Portal:Israel/History Archive

Archive for history articles featured at Portal:Israel. These articles are used on a rotation. If you wish to add a new article, please do. It will be added into the rotation at an appropriate time.

Operation Entebbe (Never Used)

Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on the night of July 3 and early morning of July 4, 1976. In the wake of the hijacking of Air France flight 139 and the hijackers' threats to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met, a plan was drawn up to airlift the hostages to safety. These plans took into account the likelihood of armed resistance from Ugandan military troops.

Originally codenamed Operation Thunderbolt (or Operation Thunderball) by the IDF, the operation was retroactively renamed Operation Yonatan in memory of the Sayeret Matkal commander Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu who was killed in action. Three hostages were killed and five Israeli commandos were wounded. A fourth hostage was murdered by Ugandan army officers at a nearby hospital.

For more information, see Operation Entebbe

Yom Kippur War (Last used from 20 April 2007, to...)

The Yom Kippur War began on October 6, 1973 (the Jewish Day of Atonement) when the Syrian and Egyptian armies launched a simultaneous attack on the unprepared Israeli Defence Force (IDF). After the first 24-48 hours, the war's momentum shifted to Israel and within three weeks the invaders were pushed back, the land was recaptured and a UN peacekeeping force was put in place.

As a result of the shock sustained by Israeli society in the aftermath of the war, the Israeli government started negotiations for security on its borders. On January 18, 1974, a Disengagement of Forces agreement was signed with the Egyptian government, and on May 31, with the Syrian government. On the international scene, the Arab world retaliated by imposing an oil embargo on countries trading with Israel. The government of Japan announced on November 22, 1973 that it would reconsider its relations with the Israeli government unless it withdrew from all territories occupied in as a result of the 1967 Six Day War.

For more information, see Yom Kippur War

Egyptian-Israeli Peace Process (Never Used)

The Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty (Arabic: معاهدة السلام المصرية الإسرائيلية; transliterated: Mu'ahadat as-Salam al-Masriyah al-Isra'yliyah) (Hebrew: הסכם שלום ישראל-מצרים; transliterated: Heskem Shalom Yisrael-Mitzraim) was started in November 1977, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke 30 years of hostility with Israel by visiting Jerusalem at the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who was elected as the prime minister earlier that year in the 1977 election, in what is known as the Mahapakh. During a 2-day visit, which included a speech before the Knesset, the Egyptian leader created a new psychological climate in the Middle East in which peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors seemed a realistic possibility. Sadat recognized Israel's right to exist and established the basis for direct negotiations between Egypt and Israel.

In September 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter invited President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin to meet with him at Camp David, and on September 11 they agreed on a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. It set out broad principles to guide negotiations between Israel and the Arab states. It also established guidelines for a West Bank-Gaza transitional regime of full autonomy for the Palestinians residing in these territories and for a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The treaty was signed on March 26, 1979, by Begin and Sadat, with President Carter signing as witness. Under the treaty, Israel returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt in April 1982. In 1989, the governments of Israel and Egypt concluded an agreement that resolved the status of Taba, a resort area on the Gulf of Aqaba.

Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty (Never Used)

The Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace (full name: Treaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) (Hebrew:הסכם השלום בין ישראל לירדן; transliterated: HaSekhem Ha-Shalom beyn Yisra'el Le-Yarden) (Arabic: معاهدة السلام الأردنية الإسرائيلية; transliterated: Mu'ahadat as-Salam al-'Orduniyah al-Isra'yliyah, and commonly referred to as Araba Valley Treaty) is a peace treaty signed in 1994. The treaty normalized relations between the two countries and resolved territorial disputes between them. The conflict between them had cost roughly 18.3 billion dollars. Its signing is also closely linked with the efforts to create peace between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization representing the Palestinian Authority. It was signed at the southern border crossing of Araba on October 26, 1994, and made Jordan only the second Arab country (after Egypt) to normalize relations with Israel.

Disengagement from Gaza (Never Used)

On December 18, 2003, then Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon announced he would consider a unilateral withdrawal from parts of the occupied territories in order to make it easier for long term management of the ongoing intifada. This was crystallized as a plan for total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, while maintaining most of the settlements in the West Bank. The US government announced its support for the plan on April 14, 2004. The first phase of the plan regarding the work of technical committees to work out logistical details was approved by the Israeli cabinet on June 6, 2004.

On October 26, 2004, Sharon's withdrawal plan was ratified by the Israeli parliament. The civilians were evacuated from Gaza (a minority forcibly) and the residential buildings demolished after August 15, and the disengagement from the Gaza Strip was completed on September 12, 2005, when the last Israeli soldier left the Gaza strip. The military disengagement from the northern West Bank was completed ten days later.

General Article (Used on Portal:Israel until 20 April, 2007)

For ancient history, see History of ancient Israel and Judah... In 637 Jerusalem was surrendered to the Caliph Omar bin al-Khattab expanding Muslim rule to the region. The Ottoman Empire controlled the Land of Israel for 400 years, from 1517 when Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem until 1917 when British Field Marshal Allenby defeated them, and it then became the British Mandate of Palestine until 1947. Three years after World War II and the Holocaust, Israel was declared on May 14, 1948... The Arab-Israeli conflict started the next day with the 1948 war when Israel was attacked by Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq because they did not accept the 1947 UN Partition Plan... The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) defeated all of them and the 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed... Close to one million Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews fled their homes because of Arab anti-Semitism, most came to Israel... During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria... In 1973 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War, the IDF defeated them... Subsequently the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty was signed in 1979 and the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace in 1994... There is a peace process to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... The government of Ariel Sharon built a barrier and implemented a unilateral plan pulling Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank in 2005.

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