A wheelchair-bound retired American Jew, Leon Klinghoffer, was executed on board a hijacked Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, by a pro-PLO faction of the Palestine Liberation Front. Klinghoffer was on holiday with his wife to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The Italians throughout this saga played an ambivalent role. Here ‘Europe’ is being seduced – almost ‘Italian-style’ – by a stereotypical Palestinian hijacker who bears a clear resemblance to Yasser Arafat. All this is taking place on a couch on ‘The Love Boat’, presumably the Achille Lauro. The Love Boat was a popular television programme where romance always blossomed.
- 5 Jan
Ethiopian Jews’ flights halted after Peres’s revelation of Operation Moses
- 15 Jan
Egyptians and Israelis meet to discuss the future of Taba
- 24 Jan
Jury finds Time magazine guilty of faulty reporting, but not libel against Sharon
- 9 Feb
Uri Avnery and five other Israelis meet Arafat in Tunis
- 11 Feb
Arafat and Hussein sign accord in attempt to find common ground
- 19 Feb
IDF withdraws from the Awali River to new positions in Lebanon
- 10 Mar
Truck bomb kills 12 Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon
- 25 Mar
Ethiopians protest outside Knesset at treatment by Chief Rabbinate
- 4 Apr
Ansar detention camp in south Lebanon demolished
- 30 Apr
IDF leaves Tyre
- 8 May
Government and WZO offer $1 million for information on Josef Mengele
- 13 May
President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire arrives in Israel
- 13 May
5 per cent swing from Likud to Labour in Histadrut election
- 20 May
Three Israeli prisoners, held since 1982 in Damascus, swapped for 1,150 Arabs
- 20 May
Government cuts subsidies on essentials in new austerity programme
- 27 May
Japan protests about Israel’s release of Kōzō Okamoto, involved in 1972 airport killings
- 11 June
Last IDF units leave Lebanon three years after Operation Peace for Galilee
- 11 June
Schoolchildren killed near Moshav HaBonim when train hits stalled bus on a crossing
- 1 July
Peres announces economic stabilisation plan and Israel’s embrace of capitalism
- 3 July
Knesset votes 70–17 to approve emergency economic programme
- 3 July
1.5 million people stage 24-hour general strike
- 3 July
Three hundred Shi’ites, released from Atlit camp, transferred to the Red Cross in Lebanon
- 11 July
Fifteen members of Jewish Underground found guilty by Jerusalem court
- 22 July
Livni, Sharabaf and Nir sentenced to life for attack on Hebron Islamic College
- 1 Aug
Knesset votes 60–0 to ban racist and anti-democratic parties
- 20 Aug
Israel Embassy attaché Albert Atrakchi killed by gunmen in Cairo
- 24 Aug
Andre Aloush of Netanya killed in Tulkarem jewellery shop
- 4 Sept
New shekel goes into circulation
- 19 Sept
Israel’s population stands at 4.255 million
- 25 Sept
Three Israelis killed in Yom Kippur attack on yacht moored in Larnaca
- 1 Oct
Israeli F-15s attack and destroy PLO headquarters at Hammam Chott, Tunisia
- 7 Oct
Achille Lauro hijacked by a PLF faction, killing Leon Klinghoffer
- 21 Nov
Jonathan Pollard arrested by FBI on suspicion of passing US classified information to Israel
- 4 Dec
Herzog appearance at a Rakah conference, first time for an Israeli president
- 5 Dec
Liberal Centre party breaks away from the Likud
- 27 Dec
Rome and Vienna airports attacked by Abu Nidal group
- 31 Dec
Journalist Amnon Kapeliuk fined 1.6 million shekels for visiting Jordan
The Israelis then presented a three-stage unilateral withdrawal plan. The first redeployment was to leave Sidon and move to the region of the Litani. The IDF took with them the last Jewish family in Sidon, Yaffa Levi plus her four children and aunt. The evacuation of Sidon was followed by pro-Iranian Shi’ite demonstrations, demanding an Islamic republic in Lebanon. Some 1,500 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were believed to be in Lebanon.
The Israeli withdrawal was accompanied by attacks on Shi’ite villages, Salim, Bazouriye, Maarake, Abbassieh and Bedyass. The Israeli liaison office in Nabatiyeh was also attacked several times. In addition, there were skirmishes between rival Shi’ite factions, Amal and Hezbollah. In March, a suicide truck bombing killed twelve Israeli soldiers and wounded fourteen less than a mile from the Israeli border town of Metulla. Further attacks on convoys took place – in particular one at the Palestinian refugee camp at Rashidieh. Such attacks provoked demands in Israel by the Left for a speedier withdrawal and an end to the ‘iron fist’ policy towards the Shi’ites.
The second stage of the withdrawal averted a potential clash with Syrian forces stationed in the Bekaa Valley. By the end of April, the IDF evacuated Tyre. The Ansar detention camp, north of the Litani River, released the last of its prisoners who were captured during the advance into Lebanon in 1982. The camp was then demolished by IDF bulldozers.
In a complex prisoner exchange, three Israeli soldiers, captured during the early days of the Lebanon war by the PFLP-GC, were flown from Damascus to Geneva and then returned to Israel. One of the hundreds of prisoners exchanged was Kōzō Okamoto, the sole surviving member of the Japanese Red Army unit which was involved in the killing of Puerto Rican pilgrims at Lod airport in 1972. This release provoked both Shamir and Sharon to request the release of members of the Jewish Underground. Former Austrian chancellor, Bruno Kreisky, who had been instrumental in facilitating the prisoner exchange, cancelled his visit to Israel for security reasons, for fear of attack from the Right.
The last IDF units left Lebanon on 11 June, a few days after the third anniversary of the invasion of Lebanon. A small group of advisers remained behind to liaise with the SLA. On 12 June, Shimon Peres commented that the war had been a huge mistake: it had gone far beyond the stated limits of Operation Peace for Galilee in June 1982.
The Likud faced challenges at the beginning of the year when King Hussein and Yasser Arafat signed an agreement which implied any movement towards peace negotiations would involve a joint Jordanian–Palestinian delegation. When Mubarak proposed talks between Israel and such a joint delegation, Shamir opposed any discussion while Peres welcomed it, providing that there was no PLO involvement. Shamir claimed that this was an attempt to bring about USA–PLO negotiations. This was followed shortly afterwards by a meeting between six Israelis and Arafat in Tunis – a meeting denounced by the Likud and Tehiya which demanded that the individuals involved be put on trial.
In April, Shamir and other right-wing ministers vetoed a visit to Cairo by Ezer Weizman, a former leading figure in the Likud. The Likud was also opposed to any Labour initiative to hold an international peace conference. In early November, Arafat agreed to the ‘Cairo Declaration’. He stated that he was ‘opposed to all forms of terrorism’, but resolved at the same time to carry on the armed struggle only on territory which had been occupied by Israel.
Following the prisoner exchange in which more than a thousand Palestinians were freed, Shamir and Sharon called for the release of the members of the Jewish Underground who were on trial in the Jerusalem District Court.
In May, King Hussein held talks with Reagan on a proposal that the PLO would recognise Israel’s right to exist in return for the USA recognising the right of the Palestinians to self-determination. This would lay the basis for an international conference. Peres instead called for direct negotiations with Jordan ‘under conditions of equality’ within the context of the framework of a five-stage timetable. He also spoke about an ‘authentic Palestinian representation’ which would be acceptable to all sides.
At the end of September, three Israeli tourists were killed by Force 17, originally a unit of personal bodyguards for Arafat, on board a yacht at Larnaca, Cyprus. This was followed a few days later by an Israeli air force attack on the PLO headquarters in Tunis – a flight of more than 2,000 km from Tel Aviv.
In July, three members of the Jewish Underground were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, while twelve others received terms of between four months and seven years. Haim Kaufman, head of the Likud in the Knesset, lobbied for a bill that would grant an early release to those sentenced.
A pro-Iraqi faction of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and killed a wheelchair-bound passenger, Leon Klinghoffer. An Egyptian flight on which the PLF leader, Abu Abbas, was travelling was intercepted by four US navy F-14s and forced to land at a NATO base in Sicily. The Italians refused to hand over Abbas – as did the Yugoslavs when Abbas was allowed to travel to Belgrade. While Abbas went free, four hijackers and a Syrian involved in the attack were tried in Genoa on firearms charges and sentenced to between four and nine years.
Yonah Avrushmi was sentenced to life imprisonment for throwing a hand grenade into a Peace Now demonstration in 1983 and killing Emil Grunzweig.
Foreign Minister Shamir also faced growing criticism from within Herut when he supported the incorporation of the La’am faction, led by Ehud Olmert, into the Likud. Some members of the Likud supported a ban on demonstrations by Meir Kahane’s Kach party. A breakaway Centre Party, led by Tel Aviv mayor Shlomo Lahat, further complicated Likud’s status as an umbrella for the Right.
Following a nineteen-hour cabinet meeting, Israel turned away from a socialist economy and adopted a stabilisation plan to deal with the huge inflation. This turn towards a capitalist society involved not only austerity but also a shrinking of government’s role in providing services and lower taxes. It pitted the Treasury against the Central Bank and excluded prominent economists from involvement in forging the plan. The USA had offered a $1.5 billion grant if Israel overhauled its economy and this was overseen by professionals from both countries.
President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire visited Israel after re-establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1983. Mobutu was believed to have forfeited a $120 million grant from the Saudis by doing so. This was viewed as a further step in renewing ties with African nations which had been broken off in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Togo and the Ivory Coast, which did not have diplomatic relations, were now extensively trading with Israel.
