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Chairman of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency: Arie Dulzin.

Alternate Chairman of the Executive of the WZO - Jewish Agency, American Section: Charlotte Jacobson.

Treasurer of the Jewish Agency: Akiva Lewinsky.

Chairman Settlement Department: Matitiyahu Droblas.

Chairman Youth Aliyah Department:Yosef Shapira.

Chairman Immigration and Absorption: Raphal Kotlowitz.

The problem of Jews who leave the Soviet Union with permits to go to Israel but, after arriving in Vienna, emigrate to the US or some other country continues to be a matter of great concern.

By the end of the year, an estimated 30,000 of Iran's 80,000 Jews have left, with about half going to Israel and half to the US.

New immigrants in 1979: 37,222.

February 21 : A second Camp David conference is attended by Moshe Dayan and Mustapha Khalil.

March: Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter meet in Washington to discuss peace proposals.

March 7-13 : President Carter's visit to Jerusalem and Cairo results in a treaty between Israel and Egypt. Carter announces the resolution of the final points of difference.

March 14: Israel releases 76 Palestinian captives in return for the soldier Avraham Amram.

March 19: The peace agreement is approved in a meeting of the government by 15 to 2.

March 22: The Knesset ratifies the peace agreement by a large majority of 95 to 18. Begin summarizes the debate on the treaty with Egypt.

March 26: The peace treaty between Israel and Egypt is signed by Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin and Anwar al-Sadat at the White House in Washington. The US give Israel a guarantee that for the next 15 years it can purchase oil from the Egyptian oil fields in Sinai which Israel had developed during the six-year occupation.

March 31: Eighteen member states of the Arab League, and the PLO decide to impose sanctions against Egypt for signing the peace agreement with Israel.

March 31: The song "Halleluyah" sung by Gali Attari and Milk & Honey, wins first prize in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem.

April 2 : Prime Minister Menachem Begin is cordially received on his official visit to Cairo.

April 10: The Hebrew University returns to its pre-1948 campus on Mount Scopus.

April 22 : PLO gunmen, who arrived by sea from Lebanon, seize a house in Nahariya and kill four, including two infant girls.

April 25: The Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty takes effect.

April 30 : The first ship flying the Israeli flag passes the Suez Canal.

April: The US and Israel agree upon the construction of two air bases in the Negev to replace bases in the Sinai.

May 23: A confrontation erupts between IDF soldiers and members of Moshav Ne'ot Sinai during a protest against the scheduled evacuation of Sinai.

May 23: A terrorist bomb explodes at a bus stop in Petah Tikvah, killing three women.

May 25: Talks between Israel and Egypt on the autonomy plan begin in Beersheva.

May 27: The border between Israel and Egypt is opened. President Sadat arrives for a visit in Beersheva.

May: The Sinai town of El Arish is returned to Egypt eight months ahead of the schedule.

May: President Jimmy Carter appoints Robert Strauss to be his special Middle East envoy. In November Strauss will resign to head Carter's reelection campaign and be replaced by Sol Linowitz.

June 27 : Israeli and Syrian jets clash in an air battle over Lebanon. Six Syrian MiGs are shot down.

July 10-12: Sadat and Begin meet in Alexandria.

July: The Carter administration announces plans to sell arms valued at 594 million dollar to Egypt and 580 million dollar to Israel. This is an addition to an 800 million dollar grant and 2.2 billion dollar loan to Israel to relocate the Sinai bases to the Negev.

August 5: The autonomy talks between Israel and Egypt resume in Haifa.

August: President Jimmy Carter instructs his Robert Strauss to discuss with Begin and Sadat a proposed amendment to UN Resolution 242 that had referred to Palestinians only as "refugees". The proposed amendment would call for "Palestinian rights". Its objective is to obtain PLO support for 242 so they can enter the peace talks. Begin and Sadat reject Carter's suggestion.

September 4: President Sadat arrives for another visit in Israel.

September 16: The government revokes the prohibition on the purchase of land by Jews in the West Bank.

September 24: The Israel Air Force brings down four Syrian planes in an air battle.

October 21 : Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan resigns from the Begin government. He disagrees over the manner in which the autonomy discussions are being conducted and proposes that if they fail, Israel should unilaterally replace its governance of the territories with a civilian Palestinian administration and return only if the PLO overran the areas.
Menachem Begin takes over the foreign affairs portfolio.

October: The Tehiya movement is established by loyalists to the principle of retaining all the land of Greater Israel.

October: The Supreme Court declares the West Bank settlement of Elon Moreh, near Nablus, to be illegal and orders it dismantled.

November 7: Yigal Hurwitz replaces Simcha Ehrlich as minister of finance.

November: The IDF withdrawal from Sinai continues. The Santa Katharina area and the Alma oil field are handed over to Egypt.

December: Israel's economy is hampered by rapidly increasing inflation. The consumer price index in December is 114% higher than at the end of 1978.

In 1979, hundreds of Phalange officers and NCOs begon training in Israel. Senior officers attend courses at the IDF Staff and Command College.

January: In an interview with the German news magazine "Der Spiegel", the Ayatollah Khomeini declares that his Islamic republic would "break off relations with Israel because we do not believe there is any legal justification for its existence."

January: About 20 million West Germans view the TV miniseries "Holocaust". It results in a nationwide demand for dissemination of information about the Third Reich. In 1979, the memorial of Dachau has 764,000 visitors more than ever before.

March: Thirty are wounded by an explosion in the area of a Paris kosher restaurant frequented by Jewish university students.

April: Five Soviet dissidents are exchanged for two Soviet spies sentenced to long prison terms in the US.

April: The Presidential Commission on the Holocaust, created in 1978 and headed by Elie Wiesel, holds its first meeting at the White House.

June: Pope John Paul II visits the former death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau during his pilgrimage to Poland. He celebrates Mass on the grounds of Auschwitz II to some 500,000 people.

July: The West German Bundestag votes to abolish the statute of limitations for murder, allowing for the further prosecution of Nazi war crimes.

July 7 : Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky receives PLO chairman Yasser Arafat with honors usually accorded a head of state. Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt takes part in the talks as president of the Socialist International. Israel protests.

Herbert Brown, US chemist is awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his study on boron-containing compounds.

Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.