Society

The stubborn unemployment and inflation which had plagued the first part of the 1960s were reduced, and new waves of immigration, from the Soviet Union and the West, reinvigorated Israel's professional and cultural climate. However, concurrently, festering resentment amongst veteran North African immigrants erupted. The process of absorption and integration had been traumatic for many traditional families who could not find their place in the new modern Israeli society.  They felt shunted aside by the establishment, which they perceived as not fully recognizing their rich heritage.  This resulted in  their feeling estranged. Demonstrations broke out, and a series of ethnically-based political parties arose. However, simultaneously, a younger generation of writers, poets and musicians, drawing from their North African heritage, began to pave a path which would eventually lead them to the forefront of Israeli popular and literary culture.

Tourism

Israel's stunning victory in the Six Day War charged the imagination of the West, and increasing numbers of Jews and non-Jews alike, came to Israel as tourists and as volunteers. This, as well as a further opening of markets, spurred the economy. More major universities opened their doors, and the number of students soared. A growing populace, thirsty for leisure, enthusiastically greeted the growing number of theater companies, museums and musical performances.

From War to War

After the war, Israel's diplomatic challenge was to translate its military gains into a permanent peace based on UN Security Council Resolution 242, which called for acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force. However, the Arab position, as formulated at the Khartoum Summit (August 1967) called for no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel and no recognition of Israel. In September 1968, Egypt initiated a 'war of attrition', with sporadic, static actions along the banks of the Suez Canal, which escalated into full-scale, localized fighting, causing heavy casualties on both sides. Hostilities ended in 1970 when Egypt and Israel accepted a renewed cease-fire along the Suez Canal.

1973 Yom Kippur War

Three years of relative calm along the borders were shattered on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the holiest day of the Jewish year, when Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise assault against Israel (6 October 1973), with the Egyptian army crossing the Suez Canal and Syrian troops penetrating the Golan Heights. During the next three weeks, the Israel Defense Forces turned the tide of battle and repulsed the attackers, crossing the Suez Canal into Egypt and advancing to within 20 miles (32 km.) of the Syrian capital, Damascus. Israel suffered great loss of life as well as a plunge in public morale.  Two years of difficult negotiations between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Syria resulted in disengagement agreements, according to which Israel withdrew from parts of the territories captured during the war.

1982 Operation Peace for Galilee

The international boundary line with Lebanon has never been challenged by either side. However, when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) redeployed itself in southern Lebanon after being expelled from Jordan (1970) and perpetrated repeated terrorist actions against the towns and villages of northern Israel (Galilee), which caused many casualties and much damage, the Israel Defense Forces crossed the border into Lebanon (1982). "Operation Peace for Galilee" resulted in removing the bulk of the PLO's organizational and military infrastructure from the area. For the next 18 years, Israel maintained a small security zone in southern Lebanon adjacent to its northern border to safeguard its population in Galilee against attacks by hostile elements.

Terrorism

Arab and Palestinian terrorism against Israel existed for decades prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and since then. Thousands of terrorist attacks which resulted in the death and injury of Israeli civilians occurred during the two decades preceding the 1967 Six Day War. The establishment of the PLO in 1964 put it at the forefront of this terrorist campaign.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the various terrorist organizations under the PLO launched numerous attacks inside Israel and abroad. One of the most notorious attacks was the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. In spite of the Palestinian commitment made in 1993 to renounce terrorism, thus providing the basis for the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, terrorist attacks nonetheless continued, and have severely intensified since September 2000, resulting in the death of hundreds of Israeli civilians and the wounding of thousands.

From War to Peace

The 1977 Knesset elections brought the Likud bloc (a coalition of right-wing and centrist parties) to power, ending almost 30 years of Labor party dominance. The new prime minister, Menachem Begin, reiterated the commitment of all previous prime ministers to strive for permanent peace in the region and called upon the Arab leaders to come to the negotiating table.

The cycle of Arab rejections of Israel's appeals for peace was broken with the historic visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem (November 1977), followed by negotiations between Egypt and Israel under American auspices. The resulting Camp David Accords (September 1978) contained a framework for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, including a detailed proposal for self-government for the Palestinians.

On 26 March 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in Washington, DC, bringing the 30-year state of war between them to an end. In accordance with the terms of the treaty, Israel withdrew from the Sinai peninsula, exchanging former ceasefire lines and armistice agreements for mutually recognized international boundaries.

Three years of talks between Jordan and Israel, following the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, culminated in a declaration by King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (July 1994), which ended the 46-year state-of-war between their two countries. The Jordan-Israel peace treaty was signed at the Arava border crossing (near Eilat in Israel and Akaba in Jordan) on 26 October 1994, in the presence of American President Bill Clinton.

Domestic Challenges

During the 1980s and 1990s, Israel absorbed over one million new immigrants, mainly from the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Ethiopia. The influx of so many new consumers as well as a large number of skilled and unskilled workers, boosted the economy into a period of accelerated expansion.

The government which came into power after the 1984 Knesset elections was made up of the two major political blocs - Labor (left/center) and Likud (right/center). It was replaced in 1988 by a Likud-led coalition, which was followed in 1992 by a coalition of Labor and smaller left-of-center parties.

The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on 4 November 1995 by a Jewish extremist, shocked Israel and the world and plunged the country into deep mourning for the soldier-statesman who had traveled from the battleground to lead the nation on the road to peace.

After the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, new elections were called in 1996. In direct elections for Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu came to power, and formed a Likud-led coalition. Less than three years later, his government was defeated. In 1999, Ehud Barak, leader of the One Israel party (left/center), was elected Prime Minister, and formed a coalition government; he resigned in December 2000. In February 2001 Ariel Sharon, Chairman of the Likud, was elected Prime Minister and formed a unity government, including a majority of political parties.

Each government worked towards the achievement of peace, economic development and immigrant absorption according to its own political convictions.

The Peace Process

Since the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty (1979), various initiatives were put forth by Israel and others to further the peace process in the Middle East. These efforts eventually led to the convening of the Madrid Peace Conference (October 1991), held under American and Soviet auspices, which brought together representatives of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians. The formal proceedings were followed by bilateral negotiations between the parties and by multilateral talks addressing regional concerns.

Bilateral Talks

Israel and the Palestinians:
Following months of intensive behind-the-scenes contacts in Oslo between negotiators for Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), a Declaration of Principles (DOP) was formulated outlining self-government arrangements of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Its signing, on 13 September 1993, was preceded by an exchange of letters between PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in which the PLO renounced the use of terrorism, pledged to invalidate those articles in its Covenant which deny Israel's right to exist and committed itself to a peaceful resolution of the decades-long conflict. In response, Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

The DOP contained a set of mutually agreed general principles regarding a five-year interim period of Palestinian self-rule and a framework for the various stages of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The arrangements for Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho area were implemented in May 1994; transfer of powers and responsibilities in the West Bank in the spheres of education and culture, health, social welfare, direct taxation and tourism was implemented three months later. The DOP and other agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinians culminated in the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement of September 1995.

This agreement included a broadening of Palestinian self-government by the means of an elected self- governing authority, the Palestinian Council (elected in January 1996) and continued redeployment of the IDF in the West Bank. The Agreement also set out the mechanism governing Israeli-Palestinian relations that would lead to a Final Status Agreement. Under the Interim Agreement the West Bank was divided into three types of areas:
 
Area A - comprising the main cities of the West Bank: full Palestinian Council responsibility for internal security and public order, as well as full responsibility for civil affairs. (The city of Hebron was subject to special arrangements set out in the Interim Agreement; the Protocol concerning the redeployment in Hebron was signed in January 1997.)

Area B - comprising small towns and villages in the West Bank: Palestinian Council responsibility for civil affairs (as in Area A) and maintenance of public order, while Israel retained overriding security responsibility to safeguard its citizens and to combat terrorism.

Area C - comprising all Jewish settlements, areas of strategic importance to Israel and largely unpopulated areas of the West Bank: full Israeli responsibility for security and public order, as well as civil responsibilities related to territory (planning and zoning, archeology, etc.). The Palestinian Council assumes responsibility with regard to all other civil spheres of the Palestinian population.
The timetable for the implementation of further redeployment phases, as specified in the Interim Agreement was revised on a number of occasions by the two sides, most notably in the Wye River Memorandum of October 1998. Following these agreed revisions, Israel completed the first and second phases of the Further Redeployment (FRD) process in March 2000. The third and final FRD is still under negotiation. As a result of the redeployments, over 18% of the West Bank is currently designated Area A and over 21% is designated Area B, with 98% of the Palestinian population of the West Bank under Palestinian authority.

Final Status negotiations between the parties, to determine the nature of the permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinian entity, began as scheduled in May 1996. Suicide bomb attacks, perpetrated by Hamas terrorists in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv during 1996, darkened Israel's view of the peace process. A hiatus of three years followed and Final Status talks were resumed only after the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum (September 1999). Issues to be dealt with include: refugees, settlements, security matters, borders, Jerusalem and more. At the invitation of President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat attended a summit at Camp David in July 2000 to resume negotiations. The summit ended without an agreement being reached. However, a trilateral statement was issued, defining the agreed principles to guide further negotiations.

In September 2000, the Palestinians initiated a campaign of indiscriminate terror and violence, causing heavy loss of life and suffering to both sides. Numerous efforts to end the violent confrontation and renew the peace process have failed due to the ongoing and escalating Palestinian terrorism supported by the Palestinian Authority. Israel accepted the vision presented in the speech by U.S. President Bush on June 24, 2002 for ending Palestinian terrorism, to be followed by the final settlement of all issues and peace.

On May 25, 2003, Israel accepted the Roadmap, accompanied by comments that Israel considers integral to its implementation and a U.S. commitment to address these comments. However, the Palestinians have yet to live up to their obligations under the first phase of the Roadmap, primarily the unconditional cessation of terrorism and end to incitement. Among the measures taken by Israel against terrorism has been the construction of an anti-terrorist fence.

Israel and Syria: Within the framework of the Madrid formula, talks between Israeli and Syrian delegations began in Washington and were held from time to time at ambassadorial level, with the involvement of high-ranking American officials.

Two rounds of Syrian-Israeli peace talks (December 1995, January 1996) focused on security and other key issues. Highly detailed and comprehensive in scope, the talks identified important areas of conceptual agreement and convergence for future discussion and consideration. Negotiations between Israel and Syria were renewed in January 2000 in Shepherdstown, US, after a standstill of more than three years. However, these negotiations did not bring about a breakthrough, nor did the meeting between President Clinton and President Assad in Geneva (March 2000) lead to renewed talks. There are no negotiations at present.

Syria, along with Iran, backs the most violent and dangerous terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah and the various Palestinian terrorist groups.

Israel and Lebanon: On May 23, 2000, Israel completed withdrawal of all military forces from the Security Zone in Southern Lebanon, in accordance with the Israel Government decision to implement UN Security Council resolution 425. Lebanon, unfortunately, has yet to comply fully with UNSC Resolution 425.