Shimshon 9

Present-day Israel is from 3000 BC populated by Kanaanites and is named Kanaan. In 1200 BC Kanaan is occupied by jewish tribes and around 1000 a jewish kingdom is established, soon split in the Kingdoms of Juda and Israel. In 722 BC Israel is destroyed by Assyria, its inhabitants (”the Lost Tribes”) deported, and replaced by settlers from elsewhere in the Assyrian Empire. The Babylonian Empire conquers Judah in 597-586 BC and deports the middle and upper classes of the jews to Babylonia, where they flourish. The exiled jews who return to their traditional home encounter the jews that had remained, surrounded by non-jews. In 539 BC Babylonia is annexed by Persia, which hols the area until the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon, who conquers it in the early 330s BC. After his death in 323 BC, his empire is partitioned and the competing Ptolemaic and Seleucidian Empires occupy various portions of Palestine Only as late as 168 BC a new independent jewish state of Juda is formed. Juda becomes a vasal of the Roman Empire in 63 BC and in 44 the area becomes a Roman province as Palestine. In 70 the jews are banned from Palestine. Palestine is between 395 and 634 part of the East Roman Empire.

In 634 Palestine is conquered by the Caliphate. The Arab rule is interupted between 1099 and 1187, when European christians establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Since 1187 Palestine is ruled by the rulers of Egypt. The Ottoman Empire conquers Palestine in 1516. At the end of the nineteenth centurt efforts begin to establish a sovereign nation as a homeland for jews. These efforts are initiated by Theodore Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement, and are given added impetus by the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which asserted the British Government’s support for the creation of a jewish homeland in Palestine.

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Palestine is seized by the United Kingdom in 1917/1918 and the area becomes a British League of Nation Mandate of Palestine in 1923. In the years following World War I, jewish immigration steadily increases, as did violence between the jewish and Arab communities. Mounting British efforts to restrict this immigration are countered by international support for Jewish national aspirations following the near-extermination of European jewry by the German Nazis during World War II. This support leads to the 1947 UN partition plan, which divides Palestine into separate jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under UN administration.

According to this plan the State of Israel on parts of Palestine is proclaimed in 1949. This leads to the still existing Israel-Arab conflict. After an invasion by neigbouring Arab countries, which rejected the UN partition plan, Israel conquers more of Palestine than foreseen by the United Nations. Parts of Palestine are occupied by Trans-Jordan and Egypt. Many Palestinian Arabs flee the country. Israel becomes a parliamentary democracy in which originally the Israeli Workers’ Party (MAPAI) dominates. Its leader David Ben-Gurion is prime minister from 1948 until 1963 (with an interuption in 1953/1955 by his co-partisan Moshe Sharett).

In 1956 French, British and Israeli forces engage Egypt in response to its nationalization of the Suez Canal and blockade of the Straits of Tiran. Israeli forces withdraw in March 1957, after the United Nations established the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Gaza Strip and Sinai. This war results in no territorial shifts and is followed by several years of terrorist incidents and retaliatory acts across Israel’s borders. After the forming of the new Mifleget Avoda Hayisraelit (Israel Labour Party) as succesor of MAPAI in 1963 Levi Eshkol takes over.

In 1967 Israel strikes targets in Egypt, Jordan and Syria in response to Egypts ordered withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from the Sinai and the buildup of Arab armies along Israel’s borders. After 6 days, all parties agree to a cease-fire, under which Israel retains control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River and East Jerusalem. The Security Council adopts resolution 242, which callsfor the establishment of a just and lasting peace based on Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in return for the end of all states of belligerency, respect for the sovereignty of all states in the area and the right to live in peace within secure, recognized boundaries.

Eshkol is succeeded by Golda Meir in 1969. In 1973 Syria and Egypt launch an attack against Israel. Although the Egyptians and Syrians initially make significant advances, Israel is able to push the invading armies back beyond the 1967 cease-fire lines by the time the United States and the Soviet Union help bringing an end to the fighting. Meir is succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin in 1974.

In 1977 the conservative Likud (Consolidation,) alliance wins the elections and for the first time a government without social-democrats can be formed. As was Avoda, Likud has always to form coalitions, in which either religious or centrist parties participate. Menachem Begin becomes prime minister. Negotiations lead in 1979 to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, pursuant to which Israel withdraws from the Sinai in 1982. In 1982 Israel invades Lebanon to fight the forces of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO withdraws its forces from Lebanon in 1982. Begin is succeeded in 1983 by his co-partisan Yitzhak Samir.

In 1984 Avoda wins the elections and Shimon Peres becomes prime minister in a coalition of Avoda and Likud. Israel, having failed to finalize an agreement with Lebanon, withdraws most of its troops in 1985 save until 2000 for a residual force which remained in southern Lebanon to act as a buffer against attacks on northern Israel. Inside the coalition Shamir becomes prime minister again in 1986. Likud forms a minority right wing government in 1990. The end of Persian Gulf War in 1991 leads to new negotiations designed to bring peace and economic development to the region. After the election victory of Yitzhak Rabin of Avoda in 1992, Israel and the PLO sign a Declaration of Principles in 1993, which establish an ambitious set of objectives relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority. Israel and the PLO subsequently sign the Gaza-Jericho Agreement and the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities in 1994, which began the process of transferring authority from Israel to the Palestinians. In the same year Israel and Jordan sign a historic peace treaty.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated in 1995 by a right-wing jewish radical, bringing the increasingly bitter national debate over the peace process to a climax. Rabin is succeeded by Shimon Peres, but he loses the 1996 elections. These bring Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud to power. In 1999 Avoda wins the elections and Ehud Barak wins the premiership. Following further Israel-Palestinian talks, widespread violence breaks out in Israel and the Palestine territories in 2000. From that moment on there is a continuing crisis of confidence between the two sides. This leads in Israel to the election victory of Ariel Sharon and the Likud. The path to peace is halted and terrorism is growing.