22 August 1999: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urges Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat to accept Wye changes. Arafat meets DFLP leader N’ayef Hawatmeh to heal six-year rift.
22/8: UN estimates death toll in Turkish quake could reach 40,000.
23/8: Agreement reached on opening safe passage route between Gaza and Hebron Hills by 1 October.
23/8: Another 10,000 Palestinian workers allowed into Israel.
24/8: Big gaps in talks on Palestinian prisoner releases.
24/8: Fugitive teen murderer Samuel Sheinbein admits guilt in plea bargain.
25/8: Israel, PA agree on Wye pullbacks starting in October.
25/8: Hamas rejects talks with PA over accepting Oslo.
25/8: Israeli High Court approves another Shabbat turbine transport.
26/8: Burger King-USA withdraws franchise rights at outlet in Ma’aleh Adumim.
26/8: Shas and United Torah Judaism threaten to leave coalition over turbine moves.
27/8: Meimad’s Michael Melchior brokers deal on turbine move to avert coalition crisis.
28/8: Report says Iran to try thirteen Jews as Zionist spies.
28/8: Israel-PA meeting moves parties closer to Wye timetable.
29/8: Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak ultimatum to PA – agree to modified Wye “within hours” or face implementation “to the letter.”
30/8: Police discover two murdered Haifa students in Megiddo forest.
30/8: Jordan raids Hamas offices in Amman.
31/8: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urges start of final-status talks within days.
31/8: One hundred thousand local government workers go on strike.
1 September, 1999: Israel, PA blame each other for Wye impasse over prisoner releases.
1/9: Hamas claims responsibility for unsolved Megiddo forest murders.
1/9: IDF orders northern towns into shelters fearing Hizb’Allah attacks.
2/9: Albright arrives in Egypt to deadlock in Wye talks.
2/9: Ariel Sharon elected Likud leader.
2/9: Police identify Israeli Arab as Megiddo forest murderer.
2/9: Tons of garbage piles up in streets as municipal strike enters third day.
3/9: Israel, PA reach breakthrough in rewriting Wye accords.
4/9: Barak and Arafat sign modified Wye agreement at Sharm e-Sheik.
4/9: East Timor votes for independence
4/9: Syria tells Albright no peace talks without pledge to return all of Golan.
5/9: Twin car bombs rock Tiberias and Haifa, killing three terrorists.
5/9: Cabinet approves Sharm e-Sheik by 21-2 vote.
5/9: UTJ leaves coalition over turbine moves on Sabbath.
6/9: Israeli security identifies carbombers as Israeli Arabs.
6/9: High Court rewrites law on interrogation techniques.
6/9: Mubarak lightly wounded by Egyptian attacker.
7/9: Cabinet approves budget, no cuts in education and child allowances.
7/9: Health Ministry worries about health risks as garbage strike continues.
7/9: Greece hit by major earthquake.
8/9: Knesset ratifies Sharm e-Sheik Memorandum by 54-23 vote.
8/9: Shas issues Barak ultimatum to pay teachers’ salaries.
9/9: Israel implements first stage of Sharm, releases 199 Palestinian prisoners.
9/9: IDF imposes closure on PA areas for Rosh Hashana as more terrorist attacks feared.
9/9: Garbage strike ends, but not in time for cleanup before Shabbat.
10/9: IDF begins pullback from seven percent of Judea/Samaria.
11/9: Indonesian forces continue rampage in East Timor.
12/9: Arafat urges reconciliation with Iraq at Arab League summit in Cairo, vows no compromise on “right of return.”
12/9: Top brass say defense budget cuts could hinder IDF’s modernization plans.
13/9: Final-status talks launched at Erez junction.
13/9: Latest terrorist bomb in Moscow kills 73.
13/9: Israel Foreign Ministry asks American Jews to fight Arab boycott of Disney over Jerusalem exhibit.
14/9: Former Shas head and convicted felon Aryeh Deri welcomed back from US vacation.
14/9: Barak assures Ma’aleh Adumim residents they will stay part of Israel.
15/9: Settlers erect outposts in defiance of YESHA council.
15/9: Former PM Binyamin Netanyahu and wife questioned 8 hours on allegations of corruption.
15/9: Vatican envoy first to confirm Pope John Paul II to visit Israel in March 2000.
16/9: Barak hosts Arafat at home for late night one-on-one meeting.
17/9: Barak offers weak apology to Foreign Minister David Levy for no notice on secret rendezvous with Arafat.
17/9: Palestinians demand “right of return” at refugee conference in Ramallah.
17/9: Disney announces Jerusalem exhibit will open, evades questions on effect of Arab boycott.
18/9: Syria’s Foreign Minister Farouk Shara tells French president Jacques Chirac Syrian, Lebanese tracks must proceed together.
18/9: Pope John Paul and King Abdullah II of Jordan discuss papal visit next year.
19/9: Israel, Jewish Diaspora mark high holy day of Yom Kippur at sunset.
20/9: UN General Assembly opens session on Yom Kippur, despite Jewish requests for one-day delay.
20/9: Australian peacekeepers land in East Timor.
21/9: Powerful earthquake rocks Taiwan, death toll hits 2000.
21/9: Barak first world leader received in restored German capital of Berlin, calls visit “symbolic.”
21/9: Israeli security urges crackdown on Islamic Movement in Israel.
21/9: Arafat satisfied with Israel’s implementation of Sharm Memorandum.
22/9: Barak visits German concentration camp; discusses Syrian impasse with Chirac in Paris.
22/9: Albright and Shara make little headway in talks at UN.
22/9: Barak to Jerusalem Post: “Better to make peace with Arab old guard; Arafat understands he will not get all of West Bank.”
22/9: Jordan detains top 3 Hamas leaders on return from Iran.
23/9: Arafat pushes refugee return in UN speech; meets Clinton at White House.
23/9: Barak, Clinton still courting Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad to renew talks.
23/9: Assad sends Syrian troops to quell rebellion by loyalists to his exiled brother Rifa’at.
24/9: Succot holiday begins at sundown; security alert high.
24/9: Shas demanding teachers’ salaries before holiday begins.
25/9: Extensive looting in Dili, East Timor despite arrival of peacekeepers.
25/9: Barak first prime minister no-show in 20 years at Christian Embassy Succot celebration.
26/9: Barak urges closer monitoring of Islamic Movement in Israel.
26/9: Shas reaches deal with government over school debts that avoids a coalition walkout.
27/9: Hizb’Allah ambush kills high-ranking SLA officer, wounds five.
27/9: Shas Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef anoints new party leader Eli Yishai at Jerusalem rally.
28/9: Annual
Jerusalem March draws thousands to capital.
28/9: Albright says
Iran will not execute 13 Jews on trial for spying.
29/9: Hizb’Allah
kills SLA soldier, wounds two in attack; Barak renews pledge to withdraw from
Lebanon by July 2000.
29/9: Clinton summons
Shara to White House in failed bid to restart Syria/Israel talks.
29/9: Palestinian UN
observer Nasser Kidwa walks out during FM Levy’s speech.
30/9: Israeli
officials doubtful “southern” safe passage route will open on time.
30/9: Barak confirms
he is mulling decision over return of DFLP terrorist leader Nayef Hawatmeh.
30/9: Japan hit by
radiation leak.
1 October, 1999:
China marks fifty years of communist dictatorship.
1/10: Israeli
officials hit US Congress to lobby for Wye aid package.
1/10: Israeli Arab
leaders continue to blast government focus on Islamic Movement in Israel.
2/10:
Israel celebrates Simchat Torah.
3/10:
Safe passage route fails to open on time due to security differences.
3/10:
Far-right Freedom Party scores big gains in Austrian elections.
3/10:
PA says US State Department to drop DFLP from terrorist list.
3/10: Lake Kinneret
drops below “red line” due to drought.
4/10: Shara undergoes
emergency heart surgery in Beirut.
4/10: Israel, PA
reach new terms on safe passage route.
5/10: Israel and PA
sign new safe passage agreement: PA Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo says Barak making
“crazy decisions.”
5/10: Religious
parties vow to fight plans for Negev casino.
5/10: Hizb’Allah
launches heavy mortar and Katyusha attack in security zone.
6/10: Israeli Cabinet
loosens criteria for Palestinian prisoner releases to include Hamas, Islamic
Jihad, post-Oslo terrorists: terror victims’ families ask President Ezer
Weizman to intervene.
6/10: FM Levy warns
of cutting ties to Austria if Freedom Party sits in coalition.
6/10: Tel Aviv court
convicts Israeli man of raping Linor Abergil, current Miss World.
7/10: Israeli court
rules disputed plot in Nazareth is not Waqf property.
7/10: Arab paper says
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is sending letter of peace to Clinton by hand of
Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
8/10: Israel delays
prisoner releases after PA rejects list of names.
9/10: Season’s
first rains cause bus accident that kills 17, injures 37 in Galilee.
9/10: Hebron Jews
heckle Jordanian delegation at Cave of Machpela.
9/10: PA welcomes the
loosening of criteria for prisoner release.
9/10:
Austrian Chancellor Victor Kilma assures Barak Freedom Party will not be in
coalition.
10/10:
Cabinet committee lacks consensus on fate of YESHA “outposts,” decision now
up to Barak.
10/10: IDF preparing
contingency plans for pullout in Lebanon.
10/10: London’s
Sunday Telegraph reports Cuban Jews making aliyah.
11/10: Barak warns of
renewed wave of terror attacks as Oslo process advances.
11/10: Greek
officials call for security partnership after Israel gives earthquake
assistance.
12/10: Barak to order
dismantling of 15 YESHA encampments.
12/10: Army in
control after coup in Pakistan; concern over who controls nukes.
12/10: PA security
chief says Iran is encouraging Islamic terrorists to carry out attacks against
Israel.
13/10: Barak reduces
“outpost” hit list from 15 to 12 in deal with YESHA council.
13/10: Israeli
security sources fear talk of Lebanon pullback is hurting SLA morale.
14/10: Israel, PA
agree to list of prisoners to be released under Sharm accord.
15/10: Israel
releases 151 prisoners to meet Sharm commitment.
15/10: Israel mourns
death of Dr. Josef Burg, leading figure of religious Zionism, at age ninety.
15/10: Hitler’s
bunker unearthed in Berlin.
16/10: PA denounces
Barak’s compromise with settlers over encampments.
16/10: Nazareth Mayor
Ramez Jeraise beaten by Islamic extremists in attack linked to property dispute
at Basilica of the Annunciation.
17/10: Thousands of
settlers demonstrate outside PM’s residence in Jerusalem.
17/10: Prince Hassan
calls for warmer peace between Israel and Jordan in the next five years.
18/10: Former South
African President Nelson Mandela arrives in Israel after visit to Iran.
18/10: Clinton vetoes
foreign aid bill, in part for lack of Wye aid.
18/10: Nativ director
tells Knesset Committee 240,000 Russian Jews expected by 2003.
19/10: Voluntary
evacuations of encampments in YESHA begins.
19/10: Vatican opens
part of its Holocaust archives.
20/10: Israeli police
raid Netanyahu home, office for gifts; press tipped off.
20/10: Settlers erect
synagogue at Moan farm outpost in Hebron Hills.
20/10: Levy accuses
Egypt of trying to “sabotage” peace talks with other Arab countries.
20/10: Mandela tells
PA gathering in Gaza violence is okay as a last resort.
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