Geography and Early History of Israel and Palestine

The land variously called Israel and Palestine is a small, (10,000 square miles at
present) land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. During its long history,
its area, population and ownership varied greatly. The present state of Israel
occupies all the land from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean ocean, bounded by
Egypt in the south, Lebanon in the north, and Jordan in the East. The recognized
borders of Israel constitute about 78% of the land. The remainder is divided between
land occupied by Israel since the 1967 6-day war and the autonomous regions
under the control of the Palestinian autonomy. The Gaza strip occupies an
additional 141 square miles south of Israel, and is under the control of the
Palestinian authority.

Palestine has been settled continuously for tens of thousands of years. Fossil
remains have been found of Homo Erectus, Neanderthal and transitional types
between Neanderthal and modern man. Archeologists have found hybrid Emmer
wheat at Jericho dating from before 8,000 B.C., making it one of the oldest sites of
agricultural activity in the world. Amorites, Canaanites, and other Semitic peoples
related to the Phoenicians of Tyre entered the area about 2000 B.C. The area
became known as the Land of Canaan.

The Jewish Kingdoms of Ancient Judah and Israel

The archeological record indicates that the Jewish people evolved out of native
Cana'anite peoples and invading tribes. Some time between about 1800 and 1500
B.C., it is thought that a Semitic people called Hebrews (hapiru) left Mesopotamia
and settled in Canaan. Canaan was settled by different tribes including Semitic
peoples, Hittites, and later Philistines, peoples of the sea who are thought to have
arrived from Mycenae, or to be part of the ancient Greek peoples that also settled
Mycenae.

According to the Bible, Moses led the Israelites, or a portion of them, out of Egypt.
Under Joshua, they conquered the tribes and city states of Canaan. Based on
biblical traditions, it is estimated that king David conquered Jerusalem about 1000
B.C. and established an Israelite kingdom over much of Canaan including parts of
Transjordan. The kingdom was divided into Judea in the south and Israel in the
north following the death of David's son, Solomon. Jerusalem remained the center of
Jewish sovereignty and of Jewish worship whenever the Jews exercised sovereignty
over the country in the subsequent period, up to the Jewish revolt in 133 AD.

The Assyrians conquered Israel in 722 or 721 B.C. The Babylonians conquered
Judah around 586 B.C. They destroyed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, and exiled
a large number of Jews. About 50 years later, the Persian king Cyrus conquered
Babylonia. Cyrus allowed a group of Jews from Babylonia to rebuild Jerusalem and
settle in it. However, a large number of Jews remained in Babylonia, forming the first
Jewish Diaspora. After the reestablishment of a Jewish state or protectorate, the
Babylonian exiles maintained contact with authorities there. The Persians ruled the
land from about 530 to 331 B.C. Alexander the Great then conquered the Persian
Empire. After Alexander's death in 323 B.C., his generals divided the empire. One of
these generals, Seleucus, founded a dynasty that gained control of much of
Palestine about 200 B.C. At first, the new rulers, called Seleucids, allowed the
practice of Judaism. But later, one of the kings, Antiochus IV, tried to prohibit it. In
167 B.C., the Jews revolted under the leadership of the Maccabeans and either
drove the Seleucids out of Palestine or at least established a large degree of
autonomy, forming a kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem. The kingdom received
Roman "protection" when Judah Maccabee was made a "friend of the Roman
senate and people" in 164 B.C. according to the records of Roman historians.

Palestine From Roman to Ottoman Rule

About 61 B.C., Roman troops under Pompei invaded Judea and sacked Jerusalem
in support of King Herod. Judea had become a client state of Rome. Initially it was
ruled by the client Herodian dynasty. The land was divided into districts of Judea,
Galilee, Peraea and a small trans-Jordanian section, each of which eventually came
under direct Roman control. The Romans called the large central area of the land,
which included Jerusalem, Judea. According to Christian belief, Jesus Christ was
born in Bethlehem, Judea, in the early years of Roman rule. Roman rulers put down
Jewish revolts in about A.D. 70 and A.D. 132. In A.D. 135, the Romans drove the
Jews out of Jerusalem, following the failed Bar Kochba revolt. The Romans named
the area Palaestina, at about this time. The name Palaestina, which became
Palestine in English, is derived from Herodotus, who used the term Palaistine Syria
to refer to the entire southern part of Syria, meaning "Philistine Syria." Most of the
Jews who continued to practice their religion fled or were forcibly exiled from
Palestine, eventually forming a second Jewish Diaspora. However, Jewish
communities continued to exist, primarily in the Galilee, the northernmost part of
Palestine. Palestine was governed by the Roman Empire until the fourth century
A.D. (300's) and then by the Byzantine Empire. In time, Christianity spread to most
of Palestine. The population consisted of Jewish converts to Christianity and
paganism, peoples imported by the Romans, and others who had probably inhabited
Palestine continuously.

During the seventh century (A.D. 600's), Muslim Arab armies moved north from
Arabia to conquer most of the Middle East, including Palestine. Jerusalem was
conquered about 638 by the Caliph Umar (Omar) who gave his protection to its
inhabitants. Muslim powers controlled the region until the early 1900's. The rulers
allowed Christians and Jews to keep their religions. However, most of the local
population gradually accepted Islam and the Arab-Islamic culture of their rulers.
Jerusalem (Al-Quds) became holy to Muslims as the site where, according to
tradition, Muhammad ascended to heaven after a miraculous overnight ride from
Mecca on his horse Al-Buraq. The al-Aqsa mosque was built on the site generally
regarded as the area of the Jewish temples.

The Seljuk Turks conquered Jerusalem in 1071, but their rule in Palestine lasted
less than 30 years. Initially they were replaced by the Fatimid rulers of Egypt. The
Fatimids took advantage of the Seljuk struggles with the Christian crusaders. They
made an alliance with the crusaders in 1098 and captured Jerusalem, Jaffa and
other parts of Palestine.

The Crusaders, however, broke the alliance and invaded Palestine about a year
later. They captured Jaffa and Jerusalem in 1099, slaughtered many Jewish and
Muslim defenders and forbade Jews to live in Jerusalem. They held the city until
1187. In that year, the Muslim ruler Saladin conquered Jerusalem. The Crusaders
then held a smaller and smaller area along the coast of Palestine, under treaty with
Saladin. However, they broke the treaty with Saladin and later treaties. Crusade
after crusade tried to recapture Jerusalem, but they were unable to do so for more
than a brief period.

The Crusaders left Palestine for good when the Muslims captured Acre in 1291.
During the post-crusade period, crusaders often raided the coast of Palestine. To
deny the Crusaders gains from these raids, the Muslims pulled their people back
from the coasts and destroyed coastal towns and farms. This depopulated and
impoverished the coast of Palestine for hundreds of years.

In the mid-1200's, Mamelukes, originally soldier-slaves of the Arabs based in Egypt,

established an empire that in time included the area of Palestine. Arab-speaking
Muslims made up most of the population of the area once called Palestine.
Beginning in the late 1300's, Jews from Spain and other Mediterranean lands settled
in Jerusalem and other parts of the land. The Ottoman Empire defeated the
Mamelukes in 1517, and Palestine became part of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish
Sultan invited Jews fleeing the Spanish Catholic inquisition to settle in the Turkish
empire, including several cities in Palestine.

In 1798, Napoleon entered the land. The war with Napoleon and subsequent
misadministration by Egyptian and Ottoman rulers, reduced the population of
Palestine. Arabs and Jews fled to safer and more prosperous lands. Revolts by
Palestinian Arabs against Egyptian and Ottoman rule at this time may have helped
to catalyze Palestinian national feeling. Subsequent reorganization and opening of
the Turkish Empire to foreigners restored some order. They also allowed the
beginnings of Jewish settlement under various Zionist and proto-Zionist
movements. Both Arab and Jewish population increased. By 1880, about 24,000
Jews were living in Palestine, out of a population of about 400,000. At about that
time, the Ottoman government imposed severe restrictions on Jewish immigration
and land purchase, and also began actively soliciting inviting Muslims from other
parts of the Ottoman empire to settle in Palestine, including Circassians and
Bosnians. The restrictions were evaded in various ways by Jews seeking to
colonize Palestine, chiefly by bribery.

The Rise of Zionism - Jews had never stopped coming to "the Holy land" or
Palestine in small numbers throughout the exile. Palestine also remained the center
of Jewish worship and a part of Jewish culture. However, the Jewish connection with
the land was mostly abstract and connected with dreams of messianic redemption.

In the nineteenth century new social currents animated Jewish life. The
emancipation of European Jews, signaled by the French revolution, brought Jews
out of the Ghetto and into the modern world, exposing them to modern ideas. The
liberal concepts introduced by emancipation and modern nationalist ideas were
blended with traditional Jewish ideas about Israel and Zion. The marriage of "love of
Zion" with modern nationalism took place first among the Sephardic (Spanish and
Eastern) Jewish community of Europe. There, the tradition of living in the land of the
Jews and return to Zion had remained practical goals rather than messianic
aspirations, and Hebrew was a living language. Rabbi Yehuda Alcalay, who lived in
what is now Yugoslavia, published the first Zionist writings in the 1840s. Though
practically forgotten, these ideas took root among a few European Jews.
Emancipation of Jews triggered a new type of virulent anti-Jewish political and social
movement in Europe, particularly in Germany and Eastern Europe. Beginning in the
late 1800's, oppression of Jews in Eastern Europe stimulated emigration of Jews to
Palestine.

The Zionist movement became a formal organization in 1897 with the first Zionist
congress in Basle, organized by Theodor Herzl. Herzl's grandfather was acquainted
with the writings of Alcalay, and it is very probable that Herzl was influenced by
them. The Zionists wished to establish a "Jewish Homeland" in Palestine under
Turkish or German rule. Initially, most Zionists were not concerned about the Arab
population, which they ignored, or thought would agree to voluntary transfer to other
Arab countries. In any case, they envisioned the population of Palestine by millions
of European Jews who would soon form a decisive majority in the land. The Zionists
established farm communities in Palestine at Petah Tikva, Zichron Jacob, Rishon
Letzion and elsewhere. Later they established the new city of Tel Aviv, north of
Jaffa. At the same time, Palestine's Arab population grew rapidly. By 1914, the total
population of Palestine stood at about 700,000. About 615,000 were Arabs, and
85,000 to 100,000 were Jews

World War I - During World War I (1914-1918), the Ottoman Empire joined
Germany and Austria-Hungary against the Allies. An Ottoman military government
ruled Palestine. The war was hard on both Jewish and Arab populations, owing to
outbreaks of cholera and typhus; however, it was more difficult for the Jews. For a
time, the Turkish military governor ordered internment and deportation of all foreign
nationals. A large number of Jews were Russian nationals. They had been able to
enter Palestine as Russian nationals because of the concessions Turkey had
granted to Russian citizens, and they had used this method to overcome restrictions
on immigration. They had also maintained Russian citizenship to avoid being drafted
into the Turkish army. Therefore, a large number of Jews were forced to flee
Palestine during the war. A small group founded the NILI underground that fed
intelligence information to the British, in order to free the land of Turkish rule. The
Turks eventually caught members of the NILI group, but the information they
provided is said to have helped the British invasion effort.

Britain and France planned to divide the Ottoman holdings in the Middle East among
themselves after the war. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 called for part of
Palestine to be under British rule, part to be placed under a joint Allied government,
and for Syria and Lebanon to be given to the France. However, Britain also offered
to back Arab demands for postwar independence from the Ottomans in return for
Arab support for the Allies and seems to have promised the same territories to the
Arabs. In 1916, Arabs led by T.E. Lawrence and backed by Sharif Husayn revolted
against the Ottomans in the belief that Britain would help establish Arab
independence in the Middle East. Lawrence's exploits and their importance in the
war against Turkey were somewhat exaggerated by himself and by the enterprising
publicist Lowell Thomas. The United States and other countries pressed for Arab
self-determination. The Arabs, and many in the British government including
Lawrence, believed that the Arabs had been short-changed by the British promise to
give Syria to the French, and likewise by the promise of Palestine as a Jewish
homeland. The Arabs claimed that Palestine was included in the area promised to
them, but the British denied this.

The British Mandate for Palestine

The Balfour Declaration - In November 1917, before Britain had conquered

Jerusalem and the area to be known as Palestine, Britain issued the Balfour
Declaration. The declaration was a letter addressed to Lord Rothschild, based on a
request of the Zionist organization in Great Britain. The declaration stated Britain's
support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, without violating the
civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities. The declaration
was the result of lobbying by the small British Zionist movement, especially by Dr.
Chaim Weizmann, who had emigrated from Russia to Britain, but it was motivated
by British strategic considerations. Paradoxically, perhaps, a major motivation for the
declaration may have been the belief, inspired by anti-Semitism, that international
Jewry would come to the aid of the British if they declared themselves in favor of a
Jewish homeland, and the fear that the Germans were about to issue such a
declaration.

At the Paris peace conference in 1919, Zionist and Arab representatives pleaded
their case, and met each other. The Zionists presented a map of the area they
wanted for the Jewish national home. Remarkably, Dr. Weizmann and the Emir
Feisal reached a signed agreement regarding Arab support for a Jewish national
home. Feisal also assured the American Zionist representative, Chief Justice
Frankfurter, of his support for the Zionist cause (see Feisal-Frankfurter
Correspondence ). However, Feisal conditioned his support on satisfaction of Arab
aspirations in Syria. Instead, Syria was given to the French as a League of Nations
mandate and Feisal not only withdrew his support from the Zionist project, but
claimed he had never signed any such documents.

At the Paris peace conference and through the League of Nations, much of the
Ottoman Empire was divided into mandated territories assigned to the victors of the
war. The British and French saw the Mandates as instruments of imperial ambitions.
US President Wilson insisted that the mandates must foster eventual independence.
The British were anxious to keep Palestine away from the French, and decided to
ask for a mandate that would implement the Jewish national home of the Balfour
declaration, a project that would be supported by the Americans. The Arabs
opposed the idea of a Jewish national home, considering that the areas now called
Palestine were their land. The Arabs felt they were in danger of dispossession by
the Zionists, and did not relish living under Jewish rule.

Arabs lobbied the American King-Crane commission, in favor of annexation of the

Palestine mandate area to Syria, and later formed a national movement to combat
the terms of the Mandate. At the instigation of US President Wilson, the King Crane
commission had been sent to hear the views of the inhabitants. At the commission
hearings, Aref Pasha Dajani expressed this opinion about the Jews, "Their history
and their past proves that it is impossible to live with them. In all the countries where
they are at present, they are not wanted...because they always arrive to suck the
blood of everybody..."
By this time, Zionists had recognized the inevitability of conflict with the Palestinian
and other Arabs. David Ben Gurion, who would lead the Yishuv (the Jewish
community in Palestine) and go on to be the first Prime Minister of Israel, told a
meeting of the governing body of the Jewish Yishuv in 1919 "But not everybody
sees that there is no solution to this question...We as a nation, want this country to
be ours, the Arabs as a nation, want this country to be theirs."

The Zionists and others presented their case to the Paris Peace conference.
Ultimately, the British plan was adopted. The main issues taken into account were
division of rights between Britain and France, rather than the views of the
inhabitants.

In 1920, Britain received a provisional mandate over Palestine, which would extend
west and east of the River Jordan. The area of the mandate (see map at right) given
to Britain at the San Remo conference was much larger than historic Palestine as
envisaged by the Zionists, who had sought an eastern border to the West of
Amman. The mandate, based on the Balfour declaration, was formalized in 1922.
The British were to help the Jews build a national home and promote the creation of
self-governing institutions. The mandate provided for an agency, later called "The
Jewish Agency for Palestine," that would represent Jewish interests in Palestine to
the British and to promote Jewish immigration. A Jewish agency was created only in
1929, delayed by the desire to create a body that represented both Zionist and non-
Zionist Jews. The Jewish agency in Palestine became in many respects the de-facto
government of the Jewish Yishuv (community).

The area granted to the mandate was much larger than the area sought by the
Zionists. It is possible, that as Churchill suggested in 1922, the British never
intended that all of this area would become a Jewish national home. On the other
hand, some believe that Britain had no special plans for Transjordan initially. In his
memoirs, Sir Alec Kirkbride, the British representative in Amman, wrote that "There
was no intention at that stage [1920] of forming the territory east of the river Jordan
into an independent Arab state." (Kirkbride, Alexander, A crackle of thorns, London,
1956 p 19)

However, Abdullah, the son of King Husayn of the Hijaz, marched toward
Transjordan with 2,000 soldiers. He announced his intention to march to Damascus,
remove the French and reinstate the Hashemite monarchy. Sir Alec Kirkbride, had
50 policemen. He asked for guidance from the British High Commissioner, Herbert
Samuel, and Samuel eventually replied that it was unlikely Abdullah would enter
British controlled areas. Two days later, Abdullah marched north and by March
1921, he occupied the entire country. Abdullah made no attempt to march on
Damascus, and perhaps never intended to do so
In 1922, the British declared that the boundary of
Palestine would be limited to the area west of the
river. The area east of the river, called
Transjordan (now Jordan), was made a separate
British mandate and eventually given
independence (See map at right) . A part of the
Zionist movement felt betrayed at losing a large
area of what they termed "historic Palestine" to
Transjordan, and split off to form the "Revisionist"
movement, headed by Benjamin Vladimir (Ze'ev)
Jabotinsky.

The British hoped to establish self-governing institutions in Palestine, as required by

the mandate. The Jews were alarmed by the prospect of such institutions, which
would have an Arab majority. However, the Arabs would not accept proposals for
such institutions if they included any Jews at all, and so no institutions were created.
The Arabs wanted as little as possible to do with the Jews and the mandate, and
would not participate in municipal councils, nor even in the Arab Agency that the
British wanted to set up. Ormsby-Gore, undersecretary of state for the colonies
concluded, "Palestine is largely inhabited by unreasonable people."

Arab Riots and Jewish immigration - In the spring of 1920, spring of 1921 and
summer of 1929, Arab nationalists opposed to the Balfour declaration, the mandate
and the Jewish National Home, instigated riots and pogroms against Jews in
Jerusalem, Hebron, Jaffa and Haifa. The violence led to the formation of the
Haganah Jewish self-defense organization in 1920. The riots of 1920 and 1921
reflected opposition to the Balfour declaration and fears that the Arabs of Palestine
would be dispossessed, and were probably attempts to show the British that
Palestine as a Jewish National home would be ungovernable. The major instigators
were Hajj Amin El Husseini, later Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and eventually a Nazi
collaborator, and Arif -El Arif, a prominent Palestinian journalist. The riots of 1929
occurred against the background of Jewish-Arab nationalist antagonism. The Arabs
claimed that Jewish immigration and land purchases were displacing and
dispossessing the Arabs of Palestine. However, economic, population and other
indicators suggest that objectively, the Arabs of Palestine benefited from the
Mandate and Zionist investment. Arab standard of living increased faster in
Palestine than other areas, and population grew prodigiously throughout the
Mandate years. (see Zionism and its Impact). The riots were also fueled by false
rumors that the Jews intended to build a synagogue at the wailing wall, or otherwise
encroach upon the Muslim rule over the Temple Mount compound, including the Al-
Aqsa mosque. The pogroms led to evacuation of most of the Jewish community of
Hebron. . The British responded with the Passfield White Paper. The white paper
attempted to stop immigration to Palestine based on the recommendations of the
Hope Simpson report. That report stated that in the best case, following extensive
economic development, the land could support immigration of another 20,000
families in total. Otherwise further Jewish immigration would infringe on the position
of the existing Arab population. However, British MPs and the Zionist movement
sharply criticized the new policy and PM Ramsay McDonald issued a "clarification"
stating that Jewish immigration would not be stopped.

Jewish immigration swelled in the 1930s, driven by persecution in Eastern Europe,

even before the rise of Nazism. Large numbers of Jews began to come from Poland
owing to discriminatory laws and harsh economic conditions. The rise of Hitler in
Germany added to this tide of immigration. The Jewish Agency made a deal, the
Hesder, that allowed Jews to escape Germany to Palestine in return for hard
currency that the Reich needed. The Hesder saved tens of thousands of lives.

Arab Revolt and the White Paper - In 1936 widespread rioting, later known as the
Arab Revolt or Great Uprising, broke out. The revolt was kindled when British forces
killed Izz al din El Qassam in a gun battle. Izz al Din El Qassam was a Syrian
preacher who had emigrated to Palestine and was agitating against the British and
the Jews. The revolt was coopted by the Husseini family and by Fawzi El Kaukji, a
former Turkish officer, and it was possibly financed in part by Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy. Thousands of Arabs and hundreds of Jews were killed in the revolt,
which spread rapidly owing to initial unpreparedness of the British authorities. About
half the 5,000 residents of the Jewish quarter of the old city of Jerusalem were
forced to flee, and the remnant of the Hebron Jewish community was evacuated as
well.

The Husseini family killed both Jews and members of Palestinian Arab families
opposed to their hegemony. The Yishuv (Jewish community) responded with both
defensive measures, and with random terror and bombings of Arab civilian targets,
perpetrated by the Irgun (Irgun Tsvai Leumi or "Etsel,"). Etsel was the military
underground of the right-wing dissident "revisionist group" headed first by Vladimir
(Ze'ev) Jabotinsky, who seceded from the Zionist movement, and later by
Menachem Begin. The Peel commission of 1937 recommended partitioning
Palestine into a small Jewish state and a large Arab one. The commission's
recommendations also included voluntary transfer of Arabs and Jews to separate
the populations. The Jewish leadership considered the plan but the Palestinian and
Arab leadership, including King Saud of Saudi Arabia , rejected partition and
demanded that the British curtail Jewish immigration. Saud said that if the British
failed to follow Arab wishes in Palestine, the Arabs would turn against them and side
with their enemies. He said that Arabs did not understand the "strange attitude of
your British Government, and the still more strange hypnotic influence which the
Jews, a race accursed by God according to His Holy Book, and destined to final
destruction and eternal damnation hereafter, appear to wield over them and the
English people generally."

In response to the riots, the British began limiting immigration and the 1939 White
Paper decreed that 15,000 Jews would be allowed to enter Palestine each year for
five years. Thereafter, immigration would be subject to Arab approval. At the same
time, the British took drastic and often cruel steps to curtail the riots. Husseini fled to
Iraq, where he was involved in an Axis-supported coup against the British and then
to Nazi Germany, where he subsequently broadcast for the Axis powers, was active
in curtailing Jewish immigration from neutral countries and organized SS death
squads in Yugoslavia. (More about he Arab Revolt or Great Uprising).

The Holocaust - During World War II (1939-1945), many Palestinian Arabs and
Jews joined the Allied forces. though some Palestinian and Arab leaders were
sympathetic to the Nazi cause. Jews had a special motivation for fighting the Nazis
because of Nazi persecution of Jews and growing suspicions that the Nazis were
systematically exterminating the Jews of Europe. These suspicions were later
confirmed, and the extermination of European Jews came to be known as the
Holocaust. The threat of extermination also created great pressure for immigration
to Palestine, but the gates of Palestine were closed by the British White Paper. In
1941 the British freed Jewish Haganah underground leaders in a general amnesty,
and they joined the British in fighting the Germans.

Illegal Immigration - The Jews of Palestine responded to the White Paper and the
Holocaust by organizing illegal immigration to Palestine from occupied Europe,
through the "Institution for Illegal Immigration" (Hamossad L'aliya Beth). Illegal
immigration (Aliya Bet) was organized by the Jewish Agency between 1939 and
1942, when a tightened British blockade and stricter controls in occupied Europe
made it impractical, and again between 1945 and 1948. Rickety boats full of
refugees tried to reach Palestine. Additionally, there were private initiatives, an
initiative by the Nazis to deport Jews and an initiative by the US to save European
Jews. Many of the ships sank or were caught by the British or the Nazis and turned
back, or shipped to Mauritius or other destinations for internment. The Patria (also
called "Patra") contained immigrants offloaded from three other ships, for
transshipment to the island of Mauritius. To prevent transshipment, the Haganah
placed a small explosive charge on the ship on November 25, 1940. They thought
the charge would damage the engines. Instead, the ship sank, and over 250 lives
were lost. A few weeks later, the SS Bulgaria docked in Haifa with 350 Jewish
refugees and was ordered to return to Bulgaria. The Bulgaria capsized in the Turkish
straits, killing 280. The Struma, a vessel that had left Constanta in Rumania with
about 769 refugees, got to Istanbul on December 16, 1941. There, it was forced to
undergo repairs of its engine and leaking hull. The Turks would not grant the
refugees sanctuary. The British would not approve transshipment to Mauritius or
entry to Palestine. On February 24, 1942, the Turks ordered the Struma out of the
harbor. It sank with the loss of 428 men, 269 women and 70 children. It had been
torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, either because it was mistaken for a Nazi ship, or
more likely, because the Soviets had agreed to collaborate with the British in barring
Jewish immigration. Illegal immigration continued until late in the war, apparently
without the participation of the Mossad l'aliya Bet. Despite the many setbacks, tens
of thousands of Jews were saved by the illegal immigration.

The Biltmore Declaration - Reports of Nazi atrocities became increasingly frequent

and vivid. Despite the desperate need to find a haven for refugees, the doors of
Palestine remained shut to Jewish immigration. The Zionist leadership met in the
Biltmore Hotel in New York City in 1942 and declared that it supported the
establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth. This was not simply a return
to the Balfour declaration repudiated by the British White Paper, but rather a
restatement of Zionist aims that went beyond the Balfour declaration, and a
determination that the British were in principle, an enemy to be fought, rather than
an ally.
Assassination of Lord Moyne - On November 6, members of the Jewish Lehi
underground Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet Zuri assassinated Lord Moyne in
Cairo. Moyne, a known anti-Zionist, was Minister of State for the Middle East and in
charge of carrying out the terms of the 1939 White Paper - preventing Jewish
immigration to Palestine by force. He was also a personal friend of Winston
Churchill. The assassination did not change British policy, but it turned Winston
Churchill against the Zionists. Hakim and Bet Zuri were caught and were hanged by
the British in 1945.

The Season ("Sezon") - The Jewish Agency and Zionist Executive believed that
British and world reaction to the assassination of Lord Moyne could jeopardize
cooperation after the war, that had been hinted at by the British, and might endanger
the Jewish Yishuv if they came to be perceived as enemies of Britain and the allies.
Therefore they embarked on a campaign against the Lehi and Irgun, known in
Hebrew as the "Sezon" ("Season"). Members of the underground were to be
ostracized. Leaders were caught by the Haganah, interrogated and sometimes
tortured, and about a thousand persons were turned over to the British.

Displaced Persons - After the war, it was discovered that the Germans had
murdered about six million Jews in Europe, in the Holocaust. These people had
been trapped in Europe, because virtually no country would give them shelter. The
Zionists felt that British restriction of immigration to Palestine had cost hundreds of
thousands of lives. The Jews were now desperate to bring the remaining Jews of
Europe, about 250,000 people being held in displaced persons camps, to Palestine.

United Resistance - In the summer of 1945, the Labor party came to power in
Great Britain. They had promised that they would reverse the British White Paper
and would support a Jewish state in Palestine. However, they presently reneged on
their promise, and continued and redoubled efforts to stop Jewish immigration. The
Haganah attempted to bring immigrants into Palestine illegally. The rival Zionist
underground groups now united, and all of them, in particular the Irgun and Lehi
("Stern gang") dissident terrorist groups, used force to try to drive the British out of
Palestine. This included bombing of trains, train stations, an officers club and British
headquarters in the King David Hotel, as well as kidnapping and murder of British
personnel. In Britain, newspapers and politicians began to demand that the
government settle the conflict and stop endangering the lives of British troops.

The US and other countries brought pressure to bear on the British to allow
immigration. An Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry recommended allowing
100,000 Jews to immigrate immediately to Palestine. The Arabs brought pressure
on the British to block such immigration. The British found Palestine to be
ungovernable and returned the mandate to the United Nations, successor to the
League of Nations. The report of the Anglo-American Committee provided a detailed
summary of the British mandate period and the security situation in Palestine, as
well as a report on the effects of the Holocaust and the condition of European Jewry.

Partition - The United Nations Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP)

recommended that Palestine be divided into an Arab state and a Jewish state. The
commission called for Jerusalem to be put under international administration The
UN General Assembly adopted this plan on Nov. 29, 1947 as UN Resolution (GA
181), owing to support of both the US and the Soviet Union, and in particular, the
personal support of US President Harry S. Truman. Many factors contributed to
Truman's decision to support partition, including domestic politics and intense Zionist
lobbying, no doubt. Truman wrote in his diary, however, "I think the proper thing to
do, and the thing I have been doing, is to do what I think is right and let them all go
to hell."

The Jews accepted the UN decision, but the Arabs rejected it. The resolution divided
the land into two approximately equal portions in a complicated scheme with zig-zag
borders (see map at right and see Partition Map and detailed partition map of
UNSCOP Proposal and final map: UN Palestine Partition Plan Map - 1947). The
intention was an economic union between the two states with open borders. At the
time of partition, slightly less than half the land in all of Palestine was owned by
Arabs, slightly less than half was "crown lands" belonging to the state, and about 8%
was owned by Jews or the Jewish Agency. There were about 600,000 Jews in
Palestine, almost all living in the areas allotted to the Jewish state or in the
internationalized zone of Jerusalem, and about 1.2 million Arabs. The allocation of
land by Resolution 181 was intended to produce two areas with Jewish and Arab
majorities respectively. Jerusalem and environs were to be internationalized. The
relatively large Jewish population of Jerusalem and the surroundings, about
100,000, were geographically cut off from the rest of the Jewish state, separated by
a relatively large area, the "corridor," allotted to the Palestinian state. The corridor
included the populous Arab towns of Lod and Ramla and the smaller towns of
Qoloniyeh, Emaus, Qastel and others that guarded the road to Jerusalem.

It soon became evident that the scheme could not work. Mutual antagonism would
make it impossible for either community to tolerate the other. The UN was unwilling
and unable to force implementation of the internationalization of Jerusalem. The
 Arab League, at the instigation of Haj Amin Al-Husseini, declared a war to rid
Palestine of the Jews. In fact however, the Arab countries each had separate
agendas. Abdullah, king of Jordan, had an informal and secret agreement with
Israel, negotiated with Golda Meir, to annex the portions of Palestine allocated to the
Palestinian state in the West Bank, and prevent formation of a Palestinian state.
Syria wanted to annex the northern part of Palestine, including Jewish and Arab
areas.

The War of Independence - 1948 War (the 'Nakba') - The War of Independence or 1948
War is divided into the pre-independence period, and the post-independence period.
Clashes between Israeli underground groups and Arab irregulars began almost as soon as
the UN passed the partition resolution. During this time, Arab countries did not invade,
though the Jordan legion did assist the in the attack against Gush Etzion, a small block of
settlements in the territory allocated to the Palestinian state, south of Jerusalem.

Pre-Independence - During the period before Israeli independence was declared,

two armies of Arab irregular volunteers, let by Haj Amin El Husseini in the Jerusalem
area, and by Fawzi El Kaukji in the Galilee, placed their fighters in Arab towns and
conducted various aggressive operations against the Jewish towns and village
under the eyes of the British. Kaukji and his irregulars were allowed into Palestine
from Syria by the British, with the agreement that he would not engage in military
actions, but he soon broke the agreement and attacked across the Galilee. The Arab
irregulars were met by the Zionist underground army, the Haganah, and by the
underground groups of the "dissident" factions, Irgun and Lehi.

In Jerusalem, Arab riots broke out on November 30 and December 1 1947.

Palestinian irregulars cut off the supply of food, water and fuel to Jerusalem during a
long siege that began in late 1947. Fighting and violence broke out immediately
throughout the country, including ambushes of transportation, the Jerusalem
blockade, riots such as the Haifa refinery riots, and massacres that took place at
Gush Etzion (by Palestinians) and in Deir Yassin (by Jews). Arab Palestinians
began leaving their towns and villages to escape the fighting. Notably, most of the
Arab population of Haifa left in March and April of 1948, despite pleas by both
Jewish and British officials to stay.

The British did little to stop the fighting, but the scale of hostilities was limited by lack
of arms and trained soldiers on both sides. Initially, the Palestinians had a clear
advantage, and a Haganah intelligence report of March, 1948 indicated that the
situation was critical, especially in the Jerusalem area. It is generally agreed that
April 1948 marked a turning point in the fighting before the invasion by Arab armies,
in favor of the initially outnumbered and outgunned Jewish forces. To break the
siege of Jerusalem, the Haganah prematurely activated "Plan Dalet" - a plan
prepared for general defense that was supposed to have been implemented when
the British had left. It required use of regular armed forces and army tactics, fighting
in the open, rather than as an underground. It also envisioned the "temporary"
evacuation of Arab civilians from towns in certain strategic areas, such as the
Jerusalem corridor. This provision has been cited as evidence that the Zionists
planned for the exodus and expulsion of Arab civilians in advance.
The Haganah mounted its first full scale operation, Operation Nahshon, using 1,500
troops. It attacked the Arab villages of Qoloniyah and Qastel, occupied by Arab
irregular forces after the villagers had fled, on the road to Jerusalem and temporarily
broke the siege, allowing convoys of supplies to reach the city. Qastel fell on April 8,
and the key Palestinian military commander, Abdel Khader Al-Husseini was killed
there. Qoloniyeh fell on April 11. In the north, Fawzi El-Kaukji's "Salvation Army" was
beaten back at the battle of Mishmar Haemeq on April 12, 1948. These successes
helped convince US President Truman that the Jews would not be overrun by Arab
forces, and he abandoned the trusteeship proposal that the US had put before the
UN earlier. Following attacks by Arab irregulars, the Irgun attacked the Arab town of
Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv. Palestinians fled en masse despite the pleas of the
British to remain.

The Arab Invasion - The governments of neighboring Arab states were more
reluctant than is generally assumed to enter the war against Israel, despite bellicose
declarations. However, fear of popular pressure combined with fear that other Arab
states would gain an advantage over them by fighting in Palestine, helped sway
Syria, Jordan and Egypt to go to war. While officially they were fighting according to
one plan, in fact there was little coordination between them.

On May 14, 1948, the Jews proclaimed the independent State of Israel, and the
British withdrew from Palestine. In the following days and weeks, neighboring Arab
nations invaded Palestine and Israel (click here for map). The fighting was
conducted in several brief periods, punctuated by cease fire agreements ( truces
were declared June 11 to July 8, 1948 and July 19- October 15, 1948).

In the initial stage, notable successes were scored by the Egyptian and Syrian
armies. In particular, the Egyptians, backed by tanks, artillery, armor and aircraft,
which Israel did not have, were able to cut off the entire Negev and to occupy parts
of the land that had been allocated to the Jewish state. In his book, "In the Fields of
Phillistia," Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery recounts how the Egyptian army
attempted a massed armored strike against Tel Aviv. Palestinian attempts to set up
a real state were blocked by Egypt and Jordan. Jordan kept to its agreement not to
invade areas allocated to the Jewish state, but Syria and Egypt did not. The strike
was turned back by a few recently arrived Messerchmitt aircraft, bought from
Czechoslovakia. The Syrians made some advances into the territory that had been
allotted to the Palestinian state.

While Jordan did not invade Jewish territory, the Arab Legion blocked convoys to
besieged Jewish Jerusalem from its fortified positions in Latroun. Jerusalem was to
have been internationalized according to UN General Assembly Resolution 181 and
UN General Assembly Resolution 303.The Jordanian positions at Latroun (or
Latrun) could not be overcome despite several bloody attacks. To get around it, the
Israelis ultimately built a "Burma Road' that was completed in June of 1948 and
broke the siege of Jerusalem.

The first cease fire and the Altalena - A cease fire in June gave all sides time to
regroup and reorganize. This marked a critical stage in the fighting. The Arab side
made a crucial error in accepting the truce. The Israelis took advantage of the cease
fire to reorganize and recruit and train soldiers. They were now able to bring in large
shiploads of arms, despite the treaty terms, and to train and organize a real fighting
force of 60,000 troops, giving them a real advantage in troops and armament for the
first time. The truce probably saved Jerusalem, which had been on the brink of
starvation. During the long truce, the underground armies of the Haganah, Palmah,
Irgun and Lehi were amalgamated into a single national fighting force, the Israel
Defense Force (IDF). The revisionist Irgun movement attempted to bring a shipload
of arms into Israel on a ship called the Altalena, in order to maintain a separate
fighting force. Israeli PM Ben Gurion ordered the IDF to sink the Altalena when Irgun
leader Menahem Begin refused to give up its cargo of arms. The Palestinians and
Arabs did not use the time well. A large shipment of arms intended for the
Palestinians was blocked by the IDF/Haganah and never reached Syria. Arab states
were reluctant to commit more men to the struggle or to spend more money.

Resumption of the war - The war with the Egyptians had been static, as they were
isolated in the "Falluja" pocket in central Israel. After the cease fire expired, Israel
took the war with the Egyptians to their territory and entered the Sinai peninsula.
The IDF was forced to withdraw after encounters with British aircraft.

In the center, the IDF cut a swath of land to open the "corridor" between Jerusalem
and the rest of Israel. During the "ten days" period of fighting between the two
truces, they invaded the Arab towns of Lod and Ramla that had been blocking the
road to Jerusalem and expelled most of the Palestinians living there, after killing a
large number. They destroyed numerous small Palestinian villages surrounding Tel-
Aviv, so that virtually no Palestinians were left in central Israel. (Click here for a map
of Palestine before 1948)

The Arab defeat and the birth of the refugee problem - Despite initial setbacks,
better organization and intelligence successes, as well as timely clandestine arms
shipments, enabled the Jews to gain a decisive victory. The Arabs and Palestinians
lost their initial advantage when they failed to organize and unite. When the fighting
ended in 1949, Israel held territories beyond the boundaries set by the UN plan - a
total of 78% of the area west of the Jordan river. The UN made no serious attempt to
enforce the internationalization of Jerusalem, which was now divided between
Jordan and Israel, and separated by barbed wire fences and no man's land areas.
Click here to view a map of the UN plan for Jerusalem and Jerusalem as divided
under the armistice agreements. The rest of the area assigned to the Arab state was
occupied by Egypt and Jordan. Egypt held the Gaza Strip and Jordan held the West
Bank. About 726,000 Arabs fled or were driven out of Israel and became refugees
in neighboring Arab countries. The conflict created about as many Jewish refugees
from Arab countries, many of whom were stripped of their property, rights and
nationality, but Israel has not pursued claims on behalf of these refugees
The Arab countries refused to sign a permanent peace
treaty with Israel. Consequently, the borders of Israel
established by the armistice commission never received
de jure (legal) international recognition. Arabs call the
defeat and exile of the Palestinian Arabs in 1948 the
Nakba (disaster).

The UN arranged a series of cease-fires between the

Arabs and the Jews in 1948 and 1949. UN GA
Resolution 194 called for cessation of hostilities and
return of refugees who wish to live in peace. Security
Council Resolution 62 called for implementation of
armistice agreements that would lead to a permanent
peace. The borders of Israel were established along the
"green line" of the armistice agreements of 1949. (Click
here for a map of the armistice lines (so called "green
line") . These borders were not recognized by Arab
states, which continued to refuse to recognize Israel.
Though hostilities ceased, the refugee problem was not Map of the Israel "Green
solved. Negotiations broke down because Israel Line" Borders
refused to readmit more than a small number of
refugees. The USSR, initially in favor of the Zionist
state, now aligned itself with the Arab countries. Despite
continued US support for the existence of Israel, US aid
to Israel was minimal and did not include military aid
during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were equipped with
surplus arms purchased third hand and with French
aircraft and light armor. The Arab countries, especially
Syria and Egypt, began receiving large quantities of
Soviet military aid. The Arab League instituted an
economic boycott against Israel that was partly honored
by most industrial nations and continued in force until
the 1990s.
The Sinai Campaign - Following the overthrow of King Farouk of Egypt by the free
officers headed by Naguib and Nasser, Egypt made some moves toward peace with
Israel. However, in 1954, an Israeli spy ring was caught trying to blow up the US
Information agency and other foreign institutions in Egypt. The goal was to create
tension between the US and Egypt and prevent rapprochement. In Israel, both
Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion disclaimed
responsibility for the action, and blamed each other. This incident came to be known
variously as "the Lavon affair" and "the shameful business." (click here for details).
Egypt became suspicious of Israeli intentions, and began negotiating to purchase
large quantities of arms. When they were turned down by the West, the Egyptians
turned to the Eastern bloc countries and concluded a deal with Czechoslovakia.
Egyptian President Gamal Nasser also closed the straits of Tiran and Suez Canal to
Israeli shipping. Israeli strategists believed that Egypt would go to war or force a
diplomatic showdown as soon the weapons had been integrated, and began looking
for a source of arms as well. Israel concluded an arms deal with France. A series of
border incursions by Palestinians and by Egyptians from Gaza evoked increasingly
severe Israeli reprisals, triggering larger raids. The assessment of Israeli "activists"
like Moshe Dayan was that Israel should wage preventive war before Egypt had fully
integrated the new weapons.

In the summer of 1956, Israel, France and Britain colluded in a plan to reverse the
nationalization of the Suez canal. Israel would invade the Sinai and land
paratroopers near the Mitla pass. Britain and France would issue an ultimatum, and
then land troops ostensibly to separate the sides. The plan was carried out
beginning October 29, 1956. Israel swiftly conquered Sinai. The US was furious at
Israel, Britain and France. UN General Assembly Resolution 997 called for
immediate withdrawal. Israeli troops remained in Sinai for many months. Israel
subsequently withdrew under pressure from the UN and in particular the United
States. Israel obtained guarantees that international waterways would remain open
to Israeli shipping from the US, and a UN force was stationed in Sinai.

The beginning of the Fatah - Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian Palestinian who grew up
in the Gaza strip and had been a member of the Ikhwan (Muslim Brothers) and the
Futuwwah or Futtuwah (officially called "Nazi Scouts" according to Benny Morris,
Righteous Victims, 1999, page 124, Palestinian armed faction of Grand Mufti Hajj
Amin El Husseini) was recruited by Egyptian intelligence while studying in Cairo in
1955, and founded the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS). In 1957 he
moved to Kuwait and together with Khalil Al Wazir (Abu Jihad) Farouq Qadumi,
Khalid al Hassan, Mahmoud Abass and others founded the Palestine Liberation
Committee, later renamed the Fatah (reverse acronym for Harakat Tahrir Filastin -
the Palestine Liberation Movement) modeled on the Algerian FLN.

The 1967 6-Day War - Tension began developing between Israel and Arab
countries in the 1960s. Israel began to implement its National Water Carrier plan,
which pumps water from the Sea of Galilee to irrigate south and central Israel. The
project was in accordance with a plan proposed by US envoy Eric Johnston in 1955,
and agreed to by Arab engineers. Arab governments refused to participate however,
because of the implied recognition of Israel. In secret meetings, Israel and Jordan
agreed to abide by the water quotas set by the plan.

The newly formed Palestinian Fatah movement seized on the Israeli diversion as an
"imperialist event" that would catalyze their revolution, and Yasser Arafat began
calling for war to eliminate Israel. In the Fatah newspaper, Filastinunah, ("our
Palestine") Arafat ridiculed Egyptian President Nasser and other Arab leaders for
their impotence, and called for effective action against Israel. Nasser decided to
found the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as a "tame" alternative to the
Fatah, and placed Ahmed Shukhairy, an ineffective and bombastic diplomat at its
head.

The Syrians, who had broken with Nasser's pan-Arabism, countered by supporting
Fatah and attempted to take over the Fatah group. Syrian army intelligence
recruited terrorists for actions against Israel, giving credit for the operations to Fatah.
The first of these actions was announced on December 31, 1964, an attack on the
Israel water carrier at Beit Netopha, but in fact no attack had taken place. A second
attempt was made on January 2, 1965, but the explosives charge was disarmed.
However, successful attacks soon followed on January 14 and February 28. These
minor terrorist activities received great publicity in the Arab world, and were
contrasted with the lack of action and bombastic talk of Gamal Nasser, challenging
Nasser's leadership. This ferment is considered the catalyst of the events that
brought about the 6-day war. It is a moot point whether it is to be attributed to Syrian
rivalry with Nasser, or as Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians claim, to the Fatah
movement. Faced with the "heroic" deeds of the Palestinians under Syrian tutelage,
Nasser was pushed to an increasingly bellicose stance.

In several summit conferences beginning in 1964, Arab leaders ratified the

establishment of the PLO, declared their resolve to destroy Israel, and decided to
divert the sources of the Jordan river that feed the Sea of Galilee, to prevent Israel
from implementing the water carrier plan. The Syrians and Lebanese began to
implement the diversions. Israel responded by firing on the tractors and equipment
doing the work in Syria, using increasingly accurate and longer range guns as the
Syrians moved the equipment from the border. This was followed by Israeli attempts
to cultivate the demilitarized zones (DMZ) as provided in the armistice agreements.
Israel was within its rights according to the armistice agreements, but Moshe Dayan
claimed many years later that 80% of the incidents were deliberately provoked. The
Syrians responded by firing in the DMZs (Click here for a map of the demilitarized
zones). When Israelis responded in force, Syria began shelling Israeli towns in the
north, and the conflict escalated into air strikes. The USSR was intent on protecting
the new Ba'athist pro-Soviet government of Syria, and represented to the Syrians
and Egyptians that Israel was preparing to attack Syria. As tension rose, Syria
appealed to Egypt, believing the claim of the USSR that Israel was massing troops
on the Syrian border. The claim was false and was denied by the UN.

Against this background, in Mid-May, 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Nasser

began making bellicose statements. On May 16, 1967, a Radio Cairo broadcast
stated: "The existence of Israel has continued too long. We welcome the Israeli
aggression. We welcome the battle we have long awaited. The peak hour has come.
The battle has come in which we shall destroy Israel." On the same day, Egypt
asked for the withdrawal of the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) from Sinai and the
Gaza Strip. UN Secretary General U Thant agreed to remove the troops on May 18.
Formally, the troops could only be stationed in Egypt with Egyptian agreement.
However, for a long time it was believed that Nasser had really hoped U Thant
would not remove the troops, and that he could use the presence of the UN troops
as an excuse to do nothing.

On May 23, Nasser closed the straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The United States
failed to live up to its guarantees of freedom of the waterways to Israel. A torrent of
rhetoric issued from Arab capitals and in the UN. At the UN, PLO Chairman Ahmed
Shukhairy announced that "if it will be our privilege to strike the first blow" the PLO
would expel from Palestine all Zionists who had arrived after 1917 and eliminate the
state of Israel. In a speech to Arab Trade Unionists on May 26, 1967, Nasser
justified the dismissal of the UNEF, and made it clear that Egypt was prepared to
fight Israel for Palestinian rights. He also attacked the Jordanians as tools of the
imperialists, stepping up the constant pressure on Jordan's King Hussein.

Despite the bellicose rhetoric, analysts such as Avi Shlaim (The Iron Wall) and
others believe that each country was dragged into the conflict by inter-Arab rivalry
and did not contemplate a war. Nasser never intended to attack Israel according to
Shlaim. He had been dragged into the conflict by Soviet maneuvers and Syrian fears
and his need to claim leadership of the Arab world according to them. Be that as it
may, according to Michael Oren, recently declassified documents reveal that the
Egyptians in fact planned to attack Israel on May 28, 1967. The plan, codenamed
operation Dawn, was discovered by Israel. The Israelis told the Americans. US
President Johnson told Soviet Premier Kosygin, and Kosygin wrote to Nasser.
Nasser understood that he had lost the element of surprise and called off the attack.
Nonetheless, on May 29, 1967, Nasser was still speaking of confrontation with
Israel. He told members of the Egyptian National Assembly, "God will surely help
and urge us to restore the situation to what it was in 1948."

IDF officers began pressuring the civilian establishment to declare war, because it
was considered that an Arab attack might be imminent, and because Israel's ability
to maintain its army fully mobilized is limited, but Prime Minister Eshkol was
reluctant to take action, and Foreign Minister Abba Eban opposed unilateral action,
which he believed would be against the wishes of the United States. Ariel Sharon
now admits that he and others, including Yitzhak Rabin, had discussed the
possibility of a sort of coup, in which government officials were to be locked in a
room, while the army started the war, but the idea never got passed the stage of
thinking out loud.

On May 30, Jordan signed a defense pact with Egypt, readying itself for war. Nasser
stated: "The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders
of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq,
Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world.
Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has
arrived. We have reached the stage of serious action and not declarations."

On June 4, Iraq likewise joined a military alliance with Egypt and committed itself to
war. On May 31, the Iraqi President Rahman Aref announced, "This is our
opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is
clear--to wipe Israel off the map."

US and Israeli assessments were that Israel would win any war handily, despite the
huge superiority in armor, aircraft, and troops favoring the combined forces of the
Arab countries. Prior to 1967, Israel had gotten almost no military aid from the
United States. Egypt and Syria were equipped with large quantities of the latest
Soviet military equipment. Israel's main arms supplier was France. On paper, Israel
had almost as many aircraft as the Egyptians, but the Israeli aircraft were mostly old,
and even the Super-Mirages were no match for the Mig-21 fighters acquired by
Egypt from the USSR. On paper, the IDF had a large number of "tanks" matching or
almost matching the arms of the Arab countries. However, while Syrians and
Egyptians were equipped with late model Soviet heavy tanks, many of the Israeli
"tanks" were in fact tiny French AMX anti-tank vehicles, and the heavy tanks were
refurbished WWII Sherman tanks fitted with diesel engines. Israel had also been
allowed to purchase about 250 M-48 Patton tanks from Germany in 1965. Most of
these tanks were being refitted with Diesel engines in 1967, and the US refused an
Israeli request for 100 Pattons to replace the ones that were out of service. The
Israeli and Jewish public, and some in the government, believed that there was a
mortal threat to Israel. Ten thousand graves were dug in Tel Aviv public parks in
anticipation of the heavy casualties.

The Israeli government probably did not want war, and some at least were fearful of
war. Ben Gurion berated Chief of Staff Itzhak Rabin for making aggressive
statements that had, according to him, escalated the conflict and gotten Israel into
trouble. Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol appeared hesitant, and stuttered in a
dramatic radio speech to the nation. Under great public pressure from opposition
parties, a unity government was formed. Foreign Minister Abba Eban tried in vain to
obtain from the US a guarantee that they would reopen the straights of Tiran. At first,
President Johnson promised an international flotilla, and warned Israel not to attack
on its own. However, the US was unable to initiate any international action, and
reversed its position, hinting broadly that Israel would have to handle the problem
itself.

Israel could not maintain total mobilization indefinitely. When it became apparent
that Egypt would not stand down, Israel attacked the Egyptians beginning on June 5,
1967. In the first hours of the war, Israel destroyed over 400 enemy aircraft to
achieve total air superiority. Israeli troops quickly conquered the Sinai Peninsula and
Gaza. Jordanian artillery began firing at Jerusalem on the first day of the war,
despite a warning by Israeli PM Levi Eshkol to stay out of the war, and then the
Jordan Legion advanced and took over the headquarters of the UN (Governor's
house - Armon Hanatziv ) in Jerusalem. After warning King Hussein repeatedly to
cease fire and withdraw, Israel conquered the West Bank and Jerusalem. During the
first days of the war, Syrian artillery based in the Golan Heights pounded civilian
targets in northern Israel. After dealing with Egypt, Israel decided to conquer the
Golan heights, despite opposition and doubts of some in the government, including
Moshe Dayan, who had been appointed defense minister. (see map of territories
occupied in 1967) and despite the fact that the UN had already called for a cease
fire. Israel agreed to a cease fire on June 10, 1967 after conquering the Golan
Heights. UN Resolution 242 called for negotiations of a permanent peace between
the parties, and for Israeli withdrawal from lands occupied in 1967. More details
here: Six day war 1967 Six Day War Timeline (chronology)

The aftermath of the war - The 1967 6-Day war changed the perceived balance of
power in the Middle East and created a new reality. Israel had acquired extensive
territories - the Sinai desert, the Golan heights and the West Bank, that were several
times larger than the 1948 borders. ( Click here to view a map of Israeli borders after
the 6 day war). Nasser had been able to attribute the Egyptian defeat in 1956 to
British and French support of the Israelis. Though he tried to blame the 1967 defeat
on support supposedly given by the US Sixth fleet, this was clearly untrue.

According to analysts such as Fouad Ajami, the disastrous defeat of the Arabs
spelled the end of the Pan-Arab approach advocated by Gamal Abdul Nasser and
contributed to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. It should be remembered
however, that Nasser and the pan-Arabists always viewed themselves as heads of
the Islamic world as well as the Arab world.

While Israel had acquired territories and a military victory, it also marked a new day
for Palestinian aspirations. The defeat brought about a million Palestinian Arabs
under Israeli rule. After the war, the fate of the Palestinians came to play a large role
in the Arab-Israeli struggle. The Fatah organization (The Movement for Liberation of
Palestine) was founded about 1957 (though it was formalized much later), and the
PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was founded in 1964. Both had the
declared aim of destroying Israel. After the 6-day war, Ahmad Shukairy, who had
headed the PLO, was replaced as chairman by Yasser Arafat who headed the
Fatah. Fatah and the PLO now had freedom of action, without the restraints of the
discredited Arab regimes. Since all parts of Palestine were now under Israeli control,
Fatah actions did not directly threaten Arab governments. In time, the Palestine
Liberation Organization became recognized by all the Arab states and eventually by
the UN as the representative of the Palestinian people. PLO Chairman Yasser
Arafat addressed a session of the UN General Assembly in 1974. Israel strongly
opposed the PLO because of its terrorist acts against Jews and because of its
charter aims of destroying the state of Israel and expelling Jews who had arrived
after 1917.

The Israeli government was undecided concerning its plans for the territories. The
United States pressured Israel to make a statement calling for withdrawal from the
conquered territories in return for peace. On June 19, 1967, the government decided
to offer Egypt and Syria return of the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights for a peace
settlement to be negotiated directly. The offer apparently did not include the Gaza
strip, and called for demilitarization of Sinai. In the Golan, Israel offered to withdraw
to the international border rather than the 1949 armistice lines, not including the
territory conquered by Syria in 1948. J ordan and the West Bank were not
mentioned. The offer was transmitted in secret through the United States, but was
turned down. Egypt and Syria refused to negotiate with Israel.

At the request of Jordan's King Hussein, Ya'akov Herzog met with him in the offices
of his physician in London, on the evening of July 2, 1967. According to Herzog's
notes of the meeting, Hussein discussed the reasons why he had been forced to go
to war at length. He said that if there were to be peace, there would have to be
peace with honor, however he did not ask for peace. He did not reply when Herzog
asked him if he was offering peace, but said he would reply in time. Israel did not
have a concrete peace proposal for Jordan. Herzog offered his private view, that
there should be an economic confederation. (This meeting is documented in Segev,
Tom, Israel in 1967 (1967: Veharetz shinta et paneiha - in Hebrew only), 2005, pp
530-536).

Religious and nationalist groups began agitating for annexation and settlement of
areas in the West Bank and Golan heights. Some government ministers including
Pinchas Sapir, Zalman Aran of the Labor party and the NRP's Yaakov Shimshon
Shapira feared the demographic problems that would arise from conquering all
those Arabs. Shapira also pointed out that annexing the West Bank would lend
credence to claims that Israel was a colonialist enterprise. Menachem Begin and
Yigal Alon favored annexation. Moshe Dayan proposed that the Arabs of the West
Bank should be given autonomy, but Menachem Begin, who was later to favor the
plan, objected. He believed large numbers of Jews could now be brought to Israel to
settle the territories, and the Arabs would be given a choice between becoming
citizens or leaving.
The Mossad had proposed a Palestinian state under Israeli protection in a report
dated June 14, 1967 (Segev, 1967, pp 537-538), but this was not accepted.
According to some sources, in the summer of 1967, Moshe Dayan received a
delegation of notables who proposed self-rule for the West Bank, but he rejected the
offer.

By July 1967, Yigal Alon had submitted his "Alon Plan" which called for Israeli
retention of large parts of the West Bank in any peace settlement for strategic
reasons. An increasing number of settlements were established as it became
evident that Arab states would not negotiate with Israel. A decisive turning point was
the Khartoum Arab summit, in August and September of 1967, which seemed to
shut the door on the possibility of negotiations with Israel or recognition of Israel in
any form. The Khartoum resolutions may not have been an insurmountable barrier
to peace. In 1970, King Hussein of Jordan supposedly offered to make peace in
return for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and return of the holy places, but
the offer was politely turned down.

A second landmark was the "Zionism is Racism" resolution passed by the United
Nations in 1975, which gave credibility in Israel to claims of Israeli extremists that
opposition to settlements was opposition to Israel, and that Israel was essentially
alone in a hostile world and could expect no justice. The resolution was repealed in
1991, but similar sentiments surfaced at a UN conference in Durban in 2001.
Likewise in November 1975, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Harold H
Saunders, told a US House Committee that the US now recognized the importance
of the Palestinian national issue in the conflict, and hinted broadly that the US would
be willing to facilitate a solution that took account of Palestinian rights, if the PLO
would recognize the relevant UN resolutions, including Israel's right to exist, and
would be amenable to a reasonable compromise. This policy was to bear fruit
eventually in the Oslo Peace Process, after PLO Chairman Arafat announced PLO
acceptance of UN Resolution 242 in 1988.

Meanwhile however, settlement expansion became official Israeli policy after the
opposition revisionist Likud party came to power in 1977, and continued during the
Oslo accords. As of 2003, about 220,000 Israelis had settled in areas of the West
Bank and Gaza, and an additional 200,000 were settled in areas of Jerusalem and
environs conquered in 1967. About 15,000 Jews were settled in the Golan heights
taken from Syria. (Click for Map of Israeli West Bank Settlements-2002)

The War of Attrition - After the 6-Day war, Egyptian president Nasser launched the
war of attrition on the Suez canal, breaking the cease fire. In Israel, Prime Minister
Levi Eshkol had died and was replaced by the hawkish Golda Meir. The sides fought
to a standstill in increasingly bloody exchanges that included participation by Soviet
pilots on the Egyptian side. Under US pressure, a second cease fire was signed in
August 1970, with both sides declaring officially their acceptance of UN Resolution
242. Nasser died shortly thereafter, and was replaced by Anwar Sadat. Sadat tried
repeatedly to interest Israel in partial peace deals in return for partial Israeli
withdrawal, and the US and UN tried to mediate peace through the offices of Gunnar
Jarring. Nothing came of these peace efforts, partly owing to the stubborn attitude of
Israeli PM Golda Meir, who insisted that Israeli troops would not budge until there
was a peace agreement in place. Sadat continued to alternate peace plans with
threats of war, but he was not taken seriously in Israel. Israeli army intelligence as
well as the government were convinced that Israel had absolute military superiority
and that Egypt would not dare to attack until it had rebuilt its army. Therefore, the
best course seemed to be to wait until the Arab countries met Israel's terms.

The October War (Yom Kippur War) - In October 1973, Egypt and Syria launched
another war against Israel, after the Israeli government headed by Golda Meir
rebuffed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's offers to negotiate a settlement. The
Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal on the afternoon of October 6, Yom Kippur, the
holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar. The Israeli government had ignored
repeated intelligence warnings. They were convinced that Israeli arms were a
sufficient deterrent to any aggressor. Sadat had twice announced his intention to go
to war, but nothing had happened. When the intelligence reports were finally
believed, on the morning of the attack, PM Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan
decided not to mobilize reserves.

The Israelis were caught by surprise in more ways than one. Egyptians poured huge
numbers of troops across the canal unopposed and began setting up a beachhead.
The Israel Army had neglected basic maintenance tasks and drill. As troops
mustered, it became apparent that equipment was missing and tanks were out of
commission. The line of outposts built as watch posts along the Suez canal - the Bar
Lev line, was used instead as a line of fortifications intended to hold off the
Egyptians as long as possible. A tiny number of soldiers faced the Egyptian
onslaught and were wiped out after stubborn resistance. The Soviets had sold the
Egyptians new technology - better surface to air missiles (SAM) and hand held
Sager anti-tank weapons. Israel had counted on air power to tip the balance on the
battlefield, and had neglected artillery. But the air-force was initially neutralized
because of the effectiveness of SAM missiles, until Israel could destroy the radar
stations controlling them. Futile counterattacks continued in Sinai for several days as
Israeli divisions coped with traffic jams that prevented concentration of forces, and
with effective Egyptian resistance.

Meanwhile, less than 200 Israeli tanks were left guarding the Golan heights against
far superior numbers. Syrians made serious and at first unopposed inroads in the
Golan as Egyptians crossed the Suez canal and retook a strip of the Sinai
peninsula. After suffering heavily losses, Israel reconquered the Golan. Click for
map of Syrian Front

In Sinai, Israel troops crossed the canal. General Ariel Sharon, disobeying the
orders of cautious superiors, tried to run ahead of logistics and support to develop
the bridgehead on the Egyptian side of the Suez canal. This small force was
reinforced after bridges were put across the canal, and the Israelis cut off the entire
Egyptian third army. (Click for map of Egyptian front ) Cease-fires ended most of
the fighting within a month. About 2,700 Israeli soldiers and 8,500 Arab soldiers died
in the war As a result of the war, the Golda Meir was forced to resign as Prime
Minister of Israel, making way for Yitzhak Rabin, who had been Israeli ambassador
to the US and previously Chief of staff of the IDF. Click for details of the Yom
Kippur War
Oil Embargo - In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur war, Arab states led by Saudi
Arabia declared an oil embargo, targeting the United States and the Netherlands in
particular for their support for Israel. Oil production was reduced by 340 million
barrels from October to December of 1973. Prices soared from $3 to over $11 a
barrel, due to panic stockpiling as well as actual shortages. Oil sold to European
countries eventually made its way to the United States and the Netherlands in any
case, but there were nonetheless long lines for gasoline and overnight price
increases. The embargo continued until March of 1974. The embargo heightened
the perception that Arab countries could exercise political leverage by controlling the
oil supply. It probably helped motivate European diplomatic moves that were
conciliatory to the Arabs, and played a part in the invitation of Yasser Arafat to
address the UN General Assembly, granting of a permanent observer status at the
UN to the PLO and passage of the Zionism is Racism resolution in 1975.

Peace With Egypt - Subsequent shuttle diplomacy by US Secretary of State Henry

Kissinger resulted in partial Israeli withdrawals from the Sinai peninsula, under much
less favorable terms than could have been obtained before the war. Right-wing
opposition leader Menahem Begin was adamant in his opposition to any
withdrawals. However, in 1978, Egypt led by Anwar Sadat, and Israel, now led by
Menahem Begin, signed the Camp David framework agreements, leading to a
Peace treaty in 1979. Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982.

The PLO in Lebanon and the Lebanese Civil War - Lebanon became
increasingly unstable as Maronite Christians found their once--dominant position
threatened by demographic changes which gave Muslims an increasingly large
majority. Tensions between different religious groups were exacerbated by clan
rivalry. Lebanon also has a relatively large population of Palestinian refugees, who
incurred the animosity of native Lebanese, especially the Christians. A revolt by the
PLO against the Jordanian government led to the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan
in 1970. PLO fighters streamed into Lebanon, incited tension between Muslims and
Christians and turned Lebanon into a base for attacks on Israel. In 1975, an attack
by Christian Phalangist militias on a bus carrying Palestinians ignited the civil war.
the Christian Phalangists and Muslim militias massacred at least 600 Muslims and
Christians at checkpoints, beginning the 1975-1976 civil war. Full-scale civil war
broke out, with the Palestinians joining the Muslim forces, controlling an increasingly
lawless West Beirut. Lebanese political and social life descended into chaos,
characterized by a grim routine of car bombs, assassinations and harassment and
killing of civilians at roadblocks set up by warring militias.

On January 20, 1976, PLO fighters, possibly reinforced by a Syrian PLO contingent
that had entered Lebanon in 1975, destroyed the Christian towns of Jiyeh and
Damour, massacring about 500 people. In March, Major Saad Haddad formed the
Southern Lebanese Army (SLA), a militia intended to protect Christian residents of
southern Lebanon, which was allied with Israel In June, 1976, with the Maronites on
the verge of defeat, President Elias Sarkis called for Syrian intervention. With the
agreement of the Americans and the Israelis, the Syrians entered Lebanon
ostensibly to protect the Christians and the fragile Lebanese multi-ethnic multi-
religious constitution, but also to further long-standing Baathist ambitions to make
Lebanon as part of Greater Syria. On August 13, 1976, under the protection and
with the probable active participation of the Syrian army, the Christian Phalangist
militia attacked the Tel al-Za'atar refugee camp and killed as many as 3,000
civilians.

After an attack on a bus on the Haifa-Tel-Aviv road, in which about thirty people
were killed, Israel invaded Lebanon in March 1978. It occupied most of the area
south of the Litani River in Operation Litani. In response, UN Security Council
resolution 425 called for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces and the creation
of an UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), charged with maintaining peace.

Israeli forces turned over positions inside Lebanon along the border to the SLA. The
SLA and Israel set up a 12-mile wide security zone to protect Israeli territory from
attacks across the border, and to protect local residents from the PLO, which had
been occupying their villages and using them as bases for shelling Israel. This
southern area became an "open border" area separated by the "good fence,"
allowing Lebanese residents to find work in Israel. Attacks and counter attacks along
the northern border of Israel continued. In July of 1981 a cease-fire between Israel
and the PLO was brokered by the US. It was generally honored by both sides.
Nonetheless, the PLO continued to gather strength and dig in in southern Lebanon.

The 1982 War in Lebanon (Peace for the Galilee) - On June 3 1982, terrorists of
the Abu Nidal faction, not controlled by the PLO, shot Israeli Ambassador Shlomo
Argov in the head in London. In response, Israel invaded Lebanon in force. Most
analysts believe that the shooting of Argov served only as an excuse for an
operation planned by defense Minister Ariel Sharon with the tacit approval of the US
administration. The Iranian Islamist regime sent its Pasdaran revolutionary guards,
who had previously organized the takeover of the US embassy in Teheran, into
Lebanon, and began organizing a resistance movement, The Hizb Allah (party of
Allah) or Hizbolla.

The Israel invasion resulted in expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon to Tunis in
August. The war aroused furor in Israel as the army exceeded the official war aims.
On September 14, 1982, the Lebanese President-elect, Bashir Gemayel, an Israeli
ally, was killed by a large bomb that was apparently planted by Syrian intelligence.
Ostensibly to maintain order, the Israeli government decided to move into West
Beirut. They allowed or sent their Lebanese Phalangist Christian allies into the
Sabra and Shatilla Palestinian refugee camps. The Phalangists committed a
massacre in Sabra and Shatilla, killing about 700 people and exciting the wrath of
the international community as well as the Israeli public. An Israeli commission of
inquiry led by judge Kahan indirectly implicated Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon
and several others in the massacres, noting that they could have foreseen the
possibility of the violence and acted to prevent it. The Kahan report resulted in the
resignation of Sharon as defense minister. Israel subsequently extricated itself
slowly from Lebanon. As Israel withdrew, Lebanon became increasingly lawless.
Beirut life came to be characterized by gunfire, kidnappings and bombings.
Attempts by the US to restore order failed owing to large scale suicide bombings of
a marine barracks and the US embassy. The US withdrew and Lebanon, especially
Beirut, deteriorated into chaos. Order was restored only after Lebanon became
essentially a satellite of Syria. Israel continued to maintain a presence in south
Lebanon until 2000, when the last Israeli troops were withdrawn by PM Ehud Barak.
The Pollard Affair - In November 1985, Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish-American
employee of the US Naval Anti-Terrorist Alert Center was arrested for spying for
Israel. He pleaded guilty in a plea bargain deal, but the US government apparently
reneged on the deal and Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987, an
exceptional sentence relative to similar cases. The affair was a severe
embarrassment to US-Israeli relations and raised the specter of "double loyalty"
accusations for American Jews. At the same time, Pollard became a cause celebre
of the Zionist right, who pointed out that he had been used and abandoned by the
Israeli government, which did little to secure his freedom.

The First Intifada - While the fortunes of the PLO waned, Palestinians in the
occupied territories took their fate into their own hands. Beginning in 1987, a revolt
called the Intifadeh began in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The revolt was
initiated by local residents and involved mostly low-level violence such as rock
throwing, winning sympathy for the struggle of the Palestinians against the Israeli
occupiers. By 1991 the Intifadeh had all but ended, but massive Israeli repression in
this period laid the seeds for future violence (see First Intifada).

The Arab population did not all arrive in Palestine after Zionist settlement, as some
right-wing Zionists imagine. The Muslim and Arab habitation of the land goes back
over a thousand years and has a long and varied history. The claim of the Jews, on
the other hand, is not just based on ancient rights, but on continuous settlement in
the land since ancient times as well as on the immense effort and investment of the
Zionist movement in developing the land since the late nineteenth century. The
problems posed by the Palestinian refugees, the real threat of terror and conflicting
and well grounded claims to Jerusalem, and the rights of each side cannot be
dismissed as partisans of each side try to do. Demonization of one side or the other
will not help you understand the conflict nor will it lead to a solution. Nor can all the
claims be ignored. In retrospect, the Oslo agreements (Oslo Declaration of
Principles and The Oslo Interim Agreement) were attempts to do just that: to
postpone the difficult issues for some later time. We are now living in that later time
and paying the price of that postponement..

History, and different perceptions of history, are perhaps the most important factors
in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Accounts of history, interpreting history in different ways,
are used to justify claims and to negate claims, to vilify the enemy and to glorify "our
own" side. Dozens of accounts have been written. Most of the accounts on the Web
are intended to convince rather than to inform.

This very brief account is intended as a balanced overview and introduction to

Palestinian and Israeli history, and the history of the conflict. It is unlikely that
anyone has written or will write an "objective" and definitive summary that would be
accepted by everyone, but it is hoped that this document will provide a fair
introduction.

It would be wrong to try to use this history to determine "who is right," though many
"histories" have certainly been written by partisans of either side, with precisely that
purpose in mind. Those who are interested in advocacy, in collecting "points" for
their side, cannot find the truth except by accident. If they find it, and it is
inconvenient, they will bury it again. This account intends to inform, and nothing
more. Two separate documents explain how I think we should gather facts and learn
about the conflict, and the importance of words in making Middle East history, as
well as in understanding it. A timeline provides details of many events not discussed
in this history, and source documents provide additional background. Serious
students will also refer to the bibliography for more information and different
viewpoints, and will always seek out primary source documents to verify whatever
claims are made about those documents or about quotes from those documents.

The Oslo Peace Process

Following the Gulf war, US pressure, the ongoing break up of the USSR and
favorable international opinion made it possible to convene negotiations toward
settlement of the Palestinian problem. In 1993 and 1995, Israel and the PLO signed
the Oslo Declaration of Principles and The Oslo Interim Agreement. which created
the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), a supposedly temporary entity that would
have the power to negotiate with Israel and to govern areas of the West Bank and
Gaza evacuated by Israel. Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994.

The peace process with the Palestinians led to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from
the Gaza Strip and most cities and towns of the West Bank by early 1996. In
January 1996, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian-controlled parts of
the West Bank elected a legislature controlled by the Fatah faction, with Yasser
Arafat as Chairman (titled "Rais" - "President" by the Palestinians) to administer
these areas. As the Israelis withdrew, Palestinians took control of these areas.
About 97% of the Palestinians in these areas were nominally under Palestinian rule,
but the area controlled by the Palestine National Authority amounted to about 8% of
the land. Israel embarked on an accelerated settlement program, building thousands
of housing units in the West Bank, and doubling the number of settlers there by
2004.

Though the PLO had agreed to forego violence in the Oslo declaration of principles,
attacks on settlers continued. Ominously, even before the Oslo declaration of
Principles, on April 16, 1993, a Hamas suicide bomber exploded a car bomb at
Mehola in the West Bank, killing himself and one Israeli. On February 25, 1994, a
disgruntled right-wing settler, Baruch Goldstein, opened fire on worshippers in the
Cave of the Patriarchs (Mosque of Abraham) in Hebron, killing 30 people before
being killed himself. In retaliation, the Hamas carried out several suicide attacks in
Israel beginning in April of 1994. The peace process became increasingly unpopular
in Israel. On November 5, 1995, Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a
young right-wing fanatic, Yigal Amir, at a peace rally. He was replaced by Shimon
Peres, who oversaw the signing of the Oslo Interim agreement. A rash of Hamas
suicide bombings in the spring of 1996 and inept campaign strategy caused Peres to
lose the election held in May of 1996 to Likud party head Benjamin Netanyahu, who
was an opponent of the Oslo process. Netanyahu decided to complete a
controversial underground tourist attraction in Jerusalem by opening a gate between
two tunnels. Arab sources spread the false rumor that the gate endangered the
foundations of the Al-Aqsa mosque. This caused several days of rioting and
numerous casualties.
Despite Netanyahu's opposition to the Oslo process, in January of 1997 Israel and
the PNA signed an interim agreement on Hebron. The IDF withdrew from most of
Hebron, leaving an enclave of about 500 settlers living in the middle of an Arab city,
protected by the IDF. Negotiations at the Wye River Plantation in October of 1998
produced agreements on further withdrawal of Israeli troops and renewed
Palestinian commitments to prevent terror and incitement. However, most of the
provisions of the agreement were not carried out by the Palestinians, and the
Israelis did not withdraw as stipulated in the Wye agreements while Netanyahu was
in office. In May of 1999 Benjamin Netanyahu was voted out of office, and Labor
party head Ehud Barak became Prime Minister. Barak continued settlement
expansion programs, but he vowed to pursue peace negotiations actively. Barak first
tried to renew negotiations with Syria, but Syrian President Hafez Assad rejected an
offer related through US President Clinton, which would have given Syria most of
the Golan heights except for access to the sea of Galilee.

Barak turned his attention to the Palestinians. Israel made the troop withdrawals
mandated by the Wye agreements, and negotiators began working toward a final
settlement. Barak offered to turn over Abu Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem, to be used as
the Palestinian capital. However, this offer was withdrawn in the wake of violence
that broke out in mid-May of 2000.

The Second Intifada (Al-Aqsa Intifada)

Negotiations for a final settlement at Camp David in the USA, in July, 2000 ended in
deadlock. Palestinians insisted that refugees should have the right to return to Israel,
which would produce an Arab majority in Israel. Israel insisted on annexing key
portions of the Palestinian areas and on leaving most settlements intact, and offered
only a limited form of Palestinian statehood. Palestinians claim that the only offers
made at Camp David included cantons or "Bantustans" that would make up the
Palestinian State. This apparently characterizes initial Israeli proposals. However, in
his book, The Missing Peace, 2004, Dennis Ross presents a map, shown at right,
that supposedly reflects the US compromise proposal at Camp David, to include
about 91% of the territory of the West Bank. Both sides agreed on Israeli withdrawal
from Gaza.

Palestinian violence erupted on September 28, 2000, triggered by a visit of Ariel

Sharon to the Temple mount in Jerusalem. This location, called the Haram as Sharif
in Arabic, is also the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, holy to Muslims. False rumors
spread that Sharon had entered the mosque, helping to fan the unrest. The US
called a summit conference in Sharm-El Sheikh in October, in order to bring about
an end to the violence. Both sides vowed to put an end to the bloodshed and return
to negotiations. At the conference, it was also agreed to set up a US led
investigative committee that would report on the causes of the violence and make
recommendations to the UN. This eventually resulted in the Mitchell Report. Shortly
thereafter, however, Arab leaders and Yasser Arafat met in an extraordinary Arab
League Summit in Cairo, and issued a belligerent communique praising the Intifada
and calling for an international investigative commission rather than the one agreed
upon in Sharm El Sheikh. About two weeks later a suicide bombing in Jerusalem put
an end to the truce.
The Israeli government met on December 27 and accepted Click for larger map
the proposals with reservations, which according to Ross,
were "within the parameters." The Palestinians
equivocated. The deadline passed, and no definitive
Palestinian reply was forthcoming. According to Ross, on
December 29, he told Abu Ala (Ahmed Qurei):

Mark my words, they [the US] will disengage from the

issue and they will do so at a time when you won't have
Barak, or Amnon or Shlomo, but at time when you will
have Sharon as Prime Minister. He will be elected for
sure if there is no deal, and you 97% will become 40-45
percent; your capital in East Jerusalem will be gone; the
IDF out of the Jordan Valley will be gone; unlimited right
of return for refugees to your own state will be gone.

Abu Ala replied:

"I am afraid it may take another fifty years to settle this

issue."

(Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace, 2004, p. 755)

The map at right was presented by Ross in The Missing

Peace. It illustrates the approximate boundaries of the
Palestine state under the Clinton bridging proposals,
omitting land to be ceded by Israel to Palestine.

At a memorial dinner held in November 2005 in memory of Yitzhak Rabin, President

Clinton said that Chairman Yasser Arafat had made a "colossal historical blunder" in
refusing the terms, causing the breakdown of the peace process. (Haaretz, Nov. 14,
2005).

Palestinian negotiators present a different version. On November 13, 2005, the

Palestinian Authority International Press Center related these remarks of Palestinian
Minister of Information, Nabil Sha'at, on the anniversary of the death of Yasser
Arafat:

He also set out that Israel has never endeavored to reach a final solution during
the second Camp David negotiations, putting to rest the rumor which tells that
Israel proposed for the Palestinians a state with 97% of the West Bank and 10%
of the Jordan Valley.

He went ahead as saying, "all what was circulated that Israel proffered to the
Palestinian side great concessions is incorrect," asserting that Israel rejected to
give back Jerusalem to the Palestinian, and above all it kept adamant to annex
the settlements blocs to the city of Jerusalem.

Minister Sha'at made clear that this point led the negotiations of Camp David II to
a gridlock.
 What was suggested by Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, was only
to give Arafat a presidential headquarters in the Old City of Jerusalem, but the
late president rebuffed this suggestion roundly, he added.

However, Palestinians have never disputed the published version of President

Clinton's bridging proposals in which it is quite clear that the Palestinians would have
sovereignty over Arab East Jerusalem, including the Haram as Sharif (temple
mount).

In last minute negotiations at Taba on January 21-27 2001, under European and
Egyptian patronage, the sides failed to reach a settlement despite further Israeli
concessions. Though both sides agreed to a joint communiqué saying they had
never been so close to agreement, substantive disagreements remained about the
refugee issues and final settlement maps. Israeli PM Barak broke off negotiations
on January 28, 2001, suspending them until after the elections. Barak had hoped to
reach a deal he could present to the Israeli public, and was angry and disappointed.
Negotiations were terminated because Barak, who had furthered the peace
process, was voted out of office at the beginning of February and replaced by a right
wing government headed by Ariel Sharon.

No official maps were actually presented by or to the sides during the negotiations.
Following the failure of the negotiations, the Palestinians continued to claim that
Israel had offered only "Bantustans" in the West Bank. The Israeli government did
not publish any maps. Dennis Ross, who headed the US negotiating team,
summarized the proposals presented by the USA in the maps presented above. The
Gush Shalom group and the Foundation for Middle East Peace also published a
map of an offer made by the Barak government at Taba (Click here for details of the
different maps). One of the major outstanding questions was the refugee problem.
U.S. President Clinton had believed there were only differences of wording between
the Israeli and Palestinian approaches. Clinton's Bridging proposals called for
allowing refugees to return from abroad to the Palestinian state. They could return to
Israel only with the agreement of Israel. However, at Taba, the Palestinian proposal
called for eventual return of all the refugees to Israel. This proposal was
unacceptable to Israel as it would create an Arab majority in Israel and put an end to
Jewish exercise of the right to self-determination.

Violence continued into 2001 and 2002, despite attempts by the Mitchell commission
and others to restore calm. The terror attack on the World Trade Center in the US on
September 11, 2001, had direct repercussions for the Israel-Palestine conflict. On
the one hand, Arab and Islamic countries tried to leverage on the need for their
cooperation in the war against terror to win concessions for the Palestinians. On the
other, many Americans began to view terrorist actions in a new light, as
organizations such as Hamas and Hizbulla came to be linked with the Al-Qaeda
group of Osama Bin-Laden. Particularly damaging for the Palestinians were the
demonstrations held in favor of Bin Laden, and evidence linking a boatload of illegal
arms intercepted by Israel, the Karine A, with Iranian support for the PNA. The boat
was intercepted on January 3, 2002, on the day that US envoy Anthony Zinni
arrived to attempt to arrive at a settlement. Against this background, the US and EU
seemed to give Israel wider latitude for action against the Palestinians. Israel made
increasing incursions into Palestinian areas, and confined PNA Chairman Arafat to
his compound in Ramalah. but the Palestinians stepped up attacks on soldiers as
well as suicide bombings.

The Saudi Peace Proposal and the Palestinian State Resolution - Saudi Crown
Prince Abdullah made a dramatic proposal to end the long Arab war against Israel in
return for Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories, withdrawal in the Golan and
appropriate arrangements regarding Jerusalem and the refugees. This proposal,
modified to be more specific about refugee issues, was adopted by a meeting of the
Arab League, and eventually became incorporated in the quartet roadmap plan. On
March, 12, 2002 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1397, calling on the
sides to stop the violence once again, mentioning the peace plan of Saudi Crown
Prince Abdullah, and for the first time since 1947 calling for creation of a Palestinian
state alongside Israel.

Operation Defensive Shield

Meanwhile however, terror and suicide attacks and Israeli reprisals continued.
Yasser Arafat declared a cessation of violence several times, but this did not seem
to affect the frequency or severity of suicide bombings and ambushes. The Israelis,
for their part, continued with their policy of assassinating wanted men in the
Palestinian areas. During the last week in March, as General Zinni was again
coming to the Middle East, the Palestinians launched a successful suicide attack
almost every day, in addition to many unsuccessful ones. A blast at the Park Hotel in
Nethanya killed 27 people as they were celebrating Passover. Israel launched a
massive raid, operation Defensive Shield, intended to root out terror infrastructure,
including reoccupation of Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and other towns. Israel
claimed that only about 50 were killed in the Jenin refugee camp, mostly members
of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs suicide brigades. Palestinians charged that the Israelis
had committed a massacre in the Jenin refugee camp, killing over 500 people.
These charges were repeated by most news sources in Europe, though they were
later retracted. Human rights groups who entered the Jenin refugee camp after the
Israeli invasion reported that there was a great deal of damage and that the IDF had
probably committed war crimes by preventing medical aid, but that only about 56
people had been killed, more than half of whom were terrorists, confirming the Israeli
version of events.

Suicide attacks abated, but did not stop. During the course of the fighting, Israel
captured numerous documents providing evidence that Yasser Arafat had
personally approved the organization of terror cells, and that the PNA treasury had
approved payments for suicide-bomber explosive belts. The Israelis captured or
killed numerous persons suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. The IDF
also destroyed records, building, roads and other innocent civilian infrastructure of
banks, NGOs and other organizations clearly not involved in terror. Later in the
fighting, the IDF managed to locate Marwan Barghouti, head of the Fatah Tanzeem,
and to capture him. Israel claimed it has evidence of complicity by Barghouti in
numerous terrorist acts, and it eventually put him on trial, condemning him to five life
sentences for complicity in murder. Critics argued that it would be impossible to put
an end to terror by military activity in the absence of progress toward a peaceful
solution. However, following Defensive Wall, the number and frequency of
successful terror attacks began to decline, as the Israeli security forces made better
and better use of intelligence gathered during the operation to detect and stop
attacks. The number of attempted attacks did not decrease noticeably however.

Toward the end of Defensive Shield, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who
needed quiet in Israel and Palestine to leave the US a free hand to organize an
alliance against Iraq, arrived to try to end the violence. Powell's mission did not
accomplish anything. He was unable to get the Israelis to withdraw completely from
the areas they had reoccupied, nor could he get the Palestinians to agree to a cease
fire. Demonstrations and public outrage in Arab countries, fueled by charges of a
massacre, prompted UN action. UN resolution 1402 directed that Israel withdraw
from the territories immediately. By the time Powell had left, Israel had withdrawn
from some towns, but Yasser Arafat was still imprisoned in Ramallah, and the
Israelis were besieging the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where armed
Palestinians had sought refuge from the IDF. The UN Security Council adopted
Resolution 1403, expressing dismay that resolution 1402 had not been
implemented. On April 19, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1405, calling for
an an impartial investigative team to be send to determine the truth of Palestinian
allegations. Israel objected to the composition of the team. Israel at first agreed to
the investigation, but later backtracked and blocked it, claiming that the composition
and procedures of the investigation would be unfair to Israel, and that the UN had
reneged on initial agreements about the investigation. Opposition to the investigation
was fueled by Israeli memories of the recent Durban conference as well as by the
infamous Zionism is Racism resolution of the UN, which was recalled repeatedly in
public debate.

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon visited the US in May of 2002, under pressure from the US
administration to advance a peace program that could be acceptable to Palestinians
and the Arab states. The two discussed plans for a regional summit to be held later
in 2002, and the Israelis presented documents that they claim prove the involvement
of Yasser Arafat and the PNA in terrorist activities. News of a suicide bombing
committed by the Hamas came while Bush and Sharon were meeting, causing the
Israeli PM to cut the visit short and return to Israel.

The sieges of Muqata and Church of Nativity were also resolved in May 2002.
Militants in the Church of Nativity were exiled to Cyprus and Europe. Some of the
wanted men in the Muqata compound in Ramallah were jailed in Jericho, but others
apparently remained in the Muqata. The head of the PFLP allegedly coordinated a
suicide attack from his cell in Jericho. At the end of May, under pressure for
democratic reform, Yasser Arafat signed into law the Basic Law or constitution of the
Palestinian transitional state. The law states that Palestinian law will be based on
the principles of Islamic law (Sha'ariyeh).

In June, following another wave of Palestinian suicide attacks, Israeli forces

essentially reoccupied all of the West Bank. The Israeli government was quick to
claim that the re-occupation would not continue indefinitely, but later indicated
otherwise. President Bush made a long awaited speech on Middle East policy
calling for a Palestinian state, but insisting on democratic reform of the Palestine
National Authority.
In August and September 2002, several attempts at Palestinian cease fire initiatives
were foiled by refusal of extremist groups to participate and by Israeli acts such as
the killing of Salah Shehadeh, head of the military wing of the Hamas in a missile
attack on Gaza that cost the lives of 13 civilians. Shehadeh was replaced by
Mohamed Deif. August and September witnessed a six week respite from major
suicide and terror attacks, facilitating an Israeli-Palestinian plan to return full
Palestinian authority in Gaza and Bethlehem first. However, this fizzled after several
violent attacks in Gaza. At the beginning of September, Israeli security forces foiled
several suicide attack attempts and detected a truck laden with 1300 pounds of
explosives and gas tanks, that was to be used by Palestinians in a suicide attack.

The PLC convened in September to approve the new cabinet chosen in line with
reform efforts. PLC cabinet members refused to ratify the cabinet until Yasser Arafat
would allow a Prime Minister to share power. Instead, Arafat agreed to elections in
January, 2003, despite Israeli occupation. Arafat's popularity was at a nadir. The
elections never took place.

The period of relative calm came to an end with suicide bombings in Umm El Fahm
and in a Tel-Aviv bus. The Israeli government proceeded with an attack on Gaza
including entry into Gaza city and besieged Yasser Arafat and an estimated 200
others in the Muqata compound in Ramala. Israel demanded that Palestinians give
up wanted persons who had taken refuge in the Muqata including Palestinian
preventive security boss Tawfiq Tirawi. Arafat remained defiant. Israel destroyed all
buildings in the compound except the main one, promising not to harm Arafat. After
a rumor was spread that Israel was about to blow up the Muqata, widespread
demonstrations took place in the West Bank and Gaza, resulting in four deaths. The
USA exerted pressure on Israel to stop destroying buildings in the Muqata and to
withdraw. Despite a UN resolution, Israel continued the siege. Arafat's popularity
with Palestinians soared. Eventually, the siege was lifted, but Arafat remained
confined to Ramalla and isolated. A second siege was reinstituted in the fall.

In April of 2002, the US government initiated a series of consultations with a group

of diplomats that became known as the "Quartet." The quartet evolved a roadmap
for a settlement, including Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and
establishment of a Palestinian state.

In October of 2002, the Labor party withdrew from the Israel unity government. PM
Ariel Sharon initiated immediate elections, to be held January 28. Ariel Sharon's
Likud Party won a sweeping mandate to continue hard line policies against the
Palestinians. The Israel Labor party refused to form a unity government. Israel
continued to occupy most of the West Bank.

During this period, the US continued to mass forces for an invasion of Iraq, and the
US and quartet partners continued to advance the quartet road map for middle east
peace. The quartet partners and especially the US pressured the Palestinians to
commit to a thoroughgoing reform of their government that would eliminate
corruption and support for terror. It was proposed that Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen)
would assume the post of Prime Minister, overshadowing and displacing the still-
popular Yasser Arafat.
 The Iraq War, the Roadmap and Palestinian Reform

On March 20, 2003, US, British and Australian forces invaded Iraq. The Palestinians
had supported Saddam Hussein and his regime had provided payments for families
of suicide bombers, as well as sheltering Palestinian militants. US forces entered
Baghdad on April 9, and President Bush declared the war over on May 1. The war
produced an upheaval in the Middle East and especially affected the Palestinians.
Arabs were astounded by the swiftness of Iraq's collapse. Arab governments
including the Palestinians hurried to make conciliatory gestures and talk of
democracy, at the same time criticizing the US occupation of Iraq, which generated
a great deal of resentment. Mahmud Abbas was elected Palestinian PM on April 29,
however the violence did not abate. Israelis made bloody raids in Gaza and
elsewhere on the day of his election. A few hours later, Fateh and Hamas
perpetrated a suicide attack at a Tel Aviv night club, and the next day Israel began
extensive raids in the territories. In violation of the roadmap, Yasser Arafat put
himself in charge of organizing a new unified security force. As it had promised the
Palestinians, the US released an updated road map on April 30 immediately after
the election of Abu Mazen. (Click here for commentary on the roadmap).

At a festive summit held on June 4 in Aqaba, Israeli PM Sharon and Palestinian PM

Mahmoud Abbas (Abu-Mazen) pledged to fulfill the conditions of the road map and
shook hands in the presence of US President George Bush. Abu Mazen called for
an end to violence. Click here for more commentary on the roadmap.

Islamist extremist Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders vowed to continue violence.
Soon after the summit, four Israeli soldiers in Gaza were killed in a joint operation
that included not only the Islamist extremists but also the Fatah movement of Abu
Mazen. Israel began dismantling about ten of the 100 illegal outposts, but
dismantled only uninhabited ones. On June 10, Israel tried to assassinate Hamas
leader Ahmed Rantissi, kindling fury among Palestinians and eliciting criticism from
the US. On June 11, a Hamas suicide bombing killed 16 Israelis in a bus on the
main street of Jerusalem. On August 20, a suicide bombing killed 21 people on a
bus in Jerusalem. The following day, Israel assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Abu
Shanab, possibly in retaliation. Israel also announced that the lives of all Hamas
leaders were forfeit, and made several assassination attempts, some unsuccessful
against Hamas leaders, including the aged and crippled "spiritual leader" of the
Hamas. As the Hudna (truce) unraveled, there were threats and rumors of attempts
on the life of PNA PM Mahmud Abbas by Palestinian extremists. In the following
days, Israel moved into the West bank for a security clean up intended to last
several days. Abbas and his Gaza Security Chief Mohamed Dahlan began to move
against Palestinian terrorists as required by the roadmap, whereupon Yasser Arafat
moved to replace Dahlan with Gibril Rajoub and to put security and the interior
ministry in the hands of his supporters. Abbas announced that he would not act
against terrorists on September 4, but this did not save his political career. Abbas
resigned on September 6, and Ahmed Qureia ("Abu Ala"), an Arafat supporter, was
appointed PM in his stead. Qureia vowed a tough line against Israel. On September
8, EU leaders moved to ban the political wing of the Hamas and prevent monetary
contributions to it.
On the evening of September 10, 2003, twin suicide bombings in Jerusalem and
outside the Tzrifin Army base near Rishon Le Zion claimed a total of 15 lives. A
period of quiet was broken by a suicide bombing in a Haifa restaurant on October 4,
attributed to Islamic Jihad. Palestinian PM designate Ahmed Qurei and the PA
condemned the bombing, but refused to commit to taking action against terror
groups. In retaliation, Israel invaded Gaza as well as Jenin, and on October 5 they
struck at a base in Syria that Israel claimed was training Palestinian terror groups.
This was the first Israeli attack on Syrian territory since the Yom Kippur (Ramadan)
war in 1973. A long period of relative abatement in Palestinian attacks ensued, but
Israel continued attacks on Palestinian targets with considerable loss of civilian life.
Suicide attacks continued from time to time, done by either the Hamas and Islamic
Jihad Islamist factions or by the Fatah Al Aqsa brigades, a faction of Yasser Arafat's
Fatah group over which the PNA has apparently lost control. Suicide bombings were
carried out December 25 2003, January 14, 2004, January 29, 2004, and February
22, by the "moderate" Fatah Al Aqsa brigades as well as by the Hamas and by the
Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine.

Geneva Accord - Israeli opposition political leaders and Palestinian leaders

announced an agreement in principle on conditions for a final settlement. The
agreement, which has come to be known as the Geneva Accord, proposed historic
concessions by both sides. Israel would give up sovereignty in Arab portions of
Jerusalem, while the Palestinians would explicitly renounce the right of Palestinian
refugees to return to Israel. Though it has no formal standing at present, the
agreement has gotten widespread publicity, including support from US Secretary of
State Colin Powell, and warm words from PNA Chairman Yasser Arafat. The Israeli
government has denounced the agreement and the people involved in it, and tried to
block advertisements for the agreement in the public media. Likewise, Palestinian
extremists and their allies have denounced the agreement.

The Security Barrier (also called "Security Fence" "Apartheid Wall") - A major
issue of the 2003 Israel election campaign had been the erection of a security
barrier (fence, wall) advocated by dovish Israel Labor party. The barrier was to be
erected along the Green line and would help to prevent suicide attacks in Israel. A
similar barrier in Gaza had reduced infiltration to zero. The right, including Ariel
Sharon's Likud party, opposed the barrier, because it would create a de-facto border
as they thought, dividing Jerusalem, and putting most of the Israeli settlements in
the West Bank outside the protection of the security arrangements. Sharon and the
Likud won the election by a landslide majority, sending the Labor party and the leftist
Meretz party into total disarray.

During 2003, PM Ariel Sharon adopted and adapted the barrier concept, changing
the route to include major Israeli settlements and including a projected eastern
portion that would envelope the Palestinians in two enclaves. As the barrier went up,
it became evident that it would trap many Palestinians who would be cut off from
their fields and places of work, some on the Israeli side of the 1948 armistice Green
Line, and some on the Palestinian side. In populated areas where it is most visible,
the barrier is in fact a forbidding cement wall, though it is a fence over most of its
extent. Palestinian groups and Israeli peace groups began an intense protest
campaign. On December 8, 2003, the UN General Assembly met in Emergency
session and adopted resolution ES-10/14, which asked the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) at the Hague for an advisory opinion on the legality of the barrier. The
ICJ began its hearings on February 24. Israel boycotted the hearings, but submitted
a brief saying that the court should not rule on the matter. About 30 other countries
including the United States and several EU countries, submitted briefs saying that
the court should not rule on the matter because it was a political question rather than
a legal one, and likewise did not attend the hearings. Most of these countries also
criticized the barrier as illegal or a hindrance to peace negotiations. Zionist and
Israeli groups organized demonstrations at the Hague, and Palestinians organized
counter demonstrations. The Israelis brought a bombed out bus and stressed that
the wall prevents suicide attacks. The Palestinians used the hearings as a platform
for de-legitimizing the occupation. ( Click here for maps and details about the
security barrier/fence/wall)

On July 9, the International Court of Justice delivered its advisory opinion on the
Israeli security barrier. The court ruled that the barrier violates human rights and that
Israel must dismantle it. Israel announced that it would not abide by the court
decision, but it did plan changes in the route of the barrier to satisfy requirements of
the Israeli High Court.

Government of Ahmed Qurei - On November 12, 2003, after a long period of

negotiations, Palestinian PM Ahmed Qurei formed a permanent government and
moves began to institute a cease fire and renew negotiations with the Israelis.
However, very little came of these moves. On November 19, the UN Security
Council passed resolution 1515, endorsing the quartet road map for peace and
calling upon the sides to fulfill their obligations to the road map plan. However, the
Israeli incursions continued, and for their part, the Palestinians seemed unwilling or
unable to control terrorist groups. Prospective meetings between Ahmed Qurei and
Israeli PM Ariel Sharon were announced, rumored, vaunted and then evaporated.
For a time, Qurei announced that he would not meet with Sharon until Israel stopped
building its security barrier (see below). However, when Sharon announced his
unilateral disengagement plan and it appeared to be in earnest, Qurei became
concerned that the withdrawal without any negotiations would be a victory for the
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, political rivals of the PLO who run the PNA, and who are
grooming themselves to inherit leadership of the Palestinians. Qurei then announced
that he would be ready to meet with Sharon, and that a meeting would definitely take
place by the end of February. However, negotiations to set the agenda of this
meeting were postponed for various reasons, including suicide bombings and Israeli
assassinations.

Chaos in Gaza -Meanwhile, it became evident that Qurei was not really able to
govern, despite some successes in improving financial transparency as demanded
by the EU and USA. By the beginning of 2004 there were several reports of chaos,
disunity and lawlessness in the Palestinian territories. At the end of February, ex-
security-chief Mohamed Dahlan indicated that the Palestinian Authority could not
rein-in the dissident Fatah Al-Aqsa brigades that had been responsible for several
suicide bombings. Attempts to unify the security forces, blocked by Arafat, ended in
dissension and bitter recriminations. On February 26, Chairman Arafat promised to
hold long-postponed elections, but many Palestinians did not believe he would keep
his promise. In Nablus, lawlessness reigned and the Mayor resigned.
On the weekend of July 18, 2004 violence broke out in Gaza between factions of the
Fatah. One group kidnapped police chief Ghazzi Jibbali and several French
nationals, and later released them, on condition that Jibbali will stand trial. Yasser
Arafat reorganized security, appointing his nephew, Musa Arafat, to be in charge of
Palestinian security forces. Opposition forces reacted by storming Musa Arafat's
headquarters. Subsequently, PM Ahmed Qurei announced his resignation, which
was not accepted by Arafat, but Qurei insisted he would resign anyway. Arafat
announced that he is withdrawing the appointment of Musa Arafat, but then
announced that Musa will remain in charge of security in Gaza. Subsequent
agitation for reform elicited more declarations from Arafat, but when these were not
implemented, Palestinian legislators announced that they would adjourn in protest.

Security situation in 2004 - During the spring and summer of 2004 there were no
successful major terror attacks within Israel, despite numerous attempts. Israelis and
Palestinians attributed the relative quiet to the partially constructed separation
barrier and better Israeli intelligence. Israel continued to arrest and kill Palestinians
belonging to terrorist organizations, and to occupy Palestinian cities in the West
Bank. On August 31, 2004, Hamas perpetrated a double suicide attack in
Beersheba, in revenge for the killings of their leaders. The attackers came from the
area south of Hebron in the West Bank, where no fence had been built. The attack
accelerated construction of the barrier, and Israel took bloody revenge by bombing a
Hamas training camp in Gaza. In October of 2004 Israel conducted operation Days
of Repentance to overcome Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns. The operation
killed many civilians and left many others homeless.