Background: Following World War II, 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. Subsequently, the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the deep tensions between the two sides. The territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country profile, unless otherwise noted. On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo accords") guiding an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Outstanding territorial and other disputes with Jordan were resolved in the 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. In addition, on 25 May 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon, which it had occupied since 1982. In keeping with the framework established at the Madrid Conference in October 1991, bilateral negotiations were conducted between Israel and Palestinian representatives and Syria to achieve a permanent settlement. On 24 June 2002, US President BUSH laid out a "road map" for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which envisions a two-state solution. However, progress toward a permanent status agreement has been undermined by Palestinian-Israeli violence ongoing since September 2000. The conflict may have reached a turning point with the election in January 2005 of Mahmud ABBAS as the new Palestinian leader following the November 2004 death of Yasir ARAFAT.
July 9th 2008Middle East » Israel » North District » Safed We are in the ancient city of Safed in the mountains above Galilee. At night we can see the twinkling lights on the shore on the other side near Tiberius.
We stayed in the local hostel high up on a h ... [full story]
July 7th 2008Middle East » Israel » North District » Tiberias
We were hot and grumpy when we arrived in Poryia. I took a dip in the pool and it was wonderful.
It was very windy which was just about the most refreshing feeling after the heat of downtown Tiber ... [full story]
June 15th 2008Middle East » Israel » North District » Tiberias I have now been in Jerusalem for four days and its been a strange experience. It's nice being with Carly and Derek. Most of the people are great and the Rabbis are nice, friendly and open to question ... 28 photos[full story]
June 13th 2008Middle East » Israel » North District » Safed Today was our first full day in Israel. We both slept well, however Carly's cot folded in half on her when she went to lie down to sleep. Unfortunately both of her roommates were already sleeping when ... 55 photos[full story]
June 3rd 2008Middle East » Israel » North District It was a sick twist of fate that my first day of kitchen duty came just a few hours after Pub Night. Pub Night, here at kibbutz Baram, is taken very seriously. The pub is open Tuesday and Friday nig ... [full story]
May 30th 2008Middle East » Israel » North District We've been in Israel for one week now... and I was definitely ready to slow down and settle in to life at Kibbutz Messilot. I have been sleeping for 8-11 hours every night and I still feel lethargic d ... 13 photos[full story]
May 21st 2008Middle East » Israel » North District » Golan We started the day by waking up to our eccentric, curly-haired madricha, Ayelet. With sleepy eyes, we boarded the bus and traveled to Mitzpeh Gadot. We sat under eucalyptus trees and learned about Eli ... 4 photos[full story]
May 21st 2008Middle East » Israel » North District » Tiberias Hello parents and friends of 8th graders,
Today we woke up at approximately 6:45 a.m. to a wonderful breakfast at our kibbutz. We departed at 8:00 a.m. to arrive at the Jordon River for our kayaki ... 1 photos[full story]
May 20th 2008Middle East » Israel » North District » Tiberias Dear Family and Friends of the Class of 08,
Today, just like other days, we woke up early. We packed up our bags and left Jerusalem. We went onto the bus, and for the first time on our whole trip w ... 6 photos[full story]
May 19th 2008Middle East » Israel » North District » Tiberias I am so happy that our loyal readers are enjoying the blog entries. This project has exceeded my expectations. As of this writing, there have been over 1300 hits on the blog, as well as over 150 comme ... [full story]
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