Lemon Tree Leaders

Ahmed Yassin

- Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian imam and politician. He was a founder of Hamas, an Islamist Palestinian paramilitary organization and political party. Yassin also served as the spiritual leader of the organization. -Ahmed Yassin's Palestinian passport listed his date of birth as January 1, 1929, but Palestinian sources listed his birth year as 1937 (other Western media reported it as 1938). He was born in Ashkelon. He was a refugee in Gaza after 1948 and worked as teacher, preacher, and community worker. At age 12, Yassin was paralyzed in a sporting accident and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He was married and raised 11 children in a three-room apartment in Gaza City slum. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood while studying at Cairo's Al-Azhar University and adopted the movement's belief that the rule of Islam should be imposed everywhere. After returning to Gaza, Yassin became actively involved in politics. He founded of the Islamic Centre in Gaza in 1973, which soon controlled all religious institutions. "In 1979, he founded the Islamic Organization," Gil Sedan noted, "a body Israeli military authorities initially hoped would reduce the political influence of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. At the time, the Islamic Organization dealt mostly with welfare. But the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood fueled Yassin's belief that the Israelis occupied an Islamic land whose ownership was not negotiable, and the sheik gradually shifted from social and religious activity to clandestine activities against Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza." Yassin was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to 13 years in jail for illegal possession of arms, the establishment of a military organization and calling for the annihilation of Israel. Yassin acknowledged that he founded an organization of religious activists with the goal of fighting non-religious factions in the territories, and carrying out "Jihad" operations against Israel. This organization used monies from Islamic activists in Jordan to acquire large quantities of weapons. Yassin was imprisoned until May 1985, when he was released in a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the terrorist organization of Ahmed Jibril. During the first intifada in 1987, Sedan notes, "Yassin transformed his Islamic Organization into a new body called Hamas. An acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas means zeal in Arabic. In Hebrew, it means evil." The organization gained popular support in the territory in part because of its uncompromising position toward Israel, expressing in its covenant the conspiracy theories of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and a commitment to wage war against the Jews and "raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine." It also filled a vacuum left by Arafat's failure to provide basic services to the Palestinians in Gaza. By establishing a social welfare system of schools, clinics and hospitals that provide free services to Palestinian families. Hamas also established charitable funds in the territories, Israel, and around the world, which financed both its social and anti-social activities. In 1989, Yassin ordered Hamas to kidnap Israeli soldiers inside Israel, to murder them and bury their bodies in a manner that would allow Hamas to negotiate the exchange of bodies for Hamas prisoners, who would be released from jails in Israel. Yassin was arrested after the abduction and murder of IDF soldier Ilan Sa'adon, and the discovery of the body of IDF soldier Avi Sasports, who was also abducted and murdered. Yassin confirmed during his interrogation that he ordered the establishment of a military element within Hamas and approved the drafting of terrorists, as well as the carrying out of terrorist attacks. He was tried in Israel and received two life sentences for his involvement in these attacks. Yassin was held from May 1989 until October 1997, when he was released in exchange for two Mossad agents following a bungled assassination attempt in 1997 by the Mossad on a Hamas activist in Jordan. Yassin was a leading opponent of the peace process with Israel. He believed that Palestine belongs to Islam and advocated an Islamic state in all of Palestine. Sedan noted that he repeatedly said, "The so-called peace path is not peace and it is not a substitute for jihad and resistance," and insisted that "Palestine" should be "consecrated for future Muslim generations until judgment day" and that no Arab leader had the right to give up any part of its territory." Hamas became the principal instigator of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks beginning in 2000. Although he was not a religious authority, he was referred to as "Sheikh Yassin," because of his status as leader of Hamas. Yassin was sometimes referred to by the media as the "political" leader of Hamas, but he was responsible for authorizing and encouraging many terrorist attacks. On September 6, 2003, the Israeli air force dropped a bomb on a Gaza building where Hamas leaders had gathered, but Yassin escaped with a small wound on his hand. On March 22, 2004, he was not as lucky. He was killed in an Israeli helicopter missile strike on his car as he was leaving a mosque in the northern Gaza Strip.

Ariel Sharon

-Ariel Sharon was an Israeli politician and general who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel until he was incapacitated by a stroke. Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948. -Ariel Sharon was an Israeli military leader and politician who was elected prime minister of the country in 2001, serving until 2006. -Synopsis Born on February 27, 1928, in Kfar Malal, Palestine (now Israel), Ariel Sharon was a key player in Israeli military operations for decades, inspiring debate over the ethics of his tactics. Founder of the Likud Party, Sharon served in Parliament and became minister of defense in 1981, later taking on other posts. He was elected prime minister in 2001 and served until 2006, upon suffering a stroke. After eight years in a coma, Sharon died on January 11, 2014 at the age of 85. -Early Life: One of Israel's most controversial and charismatic leaders, Ariel Sharon was born in a Jewish settlement within British-controlled Palestine in 1928. His parents had immigrated there from Russia, and he became involved in the Zionist movement at an early age. At age 14, Sharon signed up for the Hagana, a local militia charged with guarding Jewish settlements. Sharon attended high school in Tel Aviv. In 1948, he distinguished himself during Israel's War of Independence. Sharon led an infantry company and was wounded in the famed battle for Latrun, a fortress on the road to Jerusalem. After the war, he studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. -Military Leader: In 1953, Sharon created and ran an elite military group known as Unit 101. This special branch of the Israel Defense Forces was charged with launching retaliatory strikes against Palestinian terrorists. But it was soon dissolved after the unit staged an attack that resulted in the death of innocent women and children. During the Arab-Israeli War of 1956, a conflict over the Suez Canal, Sharon commanded a brigade of paratroopers in Sinai. He reportedly got into trouble with his superiors for disregarding orders. The ambitious military leader engaged the Egyptians in battle at the Mitla Pass, resulting in causalities on both sides. Sharon returned to furthering his education after this conflict, eventually earning a law degree. Over the years, Sharon rose within the ranks, becoming a major general by the time of the Six-Day War, in 1967. As the chief of southern command, he handled the Suez Canal area during the War of Attrition in 1969. Sharon also led the operation to squash the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Gaza Strip in 1971. Sharon retired from military service in 1973, and began to work on his political aspirations by helping to found the right-wing Likud Party. Shortly after his retirement, however, he returned to the IDF to defend his country during the Yom Kippur War. On this Jewish holiday, Egyptian and Syrian troops attacked Israel from two sides. Sharon oversaw an armored division during this conflict.

David Ben-Gurion

-David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. -A Zionist statesman and political leader, David Ben-Gurion was the first prime minister and defense minister of Israel. -Synopsis: Born in Poland in 1886, David Ben-Gurion was Israel's first prime minister (1948-53, 1955-63) and defense minister (1948-53; 1955-63). It was Ben-Gurion who, on May 14, 1948, delivered Israel's declaration of independence. His charismatic personality won him the adoration of the masses, and, after his retirement from the government and the Knesset, he was revered as the "Father of the Nation." Ben-Gurion died in Israel in 1973. -Early Years: Originally David Gruen, David Ben-Gurion was born in Plonsk, Russian Empire (now in Poland), on October 16, 1886. He was educated in a Hebrew school founded by his father, an enthusiastic Zionist. Ben-Gurion himself was leading a Zionist youth group by his early teens. When he was 18 years old, Ben-Gurion began teaching in a Jewish school in Warsaw, soon pairing socialism with his Zionism and joined Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion), a socialist/Zionist group. Ben-Gurion's abiding drive to ensure a Jewish homeland took him to the Middle East—specifically Palestine, the "land of Israel"—in 1906, where he helped create a commune for agricultural workers and Hashomer (Watchmen), the Jewish self-defense group. It was at this time that he adopted the ancient Hebrew name Ben-Gurion. Once World War I began, Ben-Gurion was deported by the Ottomans and left the Middle East for New York City, where he met and married Paula Monbesz, a fellow Zionist. -Toward a Jewish State: On November 2, 1917, the British government set forth the Balfour Declaration, promising the Jews a "national home" in Palestine. Upon its release, Ben-Gurion went back to the Middle East and joined the war against the Ottomans for the liberation of Palestine. Once the Ottomans were overthrown, Ben-Gurion called for Jews to immigrate in greater droves to Palestine, thereby creating a foundation upon which to establish a Jewish state. By 1935, Ben-Gurion was chairman of the Zionist Executive—the highest level of oversight in the world Zionism. As the decade wore on and the Jewish movement in the region grew, Arabs became uneasy, and violent clashes resulted. Soon after, the British began siding with the Arabs over the Jews, and restricting Jewish migration to Palestine. Ben-Gurion's reaction was swift, and he urged Jews to stand up against England. World War II would become paramount soon, but during a May 1942 assembly, Ben-Gurion and the gathered body decided that the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine after the war was of utmost importance. After the war, Ben-Gurion continued his rally against the British mandate, and in May 1948, the United Nations General Assembly, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to the creation of the state of Israel. -The Israeli State: In May 1948, Ben-Gurion became Israel's first prime minister and defense minister, and began overseeing the establishment of the state's institutions and infrastructure projects. He also presided over projects working toward the development and population of the new nation. Ben-Gurion established a strong Israeli defense, which would prove resilient to advances by neighboring Arab states that would give him and Israel little rest over his tenure. He briefly retired in 1953, but returned to positions of power in 1955 and led the Israeli government until 1963, when he suddenly retired, citing personal reasons. During his final years of office, Ben-Gurion initiated talks with regional Arab leaders toward establishing peace in the Middle East—though, as history would prove, to no avail. He died in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, on December 1, 1973, at the age of 87.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

-Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt, serving from 1956 until his death. He planned the 1952 overthrow of the monarchy, and was deputy prime minister in the new government. -Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt was born in 1918 and died in 1970. Nasser was a pivotal figure in the recent history of the Middle East and played a highly prominent role in the 1956 Suez Crisis. Nasser has been described as the first leader of an Arab nation who challenged what was perceived as the western dominance of the Middle East. Nasser remains a highly revered figure in both Egypt and the Arab world. Nasser was born in Alexandria in January 1918. At the age of fifteen, he took part in anti-British demonstrations. Those who protested also targeted some in the royal family who it was believed tacitly supported the power Britain still maintained over Egypt by its joint-ownership of the Suez Canal. It was felt by some that the Royal Family was willing to accept this as long as no attempt was made by the British to weaken the family's power within Egypt itself. In 1935, Nasser was wounded in the head by the British during an anti-British demonstration. In 1938, Nasser graduated from the Royal Military Academy and joined the Egyptian Army. Within the army, Nasser continued with his anti-British activities. In 1942, an incident occurred which is said to have been the key turning point in Nasser's activities. In February 1942, the British persuaded/forced the king of Egypt, King Farouq, to accept a government that was to be headed by Nahas Pasha. At this time, Britain's power in North Africa was reaching a peak with the defeat of the Afrika Korps and this power was especially felt in Egypt. Nasser was appalled by what he considered to be the interference in the internal affairs of one country by a colonial European power. For the next seven years, he used his influence to persuade officers in the Egyptian Army that a) such interference was unacceptable and b) that all vestiges of British rule/influence had to be removed from Egypt. During this time, Nasser was stationed as an instructor in the Egyptian Army Staff College. This gave him direct access to young officers who might be more prone to his views when compared to the older officers in the Egyptian Army. Nasser fought in the 1948 war against the newly formed Israel. During this war, Nasser held his first 'proper' meeting with those officers who were willing to support his ideas for Egypt. The defeat of the Arab nations in the 1948 war, gave an added impetus to their anger especially as the Egyptian Army had to fight with faulty weapons which was linked to a supply scandal that implicated some members of the Royal Family. Nasser was clear in his own mind - the Royal family had to go and Egypt needed a new form of government. He believed that the army had to take a lead in this. The defeat in 1948 strongly affected Nasser. On top of the humiliation of losing the war, Nasser was angered by the apparent corruption within certain sections of the Royal Family which it was thought hindered any chance of victory. Nasser decided to basically plot against the king for the sake of Egypt's future. "This led Nasser to believe that it was inevitable that the army should itself take up the national assignment of salvaging the country from corruption." (Bistoni) On July 23rd 1952, Nasser helped to organise a revolt against the Royal Family and King Farouk was overthrown after a few days of bloodless rebellion. The actual figure head for the rebellion was General Neguib. Farouk fled to Italy and Neguib took over control of the nation. Despite his status within the army, Neguib lacked any political skill and he lost the support of the younger army officers - those who were so pro-rebellion. In November 1954, Neguib resigned and retired from public life. As deputy to Neguib, Nasser was the obvious choice to succeed him. This he did on November 17th 1954. Nasser had a very clear vision for modernising Egypt. He identified five targets that he wanted to address: Poverty in Egypt Ignorance in Egypt "National oblivion" Neglect of Egypt's infrastructure No sense of national identity or pride in Egypt. He was also keen to see Egypt free of any overtones of colonialism - a belief that was to bring him into direct conflict with Britain and France in 1956. To support his beliefs, Nasser did what he could to restore national pride to all Arab nations - not just Egypt. The most obvious source of a foreign power being dominant in Egypt was the British/French control of the Suez Canal. Completed in 1869, the canal was designed by Ferdinand de Lesseps. However the vast bulk of the physical labour required to build this engineering marvel was done by Egyptian nationals. Britain had a 40% holding in the company that ran the canal. However, despite the fact that the canal was on Egyptian 'soil', the benefits it brought the people of Egypt were minimal. In 1956, Nasser nationalised the canal - provoking an attack on Egypt by the French and British. This attack was condemned at an international level and the British and French had to withdraw their forces when it became clear that America did not support what they had done. In fact, the American president, Eisenhower, was openly critical of Britain and France. Nasser's stand against two major European powers brought him huge popularity not just in Egypt but also in all Arab nations. After this success, Nasser set about the 'Egyptianisation' of his country. One of the most pressing problems Egypt faced on an annual basis was the flooding of the River Nile which could decimate fertile farming land. Nasser's plan was to build a dam to hold back the mighty waters of the Nile which would also provide Egypt with hydro-electric power. Neither Britain nor France could have been asked to assist in the project. Asking America - who openly supported Israel - was politically impossible for Nasser. Hence he turned to America's Cold War enemy - the Soviet Union. The USSR provided the capital and the engineers for the huge project. Egypt and the USSR were curious bed-fellows. One was a Muslim nation while the other, a communist nation, had banned all forms of religion and had shut down all places of religious worship. However, for Nasser, the Russians provided Egypt with what they needed after the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development had withdrawn its financial support for the project after 1956. For Russia, there was the opportunity to gain a foothold in the Mediterranean Sea - the Black Sea Fleet was 'trapped' in the Black Sea and its movements were easily made known to the Americans. Egypt offered a way around this problem. Nasser also made gains in other areas of domestic policy. Under Neguib, civilian titles as associated with the Royal Family, were banned. Privileges associated with the 'old way' were also banned. Laws were brought in that limited the amount of land someone could own and they also widened the opportunities for land ownership. In 1961, Nasser nationalised a number of corporations so that the wealth that they generated could be used to improve the lifestyle of the Egyptian people. One year later, a decision was announced that Egypt would be run on Arab socialist lines. During Nasser's time in office, the Aswan High Dam was completed. This was a project that generated world-wide attention. However, iron and steel mills, aluminum plants, car and food factories were also built. In total, over 2000 new factories were built in Egypt in Nasser's time. However, Nasser suffered a major blow when Egypt and other Arab nations were beaten by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967. By this year, Egypt was seen as the leading Arab nation and the Arab people looked to Egypt for leadership. For Nasser, the comprehensive defeat by Israel was a serious blow and he offered his resignation. This was rejected by the people who took to the streets in June 1967 to demonstrate their support for Nasser. After the war, Nasser went to great efforts to modernise the Egyptian military and this remained one of his primary aims until his death in September 1970. His death was followed by an outpouring of national grief in Egypt. Nasser was succeeded by Anwar Sadat.

George H. W. Bush

-George Herbert Walker Bush is a retired American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993. -George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st president of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1924 to a prominent New England family. He is the son of Prescott Bush, a United States senator from Connecticut. After distinguished war service and graduation from Yale, he moved to Texas to make his fortune in the oil business. After losing a bid for the Senate in 1964, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1966. He ran again for the Senate in 1970 and was again defeated. He then served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1971-72), chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973-74); chair of the Liaison Office in Beijing (1974-76) and director of the CIA (1976-77). In 1980, he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination and then accepted Ronald Reagan's offer of the GOP vice presidential nomination. He served two terms as vice president (1980-88) and won the presidency in 1988, soundly defeating Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis, a Massachusetts liberal whose wife was Jewish, by carrying 54% of the vote. The Jewish community, however, supported Dukakis by a margin of almost two to one. After reaching pinnacles of popular support for his victory in the 1991 Gulf War, he lost a three-way election in 1988 to William Jefferson Clinton. For many in the Jewish community, Bush's presidency could be encapsulated in his offhand quip to reporters in September 1991 during an AIPAC lobbying effort on Capitol Hill in support of the proposed $10 billion loan guarantee to Israel: "I'm one lonely little guy" up against "some powerful political forces" made up of "a thousand lobbyists on the Hill." The comment triggered a spate of antisemitic letters and comments for which the president later apologized. Bush had opposed the loan guarantees as long as Israel continued settlement in the West Bank and Gaza. The president finally agreed to a loan guarantee package in August 1992, requiring as a set-off any funds Israel spent to build housing or infrastructure in the territories. Despite this action, the political damage was done. The loan guarantee controversy later motivated Jewish opposition to President Bush, who received no more than 12% of the Jewish vote in the 1992 election (down from close to 35% in 1988). While some claimed that Jewish opposition to Bush caused his 1992 defeat, there is little evidence that this was the case. Other actions had caused problems with the Jewish community as well. In March 1990, Bush expressed objection to "new settlements in the West Bank or in East Jerusalem." His reference to eastern Jerusalem and his suggestion that it was not a sovereign part of Israel created a furor and added to strained feelings between Israel and the U.S. Bush's relations with the Jewish community, however, were far more nuanced than the issue of loan guarantees. As vice president, he personally spearheaded Operation Joshua, the 1985 rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, and was involved in every step of the U.S. military's manning and execution of that mission. In 1991, America was a key to the success of Operation Solomon, which brought 14,000 more Ethiopian Jews to Israel. In 1991, the Bush administration succeeded in reversing the infamous U.N. resolution that equated Zionism with racism. In addition, the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War led to a heightening of the military relationship between the two countries. Central to Bush's strategy was keeping Israel from entering the war and thereby placing the U.S. in the role of Israel's protector from an irate Iraq. Patriot anti-missile batteries were sent to Israel to provide protective cover. In the end, Iraq sent missiles towards Israel, and while they caused terror among the population, and isolated property damage, only one person was killed. Israel's responsiveness to U.S. strategy needs led to an intensification of the military relationship. Intelligence sharing, joint exercises, access to military, equipment, and personal relationships among military personnel reached new levels. The Bush Administration financed much of the Arrow anti-missile program and created the concept of prepositioning of U.S. arms in Israel. Bush's perception problem with the Jewish community grew, in large measure, from the views and actions of his Israeli counterpart for much of his term, Prime Minister Yitzhak *Shamir . Shamir's "tough" line on issues related to settlements and to negotiations with the Palestinians would have made his relations with most American presidents delicate at best. Secretary of State James Baker's widely reported statement, "Bleep the Jews; they didn't vote for us anyway," did little to help. One of the major achievements of the George Herbert Walker Bush administration was the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991, which reopened the door to the Middle East peace process and indirectly to the Oslo accords. Bringing all the parties to the table in Madrid was a triumph for Bush's Secretary of State James Baker, who alternatively applied carrots and sticks to cajole the parties to sign on.

Harry Truman

-Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States. As the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. -On April 30, 2010, Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh, winners of the 2009 Washington Institute Book Prize for A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, addressed a special Policy Forum at the Institute. Mrs. Radosh, a former program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and the City University of New York. Mr. Radosh is professor emeritus of history at the City University of New York and an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. During the forum, they discussed the origins of the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the evolution of the Truman administration's policy toward the idea of a Jewish state. The following is a rapporteur's summary of their remarks. Allis Radosh When Harry Truman became president in April 1945, he had not thought deeply about the exact form a Jewish national home in historic Palestine would or should take. Following his landmark decision to recognize the state of Israel in May 1948, he would suggest that his support for such a development had been unwavering, and that his decisions had come easily. Yet the record shows otherwise. Between Truman's first days as president and Israel's formation, his approach to the idea of a Jewish state evolved significantly, at times seeming to change in response to the last person with whom he met. Although he ultimately made the historic decision, a Jewish state had never been, in his mind, a foregone conclusion. The simplistic view of Truman as a conscious hero of the Jewish people -- as someone inherently impelled to do what was morally right -- is easily drawn from Truman's personal and political background. His Baptist upbringing and knowledge of the Bible gave him a sense of appropriateness regarding the Jews' deep roots in the land of Palestine and their desire to return. As a senator, he joined many of his colleagues in protesting the 1939 British "White Paper" restricting Jewish immigration and land sales in Palestine, later joining a Christian Zionist organization called the American Christian Palestine Committee. He was also deeply affected by Adolf Hitler's rise to power and his war against the Jews. Yet the situation that he inherited in Palestine was deeply ambiguous, and while he publicly claimed to support a Jewish "national home," his statements and actions betrayed a growing uncertainty in this regard. The struggle over Truman's policies toward Palestine began just six days after he became president, when Secretary of State Edward Stettinius cautioned him not to make any public statements on the subject until he was fully briefed. Two days later, an American Zionist delegation headed by Rabbi Stephen Wise met with the president, who confided his unwavering support for establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. When Truman returned from the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, however, his resoluteness seemed to have faded. More reserved in his outlook, he preferred to focus on Jewish immigration to Palestine rather than the more problematic issue of the region's long-term future. This focus intensified after he received a report on the terrible conditions that Jewish survivors were enduring in European "Displaced Persons" camps -- relieving the refugees' misery became a more pressing and achievable goal. Truman's growing uncertainty about statehood was also evident in his remarks to Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann in December 1945. He told Weizmann that instead of talking about a Jewish state, he should seek a Palestinian state based on a pluralistic model like the United States, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians would all live together in peace. In April 1946, Truman endorsed the recommendations of the Anglo-American Committee, which supported Jewish immigration but opposed the idea either of a Jewish- or Palestinian-dominated state. When this plan and two subsequent ones failed, Truman accepted reality and embraced partition of Palestine as the only solution. When the UN voted on partition in November 1947, he pulled out all the stops to ensure it received enough votes to pass, heavily lobbying numerous delegates. Remarkably, however, Truman was still conflicted over what to do about Palestine just three months before the British mandate was to expire in May 1948. While the State Department told him that a Jewish state might be contrary to international law, Truman's friend Oscar Ewing seemed to convince him otherwise. An attorney, Ewing emphasized the sovereignty that the Allies had given to the Jews over land taken from the Ottoman Empire after World War I -- in his view, these rights had as much validity as the sovereignty granted to Arab countries. On May 14, 1948, the Jews of Palestine declared the state of Israel, and Truman recognized the new country within minutes of the announcement. The issue of Jewish statehood had finally been laid to rest in his mind.

Jimmy Carter

-James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician, author, and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. -In 1977, Carter brokered two U.S. treaties with Panama; the following year, he presided over a tough round of meetings between Egypt's President Anwar el-Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David. The resulting Camp David Accords ended the state of war between the two nations that had existed since Israel was founded in 1948. Carter also reopened diplomatic relations between the United States and China while breaking ties with Taiwan, and signed a bilateral strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT II) with the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Throughout his presidency, Carter struggled to combat the nation's economic woes, including high unemployment, rising inflation and the effects of an energy crisis that began in the early 1970s. Though he claimed an increase of 8 million jobs and a reduction in the budget deficit by the end of his term, many business leaders as well as the public blamed Carter for the nation's continuing struggles, saying he didn't have a coherent or effective policy to address them. In July 1979, Carter called a special summit with national leaders at Camp David. His televised speech after the meeting diagnosed a "crisis of confidence" occurring in the country, a mood that he later referred to as a "national malaise."

Mahoud Abdas

-Mahmoud Abbas, also known by the kunya Abu Mazen, is the President of the State of Palestine. He has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization since 11 November 2004 and has been Palestinian president since 15 January 2005. -a Palestinian political leader, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and President of the Palestinian National Authority. Abbas (born March 26, 1935), also known as Abu Mazen, was born in Safed on March 26, 1935. He left Palestine for Syria as a refugee from the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 and later worked as an elementary teacher. He gained a BA in law from Damascus University and a Ph.D. from the Oriental College in Moscow in History. The theme of his doctoral dissertation was "The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism". Abbas worked as director of personnel in 's civil service and began to manage and organize Palestinian groups. In the mid-1950's, Abbas becmae active in Palestinian politics, joining secret underground groups in Qatar and in 1961, Yasser Arafat recruited him to join Fatah. In 1968 he joined the Palestine National Council and the PLO Executive Committee. Abbas has headed the PLO Department for National and International Relations since 1980 and was elected by the PLO Executive Committee to replace Abu Jihad (assassinated in April 1988) as chairman of the portfolio on the Occupied Territories in May 1988. He was elected the Committee's secretary general in 1996, informally confirming his position as Yasser Arafat's deputy. Abbas was the first PLO official to visit Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War in January 1993 and "apologized" to the Gulf countries for the PLO's stand during the crisis. During the leadership of Arafat, Abbas was usually considered one of the leading Palestinian figures devoted to the search for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He advocated negotiations with Israel and initiated a dialogue with Jewish and pacifist movements in the 1970's. He led negotiations with Matiyahu Peled that resulted in the announcement of "principles of peace" based on a two-state-solution in January 1977. He also coordinated the negotiation process during the Madrid conference. His long contacts with Israeli leftists won him a reputation as a PLO dove and he headed the Palestinian negotiating team to the secret Oslo talks. It was Abbas who signed the 1993 peace accord with Israel on September 13, 1993, on behalf of PLO. Abbas has been the head of the PLO Negotiating Affairs Department since 1994 and signed the Interim Agreement in September 1995 on behalf of PLO. In September 1995, after 48 years in exile, Abbas returned to the territories and took residences in Gaza and Ramallah. Abbas authored an account on the Oslo negotiations entitled Through Secret Channels: The Road to Oslo (1995). Together with his Israeli counterpart Yossi Beilin, Abbas drafted a controversial "Framework for the Conclusion of a Final Status Agreement Between Israel and the PLO" (better known as Abu-Mazen-Beilin Plan) in October 1995 (although its existence was denied for five years before being published in Sept 2000). He headed (with Uri Savir) the first session of the Israeli-PA final status talks in May 1996. Though thought to be a moderate, Abbas made numerous radical statements, for example, claiming that the Nazis killed "only a few hundred thousand Jews," not six million. In July 2014 Sultan Abu Al-Einein, one of Abbas's top advisors called for the murder of Israelis, stating "All of us are required to teach these settlers a harsh lesson... Let every hour of the settler's presence on our land be a source of threat and terror for them. Let us deprive their lives of security so that the Palestinian land becomes a minefield... the occupation must pay the price... and itself accept condolences for those Israelis killed". Abbas served as head of the Central Election Commission for the Palestine Legislative Council elections in January 1996 when he was elected as a representative for Qalqilya. In March 2003, he was named the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, but never was given full authority as Arafat insisted that all decision be cleared with him. More important, Arafat maintained control over several security services, which further undermined Abbas's authority. When Abbas explicitly refused to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in the PA, as required by the road map, the peace process faltered. During his tenure as Prime Minister of the PA, Abbas was popular in the United States and with many Israelis, but never had the support of more than a tiny fraction of the Palestinian people. Though considered in the Arab world as the brains behind the PLO, he lacked Arafat's charisma and was considered by many Palestinians too conciliatory toward Israel. He resigned as Prime Minister in frustration on September 6, 2003, after just four months in office and was replaced by Ahmed Korei. Following the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian Authority on January 9, 2005, with 62% of the vote. In his victory speech, he called on Palestinian terror groups to end the use of violence against Israel, however he has rarely taken any concrete actions to see this to fruition. One year later, Abbas announced that he would not seek reelection at the end of his four year term, telling the Palestinian media: "I will just complete my remaining three years in office, I will not run again. That is absolute." In May 2006, Abbas travelled to the White House and met with US President George W. Bush who, in return for Abbas' supposed crackdown on terrorism, pledged $50 million in aid to the PA and reiterated the US desire for a free Palestinian state. In June 2007, mere months after forming a unity government with Hamas and installing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as PA Prime Minister, Abbas declared a state of emergency, dissolved the government, and installed Salam Fayyad in Haniyeh's place. In response, Hamas began a brutal seige of Fatah positions in Gaza, forcefully overtaking the group and declared themselves as rulers in the small enclave. Haniyeh continued to operate as Prime Minister in Gaza. In March 2008, Abbas suspended ongoing peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and later that year pledged to resign from his post if the current round of peace talks had not yielded an agreement in principle "within six months." In January 2009, Abba's term as President officially ended, however he extended the term another year by stating that the Palestinian Basic Law gave him the right to do so. In an interview with Egyptian television on Wednesday October 15, Abbas stated that he would not compete for another term as Palestinian Authority President if elections were held soon. After the stress caused by Operation Protective Edge he said that he would appreciate a rest from political life.

Menachem Benin

-Menachem Begin was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. -Menachem Begin was prime minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983. He was the co-recipient of the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. -Synopsis: Menachem Begin was born on August 16, 1913, in Brest-Litovsk, Poland (now Russia). He was prime minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983 and the co-recipient, with Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat, of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Peace. Begin mounted an invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to oust the Palestine Liberation Organization. Civilian deaths during this conflict turned world opinion against Israel. Begin resigned office in 1983. He died in 1992. -Early Life: One of the most recognizable Israeli prime ministers, Menachem Wolfovitch Begin was born in Brest-Litovsk, Poland (no Russia), on August 16, 1913, although it was then part of czarist Russia. During the two world wars, official rule of the region was often in a state of flux. Begin was the youngest of three children born to Hassia and Ze'ev Dov Begin, a timber merchant and devoted Zionist. The boy's early schooling in the movement impelled him to make his first speech at age 10. As a teenager he joined the Zionist Revisionists' youth movement, Betar, becoming the organization's head by 25, after earning a law degree from the University of Warsaw. During World War II, he fled Warsaw, obtaining a visa to go to Palestine. But he gave it to a friend whom he thought would have more difficulty. His wife, Aliza, carried on to Palestine, but Begin was arrested by the Russians and sent to a Siberian labor camp for being a Zionist and perhaps a spy. He was released in 1941 via an agreement between the Soviet Union and the Polish government-in-exile, which freed 1.5 million Poles. His father had been killed by the Nazis, but Begin was able to locate his sister, and from there joined the Free Polish Army, which took him to Palestine. Once there, he was conscripted by the British army as an interpreter, having learned English listening to the BBC radio broadcasts. But after 1943, he became commander of the Irgun underground, determined to establish a Jewish homeland on both sides of the Jordan River. -Political Life: The militant group's goal was to gain their independence, often purchasing weapons and explosives from the Arabs. This led British authorities to put a $50,000 bounty on the "grim-faced, bespectacled Menachem Begin['s]" head. After Israel was established in 1948, Begin transformed his group into the Freedom (Herut) Party, which mostly held last place in Parliamentary elections. But by the 1956 war with Egypt, Begin's party was in second place. By 1967, Begin joined the National Unity government and in 1970 became joint chairman of the "Unity" (Likud) coalition. When the Likud Party won a national election in May 1977, Begin formed a government. Begin was adamant about retaining occupied territories and in 1975 balked at U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's "telling us to trade territory for legitimacy." Although he began his prime ministry with a militant stance, Begin learned to compromise, including appointing opponents like Moshe Dayan to his Cabinet. In time, he did give up the Sinai Peninsula and other Jewish settlements in return for peace with Egypt, making a distinction between territories within biblical Israel and those outside it, such as Sinai. Begin is perhaps best known for negotiating a Middle East peace with Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat, in the Camp David Accords brokered by President Jimmy Carter. The terms of the treaty, signed on March 26, 1979, included Israel gaining full diplomatic recognition in return for ceding the Sinai Peninsula, which it had occupied since the 1967 war, to Egypt. For this, Begin and Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize for 1978. After the 1981 general election, Begin formed another coalition government. His territorial surrender had nothing to do, however, with his firm belief that the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was out of the question. An invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, ostensibly to break the military power of the Palestine Liberation Organization there, led to the deaths of numerous Palestinian civilians. In addition, the underlying motive of his defense minister, Ariel Sharon, was to install a right-wing pro-Israeli regime in Beirut. This turned world opinion against Israel. That, and the death of his wife in November of that year when he was on a diplomatic trip to Washington, D.C., were likely factors in Begin stepping down in October 1983. -Death and Legacy: Menachem Begin had long been suffering from diabetes and heart disease. In addition, severe depression after his wife's death and guilt over the Lebanon events led him to live quietly after leaving public office, rarely leaving his Tel Aviv apartment except to visit his wife's grave. He suffered a massive heart attack on March 3, 1992, from which he could not recover, dying on March 9. He was survived by a son, two daughters and eight grandchildren. Begin wrote two books during his life: The Revolt, about the struggle against the British from 1944 to 1948, and White Nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia. In 2005, he was ranked fourth in an Israeli news poll to determine the 200 greatest Israelis.

Yasser Arafat

-Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa, popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian leader. Yasser Arafat was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 until his death in 2004, a tumultuous period in which clashes with neighboring Israel were prevalent. -Born in Cairo in 1929, Yasser Arafat was named chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization 40 years later. From this post, he was at the forefront of years of violence, border disputes and the Palestinian liberation movement, all centering on neighboring Israel. Arafat signed a self-governing pact with Israel in 1991, at the Madrid Conference, and together with Israeli leaders made several attempts at lasting peace soon after, notably through the Oslo Accords (1993) and the Camp David Summit of 2000. Stemming from the Oslo Accords, Arafat and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize, but the terms were never implemented. Arafat ceded his PLO chairman post in 2003, and died in Paris in 2004. In November 2013, Swiss researchers released a report containing evidence suggesting that his death was the result of poisoning. -Early Years: Born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1929, Yasser Arafat was sent to live with his mother's brother in Jerusalem when his mother died in 1933. After spending four years in Jerusalem, Arafat returned to Cairo to be with his father, with whom Arafat never had close ties. (Arafat did not attend his father's 1952 funeral.) In Cairo, while still a teenager, Arafat began smuggling weapons to Palestine to be used against the Jews and British, the latter of which had an administrative role in the Palestinian lands. Playing a part that he would inhabit his entire life, Arafat left the University of Faud I (later Cairo University) to fight against the Jews during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which resulted in the establishment of the state of Israel when the Jews prevailed. -Fatah: In 1958, Arafat and some associates founded Al-Fatah, an underground network that advocated armed resistance against Israel. By the mid-1960s, the group had congealed enough that Arafat left Kuwait, becoming a full-time revolutionary and staging raids into Israel. The year 1964 was seminal for Arafat, marking the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which brought together a number of groups working toward a free Palestinian state. Three years later, the Six-Day War erupted, with Israel once again pitted against the Arab states. Once again, Israel prevailed, and in the aftermath Arafat's Fatah gained control of the PLO when he became the chairman of the PLO executive committee in 1969. -The PLO Moving operations to Jordan, Arafat continued to develop the PLO. Eventually expelled by King Hussein, however, Arafat moved the PLO to Lebanon, and PLO-driven bombings, shootings and assassinations against Israel and its concerns were commonplace events, both locally and regionally, notably with the 1972 murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. The PLO was driven out of Lebanon in the early 1980s, and Arafat soon after launched the intifada ("tremor") protest movement against Israel occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The intifada was marked by continual violence in the streets with Israeli retaliation. -Peace on the Horizon? The year 1988 marked a change for Arafat and the PLO, when Arafat gave a speech at the United Nations declaring that all involved parties could live together in peace. The resulting peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993, which allowed for Palestinian self-rule and elections in the Palestinian territory (in which Arafat was elected president). (Around this time, in 1990, Arafat, at 61 years of age, married a 27-year-old Palestinian Christian, remaining married until his dying day.) In 1994, Arafat and Israel's Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin all received the Nobel Prize for Peace, and the following year they signed a new agreement, Oslo II, which laid the foundation for a string of peace treaties between the PLO and Israeli, including the Hebron Protocol (1997), the Wye River Memorandum (1998), the Camp David Accords (2000) and the "roadmap for peace" (2002). -Later Years: Regardless of treaties and the best-laid plans between the two parties, peace was always elusive, and, after issuing a second intifada in 2000 and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Arafat was confined by Israel to his headquarters in Ramallah. In October 2004, Arafat fell ill with flulike symptoms and, his situation worsening, was transported to Paris, France, for medical treatment. He died there the following month, on November 11. In the years since his death, conspiracy theories regarding the true cause of Arafat's demise have abounded, many holding Israel responsible. In November 2013, researchers in Switzerland released a report revealing that tests conducted on Arafat's remains and some of his belongings support the theory that the late Egyptian leader was poisoned. Evidence from the report suggests that radioactive polonium—a highly toxic substance—had been used. Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat's widow, supported the findings in media interviews as proof of Arafat's murder. Other authorities, including a Russian medical investigation team called to the case, have maintained that they believe Arafat died of natural causes.

Anwar El Sadat

-Muhammad Anwar El Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981. -Anwar el-Sadat was the one-time president of Egypt (1970-1981) who shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for establishing peace agreements with Israel. -Born on December 25, 1918, in Mit Ab al-Kawm, Egypt, Anwar el-Sadat served in the military before helping to overthrow his country's monarchy in the early 1950s. He served as vice president before becoming president in 1970. Though his country faced internal economic instability, Sadat would later earn the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for entering into peace agreements with Israel. He was assassinated soon after, on October 6, 1981, in Cairo, Egypt, by Muslim extremists. -Early Years: Born into a family of 13 children on December 25, 1918, in Mit Ab al-Kawm, Al-Minufiyyah governorate, Egypt, Anwar el-Sadat grew up in an Egypt under British control. In 1936, the British created a military school in Egypt, and Sadat was among the first of its students. When he graduated from the academy, Sadat received a government post, where he met Gamal Abdel Nasser, who would one day rule Egypt. The pair bonded and formed a revolutionary group designed to overthrow British rule and expel the British from Egypt. -Imprisonment and Coups: Before the group could succeed, the British arrested and jailed Sadat (1942), but he escaped two years later. In 1946, Sadat was again arrested, this time after being implicated in the assassination of pro-British minister Amin ?Uthman. Imprisoned until 1948, when he was acquitted, upon release Sadat joined Nasser's Free Officers organization and was involved in the group's armed uprising against the Egyptian monarchy in 1952. Four years later, he supported Nasser's rise to the presidency. -Presidential Policies: Anwar el-Sadat held several high offices in Nasser's administration, eventually becoming vice president of Egypt (1964-1966, 1969-1970). Nasser died on September 28, 1970, and Sadat became acting president, winning the position for good in a nationwide vote on October 15, 1970. Sadat immediately set about separating himself from Nasser in both domestic and foreign policies. Domestically, he initiated the open-door policy known as infitah (Arabic for "opening"), an economic program designed to attract foreign trade and investment. While the idea was progressive, the move created high inflation and a large gap between the rich and poor, thereby fostering unease and contributing to the food riots of January 1977. Where Sadat really made an impact was on foreign policy, as he began peace talks with Egypt's longtime foe Israel almost immediately. Initially, Israel refused Sadat's terms (which proposed that peace could come if Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula), and Sadat and Syria built a military coalition to retake the territory (1973). This action ignited the October (Yom Kippur) War, from which Sadat emerged with added respect in the Arab community. -The Real Road to Peace: A few years after the Yom Kippur War, Sadat restarted his efforts to build peace in the Middle East, traveling to Jerusalem in November 1977 and presenting his peace plan to the Israeli parliament. Thus began a series of diplomatic efforts, with Sadat making overtures to Israel in the face of strong Arab resistance across the region. U.S. President Jimmy Carter brokered the negotiations between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and a preliminary peace agreement, the Camp David Accords, was agreed upon between Egypt and Israel in September 1978. For their historic efforts, Sadat and Begin were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1978, and follow-through on the negotiations resulted in a finalized peace treaty between Egypt and Israel—the first between Israel and an Arab country—being signed on March 26, 1979. Unfortunately, Sadat's popularity abroad was matched by a new animosity felt toward him in Egypt and around the Arab world. Opposition to the treaty, a declining Egyptian economy and Sadat's quashing of the resulting dissent led to general upheaval. On October 6, 1981, Armed Forces Day, Anwar el-Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists during a military parade commemorating the Yom Kippur War in Cairo, Egypt.

Ronald Reagan

-Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. Before his presidency he served as the 33rd Governor of California; before that he was a nationally known film and television actor. -In foreign affairs, Ronald Reagan's first term in office was marked by a massive buildup of U.S. weapons and troops, as well as an escalation of the Cold War (1946-1991) with the Soviet Union, which the president dubbed "the evil empire." Key to his administration's foreign policy initiatives was the Reagan Doctrine, under which America provided aid to anticommunist movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 1983, Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a plan to develop space-based weapons to protect America from attacks by Soviet nuclear missiles. Also on the foreign affairs front, Reagan sent 800 U.S. Marines to Lebanon as part of an international peacekeeping force after Israel invaded that nation in June 1982. In October 1983, suicide bombers attacked the Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. That same month, Reagan ordered U.S. forces to lead an invasion of Grenada, an island in the Caribbean, after Marxist rebels overthrew the government. In addition to the problems in Lebanon and Grenada, the Reagan administration had to deal with an ongoing contentious relationship between the United States and Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi (1942-). During his second term, Reagan forged a diplomatic relationship with the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-), who became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985. In 1987, the Americans and Soviets signed a historic agreement to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. That same year, Reagan spoke at Germany's Berlin Wall, a symbol of communism, and famously challenged Gorbachev to tear it down. Twenty-nine months later, Gorbachev allowed the people of Berlin to dismantle the wall. After leaving the White House, Reagan returned to Germany in September 1990—just weeks before Germany was officially reunified-and took several symbolic swings with a hammer at a remaining chunk of the wall. 1984 REELECTION AND IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR In November 1984, Ronald Reagan was reelected in a landslide, defeating Walter Mondale and his running mate Geraldine Ferraro (1935-), the first female vice-presidential candidate from a major U.S. political party. Reagan, who announced it was "morning again in America," carried 49 out of 50 states in the election and received 525 out of 538 electoral votes, the largest number ever won by an American presidential candidate. -What was the 1982 Reagan Plan? Ronald Reagan was the first President to see Israel as a valuable ally in the Cold War. Reagan once wrote Only by full appreciation of the critical role the State of Israel plays in our strategic calculus can we build the foundation for thwarting Moscow's designs on territories and resources vital to our security and our national well-being. The Israelis cultivated Washington's perception of their capability to deter the Soviet Union, while the Arab states refused to join the "strategic consensus" that Alexander Haig tried to create to oppose Soviet expansionism in the region. By mid-1982, Reagan Administration attempts to align Arab Middle Eastern states with the US and blunt potential Soviet moves in the region were faltering. The Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan gave the ideas some credibility, but Arab leaders were not motivated to respond to the American initiatives. Arab Governments were reluctant to become identified with American political objectives, but there was progress toward military cooperation since this directly benefited the Arab states. The series of clashes along the Israel-Lebanon border, followed by Israels invasion of Lebanon in June of 1982, turned the attention of the Reagan Administration toward the Israel-Arab conflict. In June 1982 the Secretary of State, Alexander Haig — a leading advocate of close relations with Israel — resigned. The stage was thereby set for an experiment by a section in the State Department, supported by the incoming Secretary of State, George Shultz, and the National Security Adviser, William Clark that favored a pro-Arab tilt and a top priority effort to find a negotiated settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Influenced by the State Department's Bureau of East Affairs, under the leadership of Assistant Secretary of State Veliotes, they argued that there was a major opportunity for a breakthrough to peace. Jordan was believed ready to enter negotiations, possibly with the permission or, they hoped, even with the PLO's participation. Ambassador Philip Habib assured Shultz that Syria was ready to negotiate its withdrawal from Lebanon. Unfortunately for peace, all these assertions were proved erroneous during 1983. The Reagan plan approach grew out of the belief that the US must show progress towards solving the Arab-Israeli issue — or, at least, make energetic attempts in that direction — to retain US influence in the Arab world. The policy was meant to show the Arabs that America was trying to respond to their grievances. There was also an important domestic political component or Reagan. In a speech delivered on September 1, 1982 President Reagan outlined a proposed solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict. He labelled his position as the "next step" in the process that was begun with the Camp David Accords to pave the way for autonomy for the Palestinian people. He spoke of ""the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and their just requirements." He proposed a five-year transition period for "the peaceful and orderly transfer of domestic authority from Israel to the Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza" and a freeze on new Israeli settlements during that time. Self-government by the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza would be in association with Jordan and not a separate state. Jerusalem would remain undivided, its final status to be decided through negotiations. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the PLO's Arafat had been consulted in preparation of the plan, but Israel had not been notified by the Reagan Administration until right before the speech. In fact, the American Secretary of State had met with Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban a few days before and concealed the imminent announcement from him. Although Labor leader Peres expressed support for the plan, Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the Likud opposed it. Begin reacted very negatively, calling the plan "national suicide for Israel". In September Begin wrote to Ronald Reagan: What some call the 'West Bank,' Mr. President, is Judea and Samaria, and this simple historic truth will never change. There are cynics who deride history. They may continue their derision as they wish, but I will stand by the truth. And the truth is that millennia ago there was a Jewish Kingdom of Judea and Samaria where our kings knelt to God, where our prophets brought forth the vision of eternal peace, where we developed a rather rich civilization which we took with us in our hearts and in our minds, on our long global trek for over 18 centuries; and, with it, we came back home. By aggressive war, by invasion, King Abdullah conquered parts of Judea and Samaria in 1948; and in a war of most legitimate self-defense in 1967, after being attacked by King Hussein, we liberated, with God's help, that portion of our homeland. Geography and history have ordained that Judea and Samaria be mountainous country and that two-thirds of our population dwell in the coastal plain dominated by those mountains. From them you can hit every city, every town, each township and village and, last but not least, our principal airport in the plain below. Mr. President, you and I chose for the last two years to call our countries 'friends and allies.' Such being the case, a friend does not weaken a friend, an ally does not put his ally in jeopardy. This would be the inevitable consequence were the 'positions' [Begin refers here to the Reagan Plan which called on Israel to withdraw to the 1967 lines] transmitted to me on August 31, 1982, to become reality. I believe they won't. 'For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest.'(Isaiah 62). The Reagan Plan was finally rejected by Jordan and the PLO in April 1983 — a development that discouraged Washington about prospects for settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the reliability of Arab "moderates". Consequently, the US-Israel alliance was strengthened, recovering from the blows it had suffered during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and Syria was again identified as the prime obstacle to regional stability.

Shimon Peres

-Shimon Peres is a Polish-born Israeli statesman. He was the ninth President of Israel from 2007 to 2014. -President of Israel Shimon Peres was also twice prime minister of Israel and won a Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the Oslo Accords with Rabin and Arafat. -Synopsis Shimon Peres was born on August 2, 1923 (some sources say August 16, 1923), in Wieniawa, Poland (now Vishniev, Belarus). In 1997, he became acting prime minister when Yitzhak Rabin stepped down. Peres was elected the Prime Minister of Israel under it National Unity Government in 1984. In 1994 he co-won a Nobel Peace prize for negotiating the Oslo Accords with Rabin and Arafat. He was elected president of Israel in 2007. -Shimon Peres, original name Shimon Perski (born August 16?, 1923, Wołożyn, Poland [now Valozhyn, Belarus]; see Researcher's Note), Polish-born Israeli statesman, who served as both prime minister (1984-86 and 1995-96) and president (2007-14) of Israel and as leader of the Israel Labour Party (1977-92, 1995-97, and 2003-05). In 1993, in his role as Israeli foreign minister, Peres helped negotiate a peace accord with Yāsir ʿArafāt, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), for which they, along with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994. Peres immigrated with his family to Palestine in 1934. In 1947 he joined the Haganah movement, a Zionist military organization, under the direction of David Ben-Gurion, who soon became his political mentor. When Israel achieved independence in May 1948, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion appointed Peres, then only 24 years old, head of Israel's navy. In 1952 he was appointed deputy director-general of the Ministry of Defense, and he later served as director-general (1953-59) and deputy defense minister (1959-65), during which service he stepped up state weapons production, initiated a nuclear research program, and established overseas military alliances, most notably with France. Peres resigned in 1965 to join Ben-Gurion in founding a new party, Rafi, in opposition to the succeeding prime minister, Levi Eshkol. The Rafi Party was unsuccessful, and in 1967 Peres initiated merger negotiations between the Mapai (Ben-Gurion's former party) and the Ahdut Avodah, a more leftist workers' party, which led to the establishment of the Israel Labour Party, of which he became deputy secretary-general. He became defense minister in the Labour cabinet of Rabin in 1974. In 1977 Peres became head of the Labour Party and, as such, was twice defeated (1977, 1981) by Menachem Begin of the Likud party as a candidate for prime minister before winning access to the post after the indecisive elections of 1984. In September 1984 Peres and Yitzhak Shamir, head of Likud, formed a power-sharing agreement, with Peres as prime minister for the first half of a 50-month term and Shamir as deputy prime minister and foreign minister; the roles were reversed for the second 25-month period. Under Peres's moderate and conciliatory leadership, Israel withdrew its forces in 1985 from their controversial incursion into Lebanon. After similarly indecisive elections in 1988, the Labour and Likud parties formed another coalition government, with Peres as finance minister and Shamir as prime minister; this coalition lasted only until 1990, when Likud was able to form a government without Labour support. In February 1992, in the first primary election ever held by a major Israeli party, Peres lost the Labour leadership to Rabin. When Labour won in the general elections in June and Rabin became prime minister of Israel in July, Peres was brought into the cabinet as foreign minister. After the Israel-PLO accord was signed in 1993, Peres handled the negotiations with the PLO over the details of the pact's implementation. Following the assassination of Rabin in 1995, Peres took over as prime minister. In May 1996 he was narrowly defeated in his bid for reelection by Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud. Peres declined to seek reelection as leader of the Labour Party in 1997 but stayed active in politics, serving as foreign minister (2001-02), deputy prime minister (2001-02), and vice prime minister (2005) in the national unity government led by Likud's Ariel Sharon. In 2003 Peres resumed the chair of the Labour Party but was unexpectedly defeated in the party's leadership election in November 2005. A few weeks later he left the Labour Party to join the centrist party Kadima. From 2007 to 2014 Peres served as president of Israel, a largely ceremonial post. In 2012 he was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. His memoir, Battling for Peace, was published in 1995.

Bill Clinton

-William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. -The 2000 Camp David Summit was a summit meeting at Camp David between United States president Bill Clinton, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. The summit took place between 11 and 25 July 2000 and was an effort to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The summit ended without an agreement. -In 1993 Israel and the PLO held secret meetings in Oslo, Norway. It was the first time Israeli officials had ever met with the PLO leadership face-to-face. During these talks, a framework was created for future meetings between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Arrangements were made for a sequenced withdrawal of the Israeli military from the occupied territories as well as the creation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The PNA would be the political administrator of the territories after the Israeli withdrawal. In September 1993 officials on both sides announced that they had been in contact with one another, and they shared details about their meetings. Reaction on both sides was mixed. At this point, the accords had not yet been formally ratified. On September 10, 1993, President Bill Clinton announced that the Oslo Accords would be formalized in a ceremony on the White House lawn three days later. Warren Christopher, the Secretary of State in the Clinton administration, had been instrumental in keeping the Oslo talks on track. Many speculated about who would represent Israel and the PLO at the signing ceremony. Clinton personally tried to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to attend. He felt that the image of old foes Rabin and Arafat making peace would be of incalculable worth to the peace process. Clinton encouraged the two former adversaries to shake hands. While Arafat was willing, Rabin was initially reluctant. In his memoir, My Life, Clinton recalled how Rabin finally agreed to shake hands, saying, "I suppose that one does not make peace with one's friends." -At the end of his second term, President Clinton attempted to resurrect the peace talks. One of the conditions of the Oslo Accords was that agreement on all outstanding issues should be reached within five years. This agreement would be the penultimate step to Palestinian autonomy in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. While a number of contentious issues remained, perhaps the most significant issue concerned the status of Jerusalem. The Palestinians wanted control of East Jerusalem, home to several sites considered holy by both Jews and Muslims. Israel was willing to grant Palestinians custody of some holy sites, but wanted to maintain sovereignty over Jerusalem. Despite days of presidential cajoling and arm bending, the 2000 Camp David Summit was inconclusive. President Clinton, for his part, assigned much of the blame to Yasser Arafat. He felt that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had made a reasonable offer. Barak endorsed the idea of East Jerusalem serving as the capital of the Palestinian territories, though he still balked at the suggestion of Israel turning over sovereignty of any part of Jerusalem. Arafat did not respond to Barak's proposal—he simply walked away. The fact that the Second Intifada began shortly after the 2000 Camp David Summit broke down suggested to some observers that Arafat and the PLO were no longer interested in making peace—they were simply hoping to extract concessions from the Israeli government. Several months later, Clinton departed office. Despite his best efforts, the Israelis and Palestinians had not achieved peace. At one of their last meetings, Yasser Arafat complimented Clinton, telling him that he was a great man. Clinton replied, "I am not a great man. I am a failure, and you have made me one."

Yitzhak Rabin

-Yitzhak Rabin was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974-77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995. Rabin was raised in a Labor Zionist household. -Yitzhak Rabin was a Nobel Peace Prize-winning political leader who served as prime minister of Israel during the mid-1970s and mid-'90s. Yitzhak Rabin - An Israeli Tragedy (TV-14; 04:38) While attending a peace rally in November 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist. -Synopsis: Born on March 1, 1922, in Jerusalem, Israel, Yitzhak Rabin served as Israel's military chief of staff before becoming the country's first native-born prime minister in 1974. He reclaimed the post in the 1992 elections, and then became known for his historical peace negotiations with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Rabin was killed by an extremist on November 4, 1995, in Tel Aviv. -Background and Early Career: Future Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was born on March 1, 1922, in Jerusalem, Israel. He had ambitions of becoming an agronomist and was a lauded student at Kadourie Agricultural School, but instead joined the Palmach, a Jewish underground commando unit, during World War II. Though allied with the British during the war, Rabin was captured and imprisoned for several months during the mid-1940s for activities against British interests. He later fought in the Arab-Israeli War (1948-49) and was a representative at the Israeli-Egyptian armistice talks at Rhodes. In the summer of 1948, Rabin wed Leah Schlossberg; the couple would have two children. -Military Leader: During the 1950s, Rabin ascended Israel's military ladder and also attended the British Staff College. By 1964, he had become chief of staff of the army. Though he suffered from a breakdown due to a forceful admonishment from David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, Rabin had shaped and organized the country's military to win the Six Day War of 1968, taking over Arab territories. He retired from the army later that year to become ambassador to the United States, often conferring with Henry Kissinger. -Becomes Prime Minister: Rabin entered domestic politics and became part of his country's Labor Party, which won re-election in December 1973 after the Yom Kippur War. Rabin had been appointed minister of labor, but that changed when Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned after only a month. Rabin was charged with forming a new government and became prime minister of the country in June 1974. At the age of 52, he was the youngest person and the first native-born Israeli to hold the position. Rabin endured a turbulent time in office that included an oil embargo, a plane hijacking by terrorists, post-war economic challenges and strained dialogue with Kissinger. In 1977, Rabin was forced to resign from his position due to him and his wife having a U.S. bank account, which violated Israeli currency statutes. (The laws were done away with shortly after Rabin stepped down.) In 1979, the politician published his autobiography, The Rabin Memoirs. -Historic Peace Agreements By the mid-1980s, Rabin had returned to political leadership as minister of defense of a Labor-Likud coalition, working with Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Rabin succeeded in reclaiming party leadership and regained the post of prime minister once Labor won the June 1992 elections. In 1993, Rabin negotiated the Israel-PLO accords with Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, with the aim of sanctioning Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories and the hope of ending conflict between the two groups. In October 1994, Rabin also signed a peace treaty with King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan following secret negotiations. In December of that year, Rabin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Arafat and Peres, who was serving as Israel's foreign minister at the time. On November 4, 1995, after speaking at a Tel Aviv peace rally, Rabin was gunned down and killed by Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student and right-wing extremist. Leah Rabin posthumously published the book Rabin: Our Life, His Legacy in 1997.