December 31 1999 - January 1 2000: Sigal Gilboa gives birth to twins born in different millennia. Dr. Yinon Gilboa, an obstetrician, assists in his wife's Caesarean section as she gives birth New Year's Eve to a daughter two minutes before midnight and a son born just after midnight. January 2: On the eve of the Israel-Syria peace talks, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says there is "no done deal" and additional rounds of negotiations may be needed. January 3: Negotiators from Israel and Syria gather in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. January 3: A three-way meeting among U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa is abruptly cancelled. January 4: Israel and Syria move back on course for detailed talks on a peace deal. US President Bill Clinton convenes the meetings. January 4: Israel and the Palestinians reach an agreement on the transfer of West Bank land from Israel. January 4: A halachic ruling issued by prominent rabbis declares the Golan Heights a part of the Land of Israel and "forbids dismantling communities in the Land of Israel." January 5: The peace negotiations in Shepherdstown resume. January 7: U.S. President Clinton tries to get Israel and Syria moving forward in peace talks. January 8: The Clinton administration presents a draft peace treaty to the Israeli and Syrian negotiators. January 9: Israel and Syria prepare for a last full day of peace talks. January 10: President Bill Clinton finishes another day of mediation. January 10: More than 100,000 Israelis protest in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square against the government's willingness to relinquish the Golan Heights for peace with Syria. January 12: The official announcement of Pope John Paul II's visit the Holy Land from 20-26 March 2000 is made simultaneously in Rome and Jerusalem. January 16: Israel delays a West Bank pull out. January 17: Israel and Syria peace talks are postponed. January 17: Five people are injured in an explosion in Hadera. January 20: Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat meets US President Bill Clinton in Washington. January 23: President Ezer Weizman says he has no intention of resigning or taking a leave of absence in the wake of a criminal investigation into his alleged involvement in a money scandal. (More.) January 26: The plight of Palestinian cave dwellers becomes an Israeli human rights cause. January 27: A campaign fund-raising scandal involves Prime Minister Ehud Barak. (More.) January 28: At least nine people die in a rare snowstorm that paralyzes traffic and cuts electricity in many parts of the country. January 30: Israel and the Palestinians launch a new round of negotiations. January 30: Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh says that Jerusalem's municipal boundaries could be expanded to accommodate Palestinian aspirations for a presence in the city. January 31: Prime Minister Ehud Barak rules out further negotiations unless Syria reins in the Hezbollah guerrillas. January 31: Prime Minister Ehud Barak, battling allegations of illegal campaign fund-raising, gets a week's reprieve after the Knesset postpones a no-confidence vote on his administration. January 31: Multilateral talks resume in Moscow after a three-year freeze to reactivate the committees on refugees, water, environment, security, armament and economic cooperation. The meeting is attended by a Palestinian delegation, headed by Faisal Husseini, an Israeli delegation, headed by Foreign Minister David Levy, some other Arab delegations (Syria and Lebanon boycott), an EU delegation and US Secretary. of State Madeleine Albright. January: Leading fervently Orthodox rabbis issue a religious ruling banning their followers from using the Internet out of concern it could lead to "sin" and "destruction" and lead the young astray. February 1: Israel is willing to talk with Syria despite the Hezbollah attacks. February 1: Israel presents a final status map to the Palestinians offering 55-60% of the West Bank and calling for annexation of the remaining 40%. February 2: Less than two weeks before a crucial peace deadline, Palestinians dismiss Israel's opening offer for a final border as "nonsense" and say that talks are going nowhere. February 2: Continued fighting in Lebanon prompts international concern. February 2:The Knesset's first-ever debate on nuclear policy erupts into a shouting match between Jewish and Arab legislators. February 3: A summit between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat fails. February 6: Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets with Jordan's King Abdullah II. February 7: Israeli warplanes launch a second wave of strikes against suspected Hezbollah strongholds in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon. Hezbollah claims that Israel's military grip in southern Lebanon is weakening. February 8: An Israeli soldier and a pro-Israeli militiaman are killed in fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon. February 8: Prime Minister Ehud Barak, under heavy public pressure, unleashes Israel's heaviest air raids on Lebanon in eight months. (More.) February 10: Israel and Jordan renew an agreement on cooperation in environmental protection and nature conservation. February 10: An Israeli government report, released five years after it was compiled, admits that the internal security service, Shin Bet, uses systematic torture on Palestinian suspects. February 11: Israeli representatives pull out of a meeting on the conflict in southern Lebanon, and Israel launches a fresh round of airstrikes after one of its soldiers is killed by Hezbollah guerrillas. February 11: International monitors gather at a U.N. base in southern Lebanon. (More.) February 12: Hezbollah guerrillas mount a fresh attack against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. February 13: Israel and the Palestinians fail to meet the deadline to agree to the framework for a permanent peace settlement, which is expected to be reached by mid-September. February 14: With the aid of its parliamentary opposition, Prime Minister Ehud Barak's government survives a no-confidence. February 14: Israeli police tear-gasses and fires rubber bullets at a group of Druze Arabs throwing stones as part of an annual protest of Israel's 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights. February 16: The Cabinet gives Prime Minister Ehud Barak power to order immediate retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah. February 21: US Mideast envoy Dennis Ross arrives. February 21: Yedioth Ahronoth reports that official data from the Construction and Housing Min. reveals that construction is presently starting on 7,120 housing units. In comparison, during former Prime Minister Netanyahu's term in office, construction started on only 5,400 housing units. In addition, since assuming office, the Ministry has issued tenders for 3,196 new settler housing units (2,500 of these in the Greater Jerusalem area). February 22: The Israeli army chief of operations hints that occupation forces will pull out of south Lebanon by the end of the year, even if there is no peace with Syria. February 23: French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin visits Israel. The streets of Jerusalem are festooned with flags - which turn out to be those of the Netherlands and not the French. February 25: Israeli aircraft attack suspected guerrilla positions north of Israel's occupation zone in southern Lebanon. February 25: The Cabinet holds a marathon debate on Lebanon. February 26: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat apologizes for an incident in which students throw stones at French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. February 28: Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that a simple mistake by his wife is the basis of the bribery and fraud charges. February 28: In Al-Mughayyir village, near Ramallah, Israeli settlers protected by Israeli troops destroy over 700 olive trees. February 29: 40 years after the execution, Adolf Eichmann's prison diary is released. February: Israel's interior minister, Natan Sharansky, says his ministry will recognize civil marriages performed in foreign consulates based in Israel. March 1: Five militiamen are killed in an Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon. March 1: By a 60-to-53 vote, the Knesset backs a measure that would require a treaty with Syria to be approved by a majority of eligible voters instead of actual voters. March 2: Three Palestinian militants are killed by Israeli security forces. (More.) March 3: Officials in Israel and Syria deny a report from Israel's Channel One television that a peace deal between the two nations could be four to five weeks away. March 5:The Israeli cabinet votes to pull troops out of south Lebanon by July, ending the 18-year occupation. Prime Minister Ehud Barak warns his Arab neighbors against post-pullout attacks in southern Lebanon. March 7: Syria welcomes Israel's decision to withdraw from Lebanon. March 7: Minister of Education Yossi Sarid's proposal to include Palestinian poets like Mahmoud Darwish on the Israeli high school reading list sparks controversy in Israel. March 9: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak are in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for their third consecutive day of talks. March 14: Nine years after Iraqi missiles fell on Tel Aviv during the Persian Gulf war, Israeli military officials roll out a battery of missiles designed to repel any such attacks in the future. March 14: Facing opposition pressure and complaints from his own Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak abandons plans to include a Jerusalem suburb in land his government plans to hand over to Palestinian control. March 19: Israel's security Cabinet narrowly approves a long overdue 6.1 percent land transfer to West Bank Palestinians, raising the proportion of the territory ruled by Yasser Arafat to just under 40%. The moves precedes yet more peace talks, aimed at bringing about a final settlement by September. March 20: Pope John Paul II arrives in Jordan to begin his Middle East visit. (More on the visit.) March 21: Israelis and Palestinians resume talks in Washington. March 26: U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Syrian President Hafez Assad. March 27: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urges Israel to return the annexed Golan Heights to Syria. March 28: The police recommends corruption charges against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara. March 29: Israel's high court orders that about 700 Palestinians be allowed to return to their traditional homes in caves in the southern West Bank. March 30: At least 23 Israeli and Palestinian Arabs are injured in clashes with Israeli security forces during an annual day of protests. March: The Knesset passes a law granting equal rights to women, including equality in the workplace and the military, the right of women over their bodies and protection from violence and sexual exploitation. April 4: Foreign Minister David Levy meets with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. April 5: The US-Syrian summit fails. April 6: A police investigation into the conduct of Israeli President Ezer Weizman recommends that no charges should be brought because the statute of limitations had expired on the alleged offenses. April 6: The Israeli Army removes settlers from a West Bank hilltop. April 11: Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets with U.S. President Bill Clinton in a bid to put the troubled Mideast peace process back on track. (More.) April 12: Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrives in Israel for a state visit. April 18: The Supreme Court agrees to hear a last-minute appeal against its order to release 13 Lebanese detainees. April 19: Israel releases 13 Lebanese detainees. April 20: US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat meet. (More.) April 25: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are due to meet again. April 26: Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat discuss peace talks. April 28: Israeli warplanes carry out retaliatory attacks in southern Lebanon. April 30: Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations resume under a cloud of bitter Palestinian protest over Israel's plans to expand Ma'aleh Adumim. (More.) April: In a reversal of an earlier decision allowing women to serve in combat units, the Israeli army announces it will not open its air force rescue unit to women until it can be determined whether women can meet the unit's physical demands. May 1: Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails begin a hunger strike to draw attention to their poor conditions. May 2: Israeli fighters turn back an Egyptian civilian aircraft from the Gaza airport. May 4: Israeli warplanes bomb two Lebanese power stations. May 5: The Israeli army allows residents of northern Israel to leave bomb shelters. The security Cabinet decides not to retaliate for a new rocket attack from Hezbollah guerrillas. May 6: Clashes on the streets of the West Bank town of Ramallah between Israeli troops and Palestinian youths leave six Palestinians wounded. May 7: Peace talks between Israel and Palestinian officials resume after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat meet. May 10: Israel celebrates the 52nd anniversary of its independence. May 11: Prime Minister Ehud Barak pledges Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon will proceed. May 12: A critical deadline for the peace process passes without agreement. May 15: U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross is expected to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. May 15: The Israeli Cabinet approves a recommendation to transfer two neighborhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control. (More.) May 15 - 17: Demonstrations commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the Palestinian nakba turn violent as the protestors clash with Israeli troops who try to disperse them. Three people are killed and hundreds are injured. May 17: Prime Minister Ehud Barak finds himself fighting political skirmishes on several fronts. May 17: Guerrillas shell Israeli outposts in Lebanon; Israeli planes retaliate. May 19: A firefight breaks out at a Palestinian police checkpoint. May 19: In Eilat, Israeli negotiators hand their Palestinian counterparts a proposed final status map comprising of separate Palestinian autonomous cantons on 66% of the West Bank; Israel will annex 20% of the West Bank and the remaining 14% will remain under Israeli control and be negotiated in the future. May 20: Increased violence in southern Lebanon and in Palestinian areas force Prime Minister Ehud Barak to postpone his trip to Washington. May 21: Hours after a firebombing attack that critically burns a little girl in the West Bank town of Jericho, Israel calls its envoys back from peace talks being held with Palestinians in Sweden. (More.) May 22: Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Security Cabinet meets to discuss Israel's next steps in turbulent south Lebanon, where Israel's allied militia retreats in disarray ahead of Muslim guerrilla fighters. May 23: The head of the South Lebanon Army leaves Paris to join his disbanding militia, which is scattering out of southern Lebanon. Israel promises not to abandon SLA members. May 23: The last Israeli troops leave Lebanon. (More.) Convoys of Israeli soldiers drive out of Lebanon at daybreak in tanks and jeeps. May 23: The Israel-allied Lebanese militia releases all the inmates at the infamous El-Khiam prison. May 24: Israel ends the occupation of Lebanon. Beirut celebrates. May 24: The Hezbollah flag is raised as Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanon. (More.) May 24: Prime Minister Ehud Barak tours northern Israeli towns. May 24: The bribery case against President Ezer Weizman is closed. May 25: Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss rejects concerns that Hezbollah guerrillas are controlling the streets of southern Lebanon. May 25: U.N.'s Middle East envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen arrives in Lebanon for security talks. (More.) May 27: President Weizman announces he will resign within six weeks. May 27: Israel leaves outposts on edge of disputed Shebaa farms area. May 28: Transportation Minister Yitzhak Mordechai resigns amid harassment charges. May 29: An Israeli court postpones a decision on whether to release two Lebanese guerrillas held without trial for years. May 29: Settlers warn Prime Minister Ehud Barak he could be killed if he uproots settlements. May 31: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Bill Clinton meet in Lisbon, Portugal. (More.) May: Israel accepts an invitation to join the United Nations' Western Europe and Others Group, giving the country a stronger voice in U.N. affairs. Israeli leaders and their backers say they are concerned about some of the membership conditions -- that Israel can only participate in WEOG activities coming out of the U.N.'s New York headquarters and that Israeli representatives will be barred for two years from running for positions on U.N. councils. June 5: Lebanon sentences two pro-Israel militiamen. June 5: In a groundbreaking decision in May the Supreme Court lifted the ban on women reading from the Torah scroll and wearing the prayer shawl at the Western Wall. Orthodox Jews react angrily to the sight of hundreds of women asserting their right to pray out loud at the wall while wearing shawls and skullcaps. June 6: US cartographers mark the final Israel-Lebanon border. June 6: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visits the region. June 7: A bill, calling for early elections, passes the Knesset 61-48 in the first reading. June 8: Prime Minister Ehud Barak fights to reshape his government after a parliamentary defeat that brings the future of the Middle East peace process into question. June 10: Hafez Assad, Syria's autocratic president dies at 69. His son Bashar is nominated to replace him. June 13: Bashar Assad meets with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and vows his commitment to peace with Israel. June 13: Shas resigns from Prime Minister Ehud Barak's coalition, leaving a minority government of 52 out of 120 MKs. June 13: Ha'aretz reports that Israel will sign the convention establishing an international court for war crimes, but will not accede to its jurisdiction, mainly because the establishment of civilian settlements in occupied territory is defined as a war crime. June 15: Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat arrives at the White House. (More.) June 15: Some 4,000 settlers demonstrate outside PM Barak's home to protest any deal with Palestinians that includes evacuation of settlements or their transfer to Palestinian jurisdiction. June 18: The UN Security Council endorses Israel's pullout of Lebanon. June 20: Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nasrallah meets UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and warns against Israeli border violations. June 20: Prime Minister Ehud Barak's coalition hangs in the balance as Shas threatens to leave. June 21: Yossi Sarid, leader of Meretz, annouces, his party will drop out of the government to save it. The exit of Meretz from the coalition could allow Shas ministers, who have been fighting with Sarid over the fate of their bankrupt school system, to reverse course and stay with Barak. June 21: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrives in Israel from Jordan. (More.) June 22: Prime Minister Ehud Barak tries last-minute efforts to save the government. Meretz steps down and Shas stays. June 23: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that Syria is ready to resume talks with Israel. June 23: According to an American document Israel is prepared to give Palestinians part of Jerusalem and all of the Jordan Valley. June 26: U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright faces tough bargaining to clear the way for President Clinton to hold a Camp David-style summit between Israel and the Palestinians. June 26: Palestinians and Israelis exchange hatred rhetoric as Madeleine Albright's visit nears. June 27: Madeleine Albright arrives in Israel. Tempers rise among Israeli opponents of any peace moves with the Palestinians. She meets with Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. July 5: US President Bill Clinton announces he will host a Mideast summit the following week in Camp David. July 5: The Palestinians are ready to declare a state on September 13, which is the deadline for a final peace accord, if no deal is reached by then. Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair. July 5: Two parties threaten to leave Barak's government over the Mideast summit. July 9: Prime Minister Ehud Barak faces a non-confidence vote before his flight to the Mideast summit. Members of Shas fear that Barak will make "painful concessions" to Arafat. Ehud Barak's fragile coalition disintegrates, as he prepares to leave for Camp David. Barak, who has also been abandoned by his foreign minister, David Levy, insists that he will try to negotiate a final settlement with Yasser Arafat. July 10: "Peace and security are possible at Camp David", says Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Ehud Barak narrowly survives a no-confidence motion in the Knesset. He promises to place any peace deal before the Israeli voters in a referendum. July 10: President Ezer Weizman ends his seven-year term following revelations that he has not reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash gifts from a French millionaire. July 11: Aryeh Deri's sentence is reduced after appeals to three years in prison. July 11: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat arrive in Maryland for the Mideast summit in Camp David. (More on Camp David.) A complete press blackout is imposed. July 13: Ex-pop star Yussef Islam (known formerly as Cat Stevens) is turned back upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport and prevented from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem. July 20: Palestinian security forces capture a Palestinian militant after he again escaped from prison, this time by disguising himself as a woman and walking out with visitors. July 20: Israel notifies the United Nations of 172 violations of the border with Lebanon since the withdrawal in May. July 23: Tel Aviv announces plans for a light rail system in order to link the city's northern and southern suburbs. July 23: A military court convicts a Bedouin shepherd of stabbing and killing two women hikers in April 1997 in Wadi Kelt. July 24: Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Labor) and Moshe Katsav (Likud) are named as candidates for the Israeli presidency. July 24: A poll says that more than half of the Israelis want a deal at Camp David. July 24: Former prime minister and concerned citizen Benjamin Netanyahu warns against the perils of the Camp David summit. July 25: The breakdown of the Middle East peace summit at Camp David carries a risk of violence. Hamas calls on Arafat to resume the armed struggle. July 26: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat are expected to arrive home to a tense situation. July 27: Jewish settlers in the occupied territories are uneasy after the Camp David summit. July 27: Israel and Lebanon argue over the grave of a holy man.July 28: US President Bill Clinton reviews moving the embassy to Jerusalem. July 28: US President Bill Clinton says Palestinian "unilateral" independence would be a "big mistake". July 28: UN troops take their positions at the border between Israel and Lebanon. July 29: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat seeks support in European and Arab capitals. July 29: Lebanon prepares a complaint against Israel to be filed at the International Court of Justice seeking compensation for the lengthy occupation of southern Lebanon. July 30: Prime Minister Ehud Barak survives the latest threat to his shaky government coalition when Foreign Minister David Levy agrees to vote with the government and to postpone a decision whether to resign from the Cabinet. July 30: Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, a senior Hamas leader is arrested in Gaza. July 30: The leader of Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrilla group threaten to destroy the U.S. embassy in Israel and kill its diplomats if the mission was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. July 30: The Mossad changes its traditional method of recruiting. July 31: Likud Party candidate Moshe Katsav, defeats Nobel Prize laureate Shimon Peres in the vote for the presidency. July 31: The Mideast talks resume for the first time since Camp David. August: Palestinian children learn military skills in summer camps. August 1: Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat authorizes negotiations "24 hours a day" over the next six weeks in an attempt to reach a peace agreement. August 1: Moshe Katsav is sworn in as Israeli president. August 2: Foreign Minister David Levy resigns. The Knesset approves an early election bill. Shlomo Ben-Ami is appointed Acting Foreign Minister. August 2: The independent Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) says that 60 percent of respondents favor clashes with the Israelis if a peace deal is not reached by September 13. August 3: Prime Minister Ehud Barak arrives in Egypt for talks with Hosni Mubarak. August 3: Yasser Arafat meets with Nelson Mandela in South Africa. August 6: Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of Shas and former chief rabbi, sparks an uproar in for saying that 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust because they were reincarnations of sinners. August 6: Prime Minister Ehud Barak assigns vacant cabinet spots to ministers of his party. Communications Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer receives the housing and construction portfolio and Finance Minister Avraham Shohat the infrastructure portfolio. Haim Ramon, the minister for Jerusalem, receives the Interior Ministry and Justice Minister Yossi Beilin the Religious Affairs Ministry. August 7: The Israeli police recommend charging the Moshe Katsav's brother with election bribery. August 7: Israeli soldiers fire shots at youths throwing stones and readying a small firebomb at a border fence in southern Lebanon, injuring a 13-year-old boy and two journalists. August 9: Lebanese forces take up positions in the former Israeli-occupied zone. August 10: PA leader Yasser Arafat arrives in Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. August 10: Dozens of radical Jews march around Jerusalem's walled Old City, exchanging curses with Muslim worshipers and trying to enter the Temple Mount. August 16: PA President Yasser Arafat visits Indonesia. He declares he wants to reconsider the declaration of an independent Palestinian state. Prime Minister Barak flies to Amman for discussions with King Abdullah II. August 16: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resume their formal contacts. August 17: US Mideast mediator Dennis Ross arrives in Israel. (More.) August 17: Two brothers who were separated by World War II are reunited in Israel. August 18: Prime Minister Ehud Barak offers the Palestinians an independent state if they formally end the conflict with Israel. August 18: During a visit in Japan Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat warns of an "explosion" in the Middle East without peace. August 18: The Yediot Ahronot newspaper publishes satellite photos of Israel's nuclear reactor. August 19: Jewish settlers and Palestinians clash in Hebron fighting with fists and stones. August 20: Prime Minister Ehud Barak moves towards a "secular revolution" which would remove the Orthodox monopoly on marriages, eliminate the religious affairs ministry, require ultra-Orthodox children to study citizenship, English and mathematics, require military service for yeshiva students and call for a constitution which includes freedom of speech and women's rights. August 21: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and PA leader Yasser Arafat discuss a possible date for Palestinian statehood. August 22: Jordan's King Abdullah II visits Israel and the West Bank. August 23: The Supreme Court orders Aryeh Deri to begin his jail sentence. August 25: Prime Minister Ehud Barak promises to help southern Lebanon refugees. August 25: Prime Minister Barak reassures the Palestinians that there will be no excavations on the Temple Mount. August 27: PA leader Yasser Arafat visits Spain. He says that an accord with Israel is still possible. August 26: Israeli troops seal off the West Bank village of Assira Ashamalieh, known as a militant stronghold. August 27: An attempt to capture a top Islamic militant fails. Three Israeli soldiers are killed and one is wounded in friendly fire. Two commanders submit their resignation. August 28: Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami visits Great Britain. British Junior Minister Peter Hain begins a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. August 28: A statement issued by Muslim religious and political leaders at a conference in Morocco, backs the Palestinian position on Jerusalem. August 28: Prime Minister Ehud Barak visits Turkey. August 29: US President Bill Clinton and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meet for talks on the Middle East peace process. August 29: Key Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says that PA leader Arafat is determined to bridge serious differences. August 30: Prime Minister Ehud Barak urges Palestinians to be flexible in peace negotiations over Jerusalem. August 30: A US-Israeli laser weapon is successfullytested at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. August 30: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. August 30: The Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls for the suspension of talks with Israel and for Middle East peace efforts to be turned over to the United Nations. August 31: Prime Minister Ehud Barak issues an ultimatum in an effort to force Palestinian concessions. September 3: Aryeh Deri enters prison with a following of thousands of supporters protesting the conviction. September 4: Prime Minister Ehud Barak arrives at the United Nations for its Millennium Summit. September 6: A long-running dispute over national emblems that is blocking Israel's admission to the international Red Cross movement could be solved by the end of the year. September 6: US President Bill Clinton pushes Israel and the Palestinians for an agreement. September 7: President Bill Clinton admits he made no progress in talks with Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat at the UN Millennium summit in New York. Arafat now has less than a week to decide whether he will declare an independent Palestinian state on September 13, as he has long threatened. September 8: Leah Rabin, widow of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, criticizes Prime Minister Ehud Barak because he offers the Palestinians control over parts of the Old City of Jerusalem. September 9: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Clinton meet. September 10: Yasser Arafat and the central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization postpone, yet again, the planned declaration of statehood. September 11: Palestinian negotiators call for new Israeli concessions in recognition of the decision to postpone the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. (More.) September 11: Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh tours Hebron. Tensions have risen in the city of 130,000 Palestinians and 400 settlers since Camp David. Sneh blames the settlers of increasing the violence. September 13: The peace talks resume. (More.) September 13: Leo Falcam, President of Micronesia, visits Israel. September 14: Two Lebanese detainees, Mustapha Dirani and Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, appeal to the Supreme Court for release from years of detention without trial. September 14: Lebanon demands reparations from Israel at the UN assembly. September 15: Israel's Arab community leaders complained that Prime Minister Ehud Barak has turned his back on them, even though an overwhelming number of Israel's 1 million Arab citizens voted for him in the May 1999 elections. In his campaign, Barak had promised to make up for decades of government discrimination in housing, education and budget allocations. September 15: Gen. Maj. Moshe Yaalon is Israel's new deputy chief of staff. September 17: An explosion hurts 5 people outside a shop in a Tel Aviv suburb. September 18: Prime Minister Ehud Barak rules out Islamic sovereignty over the Temple Mount. September 19: Israel suspends talks with the Palestinians, indefinitely, on the grounds that Yasser Arafat is hardening his line on outstanding issues, particularly Jerusalem. September 19: Israel and the PA agree to establish a Free Trade Area as part of a final economic accord, after an "effective economic border" has been established. September 19: Four Negev Bedouin towns elect their local representatives for the first time. September 20: Health authorities declare the West Nile virus infection an epidemic. September 20: The peace talks crumble. (More.) September 21: The violent behavior of Border Police men arouses criticism. September 22: After 5 years of denial and concealment, the Beilin-Abu Mazen agreement is published in full in Newsweek. September 25: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat meet for the first time since July. September 26: Israelis and Palestinians head to Washington for new negotiations. September 27: US Mideast envoy Dennis Ross is meeting separately with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Washington. September 27: A roadside bomb explodes next to a convoy of Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip. September 27: The Palestinians warn that Ariel Sharon's tour of the Temple Mount could cause bloodshed. September 27: In an interview for the Jerusalem Post, Prime Minister Ehud Barak says he would agree to a Palestinian capital named al-Quds, the Arabic word for Jerusalem, under any Israeli Palestinian peace treaty. September 28: Peace talks in Washington end without results. September 28: Violent rioting breaks out in Jerusalem after Ariel Sharon, the leader of the opposition, visits the most holy Muslim shrine in the city. Surrounded by hundreds of riot police and accompanied by a handful of Likud party colleagues, he spends 45 minutes on the Haram al-Sharif compound, home of the al-Aqsa mosque. By the time he leaves East Jerusalem is in uproar, and hundreds are injured. It is the start of the al-Aqsa intifada. September 29: A Palestinian policeman, Na'il Suleiman, gets out of the Palestinian jeep that is taking part in a joint patrol with Israel in Qalqilyah, walks over to the Israeli jeep and shoots his Israeli counterpart, Yossi Tabeja, a Border Policeman, at point-blank range. The joint patrol is one of the icons of the Oslo era. The joint Israeli-Palestinian jeep patrols throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip not only represent a coordinated attempt to prevent terrorism; they also symbolize partnership and trust. The shot puts an end to the coordinated attempt to block terrorism, to the partnership and to the trust. September 29: The Palestinians declare a day of mourning after the clashes on the Temple Mount. (More.) September 30: 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durra and his father are caught in Israeli-Palesti |