the Galilee (June 1982) removes Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists from Lebanon.
June 6	IDF units cross the Lebanese border and advance along the coastal road to Tyre, reach Nabatiya in central Lebanon and move into Fatahland in the east.
June 7	The IDF continues its advance, captures the Beaufort Castle and clashes with the Syrian army. The navy lands tanks and infantry north of Sidon.
June 8	Sidon falls to the IDF whose advance units reach Damur, while other units advance towards the Beirut-Damascus road. The Knesset rejects (by 94 votes) a no-confidence motion. 6 Syrian MIGs are downed.
June 9	U.S. vetoes a Security Council draft resolution condemning the Israeli operation. 19 Syrian ground to air missile batteries are destroyed by the Israel Air Force in the Bekaa Valley. 22 Syrian planes are downed. IDF reaches Lake Karoun in the Bekaa Valley and the vicinity of Beirut's international airport.
June 10	President Reagan demands an immediate cease fire. The government, in an emergency session, accepts his call. IDF reaches the Beirut Damascus road.
June 13	Israel proposes an arrangement for southern Lebanon to include the stationing of a multinational force.
June 21	Prime Minister Begin holds talks with President Reagan in the White House.
June 26	In an emergency session, the UN General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for an end to hostilities and immediate unconditional withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon (127 to 2).
July 4	The IDF begins to besiege West Beirut, cutting off power and water. Israel allows Ambassador Habib additional time to continue his efforts to bring about the PLO withdrawal.
July 19	President Reagan orders the hold up of cluster bombs for Israel.
July 25	The Israel Air Force destroys three ground-to-air Syrian SAM batteries in the Bekaa Valley. Israel jets continue to bombard terrorist targets in West Beirut.
July 30	The Security Council adopts a resolution calling on Israel to lift the siege from Beirut. The U.S. is absent from the vote. Israel expresses the hope for a peaceful solution for the PLO evacuation from Beirut.
August 2	In a meeting with Foreign Minister Shamir, President Reagan demands that Israel cease all hostilities in Beirut. Israel agrees to allow Ambassador Habib additional time for his diplomatic efforts.
August 4	IDF intensifies the siege of West Beirut, occupying additional positions overlooking that area. 18 Israeli soldiers die in these battles. President Reagan demands of Mr. Begin an immediate halt to the shelling of Beirut threatening to review U.S.-Israel relations.
August 12	Israeli jets carry out massive air raids on Beirut. President Reagan phones Prime Minister Begin demanding an end to the bombing. PM Begin agrees to halt the raids.
August 19	The Government approves the agreement. The PLO withdrawal to begin on 21 August and be completed by 1 September. At an emergency session of the UN General Assembly, a resolution is adopted (by 107 in favor, 5 against and 27 abstentations) calling in fact for the creation of a Palestinian state. Israel announces its objection to any change in Resolution 242.
23 August	Bashir Gemayel is elected President of Lebanon. His inaugural date is set for 23 September.
September 1	Prime Minister Begin holds talks with Bashir Gemayel in Nahariya. Gemayel rejects his call for the signing of an Israel-Lebanon peace treaty. The PLO withdrawal from Beirut is completed.
September 1	President Reagan offers a Middle East Peace Plan.
September 2	The Cabinet rejects the Reagan Plan, claiming it contradicts and negates the Camp David agreements. PM Begin meets with Defense Secretary Weinberger in Jerusalem.
September 4	8 Israeli soldiers are kidnapped in Lebanon.
September 13	Israeli jets attack Syrian and PLO targets in the Beka'a Valley.
September 14	President elect Bashir Gemayel is murdered in the Phallange headquarters in Beirut. The IDF is ordered to take control of key positions in West Beirut
	Hundreds of thousands protest the War in Lebanon.
September 15	IDF forces enter western Beirut.
September 16	Lebanese Phalangist militiamen murder Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatilla.
September 21	Amin Gemayel is elected president of Lebanon.
September 28	IDF withdraws from Beirut. Prime Minister Begin appoints Supreme Court President Yitzchak Kahan to examine Israel's role in the massacre at Sabra and Shatilla.
September 29	Israel completes its withdrawal from West Beirut.
October 4	Israeli jets destroy Syrian SAM 9 missiles in Lebanon.
October 10	The Cabinet announces its position regarding withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon; peace treaty with Lebanon; exchange of prisoners and appropriate security arrangements for Israel.
October 26	An Iranian attempt to disqualify Israel from attending the General Assembly fails.
November 11	The Israeli military government building in Tyre collapses due to gas leakage, 75 Israeli soldiers and 14 local Arabs die, 27 Israelis and 28 Arabs are wounded.
November 28	Foreign Minister Shamir visits Zaire and signs a series of bilateral agreements.
December 10	The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution calling on the Security Council to take action to implement the plan for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. It demands Israeli withdrawl from terrorities seized in 1967, including East Jerusalem. Israel rejects the resolution.

1983

	Faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary votes to open the rabbinical school to women, allowing them to become Conservative rabbis. Most of the senior Talmudistsleave JTS shortly after.
February 8	Kahan Commission releases report on Sabra and Shatilla massacres, finding fault with Israel's actions.
February 9	Ariel Sharon resigns as Defense Minister in the wake of the publications of the Kahan Commission report.
February 11	Emil Grunzweig, a participant in a Peace Now demonstration in Jerusalem, is murdered by a hand grenade thrown at the demonstrators.
February 13	Defense Minister Sharon resigns from his office but remains in the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio. He is replaced by Ambassador Arens.
March 22	Chaim Herzog is elected by the Knesset as Israel's sixth president.
May 16	The Knesset approves the agreement with Lebanon.
May 17	U.S. negotiated withdrawal agreement signed between Israel and Lebanon.
	Reform rabbinate decides that children of mixed marriages whose fathers are Jewish, are Jewish if so educated.
	New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Washington Post columnist Loren Jenkins win Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage of the Lebanon War.
June 10	Three Israeli soldiers are killed near Tyre bringing the number of casualties since June 1982 to 500.
June 24	Syria declares PLO chairman Yasser Arafat “persona non grata” and orders him to leave the country. Arafat flies to Tunis and calls Syria's action “regrettable.”
August 12	Liberia announces resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel at an ambassadorial level.
August 28	Prime Minister Begin informs the Cabinet of his intention to resign from office.
September 2	Prime Minister Begin resigns and Yitzhak Shamir heads new government.
September 3	IDF forces in Lebanon complete the withdrawal to the Awali River.
October 10	Shamir presents his government to the Knesset and wins a vote of confidence. He retains the Foreign Ministry.
October 23	Terrorist attack on U.S. marine headquarters in Beirut kills 241 Americans.
November 4	In a terrorist attack on IDF camp in Tyre, 28 Israeli personnel and 32 local inhabitants are killed.
November 24	In an exchange of prisoners, Israel receives six IDF soldiers in return for 4600 terrorists held in Lebanon and Israel.
November 28	Prime Minister Shamir and Defense Minister Arens hold talks in the White House and reach an agreement on joint Israel-U.S. strategic, political, military and economic cooperation.
December 10	Israeli Navy shells terrorist bases north of Tripoli.
December 20	4000 PLO terrorists are evacuated from Tripoli under UN auspices.

1984

	Reconstructionist Rabbinical College votes to admit gays and lesbians as rabbinical students.
	Reagan orders U.S. marines to leave Beirut and redeploy off-shore, ending the Amiercan role in the peacekeeping force.
January	Reverend Jessie Jackson is castigated for calling Jews - “Hymies” and New York - “Hymietown” during a conversation with Washington Post reporter Milton Coleman.
March 5	The Government of Lebanon abrogates unilaterally the May 17, 1983 Israel-Lebanon agreement.
April 2	52 civilians are wounded in a terrorist attack in the heart of Jerusalem. One terrorist is killed and two others captured.
April 12	El Salvador returns its embassy to Jerusalem.
	Palestinian gunmen hijack a bus on the Tel Aviv-Ashkelon route, starting “Bus 300” affair when the Shin Bet allegedly executed two of the gunmen while being held captive.
May 1	Three members of the Israel liason unit to Lebanon are kidnapped by Syrian soldiers south of Tripoli.
June 20	Israel and the U.S. hold joint military exercises.
July 23	Elections to the Eleventh Knesset.
August 11	American Jewish published Alfred Knopf dies.
September 13	National unity government (Likud and Labor) formed after elections. It is headed byShimon Peres with Yitzchak Shamir as Vice Premier and Minister for Foreign Affairs.
September 20	A car bomb kills 23 people in the U.S. people in the U.S. embassy in Beirut. The U.S. Senate approves the Trade Bill including an agreement to constitute Free Trade Zone with Israel.
October 7-14	Prime Minister Peres hold talks in Washington with President Reagan and senior officials, Congressional leaders and UN Security General De Cuaillar as well as leaders of the Jewish community.
November 1984 - January 1985	Operation Moses flies 7,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
December 11	U.S. and Israeli naval units hold joint maneuvers in the eastern Mediterranean.
December 14	The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution stating, inter alia, that Israel is not a peace loving nation.

1985

	Jewish Theological Seminary ordains Amy Eilberg — first woman rabbi ordained by the Conservative movement.
	Eilat becomes free trade zone.
	Administrative attache at Israeli embassy in Cairo is killed by terrorists.
January 3	Operation Moses, in which 7,500 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel, ends prematurely due to disclosures.
January 9	Israel jets bomb terrorist bases in the Bekaa Valley.
January 14	The government resolves to redeploy the IDF in Lebanon in three stages. Stage one within five weeks will see the IDF withdrawing from Sidon and being redeployed in the Nabatiyeh-Litani sector; stage two will involve withdrawal in the eastern sector and in the final phase the IDF will be redeployed along the international border. There will be a buffer zone where local Lebanese forces, assisted by the IDF, will operate.
January 20	The IDF commences stage I of the withdrawal.
January 27	Egyptian and Israeli teams start talks in Beer Sheba on Taba. At their conclusion they agree to meet again to resolve the issue.
February 16	The IDF completes the first stage of its withdrawal and redeployment. It is replaced in Sidon by units of the Lebanese army.
March 10	10 soldiers are killed and 14 wounded in a car bomb explosion outside Metulla.
March 12	The U.S. vetoes a Lebanese draft resolution condemning the Israeli Iron Fist policy in Lebanon.
April 5	The U.S. invites Israel to participate in research for the SDI (also known as Star Wars).
April 13	The IDF completes stage 2 of its redeployment in Lebanon when it leaves the Nabatiyeh area.
April 20	The Israeli navy sinks a terrorist ship some 200 kms. at sea. 20 drown and 8 are captured.
April 22	The US-Israel Free Trade Agreement is signed.
April 24	The IDF completes its withdrawal from the Bekaa Valley, Jebel Barukh and Jezzin.
May 1	The U.S. authorizes 1.5 billion dollar emergency aid to Israel.
May 5	President Ronald Reagan makes his controversial visit to Bitburg cemetery in West Germany, a military cemetary which included graves of members of the Nazi Waffen-SS.
May 21	More than 1,150 terrorists imprisoned in Israel are exchanged for three Israeli POWs in the so-called “Jibril Agreement.”
June 6	Notorious Auschwitz doctor, Josef Mengele, is confirmed dead, after his remains were exhumed from a falsely-marked grave in Brazil and tested using DNA.
June 24	Israel releases 31 Lebanese detainees in an effort to help the U.S. obtain the release of passengers hijacked aboard a TWA airliner in Beirut.
July 1	The Cabinet proclaims an emergency economic program to curb inflation. The budget is reduced, prices rise, an 18.8% devaluation of the Shekel and additional taxes are levied.
July 10	In first ruling by Israeli court convicting Israeli Jews of terrorist involvement, three Jewish settlers are convicted of murder and twelve other defendants are found guilty of committing violent crimes between 1980-84 against West Bank mayors and others.
July 17	Three Israeli delegations proceed to China to sign cooperation agreements in agriculture, hotel development and textile.
August 24	The Israel-U.S. Free Trade Zone Agreement is ratified.
October 1	Israeli airforce jets bomb PLO and Force 17 headquarters in Tunisia following continuous attacks on Israelis abroad and in Lebanon.
October 3	The U.S. abstains during a Security Council vote condemning Israel for the attack on the PLO headquarters in Tunis.
October 5	Egyptian soldier kills seven Israeli civilians touring in the Ras Bourka area in Sinai.
October 8	Palestinian terrorists hijack Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, and murder American Leon Klinghoffer.
November 6	The IDF and the U.S. army hold joint exercises.
November 19	2 Syrian MIGs are downed by Israeli jets over Lebanon as Israel clarifies that it has no interest in escalating the tension with Syria.
November 21	US Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested in Washington and charged with spying for Israel.
December 28	Terrorists attack El-Al counters in the Rome and Vienna airports killing 15 innocent bystanders.

1986

	JTS's new Chancellor, Ismar Schorsch, opens cantorial school to women on same basis as women were previously admitted to rabbinical school.
	First liver transplant in Israel takes place.
January 1	The New Shekel replaces the Shekel as Israel's currency (1 NIS = 1,000 shekels).
January 3	Washington reports that Syria had withdrawn SA 6 and SA 8 missiles from Lebanese territory.
January 13	The Inner Cabinet decides that Israel will agree to the resolution of the Taba dispute through international arbitration in return for the fulfillment by Egypt of the normalization agreement and the return of the Egyptian ambassador to Israel.
January 17	Israel and Syria sign in the Hague an agreement to establish diplomatic relations.
February 4	The Israeli airforce intercepts a Libyan executive jet en route to Damascus after hearing that terrorist leaders might be on board. The plane was released. The U.S.vetoes a Syrian resolution in the Security Council condemning Israel.
Febuary 11	Anatoly Sharansky, (Natan Sharansky) Soviet Jewish dissident, is freed from a USSR prison after 12 years and arrives in Israel.
February 12	The Ivory Coast and Israel announce the restoration of diplomatic relations.
February 17	2 IDF soldiers and an SLA soldier are kidnapped in southern Lebanon by Shi'ite terrorists. Efforts to retrieve the kidnapped fail after extensive military operations on land and at sea
February 19	King Hussein announces end of year long effort to construct joint strategy with the PLO.
February 28	Alleged Nazi criminal John Demjanjuk is deported from U.S. for trial in Israel asTreblinka's “Ivan the Terrible.”
April	Marshall Plan for Middle East Peace discussed.
May 3	Defense Minister Rabin and Defense Secretary Weinberger sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Israel's participation in the Strategic Defense Initiative.
	Elie Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize.
June 6	Kurt Waldheim is elected president of Austria.
August 18	In their first official diplomatic contact in nineteen years, Soviet and Israeli representatives meet in Helsinki, Finland to discuss resumption of consular relations.
August 24-26	Prime Minister Peres visits Cameroon. At the conclusion of the visit, both countries announce the restoration of diplomatic relations.
September 6	Terrorist attacks against synagogue in Istanbul by Abu Nidal organization on the Neveh Shalom synagogue killing 22 people.
September 30	Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant, is kidnapped by Mossad agents in Rome and smuggled to Israel to stand trial for supplying photos and information to The Sunday Times in London.
October 16	Ron Arad, Israeli Air Force navigator, is captured in Lebanon.
October 20	The rotation agreement is implemented when Shamir becomes Prime Minister andPeres becomes Vice Premier and Minister for Foreign Affairs.
October 29	Yitzchak Shamir presents his government to the Knesset.

1987

	Hamas is offically established in the Gaza Strip by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
February 9	The first batch of F-16 jet fighters arrive in Israel.
February 14	U.S. grants Israel special status as non-NATO ally.
February 16	Prime Minister Shamir leaves for talks in Washington with President Reagan and senior members of his administration.
	Demjanjuk trial begins in Israel.
March 4	Jonathan Jay Pollard, American spy for Israel, is sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty. His wife Anne was sentenced to 5 years in jail.
March 18	The Inner Cabinet denounces the Apartheid policy of South Africa and limits Israel's security ties with Pretoria.
June 4	Landau Commission investigages GSS interrogation methods.
June 4	“Night of the Hang Gliders.” Palestinian terrorist flies over border from Lebanon and attacks an IDF base. Six IDF soldiers killed.
June 9	Togo and Israel resume diplomatic relations.
July 12	A Soviet Consular mission arrives in Israel, the first since 1967.
August 30	The Cabinet decides to halt production of the Lavi fighter jet.
	Austrian president Kurt Waldheim, former officer of the Third Reich, is barred from the United States.
	German-Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development is established.
November 1	Landau Commission presents report.
November 7	Prime Minister General Zeine el Abideen Ben Ali of Tunisia removes President Bourguiba from office saying the Tunisian leader had become senile. Ben Ali becomes president.
November 25	Six Israeli soldiers are killed in a camp near Kiryat Shmona by a terrorist who reached Israel on a glider.
	First heart transplant performed in Israel.
	Two hundred thousand people attend rally in Washington, DC in support of immigration of Soviet Jewry.
December 9	Widespread violence (“The Intifada”) breaks out in Israeli-administered areas.
	Defense Minister Rabin and Secretary of Defense Carlucci sign in Washington a Memorandum of Understanding valid for ten years.

1988

January 3	Five residents of the territories are expelled, accused of hostile activities and incitement.
January 6	The Security Council adopts a resolution calling on Israel to refrain from expelling Palestinians from the areas.
January 18	The U.S. vetoes a Security Council draft resolution condemning Israel for bombing raids in Lebanon.
January 30	Prime Minister Shamir expresses reservations over Secretary of State Shultz's plan which includes an interim arrangement for the inhabitants of the territories, an international opening session, bilateral talks on permanent settlement. Shultz called for the implementation of his plan in the course of 1988.
March 7	Three terrorists infiltrate from Egypt, commandeer a bus near Dimona killing three Israeli civilians before being shot dead.
March 14-16	Prime Minister Shamir meets in Washington with President Reagan, Secretary Shultz, and other leading members of the administration as well as Congressional leaders.
April 16	Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), PLO No. 2, is assassinated, apparently by Israeli commandos, at his home in Tunis.
	Demjanjuk trial ends.
April 21	Israel and the United States sign a Memorandum of Understanding dealing with military, political, economic and scientific cooperation.
April 28	Demjanjuk is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. He appeals the ruling, and remains in solitary confinement until 1993.
June 27-28	White House issued a statement announcing a joint Israel-U.S. development of the Arrow anti-missile missile and reaffirming U.S. committment to Israel's security.
June 29	Israel and U.S. cooperate on the production of the Arrow missiles.
July 26	The Israeli Consular Mission in Moscow begins to function.
July 31	King Hussein announces the severance of legal and administrative ties between Jordan and the West Bank.
August	Twenty-five wounded in a grenade attack at the Haifa mall.
August 1	Israel expels eight leaders of the uprising to Lebanon.
September 5	The covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, circulated in the West Bank.
September 19	Israel launches into space the Ofeq 1 experimental satellite.
October 11	China agrees to the opening of an Israeli Scientific Exchange office in Beijing.
November 1	Israel elects the 12th Knesset. Likud wins 40 seats, Labor 39. The Religious parties obtain 18 seats.
November 15	In Algiers, the Palestinian National Council proclaim the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
November	Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) established.
December 10	An IDF rescue team leaves for Armenia to help rescue survivors following a devastating earthquake there.
	Arafat says he accepts Israel's right to exist and renounces terrorism to win U.S. recognition.
December	Likud government in power following elections. National Unity government formed.
December 14	President Ronald Reagan says at a White House press conference that the US has decided to open a dialogue with the PLO.
December 22	The Second National Unity Government is presented to the Knesset headed by Yitzhak Shamir. Yitzhak Rabin remains defense minister, Moshe Arens is appointed foreign minister, and Shimon Peres vice premier and finance minister.

1989

	Science Minister Ezer Weizman's alleged contacts with the PLO spark a government crisis.
January 1	Fifteen intifada “activists” are expelled to Lebanon.
January 4	Israel and Egypt complete the marking of the border near Taba.
January 9	Six-point peace initiative proposed by Israel.
January 12	The UN Security Council grants the PLO the right to speak directly to the Council as “Palestine,” on the same level as any UN member nation.
January 16	Central African Republic announces restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel.
January 17	The Knesset unanimously adopts a resolution calling on President Bush to pardonJonathan Pollard.
February 1	Prime Minister Shamir proposes a two-stage peace plan.
February 15	Taba is returned to Egypt via international negotiations.
February 17	Israel's minister for religious affairs visits Hungary, being the first Israeli minister on an official visit to that country.
March 15	Taba is restored to Egyptian sovereignty.
May 14	The government issues a peace initiative based on four points.
June 29	Eight intifada leaders are deported to Lebanon.
July 6	The Security Council condemns Israel for the deportation of eight Palestinians.
July 6	An Arab terrorist commandeers a bus on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. The bus crashes into a ravine. 14 passengers are killed and 30 wounded.
July 29	IDF commandos kidnap Sheikh Obeid, Hezbollah's spiritual leader, from his village in southern Lebanon.
September 1	The Soviet government permits the opening of a Jewish school in Riga, the first in fifty years.
September 15	Egypt transmits to Israel a ten-point plan for elections in the areas.
September 18	Israel and Hungary restore full diplomatic relations.
September 22	More than sixty U.S. Senators sign a letter to Secretary of State James Baker opposing the grant of an entry visa for Palestinean leader Yasser Arafat to address the UN Genreal Assembly.
October 4	Egypt and Israel sign a memorandum for the development of industrial and commercial ties.
	Syrian pilot defects to Israel, landing a MIG-23 at Megiddo.
	Israeli Cabinet and Knesset approve free and democratic elections in the West Bankand Gaza.
October 6	Five point plan for peace proposed by U.S. Secretary of State James Baker.
November 3	Israel and Ethiopia restore full diplomatic relations.
November 9	The Berlin Wall comes down.
November 15	The Prime Minister meets in Washington with President Bush and Secretary of State Baker.
Late 1989	Start of mass immigration of Jews from former Soviet Union.

(1990 - 1999)

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1990

1990	Life magazine's list of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century included 15 Jews: Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, Abraham Flexner, Betty Friedan, Milton Friedman, Edwin Land, William Levitt, Louis B. Mayer, J. Robert Oppenheimer, William Paley, Jonas Salk, Alfred Stiegitz, and Walter Winchell.
1990	Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the rabbinical schools of the Reform movement, removes obstacles to ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis.
1990	Persian Gulf War: 1990-1991
1990	About 200,000 Soviet immigrants arrive.
1990	Israel and the USSR sign a trade pact after a 23-year break.
January 8	Israel and the U.S. sign a cooperation agreement on medicine.
January 17	Foreign Minister Arens visits Portugal, the first such visit of an Israeli minister.
February 4	Nine Israelis are killed and 16 wounded in an attack on a tourist bus in Egypt.
February 9	Foreign Minister Arens signs a protocol in Prague renewing diplomatic relations between Israel and Czechoslovakia.
	Czechoslovakia restores diplomatic relations with Israel.
February 11	Nelson Mandela is freed from prison. A month later he meets with Yasser Arafat, who wishes him success in fighting apartheid.
February 27	Poland retores diplomatic relations with Israel.
March 15	Break-up of the national unity government following a vote of no-confidence in theKnesset. The peace process is effectively in abeyance.
March 24	U.S. Senate adopts a resolution recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
April 3	Israel and Bulgaria sign a protocol to restore diplomatic relations.
April 23	Israel launches the Ofek 2 satellite into space.
April 24	The U.S. House of Representatives adopts a resolution recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
May 3	Israel and Bulgaria restore full diplomatic relations.
May 20	Ami Popper murders seven Arab workers at Vradim Junction in Rishon Lezion.
May 21	Greece grants a de jure recognition to Israel and establishes full diplomatic relations with Israel.
May 30	Two motorboats manned by PLO terrorists land in central Israel. IDF repulses the attackers. The Palestine Liberation Front assumes responsibility for the raid.
May 31	The U.S. vetoes a draft resolution in the Security Council to send an observer to the territories.
June 8	Yitzhak Shamir presents his government to the Knesset. David Levy appointed foreign minister and Moshe Arens defense minister.
June 20	The U.S. suspends its dialogue with the PLO for its failure to condemn the May 30 attacks on Israel.
August 2	Iraq invades Kuwait.
August 6	The Security Council imposes economic sanctions on Iraq.
August 7	The U.S. begins to send troops to the Persian Gulf.
August 8	Iraq annexes Kuwait.
August 9	Saddam Hussein says that military action against Iraq will be met with a strike on Israel.
August 18	Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz says Iraq will use chemical weapons if Israel uses nuclear arms.
September 3	Foreign Minister Levy visits Washington, meets with Secretary Baker. It is agreed that there be no linkage between the resolution of the Gulf crisis and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Agreement is reached on granting of U.S. loan guarantees of 400 million dollars.
September 17	Saudi Arabia and USSR sign agreement in Moscow restoring diplomatic relations after 52-year hiatus.
October 8	Disturbances on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem kill 21 Arabs.
October 9	Saddam Hussein threatens Israel with new missiles “when the time comes.”
October 12	The Security Council adopts a resolution condemning Israel and sending a fact-finding mission to Jerusalem.
October 24	The Security Council unanimously deplores Israel's refusal to permit a fact-finding mission.
November 5	Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of Jewish Defense League and Kach Party, assasinated in New York City.
November 29	The Security Council authorizes use of all necessary means against Iraq unless it withdrawls by January 15, 1991.
December 11	Following a meeting with President Bush in the White House, Prime Minister Shamir says that he was promised that there would be no deals at Israel's expense.
December 20	The Security Council approves a resolution condemning Israel's policy of expulsion calling lands occupied by Israel in 1967 including Jerusalem, Palestinian territories.
December 23	Saddam Hussein tells Spanish Television that Tel Aviv will be Iraq's first target if war breaks out.
December 24	Prime Minister Shamir threatens retaliation if Israel is attacked.
December 31	Israeli jets strike PLO bases in Lebanon.

1991

January 10	First Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries arrive in Israel.
January 14	Civil defense authorities instruct Israelis to begin preparing sealed rooms.
	PLO's second-ranking official Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf) is assassinated in Tunis.
January 15	Beginning of the Gulf War. Israel goes into state of alert as war breaks out.
January 18	Israel attacked by eight Iraqi Scud missiles during the Gulf War. Two missiles hit Tel Aviv and a third lands near Haifa, causing great damage in residential areas.
January 19	Four Iraqi Scuds launched at Israel.
January 22	A Scud missile hits Ramat Gan. 96 are injured, 400 apartments are damaged.
January 23	A Scud missile is intercepted over Haifa; as it fell it shattered windows in the Haifa area.
January 24	Eight Scuds are fired at Israel. One person is killed, 45 are injured in Ramat Gan, 144 apartments are heavily damaged, 400 other apartments are lightly damaged.
January 25	Four Scud missiles are fired at Israel. 3 are intercepted over Haifa and one over Tel Aviv. Slight damage is reported.
January 28	A Scud missile lands in the Galilee, causing no damage or injuries.
January 31	A Scud lands in the West Bank causing no injuries or damage.
February 2	A Scud missile lands in Israel causing no injury or damage.
February 3	A Scud missile lands in Israel causing no injuries or damage.
February 8	A Scud lands in the center of Israel. 25 civilians are injured, 400 apartments are damaged.
February 11	A Schud lands in the center of Israel causing no injury or damage.
February 12	A Scud missile lands near Tel Aviv injuring 6 residents and damaging dozens of homes.
February 19	2 Scuds are fired at Israel. One lands in the Negev, the other in the Galilee. Both cause no injuries or damage.
February 20	US releases $400 million loan guarentee to Israel for housing for Soviet Jewishimmigrants.
February 23	A Scud lands in the center of Israel causing a fire to break out, but no injuries or damage are reported.
February 25	Two Scuds land in the Negev desert causing no injuries or damage.
February 28	Gulf War ends.
February 28	Israel congratulates President Bush as the Gulf War comes to an end. Israel demands the elimination of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
April 1	Ehud Barak apointed twelfth IDF Chief-of-General Staff.
	Middle East peace conference convened in Madrid.
May 24-25	Operation Solomon brings Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. About 14,500 Ethiopian Jews are rescued and airlifted to Israel with 24 hours, just hours before the Mengistu regimes collapse.
July 14	The Congo restores diplomatic relations with Israel.
August 19	Albania's foreign minister visits Israel. Diplomatic relations are established.
September 4	Israel recognizes the independence of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
September 13	U.S. President George Bush criticizes Israel's friends in the U.S. and asks Israel to delay its request for $10 billion loan guarantees.
September 18	Peace activist Abie Nathan is sentenced to 18 months in jail for contacts with the PLO.
October 18	Secretary of State Baker visits Israel and together with Soviet Foreign Minister Bessmertnykh delivers a letter of invitation to the Madrid Peace Conference.
October 18	Soviet Union restores full diplomatic relations with Israel.
October 24	Israeli embassy in Moscow is rededicated.
October 30-31	Madrid Peace Conference.
October 31	Bilateral talks are held in Madrid between Israel and Syria, Lebanon and aPalestinian-Jordanian delegation.
November 3	Israel ratifies UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
	Albania's last 11 Jews arrive in Israel.
	Riots break out in Crown Heights, NY after a seven-year old black boy is killed by a car driven by Hasidic Jews.
December 9	Second round of the Middle East bilateral talks begins in Washington.
December 16	United Nations rescinds resolution equating Zionism with racism.
December 23	Soviet Ambassador Alexander Bovin presents his credentials to President Herzog.
December 26	Israel and Zambia restore diplomatic relations.

1992

1992	Conservative synagogue arm, United Synagogue of America, changes its name toUnited Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
January 3	Israel decides to expel 12 Palestinians following the murder of an Israeli settler in the Gaza Strip.
January 10	Security Council condemns Israel for the expulsion of the Palestinians.
January 18-22	Another round of peace talks is held in Washington.
January 24	Israel and the People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations.
January 28-29	The multilateral Middle East peace talks are held in Moscow.
January 29	Diplomatic relations established with India.
February 16	Hezbollah's chief Abbas Musawi is killed in an Israeli air strike in Southern Lebanon.
	Kiryat Shemona comes under heavy katyusha fire from Lebanon.
February 27-March 4	Another round of bilateral talks held in Washington ends inconclusively.
March 10	Islamic Jihad terrorists assassinate an Israeli security officer in Ankara.
March 17	Five killed and 106 wounded in attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
March 18	Knesset passes law for direct  election of the prime minister.
March 20	The U.S. accuses Israel of transferring to China information on the Patriot missile. Israel denies the charges.
April 12	Kazakhstan establishes diplomatic relations with Israel.
April 16	Angola establishes diplomatic relations with Israel.
April 26-29	Another round of peace talks is held in Washington
May 1-8	Another round of peace talks is held in Washington
May 4	Armenia establishes diplomatic relations with Israel.
May 10	King Hussein announces he will donate $8.25 million to restore Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem.
June 8	Acting PLO security head Atif Basaysu assassinated in Paris.
June 23	Elections for Thirteenth Knesset. Labor wins majority for the first time since 1977.Labor gains 44 seats, Likud 32, Meretz 12.
July 10	New government headed by Yitzhak Rabin of Labor party.
July 20	Israel formally requests loan guarantees from the U.S.
July 30 and 31	Israel wins first Olympic medals, silver and bronze in Judo.
August 21-23	A Memorandum of Understanding on trade, economic affairs and tourism is signed
August 23	Israel announces the release of 800 Palestinian prisoners. 280 houses sealed since 1987 in teh areas would be unsealed.
August 24	Round Six of the bilateral peace talks resumes in Washington until September 3
	Prime Minister Rabin cancels 11 deportation orders against PLO activists.
August 25	Israel presents a detailed autonomy plan, defining the role of the Palestinian Administrative Council controlling civilian matters.
September 10	Rabin announces that Israel is ready to accept territorial compromise on the Golan Heights in return for peace.
September 13	Gambia restores diplomatic relations with Israel.
September 14-24	The second session of Round Six of the bilateral peace talks is held in Washington.
September 15-17	Round Two of the Arms Control and Regional Security multilateral talks is held in Moscow
September 16-17	Round Two of multilateral talks is held in Washington.
September 26-27	Round Two of the multilateral talks on Environment is held in The Hague
October 5	Nicaragua restores diplomatic relations with Israel.
October 5	U.S. Congress approves the foreign aide appropriations for fiscal 1993, including the annual $3-billion military and economic aid package and the $10-billion loan guarantees
October 21-29	Session One of Round Seven of the bilateral talks is held in Washington.
October 28	Israel and Jordan announce that they had almost completed a full agenda on peace treaty, water and land claims, arms control and Palestinian refugees in Jordan
October 29-30	Multilateral talks on Economic Development are held in Paris
November 9-19	Session Second of Round Seven of the bilateral peace talks is held in Washington
November 11-12	Multilateral talks on refugees are held in Ottawa. Syria and Lebanon boycott the talks.
December 7-17	Round Eight of the bilateral peace talks is held in Washington.
December 13	An Israeli Border Policeman is kidnapped and killed by Hamas terrorists.
December 16	The cabinet approves deportation of 415 Hamas activists.
December 17	Israel expels 415 Hamas activists, 251 from the West Bank, and 164 from Gaza toLebanon. The US State Department “strongly condemns the action of deportation.”
	The Arab delegations suspend the bilateral talks in Washington in protest over theHamas deportations.
December 18	The Security Council adopts Resolution 799 which condemned Israel's actions.
	New Supreme Court building is opened.

1993

1993	The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opens in Washington, DC.
1993	Avraham Biram finds ancient inscription in Tel Dan about the dynasty of King David; it is the first time his name appears outside the Bible.
January 13	Israel ratifies an international convention banning chemical weapons.
January 19	The Knesset repeals a 1986 law banning meetings between Israelis and members of terrorist organizations, opening the way for talks with the PLO.
January 28	In a unanimous decision, the Israeli High Court of Justice rules that the Hamas deportations were legal.
February 16	Jordan appoints Sheikh Sulayman al Jabari Mufti of Jerusalem.
February 28	Arrow missiles is successfully test-fired.
March 13	Ezer Weizman is sworn in as President, succeeding Chaim Herzog.
March 16	Prime Minister Rabin visits Washington for talks with President Clinton and other political and religious leaders.
March 30	Israel's Inner Cabinet decides to seal off the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria for an indefinate period. Some 100,000 Palestinians are prevented from working in Israel.
April 14	Prime Minister Rabin and President Mubarak hold talks in Ismailiyah.
April 27	The suspended Eighth Round of bilateral peace talks is resumed in Washington, ends on May 13
April 28	Israel to allow the return of 30 deportees, expelled between 1967-1987 for PLO membership.
May 13	The Eighth Round of talks in Washington ends in deadlock when Israeli and Palestinian negotiators fail to reach an agreement on Statement of Principles.
May 30- June 1	Some 200 Libyans arrive in Jerusalem for three day visit to holy sites. Pilgrims call on Muslims to "topple Zionist entity" and establish Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinean state.
June 15	Bilateral peace talks are resumed in Washington. This round lasts until July 1.
June 30	Prime Minister Rabin starts an official visit to France. That country announces an end of arms sales embargo on Israel.
July 11-14	Visit to Israel of the deputy foreign minister of Vietnam. During his visit Israel and Vietnam sign a Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of diplomatic relations.
July 25	Israel launches “Operation Accountabity” with aerial strikes at Hizbollah and PFLPbases. Two Israeli civilians are killed in Hizballah shelling of Kiryat Shmonah.
July 29	The Supreme Court overturns the conviction of John Demjanjuk.
July 31	“Operation Accountability” ends with an understanding arranged by Secretary of State Christopher, Syria, and Lebanon to ensure that Hizballah will not shell Israel.
August	The Supreme Court overturns the conviction of John Demjanjuk
August 20	Israel-PLO agreement is signed (in secrecy) in Oslo.
August 30	Announcement is made of an Israeli-PLO agreement.
September 10	Israel and the PLO exchange letters formally recognizing each other.
September 11	The U.S. resumes ties with the PLO suspended in 1990.
September 12	Sheik Ajlun, Gaza: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) suicide bomber crashes car filled with explosives into a bus of soldiers. The car does not explode and only the driver dies.
September 13	Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements for the Palestinians signed by Israel and PLO, as representative of the Palestinian people. A historic handshake is made between Prime Minister Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
September 14	Israel and Jordan sign a formal “Common Agenda” for negotiations in Washington.
September 19	Prime Minister Rabin holds talks with President Mubarak in Cairo.
September 19	UEFA (the European football Union) grants Israel provisional membership.
September 21	Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau meets in Rome with Pope John Paul II.
September 23	Knesset ratifies the Oslo Agreeement 61-50 with 8 abstentations.
September 29	Gabon and Mautius re-establish full diplomatic ties with Israel.
September 29	Amitai Kapach killed by terrorist.
October 4	PIJ car bomb exploded next to bus on no. 173 line. Thirty people mildly injured.
October 9	Dror Forer and Aran Bachar are killed in Wadi Kelt by Islamic Jihad terrorists.
October 13	Israel-PLO talks for implementing the Declaration of Principles begin in Taba.
October 24	Two small bombs explode near the French Embassy in Tel Aviv. A member of the Jewish extremist Kahana Hay group claims responsibility, saying the explosions were in protest of PLO leader Yasser Arafats's visit to France and agreements he signed there.
October 26-28	Multilateral talks on water are held in Beijing.
October 30	Bet El resident Chaim Mizrachi stabbed to death by Arab terrorists.
November 2	Local elections held. Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek ousted by Ehud Olmert.
November 2-4	Arms control multilateral talks are held in Moscow.
November 8-9	Economic development multilateral talks are held in Copenhagen.
November 9	Suleiman al-Hawashle is run over and killed by terrorists at Shagai Junction.
November 11	Ephraim Olevi killed by Hamas terrorists in Hebron.
November 11-18	Prime Minister Rabin visits the United States for talks with President Clinton and senior officials.
November 15-16	Multilateral talks on environment are held in Cairo.
November 17	Israel-PLO Economic Coordination Committee talks open in Cairo.
November 17	Sgt. Chaim Drina stabbed to death by Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza.
December 1	Shalva Ozana and Yitzchak Weinstock shot to death by Hamas terrorists in el-Bireh
December 5	IDF soldier David Masherti is shot to death by Islamic Jihad terrorists at Holom Junction.
December 6	Mordechai and Sholom Lapid are killed by Arab terrorists in Hebron.
December 15	Steven Spielberg releases Schindler's List.
December 15-17	Meeting of Steering Committee on multilateral talks is held in Tokyo.
December 22	Eliyahu Levin and Mayer Mendolovitz are shot to death by Hamas terrorists in Betunia.
December 23	Anatoly Kolisnikov is stabbed to death in Ashdod by Fatah terrorist.
Decmber 24	Lt.-Col. Meir Mintz is killed by terrorists in Gaza.
December 29	Yuval Golan is killed by terrorists in Adorayeem
December 30	Israel and the Holy See sign a Fundamental Agreement in Jerusalem.
December 31	Chaim Weizman and David Booblil are killed by Fatah terrorists in Ramle.

1994

January 12	OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Nechemia Tamari and three other officers are killed in a helicopter crash.
January 14	Gregory Izanov stabbed to death by Hamas terrorists at Erez crossing in Gaza
January 16	President Clinton meets with President Assad in Geneva.
January 29	A Jordanian diplomat was shot and killed outside his home in Beirut. Members of the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) were arrested and prosecuted by Lebanese government.
February 9	Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yaaser Arafat sign an agreement on security arrangements of Jericho and the Gaza Strip.
February 25	Baruch Goldstein kills 29 Muslim worshippers at the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron.
February 27	The Government appoints a Commission on Inquiry to investigate the events in Hebron.
February 28	Knesset votes 93-1-7 to condemn the Hebron massacre
March 8	State commission of inquiry into the Hebron massacre begins holding hearings.
March 13	“Kach” and “Kahane Chai” are outlawed by the Government.
March 15-19	Prime Minister Rabin holds talks in Washington with President Clinton and senior U.S. officials.
March 18	The Security Council adopts a resolution condemning the Hebron massacre and calling for an international presence in that city.
March 31	Israel-PLO agreeement on Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) is reached. 160 observers (35 Danish, 35 Italian, 90 Norwegian) are deployed to Hebron for three months.
	IDF cadet Shachar Simoni kidnapped and killed in Jerusalem by Hamas terrorists.
April 6	9 Israelis killed and 45 wounded in car explosion next to a bus in the northern city of Afula. Hamas claims responsibility.
April 13	Hamas claims responsibility for suicide bomber blowing up a bus in Hadera, in central Israel in which 6 Israelis were killed and 45 wounded.
April 16	At a roadside block at Mehola, Israel in the Jordan valley, a car bomb claimed byHamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) denotes, killing one and wounding nine.
April 25	Reflooding of 6,000 dunams of Lake Hula- dried up in the 1950's- is begun.
April 29	Israel and the PLO sign an Economic Agreement in Paris.
May 4	Israel and the PLO sign an agreement giving autonomy to Jericho and the Gaza Strip.
May 8	A 160-member Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) begins its mission.
May 10	An independent list headed by Labor MK Chaim Ramon wins the Histadrut elections.
	Knesset approves Gaza-Jericho Agreement by a vote of 52-0. In a speech in a mosque in Johannesburg, Arafat calls for a jihad to liberate Jerusalem; compares Gaza-Jericho Agreement to a temporary agreement made by Mohammad with the tribe of Kuraish. After Israel protests, Yasser Arafat says he had referred to a religious jihad, which has no military significance.
May 13	Israel hands over the Jericho area to Palestinian police.
May 18	Israel completes its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip
May 19	Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan hold secret talks in London.
May 20	IDF commandos kidnap Hizballah leader Mustafa Dirani, who in 1988 sold NavigatorRon Arad to the Iranians for $300,000.
May 26	Britain lifts its 12 year old embargo on arms sales to Israel.
June 15	Vatican and Israel establish first ever diplomatic relations
June 26	State commission of inquiry into Hebron massacre releases its report.
	David Mishali killed by Fatah terrorists in Tel Aviv.
July 1	Yoram Skori was killed by Hamas terrorist in Netafim.
July 1-4	Arafat visits Gaza
July 5	Arafat visits Jericho and swears in the Palestinian Council.
July 6	Premier Rabin and Foreign Minister Peres receive the UNESCO Peace Prize in Paris. They also meet with Arafat.
	IDF soldier Aryeh Frankental killed in Beersheba by Hamas terrorist.
July 7	Sarit Prigal killed in Harsina by Hamas terrorists
July 17	Border Policeman Jacques Atias killed at Erez Checkpoint by PA police.
	Israel and Cape Verde establish diplomatic relations.
July 18	Israel and Jordan start talks in the Arava.
	A car bomb destroys the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, killing 102 and wounding others. A radical Moslem organization linked to Iran claims responsibility.
July 19	A commuter plane explodes over the Santa Rita Mountains in Panama, killing 21 persons, including Israelis, dual Israeli-Panamanian citizens, three Americans, and 12 Jews.
	Lt. Guy Ovadia shot to death in Rafiach by Hamas terrorists.
July 20	Foreign Minister Peres, Secretary of State Christopher and Jordan's Prime Minister Majali meet on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea to launch the Israel-Jordan talks.
	Implementation of Palestinian self-government in Gaza Strip and Jericho area.
	Full diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
July 23	Two unknown Palestinians escape after stabbing and seriously injuring an American woman in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.
July 25	Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty signed.
July 25-26	Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein meet at the White House; they sign theWashington Declaration ending the state of war between Israel and Jordan.
July 26	In two car bomb explosions in London, the Israeli Embassy and the offices of the Joint Israel Appeal are damaged.
July 27	Five are injured when a car bomb detonates in front of a building that houses Jewish Attackers in London.
July 30	Uganda and Israel re-establish diplomatic relations severed in 1972.
August 3	The Knesset ratifies the Washington Declaration, 91-3-2.
August 4	Israel and Senegal restore diplomatic relations, suspended in 1973.
August 8	Israel and Jordan open a border crossing post north of Eilat. King Hussein and Prime Minister Rabin meet in Aqaba.
August 9	Israel and Ghana restore diplomatic relations.
August 14	Ron Sobel shot and killed by Hamas terrorists in Kissufim.
August 24	Agreement between Israel and the PLO on Early Empowerment in the West Bank initialed in Cairo.
September 1	Israel and Morocco announce the opening of interest offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv.
September 8	Rabin tells the Cabinet of a plan for limited withdrawal on the Golan over a three-year period.
September 25	Rabin and Arafat meet at Erez checkpoint and agree to start preliminary talks on Palestinian elections and IDF re-deployment.
September 30	Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States announce lifting of Secondary and Tertiary Economic Boycotts against Israel.
October 1	Tunisia interest offices set up.
October 9	Two Hamas terrorists began shooting with automatic weapons in Jerusalem's Nahalat Shiva'a business district. Fourteen were injured, and an off-duty Israeli soldier and Israeli Arab were killed in the attack. One gunman was shot by bystanders and the other was captured.
October 9	An Israeli soldier is abducted by Hamas terrorists. Two Israelis are killed in Jerusalemby Hamas.
October 10	Israel and Rwanda resume diplomatic relations.
October 13	An IDF attempt to free abducted soldier fails.
October 14	Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yassir Arafat are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
	Cpl. Nachshon Wachsman and Captain Nir Poraz are killed by terrorists in Bir Naballah.
October 17	Israeli and Jordanian negotiators initial a peace treaty, which is unanimously approved by the government.
October 19	Twenty-two Israelis and one Dutch citizen are murdered and 48 injured when a suicide bomber strikes on the No. 5 bus in Tel Aviv.
	Israel announces completion of Jewish immigration from Syria.
October 23	The Cabinet unanimously approves the Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
October 24	Sgt. Ehud Roth and Sgt. Ilan Levy are kidnapped and shot to death by terrorists in Khan Yunis
October 25-27	President Clinton visits Israel.
October 25	The Knesset ratifies the peace treaty with Jordan, 105-3.
October 26	The Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty is signed in the Arava in the presence of President Clinton.
October 27-28	Visit to Israel of President Clinton. He addresses the Knesset, holds talks with President Weizman, Prime Minister Rabin and Foreign Minister Peres.
November 1	Israel opens a liaison office in Morocco.
November 7	The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron reopens.
November 8	Israel ratifies the peace treaty with Jordan.
November 9	In a meeting between Rabin and Yasser Arafat at the Erez checkpoint, it is decided that the Palestinian Authority will assume additional responsibilities in the civilian sphere.
November 10	King Hussein of Jordan makes his first public visit to Israel.
November 11	Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for an attack by a Palestinian suicide bomber on a bike in the Gaza Strip which killed three Israeli soldiers.
November 21-22	Prime Minister Rabin holds talks in the White House with Clinton.
December 1	Israel transfers authority to the Palestinians in the fields of health and taxation, completing the process of early empowerment.
December 10	Prime Minister Rabin, Foreign Minister Peres, and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
December 11	Israel and Jordan open embassies in each other's counties.
December 19	The European Union announces finalization of principles of the new Israel-EU agreement.
December 25	A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 12 Israelis in a bus bombing in Jerusalem. Hamasclaims responsibility.
December 26	Prime Minister Rabin visits Oman.

1995

January 2	Prime Minister Rabin halts new construction in a West Bank settlement, stating that Israel's future lies in territorial compromise with the Palestinians.
January 8	The government votes to establish a state commission of inquiry into the disappearance of Yemenite immigrant children between 1948-1954.
January 15	Prime Minister Rabin orders construction of bypass roads in the West Bank.
January 22	PIJ claims responsibility for a bombing in Beit Lid junction in central Israeli by two Palestinian suicide bombers in which 21 Israelis were killed.
February 2	Mubarak, Rabin and Yasser Arafat meet in a Cairo summit to promote Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the Interim Agreement.
February 23	Tanzania restores diplomatic relations with Israel.
February 24	Israel and Burundi resume diplomatic relations.
March 21	Rabin reiterates the separation plan through a fence manned by IDF and dogs.
April 6	Israel launches its first spy satellite into orbit.
April 9	Two Palestinian suicide bombers set off bombs outside two Israeli settlements in theGaza Strip and kill 7 Israeli soldiers and one American. Hamas and PIJ claim responsibility.
April 27	Israel confirms its intention to confiscate 130 acres of land in East Jerusalem.
May 18	U.S. vetoes a Security Council draft resolution condemning Israeli seizure of land in East Jerusalem.
May 22	The government suspends its plan to confiscate land in East Jerusalem.
May 24	Israel and Syria make small progress in talks on future security arrangements.
June 9	Prime Minister Rabin holds talks in Cairo with President Mubarak.
June 25	A PIJ member detonates cart filled with explosives near an I.D.F. vehicle, wounding three soldiers.
July 2	Worst fire in Israeli history hits Jerusalem, near Shoresh and Neve Ilan.
July 24	Hamas claims responsibility for Palestinian suicide bus bombing in Tel Aviv in which 6 Israelis were killed and 28 injured.
August 11	Israel and the PLO reach an agreement on redeployment of forces in the West Bank.
	Broadened Palestinian self-government implemented in West Bank and Gaza Strip;Palestinian Council elected.
	Shimon Peres becomes Prime Minister.
	Treaty of Association is signed with the EU.
August 21	A Palestinian suicide bomber blows up a bus in Jerusalem, killing 4 Israeli soldiers and 1 American, and wounding over 100 Israelis. Hamas claims responsibility.
September 4	Jerusalem 3000 celebrations begin.
September 24	Israeli and Palestinian negotiators intial the Oslo II agreement in Taba, Egypt.
September 27	The government approves the Oslo II agreement 18-0-2.
September 28	Oslo II signed in Washington.
October 6	The Knesset approves the Olso II agreement 61-59.
October 24	U.S. Congress approves a bill calling for the transfer of the U.S. embassy in Israel toJerusalem no later than 1999.
October 29-30	The second Middle East North Africa Economic summit is held in Amman.
November 4	Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin assassinated by Yigal Amir at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
November 6	Representatives and heads of state from all over the world , including King Hussein andPresident Mubarak attend Rabin's funeral in Jerusalem.
November 8	High Court of Justice rules that the air force cannot bar Alice Miller from its combat pilots' course based on her gender.
	The PA takes over Jenin, and deploys forces to surrounding villages.
November 19	The state commission of inquiry into the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin begins.
November 20	Israel and the EU sign a trade agreement in Brussels.
	The IDF withdraws from six West Bank towns.
November 22	The Knesset votes confidence in Shimon Peres' new government.
December 5	Yigal Amir indicted for murdering Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.
December 9	A Jewish vehicle is fired upon by terrorists in Gush Etzion. One girl is shot in the back.
December 11	IDF pulls out of Nablus a day earlier than scheduled. Palestinean forces arrive in Ramallah. Samiha Khalil announces her candidacy for presidency.
December 12-13	Prime Minister Peres holds talks in Washington with President Clinton.
December 19	Trial of Yigal Amir begins.
December 21	Israel evacuates Bethlehem, Palestinean police enter.
December 26	Israeli army pulls out from 5 villages near Hebron: Dura, Yat-ta, Bani Naim, Thahariyeh, and Nuba.
December 27	IDF leaves Ramallah.
	Israeli and Syrian negotiators meet at Wye Planation near Washington.

1996

January 6	Hamas master bomb-maker, Yihya Ayash (the Engineer), is killed in Gaza by a booby-trapped cell phone.
January 10	King Hussein of Jordan visits Tel Aviv, holds talks with Prime Minister Peres.
January 17	Israel redeploys from Abu-Dis. Ahmed Qur'ei raises the Palestinean flag, and declares the city free.
January 20	First election of Palestinian Council, Arafat becomes president with 90% of the vote.
January 28	Israel and Oman issue a joint statement.
February 5	Prime Minister Peres decides to call early elections for the 14th Knesset to be held on May 29.
February 12	Yasser Arafat sworn in as first elected President of Palestine.
February 25	Twenty-five killed and about 90 wounded when Hamas suicide bombers attacks the #18 bus in Jerusalem and the hiking post at Ashkelon Junction
February 26	An American Arab drives a rental car into a Jerusalem bus stop, killing one Israeli and injuring 23. The driver is shot and killed. Hamas claims responsibility, though the man seems to have acted on his own.
February 28	Peres warns Israel may delay its redeployment in Hebron as a result of the wave of suicide bombings.
March 2	Hamas suicide bomber blows up a bus in Jerusalem killing 20 Israels.
March 3	Palestinian suicide bomber blows up bus stop in Jerusalem, killing 8 Israelis and wounding 10. The Students of Yehiye Ayyash, a breakaway group of Hamas, claims responsibility.
March 4	A Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up in the midst of a holiday shopping crowd in a Tel Aviv mall killing 14, wounding 130. Both Hamas and PIJ claim responsibility for the attack.
March 5	President Clinton pledges to help Israel with high technology bomb detection devices.
March 13	An anti-terrorist summit conference, called the Summit of the Peace Makers is held in Sharm-el-Sheikh, attended by 25 world leaders. Syria boycotts the summit
March 14-15	President Clinton visits Israel.
March 27	Yigal Amir convincted for the assasination of Yitzchak Rabin. He received life and six additional years.
	Fundamentalist Arab terrorism against Israel escalates.
	Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox wage battle against Shabbat traffic on Bar Ilan Street,Jerusalem.
April 11	Israel lanuches “Operation Grapes of Wrath,” retaliation against Lebanon for Hizbullahterrorists' attacks on northern Israel.
April 18	A stray Israeli shell kills 100 Lebanese at Kafr Qana.
April 22	Palestine National Council (PNC) meets for first time since 1964 in Gaza.
	PNC votes to amend the PLO Covenant by 504 votes to 54, with 14 abstentions.
April 28	A cease fire in Lebanon is arranged by the U.S..
April 30	President Clinton and Prime Minister Peres issue a joint statement at the conclusion of talks in Washington.
May 3	Israel decides to postpone redeployment in Hebron.
May 4	The PLO announces it amended its National Covenent to remove anti-Israel sections. PLO refuses to announce changes and no changes appear on PLO website
	Yeshiva student David Reuvein Boim shot and killed by terrorists near Bet El.
	Jerusalem celebrates its 3,000th anniversary as the capital of the Jewish state.
	Israeli trade representation offices set up in Oman and Qatar.
May 5	Final Status Talks between the PA and Israel begin in Taba.
May 13	Near the Beth El settlement, a Hamas shooter opens fire on a bus and a group of Yeshiva students, killing a dual US/Isaeli citizen and injuring 3 Israelis. Hamas is suspected to be responsible but has not confirmed it.
May 29	Benjamin Netanyahu wins the first direct election for Prime Minister.
May 30	Likud forms government after elections for the Fourteenth Knesset.
June 2	President Arafat's plane inaugurates Gaza International Airport, coming from Sinai
June 9	A dual US/Israeli citizen and an Israeli are killed by an unidentified gunman while in their car near Zekharya. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is suspected to be responsible.
June 9	Efrat and Yaron Unger shot to death by arab terrorists near Bet Shemesh.
June 22-23	Egypt host the first Arab League Summit in six years
Summer	Israeli wins bronze medal in windsurfing competition at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.
July 2	Israeli jets bomb a base of Abu Moussa's Palestinian National Liberation Movement in Lebanon.
July 3	Israel eases the closure on the territories.
July 9	Prime Minister Netanyahu holds talks in Washington with President Clinton.
July 10	Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses the U.S. Congress, saying Israel will gradually ease its dependence on U.S. economic aid.
July 21	The bodies of two IDF soldiers missing since the 1982 war in Lebanon are returned to Israel. Israel and the SLA release 45 Hizbollah prisoners and return the bodies of 123 terrorists killed by the IDF over the years.
July 26	President Clinton denies clemency to Jonathan Pollard.
August 2	The cabinet decides to terminate the freeze on construction in Judea-Samaria and GAza placed by the previous government.
August 8	The five-nation committee monitoring the Israel-Hizbullah cease-fire in Lebanon holds its first meeting in Naqura.
August 11	Oman opens a trade office in Tel Aviv, becoming the seventh Arab state to have an official presence in Israel.
August 14	Talks between Israel and the PA resume after eight months' suspension.
August 20	In a test, an Arrow 2 missile successfully intercepts and destroys a target missile.
September 4	Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat meet for the first time at Erez Checkpoint. Both reiterate their committment to implementing the 1995 Interim Agreement.
September 9	Sgt. Sharon Edri kidnapped and shot to death by Hamas terrorists.
September 22	Qatar's Minister of Foreign Affairs says his country postponed its decision to open a trade office in Israel.
September 23	Israel opens a new exit to the Western Wall tunnel. Prime Minister Netenyahuannounces this in London. This triggers off a wave of Palestinian violence in the territories and Jerusalem.
September 23-27	In a wave of violence 14 Israelis and 56 Palestinians are killed in clashes
September 25	Violence erupts after the opening of Hasmonean Tunnel alongside the Temple Mountand Western Wall.
September 28	The UN Security Council adopts a resolution condemning Israel for opening the tunnel. The U.S. abstained in the vote, which was carried by 14-0.
October 1-2	Clinton holds bilateral talks with Netanyahu, Yasser Arafat, and King Hussein.
	Arafat secretly marries Suha Tawil in Tunis. Their daughter Zahwa is born July 24, 1995, in Paris.
November 6	Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Druze working in an Israeli-Egyptian plant in Cairo, is arrested and charged with spying for Israel.
December 13	The Governmnent reinstates financial subsidies to all settlements in the territories.
December 24	Prime Minister Netenyahu and Yasser Arafat hold talks in Erez.

1997

1997	Agreement Between the State of Israel and the Holy See.
January 5	Netenyahu and Yasser Arafat meet again in Erez.
January 12	King Hussein visits Gaza and Tel Aviv for talks with Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu
January 14-15	Hebron Agreement signed by Netenyahu and Arafat.
January 14	Christoph Meili, a guard for Switzerland's largest bank, reveals documents of transactions with the Nazis.
January 15	Israel redeploys troops in Hebron.
January 16	The Knesset approves the Hebron Protocol by 87 to 17 (one abstentation). The IDF completes its redeployment in Hebron.
February 4	Helicopter crash kills 73 Israeli soldiers.
February 11	Israel releases 30 Palestinian women prisoners.
February 13	Prime Minister Netenyahu and President Clinton meet in the White House.
February 23	Prime Minister Netenyahu meets King Hussein in Amman.
	A Palestinian gunman opens fire on tourists visiting the Empire State Building in New York City, killing a Dane and injuring tourists from the United States, Argentina,Switzerland, and France. He then shoots himself, leaving a note saying that the attack was to punish the 'enemies of Palestine.'
February 28	Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem approves construction in Har Homa.
March 13	Seven school girls are murdered by Jordanian soldier at Naharayim
March 16	King Hussein pays condolence call to families.
March 21	Suicide bombers kill 24 people in three separate attacks, one in Tel Aviv and two inJerusalem.
April 1	An Arab League meeting calls on the Arab states to freeze ties with Israel.
April 7	Prime Minister Netenyahu meets with President Clinton at the White House.
May 27	Israel and Jordan sign a water agreement
Summer	Israeli wins silver medal at European Swimming Championship.
July 30	Two consecutive suicide bombings in the Mahane Yehuda market on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem kill 16 people and wound 178 wounded. Hamas claims responsibility.
August 21	Israel and Croatia establish diplomatic relations.
September 4	Three Palestinian suicide bombers set off explosions on Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall inJerusalem, killing 4 Israelis and injuring nearly 200. Hamas claims responsibility.
September 24	Mossad agents botch an assassination attempt on Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas official, in Jordan. Israel releases Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in return for its agents.
November 10	Israel and the Holy See sign a Legal Personality Agreement.
November 16	Israel and Jordan sign an agreement on Irbid Industrial Zone.
November 16-18	Prime Minister Netenyahu visits the United States.
November 20	A Hungarian Yeshiva student is killed and an Israeli student is injured by an unknown gunman in Jerusalem's Old City. No one claims responsibility.

1998

1998	Israel celebrates its 50th anniversary.
January 7	Israel, Turkey, and the U.S. begin joint naval maneuvers in the Eastern Mediterranean. Jordan sends an observer.
January 14	A booby-trapped videocassette explodes at the Israel-Lebanon border near Metulla, injuring 3 Israelis and 3 Lebanese. The intended target was a senior Israeli intelligence officer. Al-amal claims responsibility.
January 20	Prime Minister Netenyahu meets President Clinton in the White House. The U.S. presents a plan for a three stage FRD of at least 10% of the West Bank. Netanyahu also meets twice with Secretary of State Albright.
January 22	Yasser Arafat holds talks with President Clinton. He rejects the 10% FRD plan. In a letter to Clinton he states which PLO Covenant clauses were annuled in May 1996. He also demands time out on Israel settlement expansion
January 27-28	Finance Minister Neeman holds talks in Washington on phasing down the $1.2 billion of America's economic aid to Israel
January 29	In view of mounting tension over Iraq, Israel and the U.S. Defense Department inaugurate an emergency hot line.
January 31	The PLO Executive Committee claims to approve by voice vote the annulment of offensive PLO Covenant clauses given to President Clinton. In 2004, PLO Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddoumi denied that the charter was ever annuled.
February 8	King Hussein sends President Weizman a check for $1 million for compensation to families of seven girls slain by a Jordanian soldier in Naharayim in 1997
	The U.S. offers Israel defense weapons and says it will provide Israel with an early warning sytem in case of an attack on Iraq.
February 19	The U.S. sends 10 Patriot missile batteries to Israel.
February 27	Israel apologizes to the Swiss government for the incident involving its agents. Mossad head Danny Yatom resigns.
March 1	Netenyahu offers Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in return for adequate Lebanese security guarantees. Lebanon rejects the proposal.
March 4	Ezer Weizman is re-elected for a second term as Israel's president.
	The UN General Assembly, in an emergency session on the Har Homa issue, condemns Israel by a vote of 120 for, three against, five abstentions.
March 24	Israel and Turkey sign a trade protocol in Ankara.
April 2	An Israeli vehicle is shot at near Telem, Israel. There were no casualties.
April 3	In a letter to Clinton, 81 senators urge him not to issue the FRD plan. The PA announces acceptance of the U.S. proposal for 13% FRD
April 28	Prime Minister Netenyahu holds talks in Caito with President Mubarak - their first meeting since May 27, 1997.
April 30	In Amman, Jordan, a firebomb is thrown at the Jerusalem Hotel's parking lot. The Jordanian authorities arrest 8 members of a foreign-financed Islamic group accused of being behind a number of arson attacks.
May 3	A pipe bomb causes a fire in the stairwell in the apartment building of three Arab students in the Massrara neighborhood of Jerusalem. There is little damage and right-wing extremists are suspected.
May 6	21 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives call on Clinton not to pressure Israel on the FRD plan.
June 1	Two Palestinians ambush and fire 6 bullets at an Israeli vehicle. No casualties were reported.
July 22	The Knesset adopts a bill requiring an absolute majority of Knesset members, and referendum majority before any territorial concessions are made on the Golan Heights. The bill won final approval on January 26, 1999.
July 27	Netanyahu says that Israel is now proposing a new FRD proposal based on 10% + 3% nature preserve in the Judean desert.
July 30	Israel transfers to Jordan the $50 million it owes under the Peace and Stability Fund agreement
August 7	The U.S. embassies in Nairovi and Dar es Salaam are destroyed leaving 256 dead and thousands wounded. The IDF dispatches a drescue team to Nairobi.
August 20	Rabbi Shlomo Raanan is stabbed to death in his Tel Rumeiyda home by a Hamasterrorist who came in through a window and escaped after setting fire to the house with a Molotov cocktail.
September 4	Larry Page and Sergey Brin file papers with the State of California to start a company called Google
September 24	Hamas blows up a bus station near Hebrew University in Jerusalem. An IDF soldier is injured and the station is destroyed.
September 28	Netenyahu, Clinton and Yasser Arafat hold a meeting in the White House clearing the way for summit talks in October.
September 30	A Hamas terrorist throws two grenades at a border police jeep in Hebron and injures 14IDF soldiers and 11 Palestinians. He is shot in the leg and pursued by the patrol into the Palestinian-control area of Hebron, but escapes.
October 1	A Hamas grenade attack in Hebron injures 13 soldiers and 5 Palestinians. The Palestinian terrorist from the Palestinian-controlled H-1 area threw two grenades at IDFsoldiers. One injured several Palestinian bystanders, soldiers, and border policemen. The other hit two parked cars and hurt several Palestinians. Two policemen and one soldier were moderately wounded and 10 others were only slightly injured. Five Palestinians were taken to Hebron hospitals. The attacker managed to escape to the H-1 area despite being chased by soldiers and shot in the leg.
October 15-23	Israel and the PA negotiate an agreement at the Wye River Plantation.
October 19	During rush hour at Central Bus Station in Be'er Sheva, two grenades are thrown into a crowd of civilians. At least 59 Israelis are wounded, two of whom seriously. The terrorist is captured and turned over by a number of bystanders to civil guard policemen. Hamas claims responsibility.
October 23	Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat sign the Wye River Memorandum in the White House in the presense of President Clinton and King Hussein.
October 27	Mohmoud Majzoub, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad Attacker in Lebanon, survives an Israeli car bomb assassination attempt. He is seriously woundedand his wife, 9 month-old son, and a Syrian pedestrian are also hurt.
October 29	A Hamas suicide bomber attempts to collide head-on with a school bus of children from the community of Kfar Darom going to a school near the Gush Katif Junction. The bus is being escorted by army jeeps, and the lead jeep cuts off the terrorist's car to block him from reaching the bus. The bomber then detonates the explosives near the jeep, killing at least one of the soldiers and himself. Two passengers of the jeep are seriously injured and six people have light-to-moderate injuries, including three young people and three children.
October 31	Khaled Kurdiyeh, a Fatah activist, survives an assassination attempt in Lebanon. The car bomb goes off at a Palestinian refugee camp and no one is hurt.
November 6	Two suicide bombers drive a car bomb inot the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem and injur 20 people. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.
November 14	In a speech in Nablus, Yasser Arafat calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on May 4, 1999.
November 17	The Knesset adops the Wye River Memorandum by 75 in favor, 19 against, nine abstentions and 13 absent.
November 20	The IDF carries out the first of the three FRDs outlined in the Wye agreement. Israel releases 250 Palestinian prisoners.
November 24	Israel allows the opening of Gaza International Airport.
December 14	The Palestinian National Council in Gaza reaffirms the annullment of the anti-Israel provisions of the PLO Covenant, in the presence of President Clinton.
December 21	The Knesset votes 81-30, four abstentions and five absent, to dissolve itself. Next elections to be held on May 17, 1999.

1999

1999	Reform Movement's rabbinical body (CCAR) adopts new platform of principles which shows some openness to Jewish ritual, while reaffirming Reform's ideology of personal autonomy.
1999	Fifteenth Knesset elections.
February 7	Death of King Hussein of Jordan
May 17	Ehud Barak is elected Prime Minister. One Israel party wins 26 seats, Likud - 19, Shas - 17, Meretz - 10, Shinui, Merkaz and Yisrael b'Aliya - 6 each. Arab parties win 10, the NRP - 5, UTJ - 5, National Union and Yisrael Beitenu - 4 each, and Am Ehad - 2
June 24	After Hizbullah fires rockets into Israel, the IDF strikes bridges and power stations nearand in Beirut. Hizbullah fires 36 rockets into Israel killing two civilians.
July 23	King Hassan of Morocco dies and is succeeded by his son King Mohammed VI. Barakattends his funeral on 25 July.
July 27	Israel and the Republic of Georgia sign a Memorandum of Understanding on defense cooperation. Israel and Uganda sign an agreement to expand economic ties.
August 10	At about 7:55 a.m. a driver, inspired by Hamas literature, drove twice into a group of civilians and soldiers at a bus stop in Central Israel. He injured 6 people before police shot and killed him.
	A gunman goes on a shooting rampage at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles, injuring five.
August 30	Sharon Steinmetz, 21, and Yehezkel Shai Pinpater, 26 were hiking several kilometers from the autonomous Palestinian town of Jenin when they were murdered by two Israeli Arabs. The two Islamist group members were later arrested.
September 4	Barak and Yasser Arafat sign the second Wye Accord in Sharm el-Sheikh. Secretary Albright, President Mubarak and King Abdullah also sign as witnesses.
September 5	Less than 24 hours after the signing of the Sharm el-Sheik Memorandum, two car-bombs went off at around 5:30 in Tiberias and Haifa. The blasts killed three terrorist bombers and seriously injured a 73-year-old woman.
September 9	Israel releases 199 of 350 Palestinian prisoners in the framework of the Wye II Accords.
September 10	Israel transfers 7% of the West Bank land from Area C to Area B.
October 5	Israel and the PA sign the Gaza-West Bank Safe Passage Protocol.
October 12	Barak orders dismantling of 15 of 42 unauthorized settlements built since October 1998. Eleven are to remain; in 16, no new buildings are to be allowed.
October 15	Israel releases additional 151 Palestinian prisoners.
October 18	Former South African President Nelson Mandela holds talks in Jerusalem with Israel's leaders.
October 25	Israel opens the safe passage road from Gaza to the West Bank.
October 28	Israel and Mauritania raise their missions to embassies.
November 1	President Clinton holds talks in Oslo with Barak and Yasser Arafat on final status negotiations. Barak and Yasser Arafat also have a private meeting. Clinton meets with both the next day.
November 11	Yasser Arafat refuses to sign the map for the next FRD.
November 11	Journalist Jacobo Timmerman dies
November 14	Barak and Yasser Arafat meet but fail to reach an understanding on the next FRD. Israel decides to delay the second stage of the Wye II FRD.
December 13	Barak tells the cabinet that an Israel-Syria agreement is possible within a few weeks. Addressing the Knesset, Barak says Israel may have to pay a “heavy territorial price” for peace with Syria. He wins a vote of confidence 47 for, 31 against, 24 abstentations and 18 absent.
December 15	Israel and Syria resume talks in Washington, DC. Barak, Clinton, and Syrian Foreign Minister Shara hold an opening ceremony at the White House.
December 16	Israel-Syria talks end in Washington, DC. They will resume near Washington in early January.

(2000 - 2009)

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2000

2000	Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman named first Jewish vice presidential candidate of a major political party - becomes first Jew on a major party ticket.
	Birthright Israel is created with the goal of sending thousands of young Jewish adults on trips to Israel.
January 3-10	Israeli and Syrian leaders convene in Shepardstown, WV to negotiate a peace deal. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara fail to make a deal.
January 5	Israel transfers to the PA 3% of land from Area C to Area B and 2% from Area B to PA-controlled Area A.
January 10	The Israel-Syria talks end after the U.S. proposes a draft agreement.
January 12	Israel and Jordan renew their bilateral trade agreement.
January 17	The U.S. announces freezing of the Israel-Syria talks due to fundamental differences.
January 19	Syria says it will not resume talks with Israel unless Israel pledges to withdraw to theJune 5, 1967 lines.
January 25	Israel cancels plans to send experts to Washington, D.C. to discuss a working paper onSyria.
February 1	The Multilateral Steering Committee meets in Moscow.
March 5	Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw from southern Lebanon by July.
March 14	Israel begins the deployment of the Arrow 2 missile system.
March 21	Israel and PA negotiatiors meet at Boiling Air Force Base near Washington, DC. Israel hands over 6.1% of Area B to Area A. The PA now controls 18.2% of the West Bank (Area A), and partially controls 21.8% (Area B).
March 21-26	Visit to Israel of Pope John Paul II.
March 26	President Clinton meets President Assad in Geneva; he later admits that the Israel-Syrian differences cannot be bridged.
March 27	A suicide bombing on No. 6 bus in the French Hill junction of Jerusalem injurs 28 people.
March 28	At a gas station east of Kfar Saba a suicide bombing kills two and injurs four.
April 11	Prime Minister Barak and President Clinton hold talks in the White House on FAPS, withdrawal from Lebanon and the Phalcon deal with China.
April 17	Israel informs the United Nations of its plans to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
April 22	A suicide bombing at a bus stop in Jerusalem leaves one dead and 39 injured.
April 24	Israel is given temporary membership in the UN regional group Western European and Other Groups. Israel is allowed to take part in WEOG activities in New York, but no other UN office.
May 7	Prime Minister Barak and Arafat meet in Ramallah. Barak says that Israel will shortly cede three West Bank villages near Jerusalem to Palestinian control.
May 12	Israel and Jordan sign an agreement to proceed with plans for the construction of the Akaba-Eilat airport. Lebanon anounces to the United Nations that Israeli withdrawal will not be complete until they withdraw from Sheba farms.
May 14	It is revealed that back channel talks between Israel and the PA took place in Stockholm. Israel was represented by Internal Security Minister Ben-Ami.
May 15	The cabinet, and later the Knesset, approve the transfer of Abu Dis, Izariyah and Sawarah al-Sharquiya to Area A.
May 18	Outside a Netanya shopping center a suicide bomber kills five and injurs more than 100.
May 21	Following attacks on Israeli civilians near Jericho, Israel suspends the Stockholm talks and postpones transfer of the three villages near Jerusalem to the PA.
	Election of Jorg Haider, leader of the ultra-right Freedom party, to Austria's parliament.
	Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. academic, is sued by Holocaust denier David Irving in England for libel. The case is ultimately dismissed.
May 23-June 1	Unilateral withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan notes that most of the disputed region of Sheba Farms is within United Nations control, and recommends Lebanon to proceed with negotiations.
June 1	President Clinton and PM Barak meet in Lisbon. Clinton says FAPS is within reach.
	Birthright Israel is created by philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt with the goal of sending thousands of young adults on a free trip to Israel.
	Federal judges approve $1.25 billion to settle Holocaust claims brought against Swiss banks.
June 10	Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad dies in Damascus. He was quickly suceeded by his son, Bashar Assad.
June 16	UN Secretary-General Annan certifies that Israel completed its withdrawal fromLebanon. This certification is endorsed on June 18 by the Security Council.
June 18	The United Nations officialy recognizes Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
July 10	President Ezer Weizman resigns his office.
July 11-25	Camp David Summit.
July 12	Israel cancels the Phalcon deal with China.
July 25	The Camp David meeting ends in failure. President Clinton and PM Barak blameArafat for the failure; Clinton says that Barak was much more flexible.
July 29	Arafat begins to visit foreign heads of state in an effort to gain support for the Palestinian position.
July 31	Moshe Katsav is elected Israel's eighth president.
August 5	UNIFIL completes its deployment along the Blue Line (border of Lebanon and Israel).
September 6	Clinton fails to resolve the differences between Barak and Arafat during separate meetings held with each leader during the UN Millenium Summit in New York.
September 10	The PLO Central Committee votes to postpone plans to declare Palestinian statehood.
September 13	Both sides fail to meet the deadline set for reaching a peace agreement.
September 27	An Israeli soldier is killed by a roadside bomb in Gaza.
September 28	Visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount, ultimately sparking the Second Intifada.
September 29	Clashes erupt between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
October 1	Serious clashes in the West Bank and Gaza spread to a number of Israeli cities. 13 Israeli Arabs are killed.
October 4	Israeli and Palestinian negotiators agree to a limited cease-fire during talks in Paris between Prime Minister Ehud Barak, PA President Yasser Arafat and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The cease-fire only lasts a few hours before violence is renewed.
October 7	Destruction of Joseph's Tomb after Israeli forces withdraw. Hezbollah shells northern Israel and captures three Israeli soldiers.
	Three Israeli soldiers (Adi Avitan, Omer Soued and Binyamin Avraham) are kidnapped by Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon line in the Mt. Dov sector.
October 12	Lynching of Israeli reservists in Ramallah.
	Israeli helicopters attack Palestinian targets in Gaza and Ramallah.
	Destruction of the Shalom al Yisrael Synagogue in Jericho.
October 13	Oman closes its trade office in Tel Aviv. Morocco recalls its envoy from Israel.
October 16-17	Sharm El-Sheikh Summit attended by President Clinton, President Mubarak, KingAbdullah, EU, and Israeli and Palestinian leaders who agree to cease-fire.
October 17	PM Barak and Arafat reach oral understanding on ending the uprising. PresidentClinton decided to appoint an international inquiry commission (letter headed by Senator Mitchell).
October 20	Cease-fire ends when new clashes erupt.
October 22	PM Barak suspends the peace process.
	In the wake of an Arab League summit decision, Tunisia demands Israel close its trade office in Tunis.
October 26	A PIJ suicide bomber blows himself up near the Kisufim settlement in Gaza. No Israelis are seriously hurt.
November 7	The U.S. names the Mitchell Commission members.
November 9	Qatar orders the Israel trade mission in Doha to close.
	Hussein Abayat, head of Fatah's armed militias in the southern West Bank, is killed when a missile hits his vehicle.
November 12	PM Barak meets with President Clinton in Washington, D.C.
November 16	Hezbollah militants plant an explosive near an IDF convoy. There are no casualties.
November 21	Egypt recalls its ambassador from Israel.
November 22	Jamal Abdel Razeq, suspected of involvement in a serious of deadly attacks, is ambushed and killed by the IDF, along with three other Palestinians.
November 23	Ibrahim Beni Ouda, leaders of Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, is blown up in a car in Nablus.
November 26	A charge is detonated near an IDF convoy. IDF soldier Khalil Taher is killed and two other soldiers are wounded.
December 9	PM Barak announces that he will resign on December 10 and call elections for the office of prime minister within two months. Former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, not a Knesset member, cannot run against him unless the Knesset dissolves itself, which it does not.
December 10	Prime Minister Ehud Barak resigns hoping to win a mandate in a new election for his peace policies.
	Mahmoud Yusef Moghradi, a Fatah militant accused by Israel of having planted a bomb, is killed on a bypass road.
December 11	Investigation into causes of Palestinian-Israeli violence allegedly sparked by Sharonvisit to Temple Mount is initiated under the leadership of former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.
	Anwar Mahmoud Hamran, a member of Islamic Jihad, is shot near an army post in Nablus.
December 12	Fatah militant Yusef Ahmed Abu Suwai is shot while standing outside his West Bank village home near Bethlehem.
December 13	Hamas militant Abbas Osman Awidi is killed outside his home in Hebron.
December 19	The Knesset decides not to dissolve itself, but to allow Netanyahu to run. He decides not to run.
December 22	President Clinton presents the Israeli and PA negotiating teams with a peace plan and demands acceptance by Barak and Arafat within five days.
December 25	Barak says he is prepared to accept the Clinton plan with no reservations as long as the PA does the same.
December 27	Arafat says he cannot accept the Clinton plan without additional clarifications.
December 28	President Clinton says he will not agree to further talks unless Arafat accepts his plan.
December 31	Thabet Thabet, head of Fatah in Tulkarem, is shot and killed.

2001

January 6	CIA Director Tenet holds talks on security issues with Israeli and PA officials.
January 21-27	Peace talks are held at Egyptian town of Taba, but break up after Arafat gives a vitriolic speech to an international forum accusing Israel of being “fascist” and after Palestinian militants kills two Israeli civilians.
January 31	Six mortar bombs are fired in the area of the Sion river outpost near the Lebanese border. There are no casualties.
February 6	Election of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister of Israel, winning 61 percent of the vote.
February 13	Israeli gunships kill Colonel Masoud Ayad, a leader of the Hezbollah and a member ofForce-17, Arafat's personal security force.
February 14	A Palestinian terrorist drives a bus into a group of soldiers and civilians at a bus stop near Holon, south of Tel-Aviv, killing eight and injuring 25.
February 16	Fire at an IDF convoy on Mt. Dov near Cheeba Farms. IDF soldier Elad Shneor is killed, and three other soldiers wounded.
February 19	Mahmud el-Madani, a member of Hamas' armed wing, is shot and killed in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus.
February 20	Due to domestic political pressure, Barak backs out of a deal to forge a new Israeli government in alliance with Ariel Sharon, declaring that he will not accept the post of Defense Minister in a future partnership.
	U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell states that the Bush Administration believes the Israelis and Palestinians must solve their own security issues, and that the United States' aid cannot substitute continued efforts on both sides.
February 26	The Israeli Labor Party joins a coalition government headed by Ariel Sharon. Shimon Peres is named Foreign Minister and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer assumes the position of Minister of Defense.
March 1	A bomb goes off in a service taxi at the Mei Ami juntion in Wadi Ara, killing one Israeli and injuring nine.
	The IDF and Israeli civilian officials discuss reoccupying Palestinian-controlled territory.
March 4	A suicide bomber kills himself and three Israelis and injures dozens of others at a busy intersection in Netanya. The Izzedin al-Qassam states that this is the first of ten suicide bombers trained by Hamas in response to Ariel Sharon's election.
March 7	Ariel Sharon is sworn in as Prime Minister of Israel.
March 18	An Israeli army base near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, next to the Gaza Strip, is fired at with mortar shells by Palestinians. This is the first time Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have attacked Israeli targets within Israel's borders.
March 20	Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush at the White House.
	Colin Powell visits the Middle East for the first time as Secretary of State and calls for an end to the violence.
March 21	The IDF shells a Force-17 training base, killing one Palestinian officer.
March 26	In the West Bank town of Hebron, a Palestinian sniper shoots and kills a 10-month-old baby girl, Shalhevet Pass, and wounds her father.
March 27	In the Talpiot industrial/commercial area of Jerusalem, a car bomb goes off, wounding seven bystanders. The PIJ claims responsibility. At the French Hill junction in Jerusalem, the No. 6 bus is bombed, injuring 28 people, two seriously, in an attackHamas claims to be responsible for.
March 28	A suicide bombing near the Palestinian city of Qalquilyah, two Israeli teenagers are killed. Ariel Sharon, in his first military response since taking office three weeks prior, responds by sending helicopter gunships to bombard Arafat's Force-17 military bases and training camps. One Force-17 member and two other Palestinians are killed. In another incident, a suidice bomber detonates explosives at a gas station near Kfar Saba, killing two and injuring four.
April 1	A 42-year-old Israeli woman is stabbed to death in Haifa. Her murder was the initiation rite of a terrorist cell, whose members were apprehended in July. Six members of a Hezbollah-linked Palestinian terrorist cell responsible for the murder, originally thought to be criminally motivated, were arrested in July. The murder was the initiation rite of one of the terrorists into the organization.
April 2	Israel assassinates Mohammed Abdel Al, a military activist in Islamic Jihad, by shooting rockets from helicopters at his car in Rafah in southern Gaza.
April 5	Iyyad Hardan, the military leader of the Islamic Jihad is killed when a booby-trapped public telephone booth in Jenin explodes.
April 6	Palestinians in Gaza fire three mortar shells at Netiv Haasara, an Israeli village next to Gaza. Israel responds by firing rockets by helicopter at Palestinian police installations north of Gaza City. Four or more rockets are fired, hitting a police headquarters and two other buildings.
April 10	Palestinians continue firing mortar rounds at Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip and within Israel's borders. There are no casualties. Israel's response is to fire antitank missiles at Palestinian police posts in Gaza. At one target, a Palestinian naval post, a lieutenant is killed and seven policement injured. At another target, a police headquarters in a refugee camp, ten are wounded. There incidents are considered daylight attacks, without warning, on occupied buildings, compared to previous nighttime raids.
April 11	Israeli tanks and bulldozers level buildings in a Gaza refugee camp in Khan Younis suspected of being used as lauching pad for mortar attacks. Following the raid, a ground battle ensues as hudreds of armed Palestinians summoned by mosque loudspeakers rush to defend the refugee camp against and “Iraeli invasion.” Two Palestinians are killed and 24 injured; no Israelis are killed. This is the largest and furthest Israeli ground attack into Palestinian-governed territory since the latest series of violence beginning in September.
April 14	Israeli planes hit targets in southern Lebanon in retaliation for an attack by Hezbollahon a group of Israeli soldiers, which killed one soldier.
	Fire at an IDF post in the Mt. Dov sector near Cheeba Farms. IDF soldier Elad Litvak is killed.
	Mohammed Yassin Nasser, a Hamas activist, is killed in an explosion in a house in Gaza City.
April 15	Israeli planes attack Syrian radar sites in the central mountains of Lebanon in response to Hezbollah strikes on stations of IDF soldiers along the northern Israeli border. This is the first Israeli attack against the Syrian military in five years. One Syrian soldier is killed and four other injured.
April 16	Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdullah Khatib presents Israel with an Egyptian-backed proposal for ending Israeli-Palestinian violence and renewing peace negotions. The proposal calls for Israel to end settlement construction in Gaza and the West Bank, pull out of Palestinian towns, and lift the blockade of Palestinian-controlled regions. In return, the Palestinians would stop the violence against Israelis. Israel responds coldly, promising to look over the minister's suggestions further.
	Israel briefly takes over Beit Hanoun, a territory in northern Gaza under full Palestinian control, and bombs Force-17 posts, fatally wounding one Force-17 soldier.
April 17	For the first time since ceding the Gaza Stip to the Palestinian Authority under the 1993 Oslo Agreements, the IDF occupies territory in Gaza in response to the increased attacks from the area. Ariel Sharon states that he will keep forces in the region as long as necessary, but pulls Israeli troops back after public outcries. Yasser Arafat calls the situation an “unforgivable crime”, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a rare criticism of Israel, calls the military act “excessive and disproportionate.” Powell calls for the Israeli government to vacate the area, but places the blame on a “provocative” Palestinian mortar attack for triggering the move.
April 22	A suicide bomber blows up a bus in Jerusalem, killing one and injuring 39 others.
April 28	A 60-year-old Israeli man is found stabbed to death in Kfar Ba'aneh, near Carmiel in Galilee. The terrorists responsible for the attack were apprehended in July. Six members of a Hezbollah-linked Palestinian terrorist cell responsible for the murder were arrested in July. The murder was the initiation rite of the organization.
	Imad Daud Karake, a Fatah activisit, is shot dead while driving near Bethlehem.
April 30	Mitchell Commission makes recommendations for ending violence.
	Two Hamas militants, Hamdi Madhoun and Mohamed Abu Khaled, are killed by the explosion of a booby-trapped car in a garage in Gaza City.
May 5	Ahmad Khalil Issa, a member of PIJ, is shot outside his ship in the West Bank village of Artas.
May 18	A suicide bomber blows himself up at a shopping mall in Netanya, killing five and injuring over 100.
May 21	The Mitchell Commission issues its report.
March 28	In a suicide bombing near the Palestinian city of Qalquilyah, two Israeli teenagers are killed. Ariel Sharon, in his first military response since taking office three weeks prior, responds by sending helicopter gunships to bombard Arafat's Force-17 military bases and training camps. One Force-17 member and two other Palestinians are killed.
May 25	A Hamas suicide bomber explodes his truck outside an Israeli army post in Gaza. He is killed and no one is injured.
June 1	Hamas and PIJ both claim responsibility for a suicide bombing outside the Tel Avivdiscotheque “Pascha” in which 21 Israelis die and 120 are injured.
June 12	U.S. CIA Director George Tenet negotiates a cease-fire, but Palestinians break it within a few hours of its announcement.
June 22	A suicide bombing in Gaza claims the lives of two Israeli soldiers and the bomber.
June 24	Osama Jawabri, a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and on the list of Israel's most wanted terrorists, is killed when a booby-trapped public telephone he often used exploded.
June 26	Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush at the White House.
June 29	Hezbollah fighters fire 12 rockets and mortars at an Israeli position in Cheeba Farms. Two IDF soldiers are wounded.
July 1	Hezbollah fires rockets and mortars at Israeli positions in Cheeba Farms. There are no casualties.
July 15	Israel insists on seven days of calm before it will resume peace talks with Palestinians, but violence continues to escalate.
July 16	A PIJ militant blows himself up at a bus stop north of Tel Aviv, killing two Israeli settlers. A second PIJ bomber kills himself and an Israeli woman and injures five others at a train station in Binyamina.
July 17	Helicopter gunships kill four men in Bethlehem, two of who are linked to Hamas. Israeli sources claim the men were planning an attack on the athletes at the Maccabiah games.
July 23	Israel approves construction of a security fence to improve security and preventterrorism.
July 25	Hamas activist Saleh Darwezeh dies when Israeli antitank missiles strike his car near Nablus.
July 30	Israeli rockets destroy a Hamas office in Nablus, killing Jamal Mansour, a leading Hamas figure in the West Bank.
August 5	Hamas activist Amer Mansour Habiri dies when Israeli missiles strike his car in Tulkarem in the West Bank.
August 9	One of the worst of a serious of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks occurs when a Palestinian blows himself up at a downtown Jerusalem pizzeria, Sbarro, killing 15 and wounding more than 130. Hamas and the PIJ both claim responsibility.
August 10	Israeli forces capture Orient House in East Jerusalem which acted as a base for Palestinian activity.
August 12	A PIJ suicide bombing at a restaurant near Haifa leaves 20 people wounded.
August 15	Israeli troops ambush and kill Palestinian militant Emad Abu Sneineh.
August 27	A shell attack destroys the offices of Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of the PFLP, and kills him.
August 31-September 8	The UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa.
September 1	Colonel Taiseer Khatab, an aide to the chief of Gaza intelligence, is killed when a bomb ignites under the seat of his car.
September 6	U.S. diplomats walk out of UN conference in Durban when organizers attempt to equate Zionism with racism.
September 9	A suicide bomber in Nahariya kills three and injures 31. Hamas, the PIJ, and Hezbollahclaim responsibility.
September 11	Terrorists crash airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Thousands of Palestinians take to the streets to celebrate while most of the world mourns and expresses outrage.
September 18	Arafat declares a cease-fire under pressure from the United States and Israel withdraws forces it had moved into Palestinian-controlled territories.
September 24	Sharon declares his willingness to “give the Palestinians what no one ever gave them before, the possibility of a state.”
October 2	President Buch declares support for a Palestinian state, so long as it does not threaten Israel's right to exist..
October 7	In Beit Shean, a PIJ suicide bomber kills himself and one Israeli.
October 8	A PIJ terrorist blows himself up near Kibbutz Shluhot in nothern Israel.
October 14	Israeli forces shoot and kill Abdel Rahman Hamad, the alleged architect behind the June 1 attack on a Tel Aviv discotheque that killed 22 people.
October 17	Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi is assassinated by Palestinian terrorists from the PFLP. Israel responds by sending troops into six Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
October 18	Atef Abayat of the PFLP is killed along with two other Palestinian gunmen when their car explodes near Bethlehem.
October 22	Hamas bombmaker Hayman Halaweh is killed and three others wounded when his booby-trapped car explodes in Nablus.
	Hezbollah operatives attack Israeli military positions in Cheeba Farms. There are no casualties.
November 1	Hamas officials Yasser Asideh and Fahami Abu Eisha are killed in a missile attack outside Tulkarem in the West Bank.
November 10	President Bush addresses U.N. General Assembly and for the first time an American president formally lays out a vision of a Palestinian state living in peace beside Israel.
November 23	An Israeli helicopter fires two missiles at a van in Nablus, killed Mahmoud Abu Hamoud, a top-tanking Hamas official.
November 26	President Bush sends Anthony Zinni to try to mediate an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.
November 29	A PIJ militant blows himself up on a passenger bus in northern Israel, killing three Israelis and wounding six.
December 1	Back-to-back suicide bombings in west Jerusalem leave 10 dead and 170 injured.
December 2	A suicide bomber in Haifa kills 16 and wounds 40.
	Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush at the White House.
December 10	President Bush becomes the first American president to host a reception celebratingChanukah in the White House residence.
	Muhammed Sidr, and Islamic Jihad leader, is wounded in a missile attack in Hebron.
December 12	Israeli cabinet declares Arafat “no longer relevant” after a series of horrific Palestinianterrorist attacks.
December 15	U.S. vetoes UN Security Council draft resolution that would have established an international monitoring force in Israel.
December 16	Again under pressure from the United States, Arafat issues a call for a cease-fire, but various Palestinian factions ignore him.
December 22	Israel confines Arafat to his Ramallah office until he arrests the killers of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.

2002

	Hamas builds it's first Qassam rockets
January 3	Israel captures Karine-A, a ship laden with 50 tons of weapons from Iran bound for thePalestinian Authority.
January 7	Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush at the White House.
January 15	Raed Mahmoud Karmi, a commander of Fatah Tanzim in Tulkarem, is killed.
January 24	A missile strike killes senior Hamas militant Adali Bakr Hamdam and two of his associates.
January 23	Hezbollah militants shell Israeli positions in the Golan Heights. There are no casualties.
January 25	A PIJ terrorist detonates a bomb filled with nails in a Tel Aviv mall, killing himself and injuring 24 shoppers.
January 27	A suicide bomber kills one man and injures more than 100 other people in Jerusalem in the latest of a series of terrorist incidents. This one is distinct because it is the first case of a female suicide bomber.
February 4	Five members of the DFLP are killed when their car explodes in the Gaza Strip.
	Hezbollah anti-aircraft weapons fire on Israeli warplanes conducting a surveillance mission over southern Lebanon. There are no casualties.
February 17	Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah calls for complete Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders in exchange for recognition.
February 18	Israel rejects Saudi peace plan.
March 5	Mohand Dirya (Abu Haliwa), a top Fatah Tanzim operations officer, and two members of Force 17 die in a missile strike on their car near Ramallah.
	A PIJ suicide bus bombing in Afula claims the lives of one Israeli and injures 11 others.
March 9	At Jerusalem's Cafe Moment, a suicide bombing kills 11 Israelis and injures around 54.
	Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Bridages activist Samer Awis is killed in a missile attack on his car near Ramallah.
March 12	Infiltration — In a shooting attack on the Shlomi-Metzuba route, six Israeli civilians are killed, among them IDF officer Lt. German Rojkov.
March 14	Zinni returns for a third attempt to achieve a cease-fire. This follows a decision bySharon to drop his demand for seven days of quiet before he will enter negotiations and a period of Israeli restraint in reaction to a number of terrorist attacks.
March 20	A PIJ suicide bombing near the town of Umm-al-Fahm claims the lives of seven Israelis and injures 29 others.
March 27	Twenty-eight people are killed and 134 injured when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a Passover seder in a Netanya hotel.
March 28 -April 17	“Operation Defensive Shield” is launched to halt terror attacks from the territories.
March 29	Sharon delcares Arafat an “enemy” of Israel and sends troops to root out the terror infrastructure in the Palestinian Authority. Israeli forces surround Arafat's office and keep him in “isolation.”
March 31	In Haifa a suicide bombing kills at least 15 and wounding over 35. Hamas and the PIJclaim responsibility.
April 2	Terrorists take over St. Mary's Church grounds in Bethlehem and hold the priest and a number of nuns there against their will. The terrorists used the Church as a firing position, from which they shot at IDF soldiers in the area. That same day, Palestinian gunmen entered the Church of the Nativity.
April 5	The military leader of Hamas in the West Bank, Kayes Adnan, is killed along with five other Hamas militants.
April 8	Hezbollah launches a rocket against an Israeli hilltop military position. There are no casualties.
April 10	Hamas bombs a bus near Haifa, killing eight people and injuring 22.
April 19	A PIJ suicide bombing at the Israeli checkpoint at Kisufim injures two soldiers.
April 22	Marwan Zalloum, a commander in the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and his bodyguard are killed in Hebron when missiles strike their car.
May 2	The Quartet proposes holding another conference to seek an end to the violence
May 6	Palestinian officials say deal is reached to expel six to nine Palestinian terrorists holed up in the Church of the Nativity to Italy, and transfer more than 30 others to a Gazaprison guarded by American and British jailers.
May 7	Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush at the White House.
	In Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv, 16 Israelis are killed and more than 57 other injured in a suicide bombing of a crowded hall.
May 9	After another plan falls through, a breakthrough in the Bethlehem siege is announced when Italy and Spain agree to take some of the terrorists, while Austria, Greece, Luxembourg and Ireland taking the rest.
May 10	Palestinians leave the Church of the Nativity, bringing an end to the standoff.
May 14	Khalid Abu Khairan, a Palestinian General Intelligence agent, is shot and killed in the West Bank town of Haloul.
May 19	A suicide bomber dressed as an Israeli soldier blows himself up in a Netanyamarketplace, killing 3 people and wounding 59.
May 22	Mohammed Titi, chief of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and two other militants are killed while hiding in a cemetary in the West Bank.
June	“Operation Determined Path” is a new military operation to root out terrorists in the territories following three major terrorist attacks. Israel begins to erect security fence to prevent terrorist infiltration into Israel and major settlements.
June	Nefesh b'Nefesh, a new organization founded to encourage North American aliya (immigration to Israel), launches first chartered flight of 400 North Americans making aliya at one time - a first in Israel's history. Nefesh b'Nefesh flight is also first time in history that Israel's Interior Ministry (Misrad HaPanim) processes olim (immigrants) on the flight to Israel. In 2003, Nefesh b'Nefesh brings approximately 1,000 new immigrants to Israel from North America.
June 5	A PIJ terrorist drives an explosive-laden truck into an Israeli Egged commuter bus at the Megiddo Junction near Afula, killing himself and 17 Israelis.
June 10	Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush at the White House.
June 17	President Bush chooses to exercise waiver to avoid moving the U.S. Embassy toJerusalem as called for in the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act. He argues that it would interfere with the president’s authority to formulate foreign policy.
	Walid Na'aman Aliu Sbeh, a senior member of the al-Aqsa Martyry's Bridages, is killed.
June 18	During rush hour, a suicide bomb on a Jerusalem bus kills 19 and injurs 74.
	Yusef Besharat, a member of Islamic Jihad who was accused of killing two European observers from an international force in Hebron, is killed.
June 24	President Bush calls on the Palestinians to elect new leaders, eradicate terrorism and create institutional reforms, with the vision of a Palestinian state by 2005. In the speech, Bush also calls for Israel to withdraw to its September 2000 borders and to end its settlement activity as progress is made toward security.
	Yasser Rizik, Rafah-area Hamas commander, and five other militants are killed when Israeli Apache helicopters destroy the two taxis they were riding in.
June 30	Mohamed Tahir, a senior Hamas leader, is killed in his house near Nablus.
July 4	Jehad al-A'marin, a top leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and another militant are killed in a car bomb.
July 17	Two PIJ suicide bombings in Tel Aviv leave at least three dead and 40 injured.
July 23	An Israeli warplane srops a one-ton bomb on the house of Salah Shehadeh, the head of Hamas' military wing and a close personal aide to the movement's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, killing him.
July 30	A Hamas suicide bomber blows himself up at a falafel stand in Jerusalem and kills two Israelis.
August 6	Hussaan Hamdam, a leader in Hamas' military wing, is killed.
August 14	Hamas leader Nasr Jarrar is killed when rockets hit his house in the West Bank.
August 29	Fire at an IDF post in the Mt. Dov sector. IDF soldier Ofer Misali is killed, and two other soldiers are lightly wounded.
September 19	A suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv bus leaves five dead and at least 60 injured. Hamasand the PIJ both claim responsibility.
September 26	The bodyguard of Hamas operations chief and bombmaker Mohammed Dief is killed.
September 30	President Bush chooses to exercise waiver to avoid moving the U.S. Embassy toJerusalem as called for in the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act. He argues that it would interfere with the president’s authority to formulate foreign policy.
October	Drafts of the road map” for Israeli-Palestinian peace, crafted by the Quartet — the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — are leaked to the media. The plan calls for a three-staged approach to peace, leading to an interim Palestinian state after elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the creation of a permanent state at the end of the road. Israelis argue that progress on the road map is based on a timeline, rather than measuring compliance with the plan.
October 13	Mohammed Shtewie Abayat, a member of the Fatah Tanzim militia, is killed when a public telephone explodes in his hands.
October 16	President Bush and Ariel Sharon meet in Washington. Sharon agrees to release $400 million in Palestinian tax revenue that had been frozen, and Bush gives Sharon a draft version of the road map. The two leaders also work to coordinate the right to retaliate if attacked by Iraq.
October 21	A PIJ suicide bomber crashes a jeep filled with up to 100 kilograms of explosives into a commuter bus at a bus stop east of Hadera in northern Israel, killing himself and 14 Israelis and wounding 47 others.
November 4	A PIJ militant blows himself up at a shopping mall in Kfar Saba, claiming two lives and wounding at least 30 shoppers.
	Hamad Sadder, a wanted Hamas militant, and one other man are killed in Nablus.
November 9	Iyad Sawalha, a leader of Islamic Jihad, is killed when he is shot dead in his house in Jenin.
November 21	A Hamas suicide bombing on a crowded Egged bus No. 20 driving through the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood of Jerusalem kills 11 and wounds 50.
December 4	Israeli helicopters fire several missiles at a room in the Palestinian Authority Preventive Security headquarters compound in Gaza City where Mustafa Sabah, a bombmaker responsible for destroying three Israeli battle tanks and killing seven soldiers, is employed as a guard. Sabah dies in the assault.

2003

January 5	Double suicide bombings at Tel Aviv's Central Bus Station claim the lives of 20 and leave 100 injured. Hamas and the PIJ claim responsibility.
January 21	Hezbollah fires an estimated 25 rockets and mortars at the Israeli outpost of Roueissat al-Alem in the Cheeba Farms region. There are no casualties.
January 28	Elections for the 16th Knesset.
February 16	A mysterious explosion kills six Hamas members in the Gaza Strip.
February 19	Tha'er Zakarneh, a leader in the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Bridages, is killed and four others are wounded when a small bomb detonates within a car in Jenin.
March 8	Ibrahim Makadmed, co-founded of the political wing of Hamas, and three of his bodyguards are killed in a missle strike in Gaza City.
March 10	Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is appointed the new Palestinian prime minister.
March 19	U.S.-led war against Iraq commences.
March 25	Two Hamas militants are killed in Bethlehem.
March 30	A PIJ suicide bombing at a mall in Netanya injures between 30 and 50 people.
April 8	Vice President Cheney visits northern Israel and calls on Syria to restrain Hezbollah.
	Two Hamas leaders, Saad Arabid and Ashraf Halaby, are killed in Gaza City.
April 10	Islamic Jihad military leader Mahmoud Zatme is killed in Gaza City when Israeli missiles destroy his car.
April 14	Israeli emissaries submit 14 reservations to the proposed Roadmap.
April 29	A Hamas suicide bomber with a British passport blows himself up at Mike's Place, a waterfront restaurant in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and injuring 46 others.
April 30	The road map is officially delivered to Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas.
May 1	Allied military operations in Iraq end.
May 7	Hezbollah attacks IDF positions in the Sheba farms with heavy rocket, mortar, and small arms fire. One Israeli soldier is killed and five others wounded in the attack.
May 8	Hamas militant Iyad al-Beik is killed in an Israeli helicopter strike in Gaza.
May 17	Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas hold first summit meeting.
May 18	A 19-year-old Hamas suicide bomber detonates his explosive-ladden bicycle near an Israeli army jeep in Gaza, killing himself and injuring three soldiers.
May 19	The first PIJ female suicide bomber blows herself up at a shopping mall in Afula, killing three people and injuring dozens of others.
May 23	After White House officials acknowledge Israel’s concerns about the road map in a statement, Ariel Sharon officially accepts it.
May 25	Israeli Cabinet approves road map.
June 3	President Bush meets with Arab leaders in Egypt. He says Israel “must deal with thesettlements” and make sure there is a contiguous Palestinian state. Arab leaders endorse the road map and agree to crack down on terrorism and its sources of funding.
June 4	President Bush meets in Aqaba, Jordan, with Ariel Sharon, Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah. Abbas calls for an end to the Palestinian “armed intifada” and Sharon says that he understands the Palestinians’ need for “territorial continuity” in theWest Bank. Bush names John Wolf as a new Middle East envoy, charged with monitoring implementation of the road map.
June 10	Chief Hamas political leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi is wounded and his bodyguard is killed in an Israeli helicopter attack in Gaza City.
June 11	A member of Hamas disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew blows himself up on a bus in central Jerusalem, killing himself and 16 others, and injuring 70.
June 12	Yasser Taha, a Hamas militant, is killed in Gaza City.
June 13	Hamas militant Fuad Lidawi is killed in Gaza City,
June 19	The first Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference onanti-Semitism takes place in Vienna.
	A PIJ suicide bombing at a grocery store in Sdeh Trumot near the West Bank kills the bomber and the storeowner.
June 21	Abdullah Qawasmeh, a senior militant commander of Hamas, is killed near Hebron.
June 27	An Israeli soldier and four Palestinian militants are killed in an Israeli commando operation on the house of a Hamas bombmaker in Mughraqa and capture a cell that had launched rocket attacks from Gaza.
July 5	Hezbollah fires 26 anti-aircraft missiles into northern Israel, but there are no casualties.
July 20	Hezbollah snipers fire on an Israeli outpost near Shtula, killing two Israeli soldiers.
July 22	Hezbollah fires anti-aircraft shells as Israeli jets flying over southern Lebanon. Two Israelis in the nearby town of Shlomi are wounded.
July 29	Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush at the White House. Hamas and PIJ suspend attacks against Israel for three months, while Fatah declares six month truce.
August 6	Israel releases 339 Palestinian prisoners.
August 8	Hezbollah militants fire rockets and mortars at three Israeli military positions in Cheeba Farms. Israeli retaliates with airstrikes against suspected Hezbollah positions in the disputed area and Lebanon.
August 10	Haviv Dadon, 16, of Shlomi, was struck in the chest and killed by shrapnel from an antiaircraft shell fired by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. Four others are wounded. It is the first killing of an Israeli civilian since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon three years earlier.
August 12	Hamas suicide bomber blows himself up in Ariel in the West Bank, killing one person and wounding two.
August 19	Attack on Jerusalem bus kills 22 and injures at least 100.
September 6	Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) resigns as Palestinian prime minister.
September 7	Ahmed Qureia (Abu Alaa) is named Palestinian prime minister.
October 6	Staff Sgt. David Solomonov is killed when Hezbollah fired at an IDF force south of the Fatma Gate in the eastern sector. In addition, Hezbollah fired missiles and rockets at an IDF post in the Reches Ramim area.
October 15	Bomb explodes in Gaza killing three United States security guards.
November 7	Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform Movement's synagogue arm, renames itself the Union for Reform Judaism, after 130 years of being the UAHC.
December 1	Geneva Accords signed, outlining a draft of permanent status agreements.
December 17	President Bush signs the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act of 2003.
December 18	Sharon announces intent of unilateral disengagement.

2004

January 5	Prime Minister Ariel Sharon addresses the central committee of the Likud Party to affirm his “Disengagement Plan” for unilateral withdrawal, which he announced in December 2003 at the Herzliya Conference. Sharon informs the committee that, as Prime Minister of Israel, and head of the Likud party, he plans on going forth with his plan even if the Central Committee refuses to go along with him.
January 19	An antitank missile is fired at IDF D9 while neutralizing explosive charges near Zari't. An IDF soldier, Yan Rotzenski, is killed and another soldier is severely wounded.
January 30	Israel exchanges over 400 prisoners and the remains of close to 60 Lebanese with Hezbollah, for a captured soldier and the remains of 3 other soldiers.
February 13	The White House declares that unilateral diengagement from Gaza may help ease tensions between the two parties, but that a final settlement must be reached through negotiations.
March 18	King Abdullah of Jordan meets with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to discuss Israel's security fence and the pending disengagement from Gaza.
March 22	The IDF kills Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.
March 24	Abd al-Aziz Rantissi chosen as new leader of Hamas.
March 25	U.S. vetoes Security Council Resolution condemning Israel for killing Ahmad Yassin.
April 14	President Bush commends Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's withdrawal plan and recognizes that territorial modifactions will be made to include large settlement blocks.
April 17	Israeli security forces kill Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, the co-founder of Hamas and successor to Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.
April 18	Israeli Army Radio reports that following the assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi,Mahmoud Zahar becomes the leader of Hamas. Hamas did not publicly announce Rantisi's successor out of fear that Israel would target him.
April 19	Israel gives the U.S. written commitment to dismantle illegal settlements.
April 28-29	The second Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conferenceon anti-Semitism issues declaration to fight anti-Semitism.
April 30	U.S. Court rules John Demjanjuk was a Nazi guard.
May 7	Fire in the Mt. Dov sector. IDF soldier Dennis Leminov is killed, and two other soldiers are severely wounded. The IDF returns fire.
May 11	U.S. imposes sanctions on Syria.
May 19	Marwan Barghouti convicted of murder for his involvement in three terrorist attacks in Israel that killed five people. He was acquitted for 33 other murders due to a lack of evidence of his direct involvement in those crimes.
June 6	Israel's cabinet approves a compromise disengagement plan whereby Israel would evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza Strip and 4 settlements in the northern West Bank.
June 30	Israeli High Court upholds Israel's right to build security fence, but makes slight modifications on its route.
Summer	Windsurfer Gal Fridman wins Israel's first Olympic Gold Medal.
July 9	The International Court of Justice issues non-binding advisory opinion that Israel's security barrier violates international law..
July 20	Hezbollah sniper fires at an IDF post in the western sector of the Israeli-Lebanese border. Two IDF soldiers are killed.
September 2	Security Council declares support for a free and fair presidential election in Lebanonconducted without foreign interference and calls upon all remaining foreign (Syrian) forces to withdraw from Lebanon.
November 11	Yasser Arafat dies in Paris.

2005

January 9	Palestinian Authority election; Mahmoud Abbas chosen as President.
	An explosive device is detonated against an IDF patrol at Nahal Sion. One Israeli solider is killed, and a UN officer is killed.
January 30	Iraq holds first free election in a half century.
February 7	United States Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice visits Israel and the PA.
February 8	Summit at Sharm e-Sheikh attended by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubara, and Jordan'sKing Abdullah during which Sharon and Abbas declare an end to violence. Jordan proposes deploying Palestinian soldiers (Badr Bigade) to the northern part of the West Bank. Israel approves the offer, though the plan is never put into effect. Jordan also deploys ambassador to Israel.
February 16	Knesset approves the Disengagement Implementation Law to compensate Jews who will be evacuated as a result of the disengagement plan.
February 20	Israel's cabinet adopts a revised route for the security fence closer to the pre-1967 borders in some areas.
March 16	Israel transfers control of Jericho to the Palestinians.
March 17	Multiple Palestinian groups agree to informal truce until end of year.
March 20	It is reported that Israel's defense minister approved the building of 3,500 new housing units between the Ma'ale Adumim settlement and East Jerusalem, in the E-1 corridor.
March 21	Israel transfers control of Tulkarem to the PA.
April 2	Pope John Paul II dies.
April 7	Two Israeli Arabs from the village of Rajar on the Israel-Lebanon border are kidnapped by Hezbollah operatives and held in captivity for four days in an attempt to obtain information on Israel.
April 19	Joseph Alois Ratzinger elected Pope and becomes Benedict XVI.
May 26	In a meeting with Abbas, Bush declares that changes to the 1949 armistice line must be mutually agreed upon. Abbas claims that the PA is willing to work with Israel to help plan the diesngagement from Gaza.
June 29	More than 20 mortars are fired from across the border. Cpl. Uzi Peretz of the Golani Brigade is killed and four soldiers wounded, including the unit’s doctor. Fire was exchanged and helicopters and planes attacked five Hezbollah outposts in the Reches Ramim area.
July 12	A Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) suicide bombing kills 5 in Netanya. Israel responds by reentering Tulkarem and Hamas increases rocket attacks in the South.
August 15	Israeli soldiers begin to give notices to settlers in Gaza that they must evacuate their homes within 48 hours or they will be forcibly removed. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announces that Israel intends to hold onto the main settlement block in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.
August 17	Forcible evacuation of Jews in Gaza begins.
August 22	Disengagement from the Gaza Strip completed.
August 23	Disengagement from four settlements in northern Samaria completed.
August 29	Sharon declares that there will be no more disengagements, that future territorial concessions will be handled in accordance with the Roadmap, and reiterated that the large settlement blocks would remain in Israel.
September 20	Last army units leave settlements of Ganim and Kadim in northern Samaria.
September 25	Hamas anounces intent to hault operations in Gaza.
September 27	Hamas kidnaps and kills a settler in the West Bank.
October 20	Bush urges Abbas to stand up to armed gangs and bring an end to violence.
October 26	PIJ suicide bomber kills 6 in Hadera. Israel responds by ruling out talks with PA until violence quels.
November 14	Secretary Rice visits Israel to urge Sharon not to interfere with Palestinian elections if Hamas runs for power.
November 15	Agreement on movement and access from the Gaza Strip to Israel reached.
November 21	Sharon asserts he is no longer willing to deal with Likud rebels, so he resigns from the party and creates a new centrist party, Kadima. Asks President Katzav to dissolve Parliament and schedule an early election.
	An attempt to kidnap an IDF soldier was foiled when paratroopers patrolling near Rajar village discerned a Hezbollah unit approaching. Private David Markovitz opened fire, killing all four. In a heavy attack of mortars and Katyusha rockets that ensued, nine soldiers and two civilians were injured.
November 25	Rafah border crossing reopened.
December 5	PIJ kills 5 in Netanya, Israel retalliates by barring Palestinians from entering Israel for a week.
December 27	A branch of a Palestinian organization connected to al-Qaeda fires six Katyushas, damaging a house in Kiryat Shmona and a house in Metulla. In reponse, the IAF attacks a training base of the Popular Front, south of Beirut.
December 28	Responding to rockets fired from Lebanon to northern Israel, Israeli jets attack a terrorist base south of Beirut.

2006

January 4	Prime Minister Sharon suffers severe stroke and falls into a coma. Ehud Olmertassumes role of Acting Prime Minister and acting Chairman of Kadima.
January 19	PIJ suicide bombing in Tel Aviv wounds 30.
January 25	Hamas wins majority in PA general elections. The US, Israel and several European countries cut off aid to the Palestinians as the Islamist movement rejects Israel's right to exist.
January 30	Quartet calls on Hamas to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and accept all prior agreements.
February 21	Ismail Haniyah sworn in as Palestinian Prime Minister.
March 28	Kadima party wins Israeli elections and Ehud Olmert becomes Prime Minister. Voter turnout was the lowest ever (63.2%).
March 30	The Al-Aqsa martyrs brigade claims responsibility for a suicide bombing in the West Bank killing four. Hamas reacts by applauding their efforts.
March 31	In an interview with the British press, Hamas head Ismail Haniyah calls for an end of requests to recognize Israel's right to exist.
April 9	Israeli security cabinet recommends severing ties with PA.
April 17	PIJ suicide bombing in Tel Aviv kills 11. Hamas applauds efforts while Fatah denounces it.
April 26	Abbas calls for an international peace conference.
May 4	New Israeli government takes office. Vows to strive to shape the permanent borders of the State of Israel as a democratic Jewish state with a Jewish majority.
May 10	Imprisoned Hamas, Fatah, and other officials draft a National Accord Document calling for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, a right of return of all refugees, and the release of all prisoners. Abbas accepts, Hamas rejects because of its implied recognition of Israel.
May 21	Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni meets Abbas at the World Economic Forum in Egypt. Abbas asserts that "permanent" arrangements are impossible without resolving the main issues of conflict - security, borders, Jerusalem, and refugees. Also claims Israeli unilateralism will increase violence and put an end to the two-state solution. Haniya says his government will maintain a cease fire for many years if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders.
May 23	Olmert meets President Bush at the White House. Bush and Olmert reiterate their commitment to a two state solution.
May 27	An IDF soldier is wounded when Katyushas were fired at an army base at Mt. Meron in the upper Galilee.
May 28	Palestinian rockets hit deep into northern Israel. Israel responds by striking terrorist bases in Lebanon.
June 10	Hamas ends 16 month long truce as crossborder violence escalates near Gaza.
June 25	Hamas, Popular Resistance Committees, and Army of Islam militants attacked Israeli forces in Israel, killing two Israeli sodiers, wounding four and kidnapping Cpl. Gilad Shalit. The terrorists had reached Israel through a tunnel from Gaza and demanded the release of an estimated 400 prisoners, mostly women and minors.
June 27	After diplomatic efforts to secure the release of kidnapped soldier are unsuccessful, IDFbegins major operation in Gaza to rescue Shalit, deter future Hamas attacks, and weaken the Hamas government.
June 28	Palestinian factions agree on a revised National Accord Document (Prisoner's Document), which states that the PLO and the President of the PA will be responsible for negotiations with Israel to create a state on territories occupied by Israel in 1967. The Popular Resistance Committees announce they had kidnapped a young West Banksettler and would kill him if Israel did not stop the Gaza Operation. (Three alleged perpetrators of this attack were arrested on July 4 in Ramallah) Israeli jets fly over Syrian President Bashar Assad's summer residence in Latakia as a warning to stop supporting terrorism.
June 29	Kidnapped West Bank settler's body found. Israeli forces arrest 64 Hamas cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, and other officials in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
July 2	A Hamas rocket hits Israeli port city of Ashkelon, hitting near a vacant school. This is the farthest north a Palestinian rocket has ever struck. The Israeli government approved prolonged activities against Hamas, institutions and infrastructures used by terrorist organizations, and rocket launching squads in Gaza. Israeli operations in Gaza were expanded.
July 12	Hezbollah kidnaps two Israeli soldiers (Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev) and kills three Israeli soldiers in Israeli territory, sparking the Second Lebanon War. Hezbollahdemands the release of three Lebanese and other Arab prisoners in exchange for the return of Goldwasser, Regev, and Shalit. Prime Minister Olmert declares Hezbollah's attack an act of war.
July 16	The G-8 blames Hezbollah and Hamas for the destabilization of the region and calls upon them to halt their attacks. G-8 also calls upon Israel to “be mindful of the strategic and humanitarian consequences of its actions.” Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and several Gulf States blame Hezbollah for the war.
July 17	Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issues calls on Hezbollah to return the kidnapped soldiers, cease terrorist attacks, and allow Lebanese troops to mdeploy along the border.
August 7	London's New West End Synagogue dedicated as a national landmark.
August 8	The Lebanese Government offers to deploy 15,000 troops to the Israel-Lebanon border in exchange for complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
August 11	The United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 1701 calling for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
August 14	Israel and Hezbollah agree to United Nations ceasefire. The Lebanese Defense Minister declares that Lebanon has no intention of disarming Hezbollah (as required by UNSC Resolution 1701).
August 15	Syrian President Bashar Assad declares that the peace process has failed.
August 19	Israeli forces raid Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon.
September 21	Abbas informs the United Nations General Assembly that all future Palestinian governments will comply with previously signed agreements.
September 30	Last Israeli soldier withdraws from Lebanon
October 31-November 8	Israeli forces enter the northern Gaza town of Beit Chanun in an effort to prevent rocket fire to Israel.
November	The government appoints a commission of inquiry, chaired by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd, to investigate and draw lessons from the war in Lebanon.
November 13	Prime Minister Olmert meets with President Bush.
November 16	Milton Friedman, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, passes away.
	Following talks between Hamas and Fatah, both sides agree to form a unity government.
November 23	Jewish entertainer Betty Comden dies at age 89.
November 25	Palestinians and Israelis agree to ceasefire in Gaza.
November 27	Olmert expresses willingness to implement Roadmap and urges Palestinians to uphold the principles outlined by the Quartet.
November 28	United States National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley reiterates Olmert's point that an agreement between Israel and Syria cannot be reached until Syria stops supporting terrorism.
December 6	Iraq Study Group’s Report is released, making the recommendation that Israel transfer the entire Golan Heights to Syria to help stabilize the region.
December 8	Hamas head Ismail Haniyah travels to Iran and publically declares that Hamas will never recognize Israel's right to exist.
December 16	Abbas calls for new elections as a solution to the ongoing crisis.
December 23	Olmert promises to give PA $100 million in tax revenue for humanitarian purposes.

2007

January 14	Abbas rejects Olmert's offer at establishing preliminary borders for a future Palestinian state out of fear that such borders would become permanent.
January 17	Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and Defense Minister Amir Peretz resign following criticism of their role in the Lebanon War. Olmert holds on to his office.
January 29	PIJ claims reponsibility for suicide bombing in Eilat which killed three Israeli's.
January 30	Fatah and Hamas reach a ceasefire agreement mediated by Egypt after a series of clashes that led to the death of 32 Palestinians. Both sides welcome a Saudi initiative to meet in Mecca.
February 2	Quartet calls on PA unity government to revert to its commitments as outlined in the Roadmap.
February 8	Palestinian Unity Agreement in Mecca. Hamas and Fatah agree to share power, based on vaguely worded agreement. Hamas officials reiterate that they will never recognize Israel. US and Israel insist that the new government must recognize right of Israel to exist, disarm terrorist groups and agree to end violence.
February 9	The Quartet welcomes the role of Saudi Arabia in reaching the agreement to form a Palestinian National Unity government but later reaffirms that it must obey international demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous peace agreements.
February 15	Ismail Haniyah and his cabinet resign. Haniyah is re-appointed by Abbas and begins the process of forming a new Palestinian unity government.
February 19	Secretary Rice meets with Olmert and Abbas in Jerusalem to discuss the Mecca Accord.
March 15	Palestinian unity government formed.
March 28-29	Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia. Reiterates adherence, without changes, to the Arab Peace Initiative and direct negotiations on all tracks.
April 30	The Inquiry Commission into the military campaign held in Lebanon in summer 2006, headed by former Justice Dr. Eliyahu Winograd, submitted to the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense an interim report relating to the time from the IDF's exit from Lebanon to the soldiers' abduction on July 12, 2006 and to the time between July 12 and July 17, when the decision to move into war was taken.
June 13	The Knesset elected Shimon Peres to serve as the Ninth President of Israel, after Moshe Katsaz resigned amid impending charges of sexual harassment of female subordinates.
June 15	Hamas forces attack Fatah in Gaza and drive them out of the Gaza strip in brutal attacks. President Mahmoud Abbas dissolves the unity government, but Prime MinisterHaniyeh insists that the government is still in power. A summit in Sharm El Sheikh attended by Egypt, Jordan and Palestinians pledges support to the Abbas government, but Egypt calls for reunification with Hamas.
June 17	President Abbas forms a new Palestinian emergency cabinet to replace the unity government which he dissolved after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas selected Salam Fayyad as the new Palestinian prime minister.
June 18	Former prime minister Ehud Barak was sworn in as Israel's defense minister. Barak received a vote of approval from parliament to replace Amir Peretz, who lost to Barak in last week's Labour Party leadership election.
June 18	The U.S. lifts its embargo on the Palestinian government in an effort to boost the strength of President Abbas and his Fatah party's struggle against Hamas.
June 19	Prime Minister Olmert and President Bush meet in Washington to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
June 24	Israel transfers hundreds of millions of dollars to Abbas' emergency government in theWest Bank.
June 25	Olmert, Abbas, Egyptian President Mubarak, and Jordanian King Abdullah II meet in at Sharm al-Shayk, Egypt.
June 25	Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem calls on Hamas to release Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was kidnpapped one year ago today.
June 26	Olmert, Abbas, and special envoys from the European Union, Russia, the United Nations, and the United States meet today in Jerusalem at the U.S. Consulate.
June 27	The Quartet ( Russia, the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations) names Tony Blair as its new Middle East envoy.
July 1	Olmert transfers $118 million to the PA.
July 16	President Bush calls for a Middle East peace conference in the fall to be led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and to include Palestinians, Israelis and regional neighbors who support creation of a Palestinian state, as well as new aid measures to support the West Bank-based government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
July 20	Israel releases 256 prisoners, grants clemency to 178 members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, and scales back its troop operations aimed at other militants in the West Bank.
July 25	The Arab League sends is first formal delegation to Israel to officially present the Arab League peace offer that would see full recognition of Israel in exchange for withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the creation of a Palestininian state. The deal was first offered in 2002.
July 27	Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad presents his government's program. It seeks to establish a Palestinian state on all lands occupied by Israel in 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.
August 6	Olmert and Abbas meet in pre-conference discussions.
October 9	Syria refuses to attend after Israel declines to put issue of Golan Heights as topic of discussion at the upcoming conference.
November 6	Conference set for last week of November. Expected to produce a joint declaration to pave the way for negotiations on core issues, including Jerusalem and the refugees.
November 12	The United States promises Syria that the issue of the Golan Heights will be brought to the agenda of the upcoming regional peace conference.
November 21	Announcement of Annapolis Conference, to be held at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
November 27	Annapolis Conference is held at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
December 12	Israeli and Palestinian negotiators begin formal talks to launch the U.S.-brokered peace process initiated at the Annapolis Conference.

2008

	Iran continues to threaten the annihilation of Israel as efforts to stop it trying to make nuclear weapons fail.
	Israeli schools are closed for a recond 65 days due to a teachers' strike.
	Rubashkin kosher meat company faces allegations of worker abuse, inhumane practices, and hiring illegals at its slaughterhouse and meat packing facility in Postville, Iowa, forcing the plant to close.
	A haredi rabbinic court in Israel calls into question the legitimacy of thousands of conversions by a prominent Israeli Orthodox halachic authority.
January - present	Qassam rockets from Gaza rain down on the surrounding Israeli communities.
January 3	Palestinian militants fire a Katyusha rocket with longer range than usual from Gaza into northern Ashkelon.
January 17	In an effort to pressure Hamas to stop rocket fire at Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak orders the closing of border crossings from Israel into Gaza.
January 23	Tens of thousands of Palestinians pour into Egypt from Gaza after Hamas militants blow holes into a border wall.
January 24	Approximately 700 Palestinian security forces go to Jordan to begin U.S. training for a new gendarmerie that is projected to eventually be 50,000 strong.
February 3	Egypt refuses to cede control of border to Hamas and reseals the damaged border crossing.
February 4	Hamas military wing carries out a suicide bombing in the Israeli town Dimona, killing one and injuring 23.
February 12	Hezbollah terror chief Imad Mugniyeh is assassinated in Damascus.
March 6	Eight yeshiva students are shot dead by an Arab resident of East Jerusalem in a terror attack at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva.
April	An Israeli air strike on a Syrian target in September 2007 is reported to be a nuclear facility.
April 9	Palestinian gunmen kill two Israeli civilian employees at the Nahal Oz fuel depot which pumps fuel into Gaza.
April 16	Hamas ambushes and kills three Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip and fires more than 20 rockets into Southern Israel.
April 19	A suicide car bombing and mortar ambush carried out by Hamas' military wing at Kerem Shalom crossing injures 13 Israeli soldiers. Israel retaliates with three airstrikes, killing seven Hamas militants.
April 25	Five Palestinian groups claim responsibility for killing two Israeli security guards in Tulkarem in the West Bank.
May 14	As President Bush arrives in Israel to celebrate it's 60th anniversary, a rocket landed on a shopping mall in Ashkelon, wounding 30. PIJ and Popular Resistance Committeesboth claimed responsibility.
May 31	Hezbollah returned the remains of five Israeli soldiers killed in the summer war of 2006. Israel released an Israeli of Lebanese descent who had been convicted of spying for Hezbollah.
June 4	President Mahmoud Abbas calls on Hamas to join a "national and comprehensive dialogue" and offered early presidential and parliamentary elections if the talks succeeded.
June 19	Egypt-brokered temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas goes into effect.
June 24	PIJ breaks temporary truce and fires three rockets into Israel after Israeli troops killed a PIJ leader in Nablus.
August 25	Israel releases 199 Palestinian security prisoners in a gesture of goodwill to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
September 23	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the UN.
October 22	Israel and the PA reach an agreement to deloy about 550 U.S.-trained Palestinian police to Hebron.
October 26	Foreign Minister, and Olmert's replacement as leader of the Kadima party, Tzipi Livniannounces that she was unable to form a new coalition government, thereby triggering early elections in Israel on February 10, 2009.
November 4	Democrat Barack Obama decisively wins the United States Presidential election with 78% of the Jewish vote.
November 26	Muslim terrorists attack a Chabad House in Mumbai, India in a series of coordinated attacks on India's largest city and financial capital, killing at least 173 people and injuring over 300.
December 18	Egypt-brokered "State of Calm" agreement between Israel and Hamas officially ends.
December 27, 2008- January 16, 2009	Israeli Defense Forces launch Operation Cast Lead to halt Hamas rocket fire on Israel from the Gaza Strip.

2009

January 17	Israel declares ceasefire to end Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Hamas rejects Israel's call for a ceasefire, but its leadership announces their own ceasefire 12 hours later.
January 18	Israeli government opens an emergency clinic at the Erez Crossing in an effort to provide humanitarian assistance and medical care to the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza.
January 22	George Mitchell is named special envoy to the Middle East by President Obama.
January 27	Palestinian Arab militants detonate a bomb at the Kissufim crossing, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding three.
February 10	Elections for the 18th Knesset are held.
March 5	A Palestinian Arab resident of east Jerusalem attacks an Israeli police car and a bus on the Menachem Begin Expressway in Jerusalem using a bulldozer, injuring two police officers before being shot to death.
March 15	Two Israeli police officers are killed in a shooting attack near Massua in the northern Jordan Valley.
March 31	Benjamin Netanyahu sworn in as Israeli prime minister and head of new coalition government.
April 2	A 13 year old Israeli is killed by a local Palestinian Arab in the Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin. A 7 year old Israeli is also injured and treated for serious wounds. Islamic Jihad and Imad Mughniyeh claim responsibility for the attack.
April 3	United Nations establishes a fact-finding mission on the Gaza war, headed by Richard Goldstone, an international jurist from South Africa.
May 9	An Israeli resident of Ashdod is kidnapped and killed by three West Bank Palestinians near Gan Yavne.
May 18	PM Netanyahu and President Obama meet at the White House.
June 4	President Obama calls for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims" in a historic speech in Cairo.
June 14	PM Netanyahu's speech at the Begin-Sadat Center. For the first time, Netanyahu endorses the principle of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
June 16	10 Palestinian Arab gunmen belonging to an al-Qaida-cell launch an attack at the Karni crossing using horses strapped with explosives. Four terrorists and the horses are killed in the ensuing firefight with the IDF. No IDF soldiers were wounded.
August 1	Two are killed and at least 15 are wounded at a shooting at Bar-Noar, the Tel Aviv branch of the Israeli GLBT Association. Police rule out the possibility that shooting was a terror attack.
September 15	Goldstone releases his report, accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.
September 22	White House hosts a trilateral meeting with PM Netanyahu and PA President Abbas.
September 30	Israel announces it will release twenty female Palestinian detainees and prisoners in exchange for a video proving Gilad Shalit was still alive.
November 3	The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passes a resolution denouncing the Goldstone report as "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy."
November 25	PM Netanyahu announces Israel will impose a 10-month freeze on construction in West Bank settlements in a bid to restart stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.
December 24	Rabbi Meir Avshalom of Shavei Shomron is killed in a drive-by shooting near his home.

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