The Middle East: Zionism and the Israel-Palestine conflict (thematic)

By evar0se.2018
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    60,000 Zionists settled in Palestine

  • The McMahon-Hussein letters

  • The Sykes-Picot agreement

    Britain and France had secretly agreed to carve up Turkey's Arab Lands after the war and share them between themselves. Most of Palestine was to be under international control

  • Balfour Declaration

    The British government declared its support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This declaration was made in the form of a letter to Lord Rothschild, a leading British Jew, in November 1917. The British government was very careful with its wording of the declaration: it expressed its support for a Jewish homeland, not a state but for the next 30 years, many Jewish people regarded this declaration as a promise from the British government to help set up a Jewish state.

  • British troops entered Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine

    They drove out the Turkish forces. Three years later, Britain was given a mandate to govern Palestine.
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    Britain had a mandate over Palestine

  • Arab-Jewish riots

    Violence erupted in the town of Jaffa, a busy seaport. It was the main port of arrival for Jewish immigrants and just to the north of the town was Tel Aviv, the largest Jewish settlement in Palestine. Fighting erupted in Tel Aviv between rival Jewish groups. The fighting spread into Arab Jaffa and led to Arab attacks on Jewish people and their property. After 2 days of rioting, 200 Jews and 120 Arabs were dead or wounded. The British authorities immediately stopped all Jewish immigration

  • The League of Nations confirmed that Britain was responsible for establishing a Jewish national homeland while protecting the rights of all those living in Palestine

  • Riots broke out in Jerusalem

    Arab crowds attacked Jewish people inside and outside the city. The attacks spread throughout Palestine and 133 Jewish people were killed over 4 days. 116 Arabs were killed, mostly by the British police while trying to stop the anti-Jewish violence

  • Hitler came to power in Germany

    His deeply antisemitic policies drove many Jewish people abroad. Thousands fled to Palestine and by 1939 there were nearly 450,000 Jewish people in the country. The British decided to stop immigration but this caused uproar among the Jewish people in Europe, America and Palestine, so the plan was put aside. If they were to allow immigration to continue, Arab fears an violence would increase, but if they were to stop it, they would be accused of lack of care regarding persecution of Jews

  • The Arab High Committee was formed

    They attempted to call for a strike of all Arab workers and attacks on Jewish settlements and British forces. It was largely unsuccessful: Arab workers were just replaced by Jewish ones.

  • David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Jewish agency, recognised that the Arab Rebellion had widespread support

    He saw that it was the beginning of a national movement and recognised that both the Arabs and the Jews wanted the same thing: Palestine. He recognised that only force would enable the Jewish people to establish an Independent state in Palestine
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    The Arab Rebellion in Palestine

    Widespread fighting started in the countryside. Arab bands attacked Jewish settlements and within a month, 20 Jewish people had been killed. By the summer, Palestine was caught up in a civil war than was to last for 3 years and cost thousands of lives. The British responded harshly, hanging several Arab leaders and exiling others. They also helped to train and organise the Jewish Defence Force, the Haganah.

  • Peel Commission

    Recommended partition of Palestine

  • The British Partition plan

    At the height of the rebellion, the British government set up an enquiry led by Lord Peel. In the report, it was concluded that cooperation between Arab and Jewish people was impossible. The report recommended the partition of Palestine into two separate states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The Arabs rejected the plan, as they believed that the whole of Palestine should be an independent Arab state and that the British had promised this to them. However, the Jewish Agency agreed to the plan.

  • White Paper agreement

    By the end of the rebellion, the British government had given up all further ideas of partition. This White Paper declared that Britain wanted an independent Palestine within 10 years. This would be neither Jewish or Arab, but a state in which they shared responsibility for governing the country. Meanwhile, Britain would continue to rule Palestine and Jewish immigration would be limited. Not surprisingly, the Jewish people were furious. To them, it was an act of betrayal by the British.
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    World War Two

    This war toughened the Zionists: the mass murder of 6 million Jews was a horrific example of antisemitism so they were not willing to be patient.

  • Biltmore Declaration of support for a 'Jewish commonwealth' in all of Palestine

  • Zionist conference decided on a policy of active opposition to British rule

    Their leaders ordered the Haganah, the Jewish defence force, to cooperate with Irgun and the Stern Gang, two secret underground Jewish organisations. British military bases, railways, trains and bridges in Palestine became the target of these terrorist groups

  • Six British soldiers were murdered

  • President Truman called on the British government to allow the immediate entry of 100,000 Jewish refugees to Palestine

    Six months later, he came out in support of the partition of Palestine

  • Attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem

    Men dressed as Arabs got out of their lorry at the entrance of the hotel kitchen and unloaded their cargo of milk churns. They contained explosives and at 12:37pm the explosion tore through the building, killing 88 people, including 15 Jewish people.

  • Hanging of two British soldiers by Irgun

    This appeared on the front page of several British newspapers and was one of the two incidents that convinced Britain that it should leave Palestine

  • The Exodus prevented from landing in Palestine

    The Exodus, a ship carrying 4500 refugees from Europe, was prevented by British authorities from landing its passengers in Palestine and was sent back to Europe. This incident attracted widespread publicity, winning much sympathy for the Jewish refugees and was thus a huge propaganda win for the Zionists.

  • UN voted for partition of Palestine

    The main recommendation was to divide Palestine and set up a Jewish and Arab state. The areas which were more Jewish would go to the Jews and vice versa. Although the Jewish people made up only 1/3 of the population and owned less than 10% of the land, they were given 55% of the overall territory. The Arab High Committee rejected the plan but the Jewish Agency in Palestine officially accepted the plan.

  • Britain decided to leave Palestine

    Britain was exhausted after the war, with food shortages and rationing at home, and could hardly afford to keep 100,000 troops and police in Palestine. After 30 years of trying to solve the problems of Palestine, the British government decided that it would hand it over to the UN in May 1948

  • Start of civil war in Palestine

    The Arab High Committee proclaimed a three day strike which led to outbreaks of violence against Jewish civilians. However the Jewish Agency and its forces were ready to respond. In December, when Britain announced they were leaving Palestine in 1948, the fighting intensified. At first, Jewish forces acted defensively, but then they decided to act on the offensive.

  • Creation of the state of Israel

  • Britain withdrew from Palestine

    By this time, over 300,000 Arabs had fled from what was to become the new Jewish state. This was a victory for the Jewish people but a disaster for the Arabs

  • Invasion of Israel by Arab armies

  • The UN form the United Nations Relief and Works Agency

    At the end of the 1948 war, 700,000 Arabs fled from their homes in Palestine. Today the UN reckons there are about 5 million Palestinian refugees. The UNRWA set up camps for them and provided food, shelter and education. Israel refused to allow them to return to their lands and instead continued to take over Arab villages and confiscate the property of Palestinians

  • Israel had absorbed 300,000 Jewish people from Arab countries

    They insisted that those same Arab countries should find homes for the Palestinian refugees. Jordan allowed them in but other Arab states kept them in refugee camps near the borders with Israel

  • The Suez Crisis

    Israel (along with Britain and France) invaded Egypt in response to Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal. Nasser's victory boosted Egyptian nationalism and increased tensions with Israel, eventually leading to the 1967 six day war

  • Fatah set up

    This was led by Yasser Arafat and its goal was to create a Palestinian state

  • Formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)

    It was set up by Arab leaders who met in Cairo. The aim of the PLO was to unite all Palestinians in the struggle to win back their land. The largest group within the PLO was Fatah and from 1965 to 1967 Fatah carried out an increasing number of guerrilla attacks on Israel and was supported by the Arab states that bordered Israel, especially Syria. However the Six Day War was a turning point for them

  • The Six Day War

    This had a big impact on the PLO and the Palestinian issue as Syria, Jordan and Egypt, who all provided vital support for the PLO were weakened by their heavy losses. Many Palestinians were now convinced they had to fight for their homeland on their own

  • 300,000 Palestinians flee the West Bank after it's captured by Israel

  • Half the population of Jordan, which was 2 million, was Palestinian

    Fatah and other groups within the PLO now concentrated their forces in Jordan and began to recruit far more volunteers from the refugee camps

  • An increase in Palestinian terrorism

    From late 1968 onwards there were many hijackings, kidnappings and bombings in Europe and elsewhere

  • Arafat became chairman of the PLO

    Palestinian fighters, led by Fatah, gained control of the PLO and Yasser Arafat became chairman. He wanted to limit the raids and bombings in Israeli territory as he believed that the Palestinian military aim was strictly war on Israel

  • A Swiss plane is blown up on its way to Israel

    Israel usually responded to these attacks by bombing Palestinian bases in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Often these bases were near refugee camps meaning that hundred of innocent Palestinians were killed

  • PLO expelled from Jordan

    king Hussein of Jordan feared the Israeli reprisals which followed Palestinian attacks from his country so he decided he did not want any more raids to be launched on Israel from inside Jordan. The PLO were acting like they governed Jordan themselves so he told them to obey him and his army. The Palestinians resisted army removal and over the next 10 days more than 3000 were killed. PLO bases were eliminated and the remaining fighters went to Syria and Lebanon. Their newspapers were also banned.

  • The Muslim population overtakes the Christian population

  • Assasination of Jordanian Prime Minister, Wasif al-Tel

    Wasif al-Tel was visiting Egypt on his way to attend an Arab League meeting. The killers were members of a group called Black September, named after after the month in which the Palestinian bases in Jordan were wiped out

  • Israeli athletes killed at the Olympic Games

    The Black September group attacked the Israeli athletes who were competing in Germany. They killed two and demanded the release of 200 Palestinians in Israel. The Palestinians got massive publicity but not the release of hostages that they wanted. A few days later Israel got their revenge and carried out reprisal raids on Syria and Lebanon, in which over 200 refugees were killed. World opinion was divided over this event, some branded the PLO as terrorists. Although, Arafat was invited by UN.

  • The Lebanese government ordered its army to regain control of the south

    The Palestinians resisted this and were helped by Lebanese Muslims. Most of the Lebanese army were Christian and soon there was a civil war between Christians and Muslims

  • Israeli invasion of Lebanon

  • A PLO suicide squad went further south and attacked a bus near Tel Aviv

    This killed 37 passengers

  • Israeli troops invade Lebanon

    They seized the south of the country but the PLO forces melted away. The Israeli fighters withdrew under pressure from the USA and UN troops were sent to keep peace on the Lebanese-Israeli border. Over the next 4 years, the Palestinian armed forces grew in strength. Lebanon had became the main focus of their military operations against Israel and the received a constant stream of recruit from the 400,000 Palestinians in the refugee camps in Lebanon

  • War in Lebanon

    In June Israel invaded Lebanon with 170,000 troops, 3500 tanks and 600 fighter planes. The UN peacekeeping forces were powerless to stop them. Thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese citizens were killed and hundreds and thousands were made homeless

  • A group of Palestinian extremists attempted to murder the Israeli ambassador in London

    This was the excuse Israel needed to invade Lebanon

  • The 'Battle of Beirut'

    Over 20,000 were killed and many more were wounded when Israel launched 127 air raids on Beirut. They had already cut off supplies of food and water to the city and had control of the sky and the coastline.
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    Israel planned another invasion of Lebanon

    This was called 'Operation Peace for Galilee' and simply needed a pre-text

  • The USA intervened with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon

    They persuaded Israel to stop shelling the city in return for an agreement that the PLO fighters would be evacuated. Over 14,000 fighters left Beirut to travel to other Arab states. Yasser Arafat was the last to leave and moved his headquarters to Tunisia

  • The newly elected Christian president of Lebanon was killed

  • Massacre of 2000 Palestinians

    In response to the assassination of the Lebanese president, his armed supporters invaded the refugee camps and carried out a massacre of men, women and children. The Israeli troops just stood by, the rest of the world was horrified. In Israel a crowd of 400,000 protested against the actions of their armed forces. Sharon, as defence minister, was blamed and he was forced to resign

  • The Israelis withdraw

    Israel withdraw its troops from the capital but stayed in the south of Lebanon. Could not be sure that they had removed every Palestinian armed forces member as they could easily hide in the refugee camps. Furthermore, Israel had made many enemies among the Lebanese people, especially the Muslims in the south. Over the next two years, Israeli troops in the south of Lebanon were regularly attacked and decided to withdraw (triggered by suicide of M'Heidli). This was regarded as its first defeat

  • Sana M'Heidli kills herself and 2 Israelis in a suicide mission

    She believed this was her national duty

  • Palestinian Intifada

  • The number of Jewish people living in settlements in and around Jerusalem reached over 80,000

    There were another 20,000 living in parts of the West Bank and in Gaza. The Intifada may have been triggered by a single incident but years of living under Israeli occupation had brought the increasing hatred and tension to a boiling point

  • The outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada

    This took everyone by surprise: Israel, the PLO, the Arab states, and the rest of the world. It was spontaneous and unplanned. It reached the form of huge demonstrations and striked involving adults, children, women, men, labourers, business people, villagers, townspeople, refugees and shopkeepers. It became a national uprising

  • An Israeli army vehicle in Gaza crashed into a lorry, killing 4 Palestinians on board

    Rumours spread that it had been a deliberate act of revenge for the killing of an Israeli 2 days before. The funerals of the Palestinians became huge demonstrations. At one a youth was shot by an Israeli soldier. As tension mounted thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza and the West Bank. This was known as the 'Palestinian Intifada'

  • The number of the Palestinians who had been killed in the Intifada reaching 346

    Many of these were under 16. At first, Israel had insisted on using an 'iron fist' technique with guns, tear gas and water cannons but these could not halt the momentum of the uprising. This led the Israeli government to announce that it would no longer use bullets and instead would use mass arrests and detention camps. The worldwide consensus was that a powerful modern army had been set loose against civilians who were fighting for their human rights. Even in Israel itself, opinion was divided

  • The USA recognises that the PLO should be part of the peace process

    This was a result of the Intifada and was a big turning point as it was the first time they had done this (late 1988, not necessarily November)

  • The USA opened secret talks with the PLO officials

    The USA persuaded Arafat to publicly reject terrorism. He also spoke out in favour of a new two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem: an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Now at last the USA was willing to negotiate openly with the PLO and urge the Israelis to open peace talks with the Palestinians.
    At first the Israeli government was in no mood for compromise and said the PLO was still just a terrorist organisation.

  • The end of the Cold War

    This resulted in Russia losing a lot of stability and power, they had to seek financial aid from the US and could not longer support the Arab states that they had previously provided arms and economic support for. This meant the US could not only expect cooperation from the Soviet Union but also Arab leaders. Therefore, the US could now pressure Israel into making peace

  • The US president threatened to withhold $10 billion of loans to Israel

    This was an attempt to persuade Israel to comply and make peace and it had the desired effect

  • The Madrid Conference

    The Israelis agreed to hold face-to-face talks with Palestinian leaders, by now many Palestinians and Israelis had come to terms with the fact that making peace was better in the long term. Little progress was made as the Israeli leader, Yitzhak Shamir, was intransigent. The USA kept putting pressure on Israel and they called on them to stop building more settlements in the occupied territories or face the risk of losing their financial aid.

  • Elections were held in Israel

    A new moderate government was voted into power, this new government promised to work for peace with the Palestinians

  • The Oslo Accords (1)

    Discussions started up again and this time they were held in secret in Oslo, in neutral Norway. 14 talks were held over 8 months. Finally, in September 1993, the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, and the head of the new Israeli government, Yitzhak Rabin, exchanged letters. Arafat rejected the use of terrorism and called for an end to the Intifada and recognised the 'right of Israel to exist in peace and security'. He had never made such clear statements before. Rabin recognised the PLO.
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    77% increase in the number of Jewish settlers in the occupied territories

    Gaza: there were 1 million Palestinians living on the tiny strip of land between the Israeli border and the sea. There were only 6500 Jewish settlers but they and the troops protecting them controlled a third of the land and most of the water supplies
    The West Bank: 2 million Palestinians and 400,000 Jewish settlers. Israelis controlled over 70% of the land and had complete control of the water and electricity supplies.
    A permanent peace seemed more distant than ever.

  • The Oslo Accord was signed

    This paved the way for a step-by-step approach towards a self-government for the Palestinians. In front of all the world's cameras Arafat and Rabin shook hands.
    Israeli troops would be withdrawn from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, elections would be held for a Palestinian Authority to run the West Bank in Gaza for 5 years, and during these 5 years a final settlement would be discussed
    It was never really a peace treaty but it was a historic breakthrough, it was greeted worldwide

  • Israel-Jordan peace treaty

    In the wake of the Israeli-Palestinian agreement of 1993, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in which the two sides settled their dispute over their borders. Jordan became the second Arab state to acknowledge the state of Israel and open up trade and other links. Relations between Israel and Syria remained very bitter and no agreement was reached on the return of the Golan heights.

  • Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein, went on a rampage and killed 29 Palestinian worshippers at a mosque in Hebron on the West Bank

    Support for HAMAS increased drastically after this event. HAMAS blamed the Israeli government for not disarming the settlers and for allowing this to happen. Over the next years they went on a campaign of suicide bombings, both in Israel itself and in the occupied territories.
    The Israeli government took a harder line and blamed Arafat and the Palestinian authority for not controlling the militants. Israel troops moved back into areas in Gaza and the West Bank which they recently left.

  • The Oslo Accords (2)

    This was a second Israeli-Palestinian agreement. It agreed that elections to the Palestinian authority would finally be held, Israeli forces would withdraw from major Palestinian towns, Palestinian prisoners would be release from Israeli jails. When elections were held, the PLO won the majority of seats and Arafat was later elected president of the Palestinian authority

  • The assassination of Rabin

    In November 1995, 150,000 Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv for a peace rally. The main speaker was the prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who had signed the peace deal in 1993. After he rally, a young man called Yigal Amir, stepped up and shot Rabin, killing him. He was a member of an Israeli group that opposed any peace with the Palestinians. This group believed that the West Bank was a part of the Land of Israel.
    The majority of Israelis supported the peace process

  • A new government was elected in Israel

    This government opposed the Oslo peace process and blocked any further negotiations with Arafat and the Palestinian Authority

  • The new Israeli government gave the go-ahead for the building of 6500 new homes on Arab land in east Jerusalem

    This would complete a chain of Jewish settlements round the eastern side of Jerusalem and would effectively cut off the Arab inhabitants of east Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. This further dashed Palestinian hopes of making east Jerusalem the capital of an independent state of Palestine. The new Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said 'The battle for Jerusalem has begun'. For most Palestinians he was the leader of a brutal occupying power

  • Another change of government in Israel

    The Israelis elected a more moderate government led by Ehud Barak

  • Israel withdrew their last troops from Lebanon

  • Camp David peace negotiations

    He invited the Israeli and PLO leaders to Camp David in the USA. For several days hey were locked locked in discussions, with the Americans trying to steer towards a peaceful outcome.
    Barak offered the Palestinian leaders a deal that would have given them Gaza and most of the West Bank, and he even agreed to partition of Jerusalem. The obstacles proved too great and the issues of who controlled the Holy Sights of Jerusalem and the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel remained.

  • Beginning of the second intifada

    The underlying cause for this was the frustration and anger of the Palestinians in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Little progress had been made in the peace process. Palestinians suicide bombings, Israeli reprisals and the building of more Jewish settlements continued.
    (triggered by Sharon's visit to Holy site)

  • The Israeli politician Ariel Sharon a tour of what the Jewish called Temple Mount

    Muslims knew this as the Dome of the Rock and is their third most Holy site after Mecca and Medina. This was seen as a highly provocative site for Palestinians and many saw his visit as an attempt to impose Israeli control. Whatever the intentions, demonstrations followed and Israeli troops shot 7 Palestinians dead and wounded over 200. This marked the beginning of the second Intifada. Within a month 127 Palestinians had been killed

  • Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister of Israel

    He promised to maintain Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and increase the number of settlements on the West Bank

  • 29 Israelis were killed in a HAMAS suicide bombing

    Israeli troops and tanks carried out raids inside Palestinians towns and refugee camps on the West Bank and Gaza. They also carried out targeted assassinations, often using helicopter gunships to kill Palestinian militants in their homes and offices. They even used fighter planes to bomb their targets, not surprisingly, women and children, often family members, were killed. Schools and hospitals were sometimes hit.

  • Over 2000 Palestinians and 760 Israeli had been killed since the Intifada started in 2000

    This was a far higher number than the First Intifada, many Palestinian fighters used rifles rather than stones and the Israeli forces used rockets, tanks and helicopters (synthesis)
    As this violence continued, Israel started to build a barrier around the West Bank. It was further into the West Bank than the 'green line' that marked the pre-1967 boundaries. Israel claimed it was purely defensive.

  • 'Road map' to peace

    George W. Bush published what he called a 'road map' for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He was about to invade Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein so wanted to show that he was just as concerned about the Palestinian issue as he was about oil-rich Iraq. The road map outlined a timetable for moves towards a Palestinian state. At first it made little difference however over the next two years there were signs of revival in the peace process

  • Mahmoud Abbas elected president of the Palestinian authority

  • An Israeli helicopter missile killed the spiritual leader of HAMAS as he left a mosque near his home in Gaza

  • The Israeli government announced that it would evacuate all Jewish settlers and troops from Gaza

  • Death of Yasser Arafat

    He was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas, who became chairman of the PLO and was elected president of the Palestinian Authority

  • Abbas persuaded Palestinian militants to call a halt, even a temporary one, to their bombing

    Then the Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Egypt and announced a mutual ceasefire.

  • Jewish settlers and troops were withdrawn from Gaza

  • War in Lebanon

  • Hezbollah fighters crossed the border with Israel

    They killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others. They demanded the release of hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and Palestinian prisoners but Israel refused to do a swap. They launched attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon and Beirut. Hezbollah hit back by launching hundreds of missiles from the south of Lebanon to the north of Israel. Within a month the death toll in Lebanon reached 1000 with 1 million made homeless. Nearly 100 Israelis were killed.

  • A ceasefire was arranged at the UN and fighting stopped

    A UN peacekeeping force was sent to the Israeli-Lebanese border. The Israelis had failed to destroy Hezbollah or to recover their captured soldiers. In the Arab world. Hezbollah's victory was seen as proof that a small guerrilla force could defeat the most heavily armed state in the Middle East. The Israel-Lebanon border remained a flashpoint

  • HAMAS victory in Palestinian elections

  • HAMAS victory in Palestinian elections

    All adult Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza were entitled to vote. Up until that time, most of the seats in parliament were held by members of Fatah, who had been the main body inside the PLO. Many Palestinians saw the efforts PLO as ineffective and there was widespread anger and bitterness about the conditions that were widely lived in. The HAMAS majority refused to acknowledge Israel so Israel, the US and most European governments wouldn't have any dealings with them. Peace stalled.

  • Fighting in Gaza

    Security forces under the control of President Abbas frequently clashed with supporters of HAMAS in the West Bank in Gaza. Fighting broke out in Gaza between the armed forces of HAMAS and Fatah. HAMAS forces took control, destroying Fatah'' headquarters and driving Fatah out of Gaza. Since then, HAMAS has dominated Gaza. Israel forces sealed the border between Gaza and Israel and took complete control of movement in and out of Gaza. The 1.4 million inhabitants of Gaza were virtually imprisoned.

  • War in Gaza

  • There was a spate of rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel

    The Israeli forces then carried out military incursions inside Gaza and killed the militants they believed were responsible. Over 1400 Gazans lost their lives including more than 300 children. An investigation held by the UN, led by a South African Jewish/Zionist judge concluded that the damage to Gaza was 'not justified by military necessity and was carried out lawfully and wantonly'

  • Binyamin Netanyahu became prime minister of Israel again

    The building of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, especially around Jerusalem, accelerated. Although some meetings between Israel and the Palestinian Authority continued, Israeli policy effectively blocked any further discussion of a Palestinian state. The peace process stalled yet again

  • US president Obama declared 'The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements'

    However, whilst faced by a Congress that was overwhelmingly pro-Israeli, the US government was unwilling to revive the peace process