The year 1999,
Jews would not work on the Sabbath, Muslim and Christians get jobs,
European Union backs Palestinians statehood in Middle East peace process and Israel denounces it,
Palestinians delay declaration of statehood until after Israeli elections,
Israelis vote for new Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, to restart the peace talks,
Time running out on the Wye River accord,
Israel agrees with Palestinians to allow safe passage route through Israel,
Barak hopes Oslo reunion will start the final status talks,
Barak keeps commitment to Palestinians by evacuating some settlers from West Bank,
Barak says peace deal with Syria and Lebanon will bring security,
Israel and Syria may be ready for secure peace,
Sea of Galilee becomes a strategic asset of the Middle East peace with Syria and Israel,
Israel attacks Islamic militants in war against terrorists,
Will Syria join the globalized world by making peace with Israel?,
Israel and Syria meet in Washington, but did not even shake hands.


• 3/14/1999 - Store stymies Israeli official by The Associated Press.
      Jerusalem -- A Jerusalem supermarket defied a Labor Ministry threat to shut it down for employing Jews on the Sabbath by staffing only Muslims and Christians.    The inspectors finding only Muslim and Christian workers, did not fine the owners of Drugstore 2000, the first supermarket to open on the Sabbath in west Jerusalem.    Israeli law bans the employment of Jews on the Jewish Sabbath, from Friday evening to Saturday sundown.
      Labor Minister Eli Ishai of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party has overlooked work at restaurants and other places of entertainment.    But he said he is determined to close the store to safeguard the status quo in the Holy City.
      The store owner claims this is all legal, and wants to put shops like this all over Jerusalem.    Some 170 businesses in Jerusalem stay open on the Sabbath.
• 3/26/1999 - European Union backs Palestinian statehood.
      Berlin -- European Union foreign ministers approved the text of a declaration that would signal the union's strongest support to date for the Palestinian's right to declare their own state, officials said.
      The text says the Palestinians have an unqualified right to self-determination, including the option of a state, and adds that the 15-nation European Union looks forward to the early fulfillment of that right.
      In anticipation of the summit's move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement denouncing any declaration that favors creating a Palestinian state.
• 3/27/1999 - Europeans call on Israel to give Palestinians a state by Anne Swardson, The Washington Post.
      Berlin -- European Union leaders have issued their strongest support yet for Palestinian statehood, giving Israel a one year deadline to fulfill the "unqualified Palestinian right" to independence.
      The declaration, part of a 35-page communique concentrating on budgetary and financing issues, was the biggest step the group has taken toward Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.    It enraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said it was "regretful that Europe, where a third of the Jewish people perished, would see fit to impose a solution that endangers the state of Israel and its interest."
      Palestinian officials hailed the statement, which they viewed as a major diplomatic victory.    However, Europe has played a secondary role to the United States in recent Middle East negotiations.
      Palestinians were disappointed when Arafat, who met with president Clinton at the White House, failed to secure a similar American statement on statehood.    Arafat has declared an independent state on May 4, the date by which the Palestinians and Israelis were supposed to have worked out their differences in "final status" talks under the 1993 Oslo peace agreement.    European countries and the United States have urged Arafat to drop the threat, fearing it will throw the Middle East peace process into disarray and prompt retaliation from Netanyahu.    Israel believes they are supporting them if they drop the threat.
• 4/30/1999 - Palestinian leaders agree to postpone statehood declaration - U.S. urged move to avert retribution from Netanyahu - by The Associated Press.
      Gaza City, Gaza Strip -- Defusing a potentially explosive issue, the Palestinian Liberation Organization's leadership voted to delay a declaration of statehood until after Israel's May 17 election, instead of the end of the five-year autonomy period..    The United States had urged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to put off the declaration, fearing countermeasures by Israel's hard-line prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and kill the ailing peace process.
      In exchange for agreeing to delay a declaration of statehood, Arafat won European Union backing for a Palestinian state within a year and the Clinton administration wanted to negotiate for a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians within the year.
• 5/17/1999 - Israeli voters go to polls, likely to oust Netanyahu - Ehud Barak expected to become premier - by Lee Hockstader, The Washington Post.
      Jerusalem -- Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's popular former defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai withdrew from the prime minister's race on the eve of national elections and urged his supporters to vote for Netanyahu's main rival, Labor Party leader Ehud Barak.    The stakes are high for the U.S.-mediated Middle East peace process.    Netanyahu promotes the land-for-peace formula in the peace process, and slowed the negotiations to a standstill, much to the displeasure of the Clinton administration.    Barak will press for a final deal with the Palestinians and restart frozen talks with the Syrians over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.    Barak retired as Israel's military chief of staff in 1995 as the most decorated soldier in the country's history.
• 5/21/1999 - Barak shows willingness to jump-start peace talks by Lee Hockstader, The Washington Post.
      Jerusalem -- Exhorting his countrymen to "stop being afraid," Israeli prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak signaled his determination to reinvigorate the moribund Middle East peace process and seek territorial deals with both the Palestinians and Syria (Golan Heights in exchange for peace).
      In his first major interviews since winning a landslide victory in his race against the incumbent, Benjamin Netanyahu, Barak repeated his campaign promise to seek an accord that would permit Israeli troops to withdraw from southern Lebanon within a year.    He was trying to get rid of the public opinion of Israel as a state under seige, surrounded by enemies.
      He has tough choices on who to include in his new government, such as Netanyahu's hard-line Likud party, who want no territorial consessions with the Arabs, or the ultra-Orthodox party Shas, controlled by Aryeh Deri, which would infuriate the secular Israelis who voted for him.
• 6/20/1999 - Between Barak and a Hard Place by Thomas L. Friedman.
      Tel Aviv, Israel -- Why is Ehud Barak having a hard time forming a new government after a month?
      Israel's new Knesset, it's parliament, was sworn in.    At the ceremony, all members were asked to stand and sing "Hatikva," Israeli national anthem.    Nearly 30 of the 120 members were not singing, most the non-Zionist members, ranging from Israeli Arabs to ultra-Orthodox Jews, the secular side.    For Barak to have a majority to pursue the peace process, the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi party, Shas, with 17 seats would have to back any peace deal with the Palestinians.    This would make him lose the Meretz and Shiniui, ultra-secular, which he would need for domestic agenda.    Most believe he will focus on the peace process first thus opting the Shas, and work on the domestic later.    The Shas seem to be the real alternative to the secular, free market, liberal, democratic vision- represented by Labor, Meretz and Shinui.    We are now going to find out what is and is not possible.
  
      As continuing arguments: Netanyahu, was a man of the right who angered the right with the Wye accords, and then infuriated Israel's center by backing away from that agreement to placate the implacable hardliners.    Nor was Shimon Peres before him, a man of the left whose land-for-peace threatened Israel's security and Jerusalem's unity.    If Barak goes to the left, the Arab and anti-religious parties, plus the Russian immigrants, would divide Israel and end peacemaking.    If he goes religious to the Shas, which is outdoing the rightist Likud, he has to comply to their needs, but will help the peace process.
• 8/30/1999 - Barak seeks agreement ahead of Albright visit - Palestinians, Israeli debate Wye River accord - by Ron Kampeas, The Associated Press.
      Jerusalem -- One of Prime Minister Ehud Barak's senior envoys met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah, in an attempt to reach agreement on implementing the Wye River accord before Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrives.    Barak warned that if Israeli and Palestinian negotiators fail to close a deal "within hours," he could carry out the U.S.-brokered accord unilaterally and as he sees fit.    That would leave the Palestinians with less control of the West Bank than they wanted and likely would have frozen the peace process.    Israelis claim the Palestinians were not providing answers on two issues: a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from parts of the West Bank, and the release of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.    If Barak implements the original Wye it would mean an open-ended pullout from the West Bank, and the release of prisoners selected according to Israeli criteria.    They have no intention of releasing prisoners belonging to Islamic Jihad or Hamas, who oppose the peace process.    The Wye-mandated withdrawal would leave Israel with less than half of the West Bank.
• 10/6/1999 - Israel, Palestinians agree to 'safe passage' route - Travel opens between Gaza, West Bank - by Dina Kraft, The Associated Press.
      Jerusalem -- Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to establish the first open land link between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (28-mile highway route across the breadth of Israel) -- seen by Palestinians as a vital step toward eventual statehood and a significant achievement for Barak on the newly revived peace process.
      Palestinians see it as a boost for trade and to reunite families.    Some Israelis see it as the route to invite terrorist attacks.
• 10/31/1999 - Many hope Oslo reunion jump-starts Mideast peace by The Associated Press.
      Ramallah, West Bank -- Its been six years since Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn.    The parties that launched the historic Oslo peace accord in 1993 meet in the Norwegian capital to commemorate its successes and help the hobbled process along.    Prime Miniser Ehud Barak says Oslo needs to be reassessed since the separation of two peoples who cannot bring themselves to trust each other is inevitable for now.    The Palestinians claim the peace effort has lost credibility.    Barak is trying to restore credibility by announcing a new schedule for a final accord by February and a deal by September.
      The talks will address the toughest issues, which have been avoided until now: the status of Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugees, final borders between Israel and Palestinian areas and the future of Jerusalem.    Barak hopes the Oslo reunion will start the final status talks set to begin Nov. 7.
      It will be hard to regain this because of the events of the Netanyahu term which was rattled by a series of terrorist attacks by Islamic militants and the assassination of Rabin by the ultranationalist Jew opposed to the peace process.
• 11/5/1999 - Barak defies security efforts at rally - Events honors slain prime minister Rabin - by Deborah Sontag, New York Times News Service.
      Jerusalem -- Defying his own secret service agents, Prime Minister Ehud Barak made an appearance at a mass rally in Tel Aviv last night to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the assassination of his mentor, Yitzhak Rabin.
• 11/11/1999 - Barak is keeping Israel's commitment to Palestinians - Some settlers being evacuated from West Bank - by Ron Kampeas, The Associated Press.
      Jerusalem -- Forced to choose between Jewish settlers and Palestinian demands, Prime Minister Ehud Barak kept Israel's commitment to the Palestinians, approving a troop pullback from 5 percent of the West Bank and sending soldiers to drag Jews off an illegal hilltop encampment.
      Barak is making good on his promises to revive the peace process, while assuring Jewish settlers that he sympathizes with their mission to reclaim biblical lands.    Some believe it will set the stage for more tensions.    Settlers in Havat Maon, one of 42 outposts set up over the past year to stake a claim to as much West Bank as possible, climbed on roofs, clung to door frames and flung themselves to the ground, making it harder for the unarmed troops to forcible evacuate them.    Soldiers even had to break into a makeshift wooden synagogue to remove settlers.    The agreement was to leave 12 sites voluntarily, including Havat Maon, in order for approval of the other 30.
      Barak told Cabinet ministers that evicting the settlers was a "complex test of democracy."
      The Palestinians already control almost 30 percent of the West Bank.
• 12/10/1999 - Barak says peace deal will bring security.
      Kfar Saba, Israel -- Trying to chip away opposition to a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Prime Minister Ehud Barak promised that Israel would enjoy unprecedented peace and security once he signs peace deals with Syria and Lebanon.    In his speech to a Labor Party conference, he launched a campaign to sell skeptical Israelis on the price for peace after the reviving negotiations with Syria.
• 12/11/1999 - A note of optimism in the Mideast - Israel, Syria may at last be ready to secure peace - by Deborah Sontag, The New York Times.
      Jerusalem -- In the Middle East, a feeling that change is imminent after the announcement that Israeli-Syrian talks would be resumed after four years.    President Clinton, President Hafez el-Assad of Syria and Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel - are hungry for a success, determined that they can resolve this 32-year-old conflict once and for all.
      For Assad the 69 year old Syrian in ill health, this year in which two important Arab leaders of his generation have died - King Hussein of Jordan and King Hassan of Morocco - has been a reminder of the physical limits of power.    To retrieve the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau he lost to Israel in the 1967 war, would close a circle and provide neat borders to his rule, to hand over to his son Bashar.
      Syria has held out acknowledging a "Zionist entity" to the south, by giving refuge to terrorist groups, bent on destroying Israel.    But now there is a political will on both sides to come to closure, since time is running out for the Clinton adminstration.    Barak's goal is in 15 months to achieve peace with the Palestinians, peace with the Syrians and withdraw Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.
      Israel captured the Golan Heights, in northeastern Israel, from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and retained the territory in bitter fighting in 1973.    Israel annexed the plateau in 1981, but the move was not recognized internationally.    This prevents Syria from access to the Sea of Galilee.
      How much territory will Israel relinquish, since Syria demands all of the Golan Heights?    Will Syria agree to normal diplomatic relations with Israel?    The big issue is any Israeli pullback will require a guarantee or early warning system of imminent attack.
• 12/14/1999 - Barak wins vote despite coalition defections by William Orme, The New York Times.
      Jerusalem -- Israel's Knesset voted 47 to 37, with 24 abstentions to endorse Barak's quest for a comprehensive peace settlement with Syria, even with a heavy territorial price, but better than future cost in blood.
      Barak is to meet with Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa of Syria in Washington for a direct discussion between Syria and Israel.
• 12/15/1999 - Peace could founder on the Sea of Galilee - Israel, Syria differ on where to draw border - by Matthew Kalman, USA Today.
      Tiberias, Israel -- The Sea of Galilee had some of the most important events in the New Testament, where Jesus found disciples among the local fisherman, he delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and now is in the center of the search for Middle East peace.
      Israel believes the border line should be as the international border set in 1923 by the British and French, leaving the lake in Israeli control.    Syria wants it to go back to the border before the 1967 war began, giving it partial control of the lake.    This is Israel's largest reservoir, providing 25 percent of the countries drinking water and irrigation, in a year when both have suffered from a drought.    Syria controls the water sources to the Sea of Galilee, making water a strategic asset of the Middle East.
• 12/15/1999 - 2 Islamic militants killed in attack by Israeli troops by Nasser Shiyoukhi, The Associated Press.
      Biet Awa, West Bank -- Palestinians claim that the attack by Israeli troops on two Islamic militants was a cold-blooded slaying.    One of the men, Iyyad Batat, had been marked for death after killing an undercover Israel border policeman in an ambush in January.    Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Efraim Sneh said that Israel does not issue contracts to kill but that it does target militants who kill in the context of its war against terrorism.    Militant Palestinian group Hamas hinted at revenge.
• 12/16/1999 - A thaw in Syria by Thomas L. Friedman.
      Some believe Israel should trade the Golan for a wide, U.S. monitored buffer zone with Syria, and not worry about trade, tourism or normalization; Syria doesn't have much to trade and real reconciliation would seem unlikely.    Barak's key issue is security, in that Syria has a large standing army which would mass near its border with Israel, so that a surprise attack is possible at any time.    Israel has a small standing army, so it uses the Golan as a land buffer that would slow down any Syrian surprise attack long enough for Israel to mobilize its reserves.    Can Israel trade the Golan for a better security arrangement requiring Syrian troops to be restricted to certain areas and with U.S. early warning stations?    Bringing Syria into the circle of peace would close down the Lebanon front and totally isolate Iraq and Iran, constituting a major strategic realignment of the Middle East.    Syria would like to modernize and open up to the world, and making peace in the age of globalization, when no superpower pay you to join its bloc.    None will invest in peace with Syria without Syria reforming its sclerotic economy.    Assad can remain a failed state or use peace with Israel to build a bridge for Syria into the world.
• 12/16/1999 - Sour note opens Mideast talks - Syria uses ceremony to restate grievances - by Deborah Sontag, The New York Times.
      Washington -- President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa of Syria resumed peace negotiations.    The Syrian minister used the platform to summarize Syria's grievances, and demanded return of all occupied land.
• 12/17/1999 - Israel, Syria agree to meet again - Peace talks will resume next month - by John M. Broder, The New York Times.
      Washington -- Leaders of Syria and Israel agreed to begin intensive and accelerated talks early next month intended to end the state of war that has existed between them for 50 years.    Neither minister shook hands.
  
  

Last updated January 24, 2004.