|
|
|
the cold war recedes but peace is elusive
|
|
|
| 1979 | The
western-oriented Shah of Iran is overthrown in a Muslim fundamentalist
coup. The Ayatollah Khomeini assumes power.
Mar 26 - The Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty is signed. Egypt declines to re-assume possession of the Gaza Strip. Nov. 4 - militants take hostage 62 Americans from the U.S. embassy in Teheran. |
|
| 1980 | Efforts to
settle Palestinian question fail. Egypt is isolated from all other Arab
states.
May - Israel claims the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital, annexing the Arab east city. Few other countries recognize this annexation. Throughout the following decade numerous villages will be established by Israeli "settlers" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, fueling Palestinian fears that they will eventually be entirely driven from these regions. Sept. - a war erupts between Iran and Iraq that will last until 1988. |
|
| 1981 | Oct. 6 - Anwar Sadat is assassinated. Hosni Mubarak becomes the new Egyptian president. | |
| 1982 | June - Israel
invades Lebanon to destroy PLO strongholds. Israeli and Syrian forces
clash but reach a truce. After Israeli bombing of West Beirut, the PLO
agrees to leave the city.
Sept. - Israel takes control of West Beirut after newly-elected Lebanese president Bashir Gemayel is assassinated. While the city is under Israeli control, Lebanese Christians enter two West Beirut refugee camps and slaughter hundreds of Palestinian refugees. Israel receives worldwide condemnation for not preventing the massacre, particularly future Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. |
|
| 1983 | Terrorist
bombings become a way of life in Lebanon. On Apr. 18 some 50 people are
killed at an explosion in the American embassy. On Oct. 23, 241 U.S.
Marines and sailors are killed when a TNT-laden terrorist blows up Marine
headquarters.
PLO leader Yasir Arafat and PLO dissidents backed by Syria fight a 6-week battle in Tripoli until negotiations permit Arafat and 4,000 followers to leave the city. |
|
| 1984 | Apr. 26 - pro-Syrian Rashid Karami is appointed premier of Lebanon. A virtual civil war in Beirut continues between Christian forces and Druse and Shiite Muslim militias. | |
| 1985 | Feb. 16 -
Israeli troops begin a three-stage withdrawal from Lebanon, completed by
June.
May - Heavy fighting between Shiite militiamen and Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon. June - Beirut airport is the scene of a hostage crisis in which Shiite terrorists hold U.S. airline passengers for 17 days. |
|
| 1987 | June 1 -
Premier Karami of Lebanon is assassinated.
A Palestinian popular uprising, the Intifadeh, begins in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel responds forcefully. The uprising lasts several years, with 2000 Palestinian deaths, including collaborators with Israel, and hundreds of Israeli deaths. |
|
| 1988 | July - King
Hussein of Jordan renounces all claims to the West Bank, saying that he
respects "the wish of the PLO, the sole legitimate representative of
the Palestinian people, to secede from us in an independent Palestinian
state."
Dec. - Under pressure from the U.S., Egypt, and Jordan, Yasir Arafat addresses the U.N. and accepts Resolutions 242 and 338 and so recognizes the right of Israel to exist. He condemns the use of terrorism, and later asserts "the right of all parties in the Middle East conflict to exist in peace, ...including the state of Palestine, Israel, and other neighbors." |
|
