- Israeli
troops take over West Bank town; trap Yasser Arafat in his
compound. 1/21/02
- Interview with
Sharon and map/links to suicide bombings in Israel. 12/7/01
- Sharon declares "war on terrorism" against Arafat in
response to suicide attacks on Israeli citizens. 12/3/01
- Invaded West Bank and killed member of Hamas militant
group. Will not pull out because say Hamas is threatening
Israel. (11/12/01)
- Minister of Tourism was assassinated 10/17/01
- Became a country 5/14/1948 following World War II, when the
"British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned
the area into Arab and Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs."
- Excerpt from CNN's profile on Ariel Sharon:
Born in British-ruled Palestine in 1928, Sharon enlisted in the resistance at age 14 and gained attention early for his military leadership in Arab-Israeli conflicts. He developed a reputation for military prowess and ruthlessness for his role as a commander in Israel's 1953 attack on Jordan, the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967 and the 1973 war. As head of special commando Unit 101, he dealt harshly with Arab attacks from the West Bank and Gaza in the 1950s and with Palestinian guerrillas in Gaza in the
1970s...Following Netanyahu's resignation as leader of the Likud in May 1999, Sharon took the reins of the party. As
(Prime Minister) Barak tried to reach an elusive peace deal with the Palestinians, Sharon was one of the prime minister's loudest critics. The Palestinians blame Sharon's visit to a disputed Jerusalem site
( known as the Temple Mount by Jews and Haram
al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary by Muslims) on September 28, 2000, for sparking violent clashes and endangering the push for peace.
See CNN's
profile for more.
- Israeli
Government
- Israel
Government Gateway
- Excerpt from CNN's In-Depth Look at the Israeli
government: Israel is a parliamentary democracy with executive, legislative and judicial branches. Its
unicameral parliament -- the Knesset -- consists of 120 members who choose a
president as the head of state. Voters directly elect the prime minister,
who heads the government. Israel's unique election system allows voters to
cast their ballots for a prime minister from one party and, if they wish, switch to
another party when they choose members of the Knesset. The unity
government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who heads the Likud Party, is the
largest in Israel's history. It has 26 ministers and more than a dozen deputy
ministers split into a broad spectrum of hawk, dove, ultranationalist and religious
parties. See CNN's
report for more.
- Israeli Embassy in Washington
D.C.
- US Embassy in Tel
Aviv
|
Live Cams:
The Wall in Jerusalem
|
