An international conference on Soviet Jewry took place in Brussels in February. It brought together Diaspora communities from fifty countries and was addressed by Ben-Gurion. It symbolised the desire of Golda Meir’s government to act openly and to rally support for the emigration movement that was growing in the USSR. It also marked the formal intervention of the leadership of Jewish communities since previous protests about the fate of Soviet Jewry had been left to young people and individual groups of activists. The conference was also an open display of opposition to the ongoing series of trials against Jews who wished to leave the USSR for Israel. The Kremlin also sent its own delegation of ‘loyal’ Soviet Jews, headed by General David Dragunsky, which held its own parallel meeting in Brussels.

Yitzhak Shamir struggled on several fronts in order to retain the possibility of the premiership – to be vacated by Shimon Peres in October, according to the terms of the rotation agreement. In mid-January, a new Liberal Centre party was formed by former members of the Liberal party, now integrated into the Likud. Led by Tel Aviv mayor, Shlomo Lahat, and Jewish Agency head, Leon Dulzin, its appeal was to the middle class with calls for lower income tax and religious pluralism.

The repeated rumours of a rapprochement with the PLO put the government coalition under tremendous strain. Many parties were split regarding a possible deal with the Palestinians. Seventeen hawkish members of the Labour party wanted to bring Tsomet and the NRP into government. Both Shas, the Mizrahi haredi party, and Meretz, a devoutly secular one led by the outspoken Shulamit Aloni, sat in the same cabinet and their constant clashes threatened a collapse of Rabin’s government and a challenge to his policies.

Shabbat breaking and the presence of Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem catalysed demonstrations by young haredim during the summer. The Mandelbaum Gate in Jerusalem, the crossing point between Jordan and Israel, was the site of protests against Baptists who were embarking on a tour of the holy places on the Shabbat. Anger was first directed against the bus drivers who were thought to be Jewish, but were not – and then against the owners of the buses, the Hamkasher cooperative. Amidst fighting between the protesters and the police, vehicles were damaged. Hamkasher responded by suspending all services for three days to the ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim district of Jerusalem.

Sharon’s desire to unilaterally disengage from Gaza manifested itself within the Likud as a conflict between pragmatism and ideology. It proposed the evacuation of twenty-one settlements from Gush Katif in the Gaza area and four in the northern West Bank – Ganim, Homesh, Kadim and Sa-Nur – accompanied by a generous compensation given to its eight thousand inhabitants to resettle within Israel.

In July, Netanyahu became Israel's longest-serving prime minister – outstripping Ben-Gurion's term in office. He was, however, unable to form a government that would ensure a majority in the Knesset.

Although there had been no fatalities during the first three months of the year, the broad instability on Israel’s borders caused the first major clash with the Egyptians in April. Israeli troops came under fire when the IDF attempted to return a flock of sheep that had wandered across the Gaza border. The IDF responded with attacks on Deir al-Balah and Bani Suheila which in turn were followed by Egyptian attacks on kibbutzim near the Gaza border. The IDF then began to shell central Gaza, which resulted in the killing of fifty-eight civilians and a hundred injured. This initiated a five-day offensive by fedayeen infiltrators who attacked Ashkelon and nearby kibbutzim. They were able to reach Rehovot and instigate grenade attacks on civilian homes and attacks on bus and train passengers, water company workers and synagogue worshippers. A bus carrying teachers and pupils was attacked at Moshav Shafir.

The Yom Kippur War was, at its end, more a draw than a victory or defeat. After weeks of fighting, an unprepared Israel had recovered militarily and advanced into Egypt and Syria. The change in fortunes was such that both Cairo and Damascus were threatened. This march on these major cities brought about a ceasefire.

At the UN, Palestinian representatives pressed for the return of all refugees who had left since 1948 and the restoration of their property. The al-Aqsa Intifada took the lives of large numbers of civilians on both sides of the conflict. It was characterised by the periodic use of Palestinian suicide bombers and Israeli retaliatory action. Attempts by figures on both sides to halt the conflict and return to diplomacy and dialogue were continually thwarted by new outbreaks of violence to interrupt periods of calm and hope.

The 1950s saw the establishment of ’tent cities’ for new immigrants while new homes were being built. Many immigrants came from the Islamic world and the Communist bloc rather than the United States and the West in general.

In the Soviet Union, Stalin who had originally supported the establishment of Israel launched a campaign against Jews within the Communist bloc which culminated in several show trials and the Doctors Plot of 1953 in which mainly Jewish physicians were accused of poisoning the leaders of the Kremlin.

The Egyptian revolution which saw the overthrow of the monarchy gained the support of the USSR and the influx of arms. The Suez war of 1956 was launched by Israel in collusion with Britain and France, following the Egyptian nationalisation of the Suez Canal. American opposition ended the British and French presence and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

In April, Shimon Peres and King Hussein signed the London Agreement which embellished the Jordanian option in the form of an international conference, to be attended by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and the main actors in the Middle East conflict. Signed in the presence of Zaid al-Rifai and Yossi Beilin, it represented almost two years of discussion between then Prime Minister Peres and King Hussein.

The establishment of diplomatic relations first with the UAE and then with Bahrain in the Gulf displaced the much-heralded Trump Plan which would have removed numerous obstacles to annexing 30 per cent of the West Bank. The economic part of the Trump Plan envisaged $50 billion for the Palestinian Authority to propel its development, while no mention was made of a two-state solution. The Palestinians rejected both the economic and political aspects of the Trump Plan.

The Black Years of Soviet Jewry culminated in the Doctors’ Plot of January 1953. The press campaign, arrests, imprisonment and general persecution of Soviet Jews since 1948 reached its nadir when senior doctors – the majority of whom were Jewish – were charged with attempting to poison the leaders of the Kremlin. In the USSR, the composer Mieczysław Weinberg and the leading diplomat Ivan Maisky were arrested. Jewish communal leaders in Hungary and East Germany were arrested. Ana Pauker, Romania’s former minister of foreign affairs, was arrested in February.

Under Mikhail Gorbachev, the mass emigration of Soviet Jews began. It accelerated with the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

In 1993, Rabin and Arafat signed the Oslo Accords in a Washington ceremony despite opposition from within both sides. Arafat returned to Gaza while Hussein signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

In 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a member of the far Right, following a peace rally and Shimon Peres succeeded him. However Peres was unexpectedly defeated by the new leader of the Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1996 election.

The election of Netanyahu and the rise of Palestinian Islamism and suicide bombing effectively stalled any progress towards a solution. Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad did not recognise Israel and opposed the Oslo Accords.

The Hebron Accords in 1997 divided streets in Hebron between Palestinian Arabs and Jewish settlers. The Wye Plantation Accord between Netanyahu and Arafat promised a return of 13% of the West Bank to the Palestinians.

Discord in the Likud about the agreement led to an election in 1999 in which Netanyahu was defeated. Labour’s Ehud Barak became prime minister and Sharon became leader of the Likud.

Two factors dominated Israeli politics in an election year – the deep unpopularity of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the pivotal position of Shas, the Mizrahi party, which held the balance of power in the coalition.

Following Arafat’s renunciation of terrorism in Geneva at the end of 1988, accompanied by a discussion about its actual meaning, Robert Pelletreau, the US ambassador in Tunis, was instructed to formally commence a dialogue with local PLO representatives. Arafat simultaneously instructed the Intifada on the West Bank and Gaza to continue. This sparked division both in Israel and within the PLO.