A Historic Look at the Middle East

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A Historic Look at the Middle East A Study Guide to this vital Region Presentation of sources by author Frank Nic. Bazsika ©2011 Middle East Map 1

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A historic look at several thousand years of this vital region soon to affect every person on this earth.

Transcript of A Historic Look at the Middle East

Page 1: A Historic Look at the Middle East

A Historic Look at the Middle East A Study Guide to this vital Region Presentation of sources by author Frank Nic. Bazsika ©2011

Middle East Map

Presentation of the regions history;-

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TIME PERIOD: Introduction

"For about two thousand years the name Palestine has been used internationally for the lands on both sides of the Jordan River... The name Palestine will here be used...to refer to

the area from southern Syria (the Beqa Valley) to Egypt and the Sinai, and from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Desert.

The Greek historian Herodotus called Cisjordan [the land west of the Jordan River] the Palestinian Syria or sometimes only Palaestina. Thus, there is a tradition from at least the

fifth century B.C. for the use of this name...

Another well-known name for Palestine, which is the most common one in the Bible, is Canaan. The earliest known reference to this name, read as 'Canaanites', is in a letter from [the kingdom of] Mari (on the Euphrates) [see 700 mile radius map] to Iasmah-Adad from

the eighteenth century B.C... The letter does not give any information about the territory of these Canaanites... In many Egyptian texts Canaan refers to southern Syria and

Palestine...

The Sinai Peninsula is not part of Palestine, but because of its geographical location between Egypt proper and Palestine it has a place in a history of Palestine."

Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 56-66, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

TIME PERIOD: 3200 - 1850 BCE

"It was the destiny of the Holy Land, situated at

the south-west end of the Fertile Crescent, to be a bridge between the two cradles of civilization, Mesopotamia (Babylonia-Assyria) and Egypt, at its extremities [see 700 mile radius]. It lay astride the principal land routes

between the great powers of antiquity...

Two international caravan routes bisected the country. One was the Via Maris, 'Way of the Sea', running from Egypt along the coastal plain up to the Phoenician coast, with inland

branches from the Plain of Sharon, the Jezreel Valley through the Lebanese Beqa', or the oasis of Damascus to Mesopotamia.

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The other, the 'King's Way', cut right across the desert to Kadesh-barnea or to the Arava and ran through the Transjordan plateau and Damascus to Mesopotamia."

Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200 - 332 BCE)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, 2001

"Evidence of Egyptian involvement in the affairs of Palestine and Syria during the 1st and 2nd Dynasties [3080 - 2687 BCE] is unmistakable. In the surviving fragments of annals from the reigns of the immediate successors of Menes [1st ruler of unified Egypt], one

often encounters an entry such as 'smiting the Asiatics,' or 'first occasion of smiting the east,' as an identifying event by which to designate a year."

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"The Egyptians could, and frequently did, resort to naked force in gaining their ends in Palestine...The few surviving texts from the Old Kingdom [3rd-6th Dynasties 2688 - 2191

B.C.] that deal with the subject do not equivocate. The most common verb used is 'to smite,' referring to mortal combat. The enemy are 'slaughtered,' 'put to flight,' or 'cowed,'

and the survivors brought off to Egypt as prisoners."Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"In place of the semi-industrialized society of Early Bronze III [2688 - 2191 B.C.], which could indulge in international trade, naught is left but rustic pastoralism in which

stockbreeding looms large at the expense of agriculture...The increase of nonurban, transhumant economy in post-Early Bronze III Palestine could be put down in large

measure to the depredations of the Egyptian armed forces."Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"Following the impoverished Middle Bronze I [2200 - 1950 BCE], with its sparse population of elusive transhumants, there comes the birth of a new cultural phase, which is not descended from Middle Bronze I. Middle Bronze IIA [1950 - 1750 BCE] represents the

introduction into the Levant of a culture with contacts with the north [Amorite states]."Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

TIME PERIOD: 1850 - 1500 BCE

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"By the mid-nineteenth century Amorite communities were in the ascendancy...Hazor dominated southern Syria and northern Palestine from its optimum position in the Upper

Jordan Valley...

One gains the distinct impression that by the end of MBIIA [Middle Bronze 2A c.1750 B.C.] Palestine and southern Syria had been irrevocably drawn into the ambit of the warring Amorite states of the north and east, and hence obliged to adopt a more hostile stance

toward Egypt."Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"Around 1650 an Asiatic military leader and his group seized power at Avaris [Egypt]... This is the beginning of the Hyksos rule first over the [Egyptian] Delta and then extending

south, making also Thebes a vassal to the ruler at Avaris [see 700 mile radius]."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, 1993

"Whether anything more than a sphere of interest should be postulated beyond the Sinai for the Hyksos dynasty is difficult to say at present…The Hazor regime [Amorites] would

have maintained its powerful position through most, if not all, the Hyksos period…We can only assume Hazor's continued hegemony would have blocked Hyksos attempts to

expand their control northward [into Palestine]."Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"Unfortunately no cache of texts has been unearthed to date that could shed light on the Political history and demographic shifts of the second half of the sixteenth century, and

one has the sinking feeling in approaching this period that a most significant page is missing in the record... The gap in our written sources is doubly maddening in view of the upheaval attested in the archaeological record. Nearly every major town in Palestine and

southern Syria is found, upon excavation, to have undergone a violent destruction

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sometime after the close of Middle Bronze IIC [1600 - 1550 BCE] -- that is, the cultural phase roughly contemporary with the last stage in the Hyksos occupation of Egypt."

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"The expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt marks the end of the Middle Bronze Age. With the emergence of the Mitanni kingdom as well as the growing power of the Egyptian

Eighteenth Dynasty, a new era began in the history of Syria-Palestine."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, 1993

TIME PERIOD: 1500 - 1200 BCE

"Egypt's chief rival in the struggle for hegemony over Syria at this time was the country of the Mitanni, in north-west Mesopotamia. The contest between the two powers was only decided in 1490 B.C. when [Egyptian ruler] Thutmose III (1504 - 1452 BCE) defeated a

confederation of kings of 'Huru' (Canaan and Syria), allies of Mitanni, at Megiddo... Canaan and Syria became a province of the Kingdom of the Nile."

Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 BCE)," The History of Israel and the Holy Land, 2001

"The immediate aftermath of the Egyptian conquest involved the intentional demolition of Canaanite towns and the deportation of a sizable segment of the population. Thutmose III [1504 - 1452 BCE] carried off in excess of 7,300, while his son Amenophis II [1454 - 1419

BCE] uprooted by his own account 89,600."Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"Ever since the great deportations of Thutmose III and Amenophis II, the northern empire and Palestine especially had suffered a weakening brought on by under population. Not

only did the 'apiru banditry now take advantage of the vacuum in the highlands, but nomads from Transjordan [land east of the Jordan river] also began to move north into

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Galilee and Syria and west across the Negeb to Gaza, Ashkelon, and the highway linking Egypt with Palestine."

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"The 'apiru and the nomads (Shasu) are the people that the Egyptians, according to the inscriptions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties, met in Palestine. These are

therefore the ancestors of many of the 'tribes' of the central hill country that we later meet in the biblical narratives about the period of the so-called Judges."

Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, 1993

"In the sixty-year period, from about 1320 to 1260 B.C., the Shasu are chronicled as continuing to foment trouble in their native habitat of the steppe, and as pressing

westward through the Negeb toward major towns along the Via Maris. It is not, in my opinion, an unrelated phenomenon that a generation later under Merneptah [1237-1226] an

entity called 'Israel' with all the character of a Shasu enclave makes its appearance probably in the Ephraimitic highlands."

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"No one can prove (or disprove, for that matter) that the tribal federation 'Israel' originated on Palestinian soil. No one can prove that the major components of that federation had always existed on Palestinian soil. All that is known for certain is that, some time during

the fourth quarter of the thirteenth century B.C., Egypt knew of a group, or political entity, called 'Israel' and occupying part of the land of the land of Canaan; but whether the group had recently arrived or taken shape is not stated in our sources. That the Hebrew language

is closely related to the West Semitic dialect (s) that we subsume under the catchall 'Canaanite' is a fact; but then, it is equally closely related to the dialects of Transjordan as

well."Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

"After 1200 B.C. when the Sea Peoples overwhelmed the coast, and 'Israel' is firmly attested, the Canaanites as a political force were dead. And so, effectually, was the

Egyptian empire of the New Kingdom." Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, 1992

TIME PERIOD: 1200 - 1020 BCE

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"After the Sea Peoples stormed the Levant around 1200 B.C., a catastrophe which is still not clear in many of its details, all traditions were extinguished for a long time. For Palestine we are thrown back almost exclusively on the historical books of the Old

Testament, which provide only incomplete information on the newly immigrated Israelite tribes and their more cultured opponents in the land."

Wolfram von Soden, The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East, p. 55, William B. Eardmans Publishing Co, 1994

"With the collapse of the sociopolitical system during the upheavals at the end of the Late Bronze period [c. 1200 B.C.], including the fall of the Egyptian empire with its control over Palestine and the trade routes, several nomadic clans changed their lifestyle and settled in

the hills."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 350, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The Shasu settlement in the Palestinian highlands, or nascent Israel as we should undoubtedly call it, and whatever related group had begun to coalesce in the Judaean hills

to the south, led a life of such rustic simplicity at the outset that it has scarcely left an imprint on the archaeological record... After the close of the thirteenth century B.C. they

began to develop village life... Artifacts from cultural assemblages show a continuum throughout the thirteenth and twelfth centuries."

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 298, Princeton University Press, 1992

"There...emerges a delineation of the boundaries and extent of Israelite settlement. Its principal strength was in the sparsely peopled hill regions. The parts that the Israelites

could not subdue...encompassed most of the fertile valleys and still left a number of enclaves in Israelite territory... The territorial division of the country in this period had four

principal centers of Israelite settlement, cut off from one another by areas inhabited by hostile populations. These were: Galilee, the central mountain region, the Judaean Hills

and the Negev, and Transjordan."

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Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 56, G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House Ltd., 2001

"The Philistine menace put Israelite survival into constant jeopardy at the time of the judges. The Philistines were one of the 'Peoples of the Sea' which had invaded the Fertile Crescent from the north, along the coast of Anatolia, and descended through Syria and

Canaan all the way to Egypt...In addition to them, a people called the Tjeker or Tjekel, but belonging to the same 'Peoples of the Sea', settled along the coast of Dor in the northern

Sharon."Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)," A History of Israel and the

Holy Land, p. 67, G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House Ltd., 2001

"Along the southern coast, from Gaza to Mount Carmel, enclaves of the Philistines and Teukrians (now partly Semitized) maintained a firm hold of the broad coastal plains and, as the Egyptians had done before them, exercised a tentative but preemptive influence

over the inland mountains. In response to the Philistine presence, Israel and Judah in the uplands were moving toward the creation of a state."

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 298, Princeton University Press, 1992

TIME PERIOD: 1020 - 923 BCE

"The Hebrew-Philistine rivalry for the possession of the land provided the occasion for the creation of the Hebrew monarchy... Saul's anointment (c. 1020 B.C.) as the first king was

tantamount to a challenge to Philistine suzerainty."Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 96, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"With most of Transjordan and the central hills of Cisjordan [land west of the Jordan river] north of the Jebusite city state of Jerusalem under his control, Saul had created a territorial state that the greater Palestinian region had never seen before. Saul can

therefore be regarded as the first state-builder in Palestine."

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Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 449, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The real founder of the monarchy was David (c. 1004 - 960 B.C.)... David inaugurated a series of campaigns which lifted the Philistine yoke from Hebrew necks, brought Edom,

Moab and Ammon under his rule and what is more amazing, netted him Aramaean Hollow Syria [Aram]... His conquest of Edom brought under his control the great trade route

between Syria and Arabia."Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 187, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951

"Palestine was not a country that encouraged the creation of larger political unites... David's kingdom represents an exception, a parenthesis in the history of the ancient Near East. The achievements of David were possible because there was a power vacuum at this

time. The Hittite kingdom went out of existence around 1200 B.C. Egypt's rule over Palestine ended sometime in the mid-twelfth century B.C. and was itself split into two

kingdoms... Their 'successors' in Palestine, the Philistines, had filled the power gap for a short time, until David put an end to their political and economic hegemony... David's

kingdom, was, however, short-lived. It dissolved naturally when Solomon died."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 487-488, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 298, Princeton University Press, 1992

TIME PERIOD: 923 - 732 BCE

"Upon Solomon's death at about 923 B.C., the

united monarchy split into a northern kingdom, Israel, based on ten tribes and having Shechem (near the modern village of al-

Balatah) as its capitol [and later Samaria c. 880], and a southern one, Judah, based on the remaining two tribes and using Jerusalem as capital."

Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 97, 99, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"The little southern state [Judah] was more or less limited to the tribal portions of Judah, Simean and Benjamin, with some possessions in Edom in the east and along the coastal

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plain in the west. In the north there was the kingdom of Israel, with Shechem as its fist capital, larger than Judah both in population and in size. Encompassing the portions of a

majority of the tribes and the most fertile parts of the country, including the Sharon, it retained Moab, and apparently Ammon as well, as vassal-states."

Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 81, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc. 2001

"The two tiny kingdoms fell into the complex political and belligerent developments of the general area and became rivals, at times enemies. Repeated uprisings and mounting

intrigues in both states contributed to their final undoing. Israel experienced nine dynastic changes, involving nineteen kings, in its two-century existence. The throne of Judah was

occupied by twenty kings, but the southern kingdom out lived the northern by about a century and a third. The way was paved for their final destruction one by Assyria and the

other by Neo-Babylonia."Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 97, 99, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

TIME PERIOD: 732 - 609 BCE

Background: "The year 745 B.C. marks one of those major turning points in history the significance of which is often lost on layman and scholar alike…For it was in 745 that a

civil war in Assyria unseated the royal family and catapulted a general named 'Pul' known to history as

Tiglath-pileser III, to the throne of the empire. This usurper proved to be an organizational genius and a master strategist, worthy of comparison with Hannibal or Scipio. By

relentless campaigning and indiscriminate use of mass deportation, he encompassed the destruction of Damascus and Israel and by 732 B.C."

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 340-341, Princeton University Press, 1992

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"Tiglath-pileser III aimed at nothing less than the liquidation of all states in the Levant to the border of Egypt... He descended upon Phoenicia in the spring of 734 B.C., capturing Sumur, Arka, and Byblos, and forcing Tyre to pay tribute and suffer partial deportation. Accho was assaulted and reduced to ashes, the territory of Naphtali annexed, and the

Assyrians were able to march clean through Philistia."Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 340-341, Princeton University

Press, 1992

"The political situation was stable for almost a decade after 732 B.C., and Tiglath-pileser never had to return to this area. However, when he died in 727 and was followed by

Shalmaneser V, some vassals rebelled as usual, and it is possible that Hosea of Israel did the same…This brought about the subjugation of the country. Most of the cities were

'probably overrun and destroyed quickly' during the early part of Shalmaneser's campaign (724 B.C.), and the king, Hosea, was taken prisoner. After a three year siege the capital of Samaria was finally taken (722 B.C.)… The nation Israel ceased to exist. Its territory was

incorporated within Assyria as a province under the name of Samerina."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 669-670, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The [brief] Assyrian conquest of Egypt [mid-7th century B.C.] was made possible largely through the support of the Arabs. The trade routes from Arabia and Transjordan through

the Negev to the Philistine coast and to Egypt were under the control of Arab rulers...

The conquest of Egypt can be labeled the beginning of the end of the Assyrian Empire. With this victory Assyria had reached its limits. It had over extended itself...The end of the seventh century B.C. saw the rapid fading away of the Assyrian power structure and the

attempts of the Egyptians to fill the vacuum."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 747-748, 763, Sheffield Academic Press,

1993

TIME PERIOD: 609 - 605 BCE

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"In 609 B.C. Pharaoh Necho tried to march through Palestine, to help the survivors of the Assyrian empire to defend themselves, in their last stronghold on the Euphrates, against

the newly rising empire of Babylon under Nabopolassar. Necho hoped to prevent the emergence of a Babylonian power in Mesopotamia and at the same time to achieve

suzerainty over Syria and Palestine... All that lay west of the Euphrates was now ruled by Egypt."

Hanoch Reviv, "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)" The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 101, the Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The picture quickly changed, however...Nebuchadrezzar, was given command over the Babylonian forces in the west. Necho and his forces were completely defeated at

Carchemish, and those who managed to escape were pursued and killed in the territory of Hamath...

The battle at Carchemish, like the fall of Nineveh, changed the political picture of the Near East. A new imperial ruler had emerged: Babylonia."

Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 760, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

TIME PERIOD: 605 - 538 BCE

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"Nebrchadrezzar terminated the Egyptian supremacy over Palestine after the battle at Carchemish in 605 B.C.... In the following year Nebuchadrezzar, who in September of 605 had succeeded his father on the throne, marched with his army through Syria-Palestine (Hatti) down to the Philistine coast without any military opposition. It is easy to imagine

the fear and shattered illusions of the petty rulers of Syria-Palestine in the aftermath of the battle at Carchemish. With the Egyptian army destroyed, they had no other choice than to

accept Babylon's rule."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 781, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"Nebuchadrezzar's strategy is chillingly clear; he was intent upon wholly neutralizing and reducing the Philistine plain and the coastal highway to Egypt by utter destruction and depopulation. Gaza fell we may be sure, and shortly an exiled community of Gazaeans

turns up in Babylonia. Philistia was barren, its kings and population in exile: the road lay open to Egypt.

The affect of these overwhelming victories and the 'Babylonian fury' on Judah can easily be imagined. Nebuchadrezzar had not yet turned his attention to the hinterland - his

overall strategy demanded reduction of the Via Maris and a direct attack on Egypt - by Jehoiakim [King of Judah] could not doubt that sooner or later the Babylonian siege

engines would be dragged eastward up into the mountains toward Jerusalem."

Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, p. 456, Princeton University Press, 1992

"In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, in the course of a series of wars of conquest, captured Jerusalem, destroyed the kingdom of Judah and the Jewish Temple,

and, in accordance with the custom of the time, sent the conquered people into captivity in Babylonia."

Bernard Lewis, the Middle East, p. 27, Scribner, 1995

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"With the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, the kingdom of Judah went out of existence. The land was devastated, and several of the leading classes of the population

were killed either in the war or after the capture of Jerusalem."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 798, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The greater Palestinian area during the period of 582-539 B.C. is poorly documented. Babylonian inscriptions do not provide much insight. The Palestinian material is either fragmentary, such as that provided by archaeological remains, or it presents a religio-politically tendentious picture, such as that contained in the biblical books of Ezra and

Nehemiah and 2 Chron. 36.17-23...The history of this country in the period after Nebuchadrezzar's campaigns and until the Persian takeover comprises a dark age."

Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 804, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The end of that rule [Babylonian] came in 538 B.C., when a new people farther east, the Persians, rose under Cyrus and attacked their neighbor Babylon...The blow fell on

Babylon in 539 B.C. but the citadel and royal palace held out until March 538. Thereupon the whole Babylonian empire, including Syria-Palestine, acknowledged the new Persian

rule."Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 217-218, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951

TIME PERIOD: 508 - 534 BCE

"When Cyrus had taken Babylon he declared

himself its new king. He proclaimed himself the protector of the peoples of the kingdom and announced freedom for the

prisoners. After this he gave an order that the gods that had been taken to Babylon as prisoner or those Babylonian gods that Nabuna'id had taken there should be returned to their home cities. Their temples should be restored. Together with the gods, their people

were also allowed to return to their countries."Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 815, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

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"The administrative organization of the empire into satrapies (provinces) started under Cyrus…What is of interest here is the fifth satrapy, Babylonia-Abr Nahara. Palestine was

part of this satrapy, which included Mesopotamia and the Babylonian holdings west of the Euphrates. Cyprus was also included in this satrapy…The Persian king often appointed as satraps a member of the country's royal family or some high official well acquainted with the administration and laws of the former nation. The king could also appoint a special

commissioner or 'sub-governor' for a certain district, something that happened for Judah. Zerubbabel is an example, and so are Ezra and Nehemiah."

Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 821, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The leader of the restored Jews was Zerubbabel, a descendant of King Jehoiachin. Zerubbabel brought back the Temple treasures looted by Nebuchadnezzar and became for

a time the recognized governor of the restored community. After many difficulties the rebuilding of the Temple was completed about 515 B.C. under [Persian King] Darius."

Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 222, Macmillan & Co. LTD., 1951

"Increased Arab presence, especially in the southern parts of the country, can be discerned in Palestine in the later Persian period. It should be remembered that Arabs in

Palestine were nothing new... Nevertheless, the great influx of Arabs into Transjordan and southern Palestine belongs rather to the so-called Hellenistic period. When the Persian

Empire collapsed, the Nabateans of Transjordan and other Arab tribes had the opportunity to expand, and the Nabateans did so, replacing the Edomites."

Gosta W. Ahlstrom, the History of Ancient Palestine, p. 904, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

"The remaining years of the Persian Empire were marked by a series of court intrigues and the murders of two puppet kings followed by that of the murderer, leaving Darius III on the throne in 336, the same year that his eventual conqueror, Alexander, came to the throne of

Macedonia."Andrew Duncan, War in the Holy Land, p. 25, Sutton Publishing Limited, 1998

TIME PERIOD: 334 - 140 BCE

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"In the spring of 334 B.C. a twenty-one-year-old Macedonian, at the head of some 30,000 foot and 5000 horse...routed the Persian satrap near the mouth of the Granicus

River...setting off a chain reaction destined to change the course of Near Eastern history. Western Asia and Egypt were ushered into the European sphere of political and cultural

influence -- Macedonian, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine -- and there remained until the rise of Islam a thousand years later."

Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History p.113, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"The decisive battle was at Issus (333 B.C.) [see map 700 mile radius], where after the victorious Greeks occupied Damascus, the Persian headquarters west of the Euphrat.

Alexander was, it is true, held up for several months by the obstinate resistance of Tyre, but the pause only gave local rulers an opportunity to pay homage to the conqueror.

Among them were the Jewish High Priest, Juddua, and Sanballat, leader of the Samaritans. Alexander does not seem himself to have visited the inland cities, legends to

the contrary notwithstanding.

After the capitulation of Tyre, and after it had overcome the briefer resistance of Gaza, the Macedonian army advanced directly on Egypt. It returned the following spring on its way

to Mesopotamia, where the Persians were finally vanquished. Within two, years, power had changed hands completely."

Michael Avi-Yonah, "The Second Temple (332 B.C. - 70 A.D.)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 116-117, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"After Alexander's death, his generals divided -- and subsequently fought over -- his empire. In 301 B.C., Ptolemy I took direct control of the Jewish homeland but made no serious efforts to intervene in its religious affairs. Ptolemy's successors were in turn

supplanted by the Seleucids [c.200 B.C.], and in 175 B.C. Antiochus IV seized power. He launched a campaign to crush Judaism, and in 167 B.C. he sacked the [Jewish] Temple.

The violation of the Second Temple, which had been built about 520-515 B.C., provoked a successful Jewish rebellion under the generalship of Judas (Judah) Maccabaeus."

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Country Studies Handbook, Israel, Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Helen Chapin Metz, Editor, 1988

TIME PERIOD: 140 - 63 BCE

"In Judas of the priestly Hasmonaean family, the

Jews found a hero-rebel who, with his brothers, succeeded in capturing Jerusalem and cleansing the temple. Judas was

surnamed Maccabeus, which probably means 'the hammerer,' in allusion to the telling blows he inflicted on the Syrian army. In 164 the Jewish community attained religious

freedom and in 140 political independence. Under the Maccabean dynasty of priest-kings, the realm expanded and lasted until the advent of the Romans about eighty years later."

Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 121, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

"Alexander Jannaeus (Jonathan)...in the course of his long reign (130-76 B.C.), he realized the almost complete unification of the Holy Land for the first time since King David, an achievement for which he had to battle practically without interruption. In a series of

expeditions directed north-west, north-east, south-west and south-east, the Jewish State was extended to encompass the Carmel and its coast, the Jordan Valley up to the sources

at Dan and Paneas, and nearly the whole of the Transjordan mountains, excepting Rabbath-Ammon.

In order to extinguish Nabataean economic competition, Jannaeus occupied the eastern banks of the Dead Sea, making it a domestic -- and very valuable -- lake of Judaea; he took

Gaza and the lands as far as the River of Egypt (Wadi el-Arish)."Michael Avi-Yonah, "The Second Temple (332 B.C. - 70 A.D.)," A History of Israel and the Holy

Land, p. 140, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The intrusion of Arabian tribes into Syria and Palestine reduced the Seleucid empire to a local state in north Syria...From their multicolored rock-hewn capital-fortress Petra, these

Arabians extended their sway as far north as Damascus."Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 122, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

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"After the death of Jannaeus in 76 his widow Alexandra reigned until 67 when her two sons fought each other until the Romans under Pompey intervened."

Andrew Duncan, War in the Holy Land, p. 35, Sutton Publishing Limited, 1998

TIME PERIOD: 63 BCE - 330 CE

"Under the reign of the Hasmoneans the Jewish state was largely composed of Jews. But in 63 B.C. when Pompey came to Jerusalem he began to reverse this process. He allowed the Jews to rule the south and Galilee, but non-Jews ruled the rest of the kingdom...Julius Caesar was Pompey's rival, and when Pompey was killed in 48 B.C. Caesar prepared new

territorial arrangements. He left Antipater, an Idumean, as administrator of the Jewish state...But Caesar's new arrangements did not last for long. He was assassinated on the

Ides of March 44 B.C...In Rome the Senate proclaimed Herod King of Judea."John Wilkinson, "Jerusalem Under Rome and Byzantium 63-637 A.D.," Jerusalem in History, p.

78, Olive Branch Press, 2000

"Herod was confirmed by the Roman Senate as king of Judah in 37 B.C. and reigned until his death in 4 B.C. Nominally independent, Judah was actually in bondage to Rome, and the land was formally annexed in 6 B.C. as part of the province of Syria Palestina. Rome did, however, grant the Jews religious autonomy and some judicial and legislative rights

through the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin, which traces its origins to a council of elders established under Persian rule (333 B.C. to 165 B.C.) was the highest Jewish legal and

religious body under Rome."Country Studies Handbook, Israel, Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Helen Chapin

Metz, Editor, 1988

"In 70 A.D., the Romans captured Jerusalem and destroyed the second Temple, which had been built [1515 B.C.] by the exiles returning from Babylon. Even this did not end Jewish

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resistance. After the revolt of Bar-Kokhba in 135 A.D., the Romans...like the Babylonians before them, sent a large part of the Jewish population into captivity and exile...Even the historic nomenclature of the Jews was to be obliterated. Jerusalem was renamed Aelia

Capitolina, and a temple to Jupiter built on the site of the destroyed Jewish Temple. The names Judea and Samaria were abolished, and the country renamed Palestine, after the

long-forgotten Philistines."Bernard Lewis, The Middle East, p. 31, Scribner, 1995

"The process of urbanization which had begun in the Hellenistic period went on under Herod and the Romans, until, by the end of the second century, practically the whole

coastal region, and almost all of the central mountain ridge of the lands east of the Jordan, had been transformed into municipal areas. Only, Upper Galilee, the Golan, Bashan and Hauran, in which there was a preponderance of Jews, proved intractable and resistant to

city culture."Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy

Land, p. 175, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The Jews gave up their attempts to throw off the Roman yoke, while the Roman government acknowledged Judaism as a religio licita, its communities enjoying the right to certain exemptions (from military service, for example) and being allowed to exist as

juridical entities, to own property, to have their own courts (disguised as tribunals of arbitration), to levy taxes and so on. But, despite these concessions, on two points there

was no giving way: the Romans still declined to permit Jews to live in Jerusalem, although restrictions on visits were relaxed, and proselytizing was frowned upon. Within this

loosely outlined nexus of official relations, normative Judaism could go on developing."Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy

Land, p. 176, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The last century of Roman rule in Palestine was marked, as elsewhere in the Roman world, by a political and economic crisis which shook Roman society to its

foundations...The crisis in that empire was settled by the energetic measures of Diocletian, a rough soldier who put an end to civil wars and reorganized the

administration...Diocletian was the last emperor to see in Christianity an enemy of Rome."

Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 178 - 179, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

TIME PERIOD: 330 - 636 CE

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"Emperor Constantine (ca. 280-337) shifted his capital from Rome to Constantinople in 330 and made Christianity the official religion. With Constantine's conversion to Christianity, a new era of prosperity came to Palestine, which attracted a flood of pilgrims from all over

the empire."Country Studies Handbook, Israel, Library of Congress Federal Research Division, Helen Chapin

Metz, Editor, 1988

"Constantine's policy was the same as Hadrian's towards the Jews. They were not allowed to live in Jerusalem, but they made pilgrimage to the western wall of the Temple, and once

a year on 'The ninth of Ab' they were allowed into the Temple site to lament its destruction."

John Wilkinson, "Jerusalem under Rome and Byzantium," Jerusalem in History, p. 94-95, Olive Branch Press, 2000

"Politically, the country was affected by the trend, which began with Diocletian, towards splitting up the provinces. In his time, the whole southern part of the old Provincia Palaestina was joined to southern Transjordan to form a separate province. In the beginning of the fifth century, the remaining province was split up that there were

thenceforth Palaestina Prima, Secunda and Tertia.

The fist included Judaea and Samaria, with a part of Transjordan, the second Galilee and the Golan and Bashan regions, while the whole of the Negev, Sinai and Nabataea now

became Palestinia Tertia. This civil division, to which, as elsewhere in the Roman Empire, the ecclesiastical organization was made to correspond, lasted till the end of Byzantine

rule and even beyond."Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy

Land, p. 180, 182, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The adoption of Christianity as the dominant religion of the empire changed the status of Palestine radically. No longer just a tiny province, it became the Holy Land, on which

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emperors and believers lavished untold wealth; the former claimants to it, the Jews, were powerless to establish their right and were quickly relegated to second-class citizenship.

The principal aim of Byzantium was to make Jerusalem Christian. Pilgrimages were encouraged by the provision of hospices and infirmaries, churches rose on every spot

connected in one way or another with Christian traditions. The building activity that ensued was one of the causes of the country's uprising prosperity at that time, which is evident from archaeological surveys. There were three to five times as many inhabited

places in the fifth-sixth centuries A.D. as in any of the preceding periods."Michael Avi-Yonah, "Jews, Romans and Byzantines (70-633)," A History of Israel and the Holy

Land, p. 179-180, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"In 610, Heraclius was crowned emperor... Many world-shaking events took place during his reign: the Persian victories, which also led to their temporary conquest of Palestine,

changes within the empire, and the Muslim conquests, which deprived Byzantium of much of its Mediterranean lands."

Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 5, Cambridge University Press, 1992

TIME PERIOD: 636 - 661 CE

"On a hot day of August 636, the two opposing armies faced each other on the banks of the Yarmuk, a Jordan tributary. The Arabians, 25,000 strong, were commanded by Khalid;

the Byzantine army, twice as numerous and composed mostly Armenian and other mercenaries, was led by a brother of Emperor Heraclius. The day was an excessively hot one clouded by wind-blown dust and presumably purposely chosen for the encounter by the Arabian generalship. The Byzantine fighters were cleverly maneuvered into a position

where the dust storm struck them in the face. Only a few managed to escape with their lives. The fate of Syria, on the fairest of the Eastern Roman provinces, was decided.

'Farewell, O Syria,' were Heraclius' parting words, 'and what an excellent country this is for the enemy!'"

Philip K. Hitti, The Near East in History, p. 209, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1961

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"By the end of the reign of the second caliph, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-44), the whole of Arabia, part of the Sasanian Empire, and the Syrian [including Palestine] and Egyptian provinces of the Byzantine Empire had been conquered; the rest of the Sasanian lands

were occupied soon afterwards."Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 22-23, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"After completing the occupation of Syria and Palestine the Arabs turned to organizing the administration of the newly occupied territories. As they were exclusively fighters and did

not have any administrators capable of fitting themselves into the well-developed bureaucracy that the Byzantines had left behind them, they decided to leave the existing

system of administration to carry on its work as in the past, with the same local functionaries...

Most of Palestine, up to the border of the valley of Jezreel and Beth-shean, belonged to one district known as 'Jund [Military District] Filastine' which was, in fact, the Palaestina Prima of the Byzantine era together with part of Palaestina Tertia [see 330 A.D.]. Galilee,

the southern part of Lebanon and parts of the Golan fell within Jund Urdunn, which constituted the Palaestina Secunda of the Byzantines."

Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 207, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The people of Madina saw power being drawn northwards towards the richer and more populous lands of Syria and Iraq, where governors tried to make their power more

independent. Such tensions came to the surface in the reign of the third caliph, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan (644-56)...A movement of unrest in Madina, supported by soldiers from Egypt,

led to 'Uthman's murder in 656. This opened the first period of civil war in the community. The claimant to the succession, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (656-661) was...a cousin of Muhammad

and married to his daughter Fatima. 'Ali's alliance grew weaker, and finally he was assassinated in his own city of Kufa. Mu'awiya [the first Umayyad] proclaimed himself

caliph and 'Ali's elder son, Hasan, acquiesced in it."Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 24-25, Warner Books Edition, 1991

TIME PERIOD: 661 - 749 CE

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"The coming to power by Mu'awiya (661-80) has always been regarded as marking the end of one phase and the beginning of another. The first four caliphs, from Abu Bakr to 'Ali, are known to the majority of Muslims as the Rashidun or 'Rightly Guided'. Later caliphs were seen in a rather different light. From now on the position was virtually hereditary.

Although some idea of choice, or at least formal recognition, by the leaders of the community remained, in fact from this time power was in the hands of a family, known

from an ancestor, Umayya, as that of the Umayyads...

The change was more than one of rulers. The capital of the empire moved to Damascus, a city lying in a countryside abler to provide the surplus needed to maintain a court,

government and army, and in a region from which the eastern Mediterranean coastlands and the land to the east of them could be controlled more easily than from Madina."

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 25-26, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"In the 690s there was erected the first great building which clearly asserted that Islam was distinct and would endure. This was the Dome of the Rock, built on the site of the

Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, now turned into a Muslim Haram; it was to be an ambulatory for pilgrims around the rock where, according to Rabbinic tradition, God had called upon

Abraham to sacrifice Isaac."Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 28, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"Throughout the Umayyad period Palestine played no significant political role. Its population was partly composed of Jews and Christians, whose families had always lived there and towards whom the caliphs adopted a tolerant and lenient attitude. It is true that

special taxes were imposed upon both Jews and Christians, but they were moderately light at the beginning. The government recognized the religious communities as socio-political entities and the rabbis and priests were responsible to the authorities for the

members of their communities."Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099),"

A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 222, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

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"Not least amongst the various causes which contributed to the downfall of the Umayyads was the fundamental split within Islam, which produced the two dominant sects known as the Sunna (Orthodox) and the Shi'a. The Shiites, who maintained that the Prophet's cousin 'Ali and his descendants were the only legitimate candidates for the caliphate, rose many times in rebellion against Umayyad rule. Although these revolts proved to be abortive in

themselves, they did help to undermine the strength of the empire from within."Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099),"

A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 223, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"During the first decades of the eighth century, Umayyad rulers made a series of attempts to deal with movements of opposition...Then in the 740s their power suddenly collapsed in

the face of yet another civil war and a coalition of movements with different aims but united by a common opposition to them... The Umayyads were defeated in a number of

battles in 749-750, and the last caliph of the house, Marwan II, was pursued to Egypt and killed. In the meantime, the unnamed leader was proclaimed in Kufa [present day Iraq]; he

was Abu'l-Abbas, a descendant not of 'Ali but of 'Abbas."Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 31-32, Warner Books Edition, 1991Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 24-25, Warner Books Edition, 1991

TIME PERIOD: 749 - 877 CE

"Syria was replaced as center of the Muslim caliphate by Iraq. The power of Abu'l-'Abbas (749-54) and his successors, known from their ancestor as 'Abbasids, lay less in the

eastern Mediterranean countries, or in Hijaz which was an extension of them, than in the former Sasanian territories: southern Iraq and the oases and plateaux of Iran, Khurasan

and the land stretching beyond it into central Asia."

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 32, Warner Books Edition, 1991

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"With the transfer of the political centre to Iraq they [the Abbasids] succeeded in completing the slower, but major, process of shifting the international trade routes

connecting the Middle East and the Far East from Syria to the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Almost overnight Palestine became a marginal land and began to deteriorate."Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099),"

A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 224, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The first sign of internal decay in the Abbasid regime was the rise of the Turkish bodyguard under the immediate successors of al-Ma'mun (d. 833)...Except for short

intervals thereafter the Abbasid power was steadily on the decline...As it was disintegrating petty dynasties, mostly of Arab origin, were parceling out its domains in the

west...First among those with which Syria [including Palestine] was concerned was the Tulunid dynasty."

Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 557, Macmillan & Co. LTD. 1951

TIME PERIOD: 877 - 935 CE

"In 868 an officer called Ahmad ibn-Tulun, the

son of a freed Turkish slave, was sent to Egypt to serve as lieutenant to the governor of the province. A year later he himself

became the governor of the province, declared its independence [from the Abbasids] and put a stop to the remittance of annual taxes to the Baghdad treasury. In 877, exploiting the

deaths of the governors of Syria and Palestine, he was able, without difficulty, to extend his authority over these provinces as well...

With the rule of ibn-Tulun a period of renewed political, social and cultural activity began in Palestine, after the long period of neglect that marked the hundred years of direct

Abbasid rule..."Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099),"

A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 226, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

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"When ibn-Tulun died in 884 his son Khumawayh seized the reins of power. The Abbasid caliph made an attempt to regain control over Syria and Palestine, and dispatched a

strong expeditionary force from Iraq, which invaded Palestine in 892. Khumawayh, who was an able statesman as well as a very talented general, scored a decisive victory over this army in a battle near Abu Futrus. After this battle the Abbasids abandoned for a time

their attempts to take Palestine from the Tulunids. However within a few years of the death of Khumawayh [904] they had managed to regain it with ease."

Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 226-227, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"For the following thirty years (906-935) Palestine remained under Abbasid rule. We have very little information as to what occurred there during that generation."

Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 315, Cambridge University Press, 1992

TIME PERIOD: 935 - 969 CE

"In the year 935 a new independent dynasty was

founded in Egypt by Muhammad ibn-Tughi (935-946 A.D.), a Turk who had been granted the ancient Persian princely title Ikhshid by the Abbasid caliph in 939. The new dynasty took its name from this title. Following in the

footsteps of the Tulunids, Muhammad the Ikhshid made himself independent in Egypt and within a short time controlled not only Syria and Palestine but even Mecca and Medina, the

two holy cities of Islam."Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099),"

A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 227, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"The Ikhshidid dynasty (935-969), like its predecessor the Tulunid (868-905), had an ephemeral existence. They followed the same pattern of behavior, the patter that typifies the case of many other states which, in this period of disintegration, broke off from the

imperial government. Both made lavish use of state moneys to curry favor with their subjects and thereby ruined the treasuries."

Philip K. Hitti, History of Syria, p. 564, Macmillan & Co. LTD. 1951

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"A series of preparatory incursions into Egypt, which had gravely deteriorated under the rule of the Ikhshids, paved the way for a decisive attack, led by the Fatimid general Jawhar, in 969. Egypt was conquered easily and the Fatimid forces, sustaining the

momentum of the attack, went on to take Syria and Palestine."

Moshe Sharon, "The History of Palestine from the Arab Conquest until the Crusades (633-1099)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 231, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

TIME PERIOD: 970 - 1079 CE

"At the beginning of summer of 970, the Fatimid army under Ja'far ibn al-Fallah, turned towards Palestine... Theoretically, this was the outset of about a century of Fatimid rule in Palestine. In fact, the Fatimids were compelled to join battle with not a few of the enemies who stood in their way: the Arabs, led by the Banu Tayy', who in turn were headed by the Banu'l-Jarrah family; the Qarmatis; a Turkish army under the command of Alptakin, who was based in Damascus; Arab tribes in Syria with the Banu Hamdan at their head; and in

the background, the Byzantines were lurking, and about to continue their attempts to spearhead southward to Jerusalem. This war was waged in several stages and the enemies changed, but all in all, it was an almost unceasing war which destroyed

Palestine."Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 336, Cambridge University Press, 1992

"The year 1030 was the first year of peace in the country... Comparative calm and political and military stability existed in Palestine under Fatimid rule for only some forty years. The

invasion of the Turkish tribes put an end to this near-stability at one blow."Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 397, 420, Cambridge University Press, 1992

TIME PERIOD: 1079 - 1098 CE

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"By 1079, the Seljuks wrested Syria and Palestine from local rulers and from the declining Fatimids."

Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 89 Scribner paperback, 1995

"We have very little knowledge of what happened in Palestine during the period of Turcoman [Seljuk] rule... By and large, however, the Turcoman period, which lasted less

than thirty years, was one of slaughter and vandalism, of economic hardship and the uprooting of populations."

Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine 634-1099, p. 414, 420, Cambridge University Press, 1992

"After the death of the third Great Sultan [of the Seljuk Empire] Malikshah, in 1092, civil war broke out between his sons, and the process of political fragmentation, which had

been interrupted by the Seljuk conquest, was resumed... It was during this period of weakness and dissension that, in 1096, the Crusaders arrived in the Levant."

Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 90 Scribner paperback, 1995

TIME PERIOD: 1098 - 1187 CE

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"In a speech delivered at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II gave a grim description of the plight of the Christians of the East under the Seljuk yoke. He called on the nobility of

Europe to wrest the Holy Land, the Holy City and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, cradle of Christianity and its rightful and eternal heritage, from beleaguerment by usurping

infidels who sullied them by their very presence, if not by their deeds. Those who answered the call would be fighting a bellum sacrum, a holy war."

Emmanuel Sivan, "Palestine During the Crusades (1099-1291)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land p. 240, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"For the first thirty years, the disunity of the Muslim world made things easy for the invaders, who advanced speedily down the coast of Syria into Palestine, and established a

chain of Latin feudal principalities, based on Antioch [1098-1268], Edessa [1098-1146], Tripoli [1102-1146] and Jerusalem [1099-1187]. But even in this first period of success the

Crusaders were limited in the main to the coastal plains and slopes, facing the Mediterranean and the Western world."

In the interior, looking eastwards to the desert and Iraq, the reaction was preparing. The Seljuk princes who held Aleppo and Damascus were unable to accomplish very much. In

1127, Zangi, a Turkish officer in the Seljuk service, seized Mosul, and in the following years gradually built up a powerful Muslim state in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. His

son, Nur al-Din, took Damascus in 1154, creating a single Muslim power in Syria and confronting the Crusaders for the first time with a really formidable adversary. The issue

before the two sides was now the control of Egypt, where the Fatimid caliphate was tottering towards final collapse."

Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 90-91 Scribner paperback, 1995

TIME PERIOD: 1187 - 1260 CE

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"In Egypt, the Fatimids continued to rule until 1171, but were then replaced by Salah al-Din (Saladin) a military leader of Kurdish origin. The change of rulers brought with it a change

of religious alliance. The Fatimids had belonged to the Isma'ili branch of the Shi'is, but Salah al-Din was a Sunni, and he was able to mobilize the strength and religious fervor of

Egyptian and Syrian Muslims in order to defeat the European Crusaders who had established Christian states in Palestine and on the Syrian coast at the end of the eleventh century. The dynasty founded by Salah al-Din, that of the Ayyubids, ruled Egypt from 1169

to 1252, Syria to 1260, and part of western Arabia to 1229."Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 84 Warner Books Edition, 1991

"A Kurdish officer called Salah al-Din -- better known in the West as Saladin -- launched a jihad against the Crusaders in 1187. By his death in 1193, he had recaptured Jerusalem

and expelled the Crusaders from all but a narrow coastal strip. It was only the break-up of Saladin's Syro-Egyptian empire into a host of small states under his successors which permitted the Crusading states to drag out an attenuated existence for another century,

until the reconstitution of a Syro-Egyptian state under the Mamluks in the thirteenth century brought about their final extinction."

Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 91 Scribner paperback, 1995

TIME PERIOD: 1260 - 1517 CE

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"In the middle of the thirteenth century the power

of the Turkish Mamluks in Cairo was supreme and a new regime emerged, the Mamluk Sultanate, which ruled Egypt and Syria until 1517. In 1260, after a period of confusion following the death of the last Ayyubid, a

Qipchaq Turk called Baybars became Sultan. His career in many ways forms an interesting parallel with that of Saladin. He united Muslim Syria/Palestine and Egypt into a single

state, this time more permanently. He defeated the external enemies of that state, repulsing Mongol invaders from the east and crushing all but the last remnants of the

Crusaders in Syria."Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 169-170 Oxford University Press, 1993

"Palestine was divided mainly between two of the six provinces of Syria, the province of Damascus and that of Safed. Mameluk officers, appointed as governors, were independent of each other and directly responsible to the sultan, in Cairo... No details exist of the size

and composition of Palestine's population under the Mameluk."

Moshe Sharon, "Palestine under the Mameluks and the Ottoman Empire (1291-1918)," The History of Israel and the Holy Land p. 278, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

"In the 15th century, instability plagued Mamluk rule: internal corruption, the continued Mongol threat, Bedouin incursions, and bad economic policies all combined to deliver a

blow to the Mamluk economy and military, from which they were not able to recover."Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 172 Oxford University Press, 1993

"In a short, sharp war in 1516-1517, the Ottomans overthrew the tottering Mamluk sultanate which had dominated Egypt, Syria, and western Arabia for two and a half

centuries and brought these lands under their rule."Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 114 Scribner paperback, 1995

TIME PERIOD: 1517 – 1918

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"In 1517 the Ottomans won their final victory over the Mamluks, and for four hundred years Syria and Egypt formed part of the Ottoman Empire. Soon the Barbary States

[Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli] as far as the frontiers of Morocco accepted Ottoman suzerainty [overlord-ship], and with the Ottoman conquest of Iraq from Iran in 1534, almost

the whole Arabic-speaking world was under Ottoman rule."Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 176 Oxford University Press, 1993

"In the early seventeenth century the country was divided into the three Ottoman Pashaliks of Damascus, Aleppo, and Tripoli, to which a fourth, Sayda [Sidon], was added

in 1660. Each was under a Pasha who bought his post and enjoyed a large measure of local freedom of action, varying according to circumstances and personality... Most of the

land was divided among fief-holders, mainly, but not exclusively, Turks. The fiefs were semi-hereditary and carried the obligation of paying annual dues and rendering military

service with retainers."Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History p. 178, Oxford University Press, 1993

"In the last third of the 16th century serious cracks began to appear in the structure of the Ottoman empire. The empire embarked on a retrogressive movement which was to

continue for more than two centuries. The decline gained momentum towards the end of the 17th century, and depended in the 18th and 19th centuries. The feudal system, with the

sipahis -- the feudal landlords -- as its prop was gradually deteriorating. As the wars of expansion came to an end and spoils diminished, the landlards turned with increasing

interest to the land, and tried to recoup the loss of spoils by merciless exploitation of the peasants. This naturally led to a sharp drop in agricultural production and ushered in the

whole crisis of the empire."Kamil J. Asali, "Jerusalem under the Ottomans"Jerusalem in History, p. 207-208, Olive Branch

Press, 2000

"The Ottoman Empire entered WWI in November 1914 on the side of Germany and Austria, and against England, France and Russia."

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Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 315, Warner Books Inc, 1991

"On 28 June 1917, General Allenby was appointed commander of the British Army in the Middle East, and he mounted an attack aimed at breaking the Turkish lines in Palestine

and Syria and arriving at the rear of the Turks in Anatolia. On 31 October 1917, he captured Beersheba and moved northwards, whilst the Germans and Turks were attempting to

create a line of defense around Jerusalem. Allenby quickly pressed forward towards the north in two columns passing through the Judaean desert. He engaged the joint Turkish-

German army in a fierce battle which took place to the west of Jerusalem on 8 and 9 December 1917 and, having defeated them, he approached Jerusalem, dismounted from

his horse and entered the Holy City on foot, to be welcomed by its inhabitants. In September 1918 the other parts of Palestine were occupied.

A new era then began in Palestine. Taken out of Ottoman hands, it entered into the British Mandate period, which continued for the next thirty years."

Moshe Sharon, "Palestine under the Mameluks and the Ottoman Empire (1291-1918)," A History of Israel and the Holy Land, p. 322, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

TIME PERIOD: 1920 – 1921

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"The League of Nations divided the territory [formerly under Ottoman rule] into new entities, called mandates. The mandates would be administered like trusts by the British

and French, under supervision of the League, until such time as the inhabitants were believed by League members to be ready for independence and self-government...

The mandate territories were Syria and Lebanon, awarded to France; Iraq, awarded to Britain; and a new entity called Palestine, which was also placed under British control.

Palestine, as defined for the first time in modern history...included the land on both sides of the Jordan River and encompassed the present-day countries of Israel and Jordan."

Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 43-44, fourth edition, Prentice Hall, 2002

TIME PERIOD: 1921 – 1947

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"Out of the broad region known as Palestine, Britain carved two political entities in 1921. One entity consisted of the area of Palestine east of the Jordan River; it was named the

'Emirate of Transjordan,' and later simply 'Jordan'... In the western half of Palestine, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, Palestinian Arabs and Zionist Jews

wrestled for control under the British umbrella."Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 14, Anchor Books, 1995

"On 2 April, 1947 the British government informed the United Nations, as successor to the defunct League of Nations, that it would relinquish the Palestine Mandate on Saturday, 15

May 1948, leaving it to the U.N. to decide the further fate of the mandated territory...

The United Nations, after long and intricate discussions and negotiations, adopted a formal resolution [181] on 29 November 1947 for the partition of the mandated territory into three -- a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a corpus separatum under international

jurisdiction for the city of Jerusalem."Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History, p. 196-197, Oxford University Press, 1993

TIME PERIOD: 1947 – 1948

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"On November 29, 1947, the United Nations

General Assembly voted 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions [Resolution 181] to partition western Palestine into two states -- one for the Jews, which would consist of the Negev Desert, the coastal plain between Tel Aviv and Haifa, and parts of the northern Galilee, and the other for the Palestinian Arabs, which

would consist primarily of the West Bank of the Jordan, the Gaza District, Jaffa, and the Arav sectors of the Galilee. Jerusalem, cherished by both Muslims and Jews as a holy city,

was to become an international enclave under U.N. trusteeship."Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 14, Anchor Books, 1995

"The United Nations made no provision for the execution and enforcement of these decisions. Very soon after, on 17 December, the Council of the Arab League announced

that it would prevent the proposed partition of Palestine by force. The U.N. plan was accepted by the Jewish leadership, who...set up a state which they called Israel. It was rejected by both the Palestinian leadership and the Arab states, which went to war to

prevent its implementation."Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History, p. 196-197, Oxford University Press, 1993

"In a situation where there were no fixed frontiers or clear divisions of population, fighting took place between the new Israeli army and those of the Arab states [Syria, Lebanon,

Jordan, Egypt & Iraq], and in four campaigns interrupted by cease-fires Israel was able to occupy the greater part of the country."

Albert Hourani A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 359-360, Warner Books, 1991

TIME PERIOD: 1949 – 1956

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"The essential reality of Israeli-Arab relations

during 1949-1956 was...unremitting, if generally low-key, conflict. Leaders and news media on both sides regularly voiced propaganda and traded threats, and the Arab world closed ranks in waging massive

political warfare against Israel, regarding it as a pariah state and attempting to persuade the rest of the world to follow suit. The Arabs refused to recognize Israel's existence or

right to exist -- leaders and writers avoided using the word 'Israel'; maps left its area blank or called it Palestine...

A comprehensive Arab economic boycott was imposed, including the closure by Egypt of the Suez Canal [July 26, 1956] and the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and to specific

goods (such as oil) bound for Israel, carried on third-country vessels, and a ban on deals with companies doing business with Israel.

The most grinding and visible expressions of animosity were border clashes. Most of the tension along the frontiers resulted from Arab infiltration. The daily trespassing and

shooting incidents, the occasional murder of Israelis, and the retaliations generated fresh hostility which gradually built up to a crescendo in the second Arab-Israeli war of 1956."

Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 269, Vintage Books Edition, 2001

TIME PERIOD: 1956 – 1957

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"In October [29-30, 1956] Israeli forces invaded Egypt and moved towards the Suez Canal. In accordance with their previous agreement, Britain and France sent an ultimatum to both Israel and Egypt to withdraw from the Canal Zone, and [Egyptian President] Abdel Naser's refusal gave a pretext for British and French forces to attack and occupy part of the zone... Under American and Soviet pressure, and faced with worldwide hostility and the danger of

financial collapse, the three forces [Britain, France and Israel] withdrew."Albert Hourani A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 367-368, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"Britain and France completed their withdrawal by 23 December... Though Israel agreed to withdraw on 8 November it did not actually do so until 8 March 1957 -- and then only after

the United States committed itself to standing by Israel's right of passage through the Gulf of Aqaba, ensuring that Gaza was not used again for launching guerrilla attacks against

it."Dilip Hiro, The Essential Middle East, p. 498, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2000

TIME PERIOD: 1957 – 1967

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"As of 8 March 1957, the UNEF [United Nations Emergency Forces] were deployed along the western side of the Armistice Demarcation Line along the Gaza Strip, along the

international frontier between the Sinai and Israel, as well as in the Sharm el Sheikh area.

While quiet prevailed along the Egyptian-Israeli borders after November 1956, there was continued tension in other sectors of the Middle East, particularly on the Israel-Jordan and

Israel-Syria fronts.

After the creation, in 1964, of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its main group, El Fatah, there appeared to be a new level of organization and training of Palestinian

commandos. Palestinian raids against Israel, conducted mainly from Jordanian and Syrian territory, became a regular occurrence, and the Israeli forces reacted with increasingly violent retaliation. There was a marked contrast between the quiet along the Egyptian

border and the confrontation situation in other sectors...

In the evening of 16 May [1967], the UNEF Commander received a request from the Egyptian Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces for withdrawal of 'all UN troops which

installed OP's [observation posts] along our borders'. The General who handed the message to the Force Commander told him that UNEF must order immediate withdrawal

from El Sabha and Sharm el Sheikh, commanding the Strait of Tiran and therefore access to the Red Sea and southern Israel...

The Government of Israel made it known to [U.N. Secretary General] U Thant that it would exercise restraint but would consider a resumption of terrorist activities along the borders, or the closure of the Strait of Tiran to Israeli shipping, as casus belli... [Egyptian] President

Nasser announced the closure of the Strait of Tiran. With this decision the die was cast, and, on 5 June, full-fledged war erupted."UNEF "Full Text" Background, online, 2003

TIME PERIOD: 1967 – 1973

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"In June 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, after [Egyptian President] Nasser had declared his intention to annihilate the Jewish state and

forged military alliances with Syria and Jordan for that purpose, building up troop concentrations along his border with Israel and blockading shipping to the Israeli port of

Eilat. The six-day war that followed Israel's surprise attack ended with the Israeli army occupying Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Syria's Golan Heights, and Jordan's West Bank."

Thomas L. Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, p. 15-16, Anchor Books Edition, 1995

TIME PERIOD: 1973 – 1978

"On October 6,1973 the Egyptian Army "launched a sudden attack upon the Israeli forces on the east bank of the Suez Canal; at the same moment, and by agreement, the Syrian

army attacks the Israelis from the Golan Heights. In the first rush of fighting, the Egyptian army succeeded in crossing the [Suez] canal and establishing a bridgehead, and the

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Syrians occupied part of the Golan Heights; weapons supplied by the Russians enabled them to neutralize the Israeli air force, which had won the victory of 1967. In the next few days, however, the military tide turned. Israeli forces crossed the canal and established their own bridgehead on the west bank [of the Suez Canal] and drove the Syrians back

towards Damascus."Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 418, Warner Books Inc, 1991

"[U.S. Secretary of State] Henry Kissinger persuaded Egypt and Israel to sign a disengagement accord, whereby Israel withdrew from the western bank of the Suez Canal, to about twenty miles from the east bank of the canal. Egypt agreed to a major reduction

of troops east of Suez, the establishment of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone, defensive missile emplacements only west of Suez, and the allowing of nonmilitary Israeli shipping through

the canal (though not in Israeli vessels)."Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 185, fourth

edition, Prentice Hall, 2002

Henry Kissinger achieved a disengagement accord between Israel and Syria regarding the Golan Heights. Israel agreed to withdraw from some occupied territory in the Heights in

return for the establishment of a U.N. buffer zone and defensive Arab missile placements. President Hafez al-Assad of Syria also agreed in a private memorandum to prevent any

Palestinian terrorist groups from launching attacks from Syria. In return, the United States resumed diplomatic relations with Syria."

Ian J. Bickerton & Carla L. Klausner, A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict p. 185, fourth edition, Prentice Hall, 2002

TIME PERIOD: 1978 – 1978

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"In the early 1970s, tension along the Israel-

Lebanon border increased, especially after the relocation of Palestinian armed elements from Jordan to Lebanon [see Black

September Outcome]. Palestinian commando operations against Israel and Israeli reprisals against Palestinian bases in Lebanon intensified. On 11 March 1978, a

commando attack in Israel resulted in many dead and wounded among the Israeli population; the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) claimed responsibility for that

raid. In response, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on the night of 14/15 March [1978], and in a few days occupied the entire southern part of the country except for the city of Tyre and

its surrounding area."UNIFIL, "Background," online, 2003

TIME PERIOD: 1978 – 1982

"On 15 March 1978, the Lebanese Government submitted a strong protest to the [U.N.] Security Council against the Israeli invasion, stating that it had no connection with the

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Palestinian commando operation. On 19 March [1978], the Council adopted resolutions 425 (1978) and 426 (1978), in which it called upon Israel immediately to cease its military

action and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory. It also decided on the immediate establishment of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The first

UNIFIL troops arrived in the area on 23 March 1978."UNIFIL, "Background," online, 2003

TIME PERIOD: 1982 – 1982

"The Sinai Peninsula remained in Israeli hands [from 1967] until, in 1979, a peace agreement was signed between Israel and Egypt -- the first with any Arab country -- under the terms of which peace and normal diplomatic relations were established between the

two states and Israeli forces withdrew in agreed stages [completed in 1982] to the old [1920] international frontier between mandatory Palestine and the Kingdom of Egypt."

Bernard Lewis, The Middle East p. 365, Scribner, 1995

TIME PERIOD: 1982 - 1985

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"Israel invaded Lebanon in June [6,] 1982. The

invasion culminated in a long siege of the western part of Beirut, mainly inhabited by Muslims and dominated by the PLO. The siege

ended with an agreement, negotiated through the U.S. government, by which the PLO would evacuate west Beirut."

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples p. 431, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"The PLO military infrastructure in southern Lebanon was destroyed, and the organization was driven out of Beirut [September 2, 1982]. Many PLO fighters were killed, and it lost

most of its heavy equipment and ammunition stockpiles. Its headquarters was reestablished in faraway Tunisia, and its military units were dispersed in camps around

the Middle East and North Africa, no longer posing a threat along or near Israel's borders. The PLO and Arafat emerged from the fray considerably weakened."

Benny Morris, Righteous Victims p. 558, Vintage Books, 2001

"On 17 May 1983 Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement that formally terminated the state of war and recognized the international border between them as inviolable. The

parties undertook to prevent the use of one country's territory for terrorist activity against the other country. Israel was to withdraw its forces to a distance of forty to forty-five

kilometers from the international border to an area defined as a 'security zone.' The area north of the security zone was to be under the control of the United Nations Interim Force

in Lebanon [UNIFIL]."Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall p. 427, W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2001

TIME PERIOD: 1985 – 1994

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"The withdrawal from Lebanon was carried out in stages between February and June [1985]. The bulk of the troops returned to their bases inside Israel. Small forces remained in the [U.N.] security zone and coordinated their activities with the SLA [South Lebanon

Army]."Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall p. 427, W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2001

"The population of the territories under Israeli occupation, the West Bank and Gaza, had erupted [1987] in a movement of resistance, almost universal, at times peaceful and at

times violent, although avoiding the use of firearms; the local leadership had links with the P.L.O. [Palestine Liberation Organization] and other organizations. This movement, the

intifada, continued throughout 1988, changing the relationship of Palestinians with each other and with the world outside in the occupied territories."

Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 433, Warner Books Edition, 1991

"In a somber broadcast, King Hussein announced that Jordan was severing its 'administrative and judicial' links with the West Bank, 'in deference to the will of the PLO' --

Jordan was washing its hands of the future of the territory and its inhabitants...Now Hussein had indicated that if the West Bank could eventually be wrested from Israeli

control, it would become a PLO fief rather than revert to Jordan...Hussein's move was the PLO's 'first political gain' in the Intifada."

Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 605, Vintage Books, 2001

TIME PERIOD: 1994 – 1995

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"The 'Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area' (usually referred to as 'the Cairo agreement') was signed in the Egyptian capital [of Cairo] by [Israeli Prime Minister] Rabin and Arafat, with American, Soviet, and Egyptian representatives as witnesses, on May 4,

1994...

The agreement effectively transferred control over the bulk of the Gaza Strip and a sixty-five-square-kilometer area encompassing Jericho and its environs to PA [Palestinian Authority] control, with Israel remaining in control of the borders between these now-autonomous areas and the outside world and of the Jewish settlements in the Strip."

Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 624-625, Vintage Books, 2001

TIME PERIOD: 1995 – 1999

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"On 28 Sept 1995 the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was signed in Washington by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in the presence of Bill Clinton, Honi Mubarak, and King Hussein of Jordan. It became known popularly as Oslo II...

Under the terms of this agreement, Israel yielded to the Palestinians civilian control over nearly a third of the West Bank. Four percent of the West Bank (including the towns of

Jenin, Nablus, Kalkilya, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron) was turned over to exclusive Palestinian control and another 25 percent to administrative-civilian control. In the Gaza Strip Israel retained control over 35 percent of the land, containing the Jewish

settlements and the roads leading to them, and the rest was turned over to the Palestinian Authority."

Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall, p. 528, W.W. Norton & Co. 2001

"In September and October 1998, U.S. officials made a concerted effort to complete implementation of the Interim Accord [Oslo II], culminating in the Wye River Memorandum of October 23. The Israeli cabinet approved the Memorandum but said that redeployments

depended on the abrogation of Palestinian Charter articles; that a third redeployment should not be from more than 1% of territory before a final agreement; and that if the

Palestinians unilaterally declare a state, then Israel reserves the right to apply Israeli law to the rest of the West Bank. On November 20, Israel completed the first stage of the

second redeployment and released 250 Palestinian prisoners. On December 14, the PNC and others voted to annul the Charter articles. On December 20, Israel froze Wye

implementation until the Palestinians abandoned their call for a state with Jerusalem as its capital, curbed violence and incitement, accepted Israeli prisoner releases, collected and

destroyed illegal weapons, and resumed security cooperation."Congressional Research Service (CRS), "The Middle East Peace Talks," Issue Brief for

Congress, 2002

TIME PERIOD: 2000-Present

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"Barak and Arafat signed the Sharm al-Shaykh Memorandum on September 4, 1999. Israel released prisoners, and transferred more of the West Bank to the Palestinians' civilian

control. Final status talks resumed ceremonially on September 13. The Palestinians gave Israel 30,000 police officers' names. Israel released prisoners, opened a safe passage

between the West Bank and Gaza and a major road in Hebron, and redeployed from more territory. On March 8, Barak and Arafat agreed to resume negotiations. Israel transferred still more territory to complete the second redeployment. In May, Israeli soldiers fought Palestinian demonstrators and police. Clinton, Barak, and Arafat held a summit at Camp

David, from July11 to July 24, to forge a framework accord on final status issues. They did not succeed."

Congressional Research Service (CRS), "The Middle East Peace Talks," Issue Brief for Congress, 2002

"On the night of May 23-24 [2000], in a well-orchestrated operation, backed by columns of heavy Merkava tanks and helicopter gunships, the last Israeli troops pulled out [of

Lebanon] under sporadic Hezbollah fire."Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 656, Vintage Books, 2001

Credit acknowledgement for above data goes to ProCon.org from their work titled “41 Maps Covering 5,000 Years of History”

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