Israel

Israel Timeline

1800-1500 BC Abraham, the father of the Jewish People, lived during this era
63 BC The Romans conquered the region
66-70 AD the Jews stage a rebellion against the Roman rule
132-135 AD The Romans forced the Jews to leave the region of Israel when it then became known as Palestine
600s The Arabs conquered the region
1000s -1200s The Crusades when Christians tried to claim the area and particularly Jerusalem
1800s The Zionists start a movement to set up a Jewish state in Palestine
1900s Conflict between the Jewish and Arab populations
1914 - 1918 WW1
1917 The Balfour Declaration issued by Great Britain supporting the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine
1939-1945 World War II and the Holocaust when approximately 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis
1947 The United Nations divided the region into an Arab and a Jewish state
17 May 1948 The Nation of Israel was established
1950 The Law of Return was passed allowing any Jew, with just a few exceptions, to settle in Israel
1967 Israel occupies the Gaza Strip and the West bank at the end of one of the Israeli-Arab conflicts

Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine.

On 29 November 1947 the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, a plan to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in the British Mandate of Palestine, was approved by the United Nations General Assembly, at the UN World Headquarters in New York.

The UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently, the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the deep tensions between the two sides.

1948 War of Independence-The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, referred to as the "War of Independence or as the "War of Liberation by Israelis, is the first in a series of armed conflicts fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict.

Department of History, U.S. Military Academy

After the United Nations proposed to partition the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab, the Arabs refused to accept it and the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq, supported by others, attacked the newly established State of Israel which they refused to recognize. As a result, the region was divided between Israel, Egypt and Transjordan.

1956 Sinai War-The Suez Crisis was a war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956. The conflict pitted Egypt against Israel, the United Kingdom and the Fourth French Republic.Eventually, pressure from the United States forced Britain, France, and Israel to withdraw.

Department of History, U.S. Military Academy

1967 Six Day War-The Six-Day War was fought between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria. When Egypt expelled the United Nations Emergency Force from the Sinai Peninsula, increased its military activity near the border, and blockaded the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt's air force fearing an imminent attack by Egypt. Jordan in turn attacked the Israeli cities of Jerusalem and Netanya. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.

1973 Yom Kippur War-The Yom Kippur War was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab nations led by Egypt and Syria. The war began on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria crossing the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights, respectively, which had been captured by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War.The Egyptians and Syrians advanced during the first 24–48 hours, after which momentum began to swing in Israel's favor. By the second week of the war, the Syrians had been pushed entirely out of the Golan Heights. In the Sinai to the south, the Israelis had struck at the "seam" between two invading Egyptian armies, crossed the Suez Canal (where the old ceasefire line had been), and cut off an entire Egyptian army just as a United Nations cease-fire came into effect.

On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo Accords") guiding an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Outstanding territorial and other disputes with Jordan were resolved in the 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. In addition, on 25 May 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon, which it had occupied since 1982. In keeping with the framework established at the Madrid Conference in October 1991, bilateral negotiations were conducted between Israel and Palestinian representatives and Syria to achieve a permanent settlement.

In April 2003, US President Bush, working in conjunction with the EU, UN, and Russia - the "Quartet" - took the lead in laying out a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005, based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic Palestine. However, progress toward a permanent status agreement was undermined by Palestinian-Israeli violence between September 2000 and February 2005. An agreement reached at Sharm al-Sheikh in February 2005 significantly reduced the violence.

The election in January 2005 of Mahmud Abbas as the new Palestinian leader following the November 2004 death of Yasir Arafat, the formation of a Likud-Labor-United Torah Judaism coalition government in January 2005, and the successful Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip (August-September 2005), presented an opportunity for a renewed peace effort.

However, internal Israeli political events between October and December 2005 have destabilized the political situation and forced early elections.

Population: 6,352,117

Religions: Jewish 76.5%, Muslim 15.9%, Arab Christians 1.7%, other Christian 0.4%, Druze 1.6%, unspecified 3.9% (2003)

Ehud Olmert

Since January 4, 2006, Ariel Sharon has been totally incapacitated by the effects of a massive hemorrhagic stroke, and day-to-day governance of Israel is now Prime Minister Ehud Olmert .

Olmert was the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, the Finance minister, and Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, as well as being the Minister responsible for the Israel Lands Administration. He is currently a member of Ariel Sharon's Kadima party.

Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon was born at Kfar Malal in 1928. He joined the Haganah at the age of 14 in 1942. During the 1948 War of Independence, he commanded an infantry company in the Alexandroni Brigade. In 1953, he founded and led the "101" special commando unit which carried out retaliatory operations. Sharon was appointed commander of a Paratroop Corps in 1956 and fought in the Sinai Campaign. In 1957 he attended the Camberley Staff College in Great Britain.

During 1958-62, Sharon served as Infantry Brigade Commander and then Infantry School Commander, and attended Law School at Tel Aviv University. He was appointed Head of the Northern Command Staff in 1964 and Head of the Army Training Department in 1966. He participated in the 1967 Six Day War as commander of an armored division. In 1969 he was appointed Head of the Southern Command Staff. Sharon resigned from the army in June 1972, but was recalled to active military service in the 1973 Yom Kippur War to command an armored division that crossed the Suez Canal.

Ariel Sharon was elected to the Knesset in December 1973, but resigned a year later, serving as Security Adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1975). He was elected to the Knesset in 1977 on the Shlomzion ticket. Following the elections, he joined the Herut party and was appointed Minister of Agriculture.

Sharon served as Minister of Defense from 1981-83, which position he held during the War in Lebanon. He resigned after a government commission found him indirectly responsible for the September 1992 massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by Lebanese Christians.

Sharon remained in the government as a minister without portfolio and then served as Minister of Industry and Trade from 1984-90 and as Minister of Housing and Construction from 1990-92. In the 13th Knesset, he served on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Sharon served as Minister of National Infrastructure from July 1996-July 1999, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from October 1998-July 1999.

Re-elected to the 15th Knesset in May 1999, he served as chairman of the Likud following the resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a special election for Prime Minister in February 2001, Sharon defeated incumbent Ehud Barak to become the 11th person to hold that position.

Sharon is widowed and has two sons.

Israel’s Prime Ministers