The Sykes-Picot agreement was a secret understanding concluded in May 1916, during World War I, between Great Britain & France, with the assent of Russia, for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire.

Establishment of Israel

• The State of Israel, the first Jewish state for nearly 2,000 years, was proclaimed at 16:00 on 14 May 1948 in Tel Aviv. The declaration came into effect the following day as the last British troops withdrew.

• Palestinians remember 15 May as "al-Nakba", or the Catastrophe.

The year had begun with Jewish & Arab armies each staging attacks on territory held by the other side.

• Jewish forces, backed by the Irgun & Lehi militant groups made more progress, seizing areas allotted to the Jewish state but also conquering substantial territories allocated for the Palestinian one.

• Irgun & Lehi massacred scores of inhabitants of the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem on 9 April. Word of the massacre spread terror among Palestinians & hundreds of thousands fled to Lebanon, Egypt & the area now known as the West Bank.

• The Jewish armies were victorious in the Negev, Galilee, West Jerusalem & much of the coastal plain.

The day after the state of Israel was declared five Arab armies from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria & Iraq immediately invaded Israel but were repulsed, & the Israeli army crushed pockets of resistance.

Armistices established Israel's borders on the frontier of most of the earlier British Mandate Palestine.

The 1967 War

• Mounting tensions between Israel & its Arab neighbors culminated in 6 days of hostilities starting on 5 June 1967, ending on 11 June; 

• Israel seized Gaza & the Sinai from Egypt in the south & the Golan Heights from Syria in the north.

• & it also pushed Jordanian forces out of the West Bank & East Jerusalem.

• Egypt's powerful air force was put out of action on the first day of fighting when Israeli jets bombed it on the ground in a pre-emptive strike. [the way of the USA & Israel - strike first & then declare war on whatever grounds]

• The territorial gains doubled the area of land controlled by Israel.

The victory heralded a new age of confidence & optimism for Israel & its supporters.

• The UN Security Council issued resolution 242, stressing "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war & the need to work for a just & lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security".

• The resolution called for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict".

• It called for an end to "all claims or states of belligerency & respect for... the sovereignty... of every state in the area & their right to live in peace... free from threats or acts of force".

Israel & Egypt make peace

• Egyptian President Anwar Sadat stunned the world by flying to the Jewish state & making a speech to the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on 19 November 1977.

• Sadat became the first Arab leader to recognize Israel, only four years after launching the October 1973 war (known as the Yom Kippur war in Israel). The war was indecisive after Egypt & Syria had attacked Israeli forces occupying Sinai & the Golan Heights. It ended with the issuing of UN Resolution 338 calling for "a just & durable peace in the Middle East".

Egypt & Israel signed the Camp David accords in September 1978 outlining "the framework for peace in the Middle East" which included limited autonomy for Palestinians.

• A bilateral Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was signed by Sadat & Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin six months later in March 1979.

• The Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had seized in the 1967 war, was returned to Egypt.

Arab states boycotted Egypt for breaking ranks & negotiating a separate treaty with Israel.

Israel invades Lebanon

• The Israeli army launched a massive military incursion into Lebanon in the summer of 1982.

• Operation "Peace for Galilee" was intended to wipe out Palestinian guerrilla bases near Israel's northern border, although Defence Minister Ariel Sharon pushed all the way to Beirut & expelled the PLO from the country.

• The invasion began on 6 June, less than two months after the last Israeli troops & civilians were pulled out of Sinai under the 1979 treaty with Egypt.

• The action was triggered by the attempt on the life of Israeli ambassador to London Shlomo Argov by the dissident Palestinian group Abu Nidal.

• Israeli troops reached Beirut in August. A ceasefire agreement allowed the departure of PLO fighters from Lebanon, leaving Palestinian refugee camps defenseless.

• As Israeli forces gathered around Beirut on 14 September, Bashir Gemayel, leader of the Christian Phalange militia, was killed by a bomb at his HQ in the capital. The following day, the Israeli army occupied West Beirut.

PLO opens door to peace

• Despite its military might, Israel was unable to quell the intifada which started in 1987 & was backed by the entire Palestinian population living under Israeli occupation.

• For the PLO - based in Tunis since its expulsion from Lebanon in 1982 - the uprising threatened the loss of its role as the main player in the Palestinian "revolution" as focus shifted to the occupied territories & away from the diaspora population.

The Palestinian National Council (a government-in-exile) convened in Algeria in November 1988

• voted to accept a "two-state" solution based on the 1947 UN partition resolution (181), renounce terrorism

• & seek a negotiated settlement based on Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territory captured in the 1967 war,

• & Resolution 338.

Sharon returns

• By the end of 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak found himself presiding over an increasingly bitter & bloody cycle of violence as the intifada raged against Israel's occupation in the West Bank & Gaza.

• With his coalition collapsing around him, Barak resigned as prime minister on 10 December to "seek a new mandate" to deal with the crisis.

• However in elections on February 6, Ariel Sharon was swept to power by Israeli's electorate that had overwhelmingly turned its back on the land-for-peace formulas of the 1990s & now favoured a tougher approach to Israel's "Palestinian problem".

The death toll soared as Sharon intensified existing policies such as assassinating Palestinian militants, air strikes & incursions into Palestinian self-rule areas.

Palestinian militants, meanwhile, stepped up suicide bomb attacks in Israeli cities.

West Bank re-occupied

• Palestinian militants carried out an intense campaign of attacks in the first 3 months of the year, including a hotel bombing which killed 29 on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday.

• In response, Israel besieged Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound for five weeks & sent tanks & thousands of troops to re-occupy almost all of the West Bank.

• Months of curfews & closures followed as Israel carried out operations it said were aimed at destroying the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure.

Controversy raged as Israeli forces entered & captured the West Bank city of Jenin in April.

• A UN report later refuted Palestinian claims of a massacre, but Amnesty International concluded that the Israeli army had committed war crimes in Jenin & also Nablus.

• May saw a five-week stand-off between the Israeli army & a large group of militants & civilians sheltering inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

• June, US President George Bush called for Palestinians to replace their leader with one not "compromised by terror", & outlined a timetable for negotiations which would later become the plan known as the "roadmap".

Israel began building a barrier in the West Bank, which it said was to prevent attacks inside Israel, although Palestinians feared an attempt to annex land.

Mr. Arafat faced heavy pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority & rein in the militants.

Palestinian attacks continued, met with periodic Israeli incursions & a ten-day siege which reduced much of Mr. Arafat's compound to rubble.

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Islam's place in Israeli/Christian history was not always as peaceful as Moslems would want Christians & Jews to believe:

In the southern Spanish town of Granada, on July 10, 2003, a remarkable event marked a dramatic milestone in European history. Yet it achieved few headlines, & even today only a handful understand its full significance.

•  For more than 700 years - from the early eighth century AD to nearly the end of the fifteenth - Muslim rulers had governed Spain, & Islam had been a thriving force on the Iberian Peninsula.

• In 732AD, a Muslim army under Emir Abd al-Rahman almost reached Paris before being stopped near Tours, France. Islam's spread across Europe reached its zenith in the eighth century.

• Then, over hundreds of years, non-Muslim forces gradually chipped away at Islamic rule.

• Finally, in 1492, the armies of King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella conquered Spain's last Muslim stronghold, Granada. For the first time in centuries, no part of Spain was under Muslim rule. Within a few years, Spain's remaining Muslim population had converted to other faiths, & Islam no longer held sway where it had once ruled supreme.  

• Five hundred years later, with new Spanish converts joining Muslim immigrants to celebrate the opening of Granada's new Great Mosque, many Europeans wondered, "Could it all happen again?
  " In the years ahead, Europe's history of violent conflict with Islam will have a growing influence on current events. We need to be aware of the history - & of where the Bible tells us the conflict will inexorably lead.

A Re-Reconquista?
 

• The Great Mosque was Granada's first new mosque in five centuries. European observers found it especially noteworthy because Granada had been Islam's last stronghold in Spain.

• "The powers that be didn't want the mosque built because Granada was a symbol of the reconquest," said Abdelkarim Carrasco, head of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Entities.

• The reconquest - or "Reconquista" - is what historians call the centuries-long struggle that drove Muslim rulers from Spain.

• The new mosque spurred fears of a reversal - an "Islamic reconquista." Malik Abderraman, president of the foundation that runs the mosque, said bluntly, "It's clear that Islam is eating into Catholic turf" ("Islam's Global Gains Pressure Catholics to Rethink Strategy," Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2005).

• Islam had once reached into Europe far beyond Spain; Muslim armies sacked Rome in 846AD, & in the eighth century had even come close to capturing France.

• In 732AD, Muslim forces marched through France, toward Paris, only to be stopped by the Frankish army under Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne. Near Tours, France, the Frankish army fought a great battle that historians today recognize as a pivotal moment in the history of western civilization. Although outnumbered, Martel rallied his Frankish troops to hold the line against the onslaught of Abd al-Rahman's horsemen - & Frankish forces won the day.

The noted historian Edward Gibbon describes what might have happened to Europe if Martel & his Franks had failed to halt & reverse the Muslim drive:

"A victorious line of march [by the Muslim forces] had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland & the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, & the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames [near London]. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, & her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity & truth of the revelation of Mahomet" (Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5, Ch. 52, Part II).

A Muslim France?
 Historically, it nearly happened. But as a result of Martel's fierce opposition, which ended Muslim advances & set the stage for centuries of war thereafter, Islam moved no farther into Europe.

European schoolchildren learn about the Battle of Tours in much the same way that American students learn about Valley Forge & Gettysburg. For today's Europeans, however, yesterday's battles remind them of the modern challenge posed by Islam.

A Peaceful Invasion?

• There is a new Muslim conquest of Europe underway - but this time, it is a peaceful invasion.

• Millions of Turks, Arabs, Algerians & other Muslims have immigrated to European countries, seeking employment & a better life. Often they begin as guest workers before becoming permanent residents. For years, these workers were largely welcomed by nations that needed their lower-cost labor. Increasingly, however, immigrant Muslim populations in Europe are growing to the point that they have become a major cultural & political force affecting their host countries. Rather than assimilate, they are testing the limits of European tolerance - & social tensions are growing.

• In 1970, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there were 20 percent more Roman Catholics around the world than there were Muslims. By 2000, this proportion had almost reversed; there were 1.20 billion Muslims worldwide, compared to just 1.06 billion Roman Catholics. & Islam is growing, both through births & conversions, at a rate far greater than Roman Catholicism.
       This shift is particularly visible in France. Demographers note that among French youth, the percentage of Muslims is much higher than among the general French population. In a recent column, commentator Cal Thomas speculated, "At current rates, the Muslim population will grow... to a majority in 25 years. French culture, possibly French secularism & liberty, cannot be sustained in the face of such demographic facts" ("Lessons Learned," January 11, 2006).

Europeans who once assumed that Muslim terrorism was an American problem are now discovering that it is their problem, too.

• Spain & Great Britain have experienced bombings. France has seen widespread rioting by radicalized young Muslims.

• A Danish newspaper found itself at the hub of international uproar when it printed cartoons that some Muslims found offensive - & this controversy is galvanizing Muslim sentiments around the world.

• As Voice of America reporter Benjamin Sand recently noted, "Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says the controversy over editorial cartoons of... Islam's prophet, Muhammad, is uniting moderate & radical Muslims. As he spoke, thousands of Pakistanis protested, & there were several instances of violence, as the caricatures continue to fuel anti-western rage across the Muslim world." (Voice of America News, February 13, 2006).
       Although there are many voices urging moderation, controversy ver the Danish cartoons is fanning anti-Muslim sentiments as well. Some of Europe's non-Muslim commentators are no longer as keen on tolerance as they once were - & other Europeans are listening. Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci echoed an increasingly common sentiment: "Europe is no longer Europe. It is a province of Islam, as Spain &  Portugal were at the time of the Moors. It hosts almost 16 million Muslim immigrants & teems with mullahs, imams, mosques, burqas, chadors. It lodges thousands of Islamic terrorists whom governments don't know how to identify & control. People are afraid, & in waving the flag of pacifism - pacifism synonymous with anti-Americanism-
  they feel protected" ("The Rage, the Pride & the Doubt," Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2003).

Europe, Rome & Islam

     In 2004, when the European Union added ten new member states - primarily from Eastern Europe - the Vatican took note. Pope John Paul II observed: "If the unity of the European peoples is to endure, it cannot be merely economic & political... The history of the formation of the European Nations keeps abreast with their evangelization. Consequently, despite the spiritual crises that have marked the life of the Continent in our day, its identity would be incomprehensible without Christianity... Only a Europe that does not eliminate but rediscovers its Christian roots, will be able to take up the challenges of the third millennium: peace, intercultural & interreligious dialogue, the safeguarding of creation. All believers in Christ of the European West & East are required to make their own contribution through open & sincere ecumenical cooperation" (Regina Caeli, May 2, 2004).
     Despite Vatican wishes, Europe has continued its drift toward secularism. When the European Union was codifying its proposed constitution, debate raged as to whether it would make reference to Europe's "Christian roots" as the Vatican had urged. Noting the degree of European opposition to such a reference, Vatican public affairs chief Joaquin Navarro-Valls lamented:

     "The Holy See cannot but express its distress over the opposition of some governments to the explicit recognition of the Christian roots of Europe. It is a question of disregard of the historical evidence & of the Christian identity of European peoples. The Holy See expresses heartfelt appreciation & gratitude to those governments that, aware of the past & of the historical horizon in which the new Europe is taking shape, worked to express concretely its recognized religious heritage. Not to be forgotten is the intense commitment of different entities to have the Christian heritage of Europe mentioned in this treaty, stimulating the reflection of political leaders, citizens, & public opinion on a question that is not secondary in the present national, European & world context" ("Pope Disappointed Christian Roots Not Recognized," Catholic Information Office, June 22,2004).

     Navarro -Valls was surely pleased that after the French & Dutch rejections of the proposed constitution last year, European Union officials chose to suspend the ratification process. Some see the suspension as a renewed opportunity to add a "Christian identity" clause to the EU constitution - a sentiment that may increase as a reaction to Muslim assertiveness sweeping across Europe. Yet such a clause would further worsen tensions between Islam & Europe.
     What will be the result of the increasing tension between Europe & Islam?
 Bible prophecy tells us what to look for. Jesus Christ told His followers to watch world events, so that they could observe the signs that would indicate His soon return. He said: "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power & glory. And then He will send His angels, & gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven. Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, & puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near - at the doors!....
 And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!" (Mark 13:26, 29, 37).
     Bible prophecy reveals that the rise of a "king of the South" will be one key sign leading up to Christ's return (for more on this topic, see page 22 of this issue). In Bible terminology, "south" here refers to a kingdom south of Jerusalem. Although Iran & Iraq may be part of, or allied with, this kingdom, simple geography demonstrates that the "head" of this kingdom will be to the south of these nations.
     Is the Muslim world likely to unite under one autocratic ruler?
 Some consider this farfetched, & point to increasing democratic tendencies in such countries as Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan & the Palestinian Authority. Even Iran has elections, though candidates must first be approved by Muslim religious authorities. But what have these elections produced?
 In Egypt, when elections were made more free, the radical Islamist group - the Muslim Brotherhood -quickly won 84 of the 454 seats in the nation's parliament. In Iraq, votes were split largely along sectarian lines, & many observers fear that ruling Shiites will try to institute an Islamic government as they did in Iran. And even though Iraq has held elections, the most powerful man in Iraq may be the unelected Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
     Palestinian moves toward "democracy" have also been problematic. Last January, the world was shocked when Palestinian voters rejected the more moderate Fatah party & instead gave a solid majority in Palestine's legislative assembly to Hamas, a radical Islamic terrorist group that calls for the destruction of Israel & the imposition of a Muslim republic.
     In Iran, the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has worsened tensions between Europe & the Muslim world. Ahmadinejad has described the Holocaust as "a myth" & has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." He also anticipates the coming of a "Mahdi" or "Twelfth Imam" who will unite world Islam.
     Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, from his mosque in London, England, has told his followers that the world should be run by a Muslim caliphate "sitting in the White House." Such comments obviously make Europeans nervous about the Muslim influence in their midst.
     Why are Muslims using democracy to install leaders who oppose democracy?
 Analyst Thomas L. Friedman writes: "You cannot go from Saddam to Jefferson without first going through Khomeini. Why?
 Because once you sweep away the dictator or king at the top of any Middle East state, you go into a free fall until you hit the mosque - as the U.S. discovered in Iraq. There is nothing between the ruling palace & the mosque. The secular autocratic regimes, like those in Egypt, Libya, Syria & Iraq never allowed for the emergence of any truly independent judiciary, media, progressive secular parties or civil society groups - from women's organizations to trade associations....
 That is why the minute any of these Arab countries hold free & fair elections, the Islamists burst ahead" ("Addicted to Oil," New York Times, February 1, 2006).
     Another way of looking at it is that, no matter how fervently Western governments seek to promote "democracy" or "reform" or "moderation" in these nations, it is God - not man - who sets up governments & takes them down (Daniel 2:21). Despite the continual attempts - & failures - of those who want to make the Muslim world into something it is not, God will carry out His plan. When it is time for the prophesied king of the South to rise, it will happen - whether or not analysts understand the reasons why.

North vs. South

Syria, Iran press defiant

Newspapers in Iran & Syria are in a defiant mood after being accused by Israel of involvement in the Hezbollah attacks on its territory.

Little direct response to the Israeli accusations has been observed, but Iranian & Syrian commentators have taken the opportunity to attack Israel, the West &
 even Arab leaders over the crisis.

One paper which does confront the Israeli accusations is Iran's Kayhan.

"We wish Israel's lies were true," it says. "The officials of the wild Zionist regime allege that Iran has equipped Hezbollah with long-distance missiles &
 Iranian officials honestly deny these allegations.

"They are right to do so. Because, to be honest, this is the sad truth."

Another Iranian paper, Siyasat-e-Ruz, calls on the government to "use a variety of mechanisms to help Hezbollah".

"The Islamic Republic of Iran shouldn't restrict its reaction to the Lebanese crisis to blaming Israel or staging demonstrations."

The paper urges the Iranian military "to support Hezbollah logistically & give it essential information... in order to drive the missiles into Tel Aviv".

According to Iran's Resalat, it is Israel's actions, not those of Hezbollah, Iran or Syria which threaten Middle East peace.

"By sending threatening messages to Iran & Syria & attacking Lebanon & Palestine, it proves that it is a regional threat for all the Middle East."

'True face of terrorism'Iran's Arabic-language paper Al-Vefagh argues that the crisis "reveals the true face of terrorism that extends from Tel Aviv to Washington, across the European capitals".

In Syria, a commentator in Al-Thawrah takes to task Arab leaders who fail to support Hezbollah.

"It is shameful to find some Arabs showing weakness in the face of the Israeli aggression & its terrorist ways, blaming the explosion on the Lebanese resistance," he says.

"They ignore the real reasons behind what is happening - Israel's arrogance, its expansionist aggressive approach, its insistence on occupying Arab land, its incessant threats to the Arabs & its attempts to silence any resisting voice."

Syria's Tishrin hails Hezbollah, saying that "only it had the courage to take the decision of confrontation".

And a commentary in the Syrian ruling party paper Al-Ba'th calls for "an international campaign with the participation of Arabs & the countries rejecting the policy of international hegemony & terrorism... to put an end to the brutal aggression on Lebanon & to lift the siege on the Palestinian people".

BBC Monitoring selects & translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies & the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, & has several bureaux abroad.

Israel's turbulent history

The 10,000 square miles of land west of the Jordan River & north of Egypt is one of the most hotly contested patches of earth on the planet. To most contemporary political bodies, this land constitutes the state of Israel, created by the United Nations in 1948, in large part as a response to the Holocaust of World War II. To others - particularly Arabs - the lands belong to the Palestinians, who assert a historical claim to the region.

The current lands of Israel & Palestine consist of the official state of Israel & the occupied territories: the Gaza Strip [from which Israeli troops withdrew in 2005], the West Bank & the Golan Heights. All of the Abrahamic traditions - among Jews, Muslims & Christians -- have their religious roots in the Middle East & in the city of Jerusalem, now part of Israel.

The Jewish religion incorporates the concept of the "promised land," described by the biblical patriarch Abraham, a concept that, in the late 19th century, began to take the shape of Zionism. Theodor Herzl, an Austrian Jew, founded the Zionist movement, a political ideology that supports a territorial homeland for the Jewish people on lands roughly equivalent to modern Israel. In 1917, the British foreign secretary issued the Balfour Declaration, which "
view[ed] with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." Jews began settling in Palestine, even though Britain, the colonial ruler of the area, limited their immigration. Arabs were unhappy with the influx of settlers & attacked them, leading to the formation of the Jewish defense force, the Haganah. By 1947, battered by World War II, the British decided to pull out of Palestine, & the United Nations approved the 1947 Partition Plan to divide the land into two states.

A Land Divided

David Ben-Gurion, who became Israel's first prime minister, accepted the plan, but Arab leaders rejected it. Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon & Iraq joined the Palestinians in attacking & trying to eliminate the nascent state. Nevertheless, the Israelis prevailed & in ensuing years captured more territory west of the Jordan River. The 1949 Armistice Agreements ended the war & established the "Green Line," which designated a temporary truce line between Israel & its opponents. Most of the Arab population fled or was turned out during the war, creating 600,000 to 900,000 refugees. Waves of Jewish refugees flooded the country, many from Europe, but most fleeing Arab countries, & more than doubling the Israeli population.

In 1955, a new Egyptian government closed the Straits of Tiran & the Suez Canal to Israeli ships in response to a perceived spy threat. The following year, Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula, backed by Britain & France, & swiftly conquered the Egyptians. The United States & the United Nations intervened & forced the British & French to withdraw, promising that the waters would remain open to Israeli ships. U.N. troops were stationed on the border to enforce the peace settlement.

The Six Day War & Yom Kippur

Tension continued, however, & fighting broke out again in 1967. In May of that year, Egypt requested the withdrawal of U.N. troops &, upon their departure, once again closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships. A blockade is generally viewed as an act of war, & this one proved no exception. On June 5, Israeli forces under Ariel Sharon commenced a massive air strike against Egyptian airfields, effectively eliminating them. In the days that followed, Israeli troops conquered the Egyptian troops defending Sinai. Israel also defeated assaults by Jordan from the east & Syria from the north. By June 10, Israel had agreed to a cease-fire, but during the fighting it had taken control of Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem & the Golan Heights.

The Six Day War of 1967 proved that Israel had the military might to dominate its neighbors. Now in control of three new territories, Israel had shifted the balance of power in the region in its favor.

In 1973, Egypt & Syria joined in a war against Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, in an effort to regain the territories lost in 1967. After several weeks of fighting, Arab forces were rebuffed by Israeli troops. The war led to a Saudi oil embargo on the United States; gas prices skyrocketed; &
 the notorious fuel shortages of the 1970s began.

Negotiations Begin

In the late 1980s, fed up with occupation & Jewish settlements in former Palestinian territories, local Palestinians began the first intifada in the Gaza Strip &
 the West Bank, later joined by Yasser Arafat's Fatah militants. The skirmishes stayed mostly at the local level & were brought to an end by the landmark 1993 Oslo Accords, which established self-rule under the Palestinian National Authority in the occupied territories of Gaza & the West Bank. The accords were set up as an interim agreement that would be a precursor to the creation of a Palestinian state. Israel, however, accelerated the growth of settlements in the West Bank, & although Palestinians had agreed to forego violence, attacks on settlers continued.

Gaza-West Bank negotiations began in 1999 but were interrupted by the second intifada. Violence & chaos overtook the settled areas. Palestinian suicide bombers began attacking Israeli civilians, & the increasing instability within the Palestinian leadership further derailed the talks. Ariel Sharon's declaration of the hotly contested Temple Mount/Al-Haram As-Sharif site as eternally Israeli further enraged Palestinians.

In 2002, President George W. Bush said that the "road map"  for Arab-Israeli peace would entail a two-state solution, becoming the first American president to formally call for the formation of a Palestinian state.

Nevertheless, in that year, Israel started to build a controversial West Bank barrier -- part wall, part fence. The purpose, according to the Israeli government, was to prevent Palestinians from attacking Israeli civilians. After some dispute about where the barrier would go, it was redrawn to correspond closely with the Green Line. While Israel maintains that it is a security border, others worry that the barrier will serve as a political division that will isolate Palestinians from social services.

Arafat died in November 2004, & in January 2005, Mahmoud Abbas was chosen as the new Palestinian leader. This, along with the formation of a multipartisan Israeli government & the 2005 Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip, raised hopes for a solution to the turmoil in the Middle East.

It remains to be seen if Israel & the international community will accept the militant group Hamas in any future peace negotiations, following the group's landslide victory in the Palestinian elections last January. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, & is regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States & the European Union.

Sources: BBC News, CIA Factbook, MidEast Web, Palestine History, Anti-Defamation League, Wikipedia. (Note: Wikipedia is a free-content encyclopedia that it is written collaboratively by people from around the world.)

Since its capture of the whole of Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has put both East &West Jerusalem under its exclusive control & sovereignty.

Israel has put Arab East Jerusalem under Israeli civil law - as distinct from the military administration which for many years governed the occupied West Bank & the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli authorities redrew Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, extending them northwards & southwards. In 1980 Israel passed a law making its annexation of East Jerusalem explicit.

Major Israeli settlements now encircle the northern, eastern & southern perimeters of the city, creating a physical barrier between Palestinians in Jerusalem &
 those who live in the rest of the West Bank.

In a pre-emptive attack on Egypt on 5 June 1967 that drew Syria & Jordan into a regional war, Israel made massive territorial gains capturing the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights & the Sinai Peninsula up to the Suez Canal.

The principle of land-for-peace that has formed the basis of Arab-Israeli negotiations is based on Israel giving up land won in the 1967 war in return for peace deals recognizing Israeli borders & its right to security. The Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt as part of the 1979 peace deal with Israel.