Israel: The Burdensome Stone Timelines

“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” ─Zechariah 12:3

2000 BC
Abraham attempts to offer his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. The angel of theLord stops him and instead a ram is offered.
(Gen 22:1-19)

1000 BC
David makes Jerusalem his kingdom's capital and the Ark is moved to a sitenear the Temple Mount.
(2 Sam 5:6-12) (2 Sam 6:1-17)

1000 BC
God tells David to build him a Temple. However, because David was a manof war, his son is determined as one who will actually builds it.
(2 Sam 7:1-13)

990 BC
David purchases the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. This locationwas to become the site for Temple.
(2 Sam 24:18-25)

950 BC
Solomon begins the construction of the first Temple of God.
(1 Kings 1:5-8)

920 BC
The Kingdom is divided between north (Israel) and south (Judah) with Jerusalem as capital of the Southern kingdom.
835 BC
Joash, king of king of Judah, works to repairs the Temple.
(2 kings 12:4-14

825 BC
Jeoash, king of Israel attacks Jerusalem, breaks down the walls, and plundersthe Temple treasury
(2 Kings 14:13-14)

710 BC
Because the Assyrian ruler Senacherib demanded tribute, King Hezekiahgave him all of the gold and silver in the Temple treasury, even strippedthe gold from the Temple's door. His actions would prove to be unnecessarywhen an angel of the Lord killed 185,000 advancing Assyrian soldiers inone night.
(2 Kings 18:15-16) (2 Kings 19:35)

605 BC
The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzer marches into Jerusalem, he removes allthe treasures in the Temple, and carries them off to Babylon.
(2 Kings 24:11-13)

585 BC
Jerusalem is invaded again by king Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon, who capturesand destroys the First Temple. The Ark of the Covenant disappears at thistime. It is believed either the Ark was taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzeror it was buried somewhere.
2 Kings 25:8-10)

540 BC
King Belshazzar of Babylon uses the Temple vessels as drinking glassesfor a pagan feast. The party is interrupted by a personal message for God.
(Dan 5:1-4)

535 BC
After being stirred up by the Lord, King Cyrus of Persia, makesthe proclamation that called for the Jews to return home to Jerusalem,so they could rebuild the Temple of God.
(Ezra 1:1-4) (Ezra 6:3-15)

515 BC
The proclamation that King Cyrus made for the rebuilding of the Temple was not immediately acted upon. In fact, the decree remained filed away andforgotten until Zerubbabel rose to the challenge of rebuilding the Temple.After some wrangling with government red tape, Zerubbabel received theblessings of king Darius to continue his work.
(Ezra 5:2-3) (Ezra 6:1-12)

330 BC
Alexander the Great captures Jerusalem, but does not harm the Temple.

170 BC
Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, plunders the temple and offers a pigon the Temple altar. Daniel predicted Antiochus Epiphanes would be a typeof Antichrist. Where Epiphanes defiled the temple by offering a pig onthe altar, the real Antichrist will defile the Tribulation Temple by offeringhimself to be worshipped. (Dan 11:31) (2 Thes 2:3)

165 BC
The Maccabees successful revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes allowed for rededication of the Temple and for the brief freedom of the Jewish people.
(The book of Maccabees)

63 BC
The Roman Empire conquers Jerusalem starting a period of domination ofthe Holy land by foreign force that would last until 1948 AD.

20 BC
Herod the Great starts a remodeling job on the Temple site that will continue until the Romans destroy the Temple in 70 AD. (John 2:20)

4 BC
Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem - four years ahead of His time. [0 or 1 AD] (Micah5:2) (Mat 2:1)

30 AD
Jesus is hailed as the Son of David as He rides into the city of Jerusalem. He Predicts the destruction of the second Temple. Jesus is crucified, stopping Daniel's prophetic clock at the 69 weeks mark. Jesus also gloriously rose from the grave on the third day.
(Mark 13:2) (Dan 9:24-26)

70 AD
Roman general Titus destroys the Second Temple. Because of rumors that gold may have been hidden in the stonework of the Temple, the Roman soldiers completely tore apart the Temple, fulfilling Jesus prophecy that not one stone would be left upon another. (Josephus) (Mat 24:2)

132-135 AD
Second Jewish Revolt against Roman was led by Bar Kochba. The revolt failedand much of Jerusalem was razed. Jews were excluded from Jerusalem.

326 AD
Queen Helena, mother of Byzantine Emperor Constantine, visits Jerusalemand begins building major churches-- including the Holy Sepulchre.

638 AD
Caliph Omar Ben Hatav captures Jerusalem placing it under Arab Muslim rule. The Temple mount is at this time buried under tons of debris.

688-91 AD
Dome of the Rock (Mosque of Omar) is built by Abd al-Malik over the site where Muslims believe Mohammed was raptured up into heaven.

715 AD
Al Aqsa Mosque is built over Jewish and Christian remains most likely because the Arabs wanted to cover-up any evidence of existing rights of the land.

1099 AD
The Crusaders capture Jerusalem and the holy sites. The Dome of the Rock is turned into a Church. The Al Aqsa Mosque is turned into the headquarters for the Knights Templar.

1187 AD
Lead by Saladin the Muslims recapture Jerusalem from the Crusaders.

1229 AD
Emperor Fredrick II of the Holy Roman Empire led the sixth crusade and was able to win back Jerusalem purely by show of force.

1244 AD
The Muslims seize Jerusalem from the crusaders for the last time, every Crusade that was to follow failed at the task of capturing Jerusalem.

1517 AD
Turkish Sultan Selim conquers Jerusalem for the Ottoman Empire.

1538 AD
Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilds city ramparts and wall around Jerusalem.

1541 AD
Muslims seal up the Golden Gate to prevent the Messiah's entrance - as according to Jewish tradition.

1831 AD
Jerusalem is conquered by Mehemet Ali of Egypt.

1840 AD
Jerusalem yet again comes under Turkish control.

1860 AD
The first neighborhood outside Jerusalem's walls is built by philanthropist Moses Montefiore.

1918-1948 AD
With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following WW I, the British gain control of Palestine.

1947 AD
The UN voted to end British control of Palestine and to divide the country into a Jewish and Arab state.

1948 AD
14 May - The British Mandate ends 14 May - The State of Israel is proclaimed15 May - Israel is invaded by five Arab states.

1948-1949 AD
From May 1948 of to July 1949 the War of Independence is fought. Israel wins an armistice after defeating troops from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

1949 AD
Jerusalem is proclaimed the official capital of Israel.

1951 AD
King Abdullah was assassinated on July 20, 1951 in Jerusalem by a Palestinian opposed to Jordanian tolerance of Israel.

1956 AD
Israel and Egypt go to war over the Sinai region.

1967 AD
On June 5 the six-day war begins: Israel destroys the Arab air forces; captures land three times the area of itself; and most importantly, the Jewish people win the right to free control the city of Jerusalem for the first time in over 2000 years.

1973 AD
On Oct 6, during Yom Kippur, Israel's Arab neighbors launch a surprise attack. This war exacted a heavy toll on the Jewish state. Although no major territory was lost or gained, most Arabs regarded the war as a psychological victory.

1977 AD
Egyptian President Sadat visits Jerusalem.

1979 AD
Israel-Egypt sign a peace treaty

1981 AD
Iraq's nuclear reactor is destroyed by the Israeli Air Force.

1982 AD
To end the PLO's attacks from Lebanon, Israel launches an invasion of thatof country.

1987 AD
The Arab Intifada begins in the West Bank and Gaza strip.

1991 AD
Iraq attacks Israel with 39 scud missiles during the Gulf war.

1993 AD
On Sept 13, after secret negotiations, Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin signs a peace accord with longtime enemy Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

1994 AD
4 May - Israel and the PLO sign an agreement for the implementation of self-government for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho area.
15 June - Full diplomatic relations are established with the Holy City.
28 July - King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Rabin declare an end to the state of war between the two countries.
26 Oct - Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan sign a peace agreement ending 46 years of war and strained relations.

1995 AD
On Nov. 4, Yizhak Rabin is assassinated after attending a peace rally.

1996 AD
On May 29, Benjamin Netanyahu wins a surprise victory over Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
1997 AD
On March, Israel angered Palestinians by constructing a controversial housing project for Jews in mostly Arab East Jerusalem. The start of construction was marked by scattered violence in the West Bank and Gaza.
In September, a failed attempt by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, to assassinate Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal in Jordan's capital strained Israeli-Jordanian relations
1998 AD
On Oct 23, an interim agreement was signed by Arafat and Netanyahu, known as the Wye River Memorandum, after intensive negotiation involving the leaders of United States, Israel, Palestinians and Jordan. The accord would transfer 13 percent more of the West Bank land to the Palestinians in return for assurances to crack down on Islamic militants who target the Jewish State.
1999 AD
On May 16 Ehud Barak defeats sitting prime minister Netanyahu and vows to continue Israel's withdrawal of troops from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
2000 AD
On May 24 Israeli troops conclude their withdrawal from the security occupied zone of southern Lebanon, 18 years after Israel invaded its northern neighbor. Hezbollah guerrillas quickly overrun the Israeli-allied militia.
Sept. 28, 2000, after Likud party leader Ariel Sharon's visit to Temple Mount area, Arabs went on a rampage. The unrest that resulted from that initial riot continue to this date.
2001 AD
March 6, 2001, Ariel Sharon is sworn in as Israeli prime minister, saying Israel's "hand is extended in peace." The 73-year-old former general and war hero has said there can be no negotiations while the violence of the Palestinian uprising continued.
June 1, 2001 a Palestinian suicide bomber targets a popular seafront nightclub in Tel Aviv, killing himself and 19 Isrealis - mostly teens under 18 - and wounding almost 100 others. The attack became the main catalyst for Israel's policy of targeting known terrorist leaders.
2002 AD

March 10, A Palestinian bomber killed 11 people by blowing himself up in a crowded Jerusalem cafe near Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence, and Israel responded by destroying Yasser Arafat's Gaza headquarters.
March 14, Israel is conducted its largest-scale military operation since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, with some 20,000 soldiers deployed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after a string of deadly Palestinian attacks.
March 27, A suicide bomber attacks a celebration of the Jewish Passover holiday in Netanya, killing 29 Israelis and tourists.
2002, The Quartet on the Middle East is established. It consists of the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations. It was created to mediate the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
2003 AD

January 28, 2003 Ariel Sharon became Israel's first incumbent prime minister to be re-elected since Menahem Begin won a second term in 1981.
March 5, 2003 A Palestinian suicide bomber wounded 40 and killed at least 15 bus passengers in Haifa.
August 19, 2003 A suicide bomber killed himself and at least 20 others, and also wounding more than 100 when a bus blew up in Jerusalem.
August 24, 2003 Israeli helicopter gunships killed Hamas commander Ahmad Ishtaiwe and three of his Hamas fighters in a missile strike on Gaza City. Three others were wounded. The attack came three days after a raid that killed Ismail Abu Shanab, a Hamas political leader.
2004 AD

February 2004 Sharon announces Israeli's withdrawal from Gaza
March 2004 Israel kills Hamas' spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who is replaced by Khaled Meshaal
April, 2004 European Union countries roundly criticized plans by the US and Israel for Israel to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and retain large settlement blocks in the occupied West Bank, saying it would weaken, not strengthen, prospects for peace.
2005 AD

January 2005 Palestinian militants detonate a bomb on the edge of the Gaza Strip, killing at least five Israelis.
February 2005 Hopes of reviving the Middle East peace process are jolted when a suicide bomber blows himself up outside a seafront nightclub in Tel Aviv, killing five people and wounding about 50.
July 2005 A Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up at an Israeli shopping mall in Netanya, eight miles from the West Bank, killing five and wounding at least 30. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.
September 2005 Israel withdraws from the Gaza strip
October 26 2005 A Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up in the main market at Hadera. Six people dead and more than 30 people wounded. Islamic Jihad says it carried out the attack to avenge Israel's killing of a senior leader in the West Bank.
October, 2005 Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeated that Israel should be "wiped out from the map," insisting that a new series of attacks will destroy the Jewish state, and lashing out at Muslim countries and leaders that acknowledge Israel.
2006 AD

January 2006 Israel's prime minister Sharon suffers a stroke
January 2006 Terrorist group Hamas wins the first multi-party elections in Palestine and its leader Ismail Haniya becomes the new prime minister.
March 2006 In the first Israeli elections after prime minister Sharon suffered a stroke, his new party Kadima becomes the biggest party and Ehud Olmert the new prime minister.
July 2006 Hezbollah, in Lebanon, launches a massive rocket attacks on Israeli civilians in Northern Israel. The resulting battle became known as the Second Lebanon War.
2007 AD

April 2007 Hamas and the al-Qassam Brigades break a truce with Israel with a sustained barrage of rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel May, 2007 Israeli forces seized a Palestinian cabinet minister and 32 other officials in the occupied West Bank and launched air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, stepping up a campaign against Hamas Islamists.
June 2007 Former British prime minister Tony Blair is named Middle Eastern envoy on behalf of the USA, Russia, the UN and the EU.
July 2007 Tony Blair makes his first visit to the Middle East as the Quartet's envoy to the region.
September, 2007Israel conducts an airstrike on a site in Syria, targeting what American and Israeli analysts later said was a partially finished nuclear reactor built with the help of North Korea.
2008 AD

January- Israel launches spy satellite TESCAR which will be capable of tracking events in Iran, particularly their nuclear program, even at night or in cloudy weather using an advanced imaging system based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology.

-In a speech given in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr, carried live on state-run television and directed at world leaders, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad advised listeners to "abandon the filthy Zionist entity which has reached the end of the line....It has lost its reason to be and will sooner or later fall," he went on. "The ones who still support the criminal Zionists should know that the occupiers' days are numbered." (Telegraph.co.uk)

April- Olmert sends a message to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria indicating that Israel would be willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights as part of a comprehensive peace treaty.
MAY- Israel marks the anniversary of its founding, 60 years by the Jewish calendar since the declaration of statehood on May 14, 1948.

June- Egyptian-brokered truce between Hamas and Israel takes effect.

August- A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel prompting the Jewish state to order border crossings with the Hamas-ruled enclave closed temporarily. (Reuters)

- General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of staff of the Russian military revealed details of military assistance that Moscow claimed Jerusalem had given Georgia in recent years. "Israel armed the Georgian army," he told a press conference in the Russian capital. He said Israel provided Georgia with "eight types of military vehicles, explosives, landmines and special explosives for the clearing minefields." Since 2007, he continued, Israeli experts have been training Georgian commando troops; and Israel had planned to supply Georgia with heavy firearms, electronic weapons and tanks, but that plan was eventually scrapped. (Israel Insider)

Dec 19- The 6 month, Egyptian-brokered peace between Hamas and Israel expires officially, though it began disintegrating in early November.

Dec 24- Hamas gunmen launched more than 70 projectiles, the largest barrage since before an Egyptian-brokered truce went into effect in and around Gaza in June but expired five days ago.

Dec 25- PM Ehud Olmert appealed to residents of Gaza in a "last-minute call" to stop the militants from firing on innocent Israeli civilians. He then added that he would not hesitate to use "Israel's might" to strike Hamas, but said he would not go into details as to how....In a similar statement by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, made as the Israeli military wrapped up preparations for a possible invasion of Gaza, he warned that Palestinian militants would pay a "heavy price" if the attacks on Israel continued.

Dec 25- Lebanese troops discovered and disarmed 8 [Katyusha and Grad] rockets set with timers in an area widely considered to be a Hezbollah stronghold, though it is officially under United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) jurisdiction. One officer said the timers were activated and set to launch overnight. Initial report by Ha'aretz news service claim the rockets were aimed at Israel.
Dec 27- Israel begins airstrikes on Palestinian militants in Gaza.

2009

Jan 3- Israel Defense Forces begin a ground invasion of Gaza.

Jan 8- UN Security Council unanimously (with the U.S. abstaining) passed Resolution 1860, calling for the immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops. Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the call for peace between them. Hamas has increased it's rocket and mortar attacks on Israel throughout the conflict.

Jan 10- The death toll in Gaza tops 900.
Jan 18- Israel announces a unilateral ceasefire. After Israel's ceasefire announcement, Palestinian militants fired more rockets over the border, to which Israel responded with an airstrike. Hamas then ordered its own one-week unilateral ceasefire.

January 21- Israel completes its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. As of January 24 there was no official ceasefire signed between them.
FEB 13- Despite a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, two rockets and a mortar shell fired from the Gaza strip hit Israel. Israel responded to the unprovoked attack with an airstrike.
Feb 20- Chairman of the conservative Likud party, Benjamin "Bibi" Nentanyahu, was chosen over Kadima leader Tzipi Livni to form Israel's next government, following the Feb 10th parliamentary elections.
March 31- Benjamin Netanyahu is sworn in as Prime Minister.
April 7- Israel successfully tested an anti-missile system designed to protect the country against Iranian attack, the Defense Ministry said, perfecting technology developed in response to failures of similar systems during the 1991 Gulf War. The intercept of a dummy missile was the 17th test of the Arrow system, a U.S.-Israeli joint venture. Israeli defense officials said the interceptor was an upgraded Arrow II, designed to counter Iran's Shahab ballistic missile. (AP)

May 28- Israel defied a surprisingly blunt U.S. demand that it freeze all building in West Bank Jewish settlements, saying it will press ahead with construction. (AP)

July 5- The head of Mossad, Israel's overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, it's Prime Minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran's nuclear sites. (The Sunday Times)

July 6- Iran is driving to produce up to 1,000 long-range ballistic missiles with a range of 1,550 miles, as well as 500 mobile launchers, over the next six years, according to Israeli military experts. "The Iranians are making great efforts to obtains a significant number of missiles," according to Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center near Tel Aviv. "They already talk of how one of the ways they will overcome (Israel's) missile defense systems is by firing salvoes of missiles." (UPI)

July 8- Experts believe Israeli intelligence agencies have been hacking into Iranian computer systems in an effort to disrupt or contaminate networks with viruses and malicious software."We came to the conclusion, for our purposes, a key Iranian vulnerability is in its online vulnerability," an unnamed recently retired member of Israel's security cabinet told the Reuters news agency. "We have acted accordingly." (ABC News)

July 27- CEO of Delek Energy, Yitzchak Tshuva, “Israel today is independent completely independent with blue and white [Israeli-made] energy. The largest company in the project, Noble Energy, made a statement that confirmed the size of the find. With drilling at Tamar and Dalit, we have already confirmed a very substantial amount of natural gas resources, perhaps over two decades of future supply based on projected needs, said Charles D. Davidson, Noble's CEO. Plans are now being made to being to bring the gas online as soon as 2012. Income generated by the local gas could be as much as $35 billion. 6.3 trillion cubic feet is the estimate of the total amount in the gas reserves. (cleantechnica.com)
Aug 18- Unnamed Israeli officials, according to Haaretz, are accusing the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) of holding back incriminating evidence related to Iran's nuclear program.

Sept 28- Iran test fires medium-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil missiles that are capable of reaching parts of Europe, Israel and US bases in the Gulf.
Oct 17- The United Nations Human Rights Council Friday endorsed a controversial report on alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip, advancing a process that has roiled Palestinian politics and that Israeli leaders have warned could derail the U.S.-sponsored peace process. The council, led by a coalition of Arab states, voted 25-6 to approve the report on the three-week war between Israel and Gaza-based militants led by the Islamist Hamas movement. China and Russia also supported the resolution, which calls on the United Nations to refer Israel to the International Court of Justice if it does not investigate alleged violations of international law on its own. (Washington Post)

Nov 3- Israeli naval commandos stopped an arms shipment... on its way from Iran to the Lebanese terror group Hizballah by way of Syria. The weapons were being transported by a cargo ship flying the Antiguan flag. Buried amidst the vessel's "civilian" cargo were 36 shipping containers carrying 500 tons of weaponry for Hizballah. The cache seized from the cargo ship MV Francop included approximately 3,000 Katyusha rockets, 3,000 recoilless gun shells, 9,000 mortar bombs, 20,000 grenades, and more than half a million rounds of small-arms ammunition. (Right Side News)

Nov 13- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for US President Barack Obama to live up to his campaign promises of change for the United States, and make a decision to support either Israel or Iran. US State Dept spokesman, Ian Kelly, responded, "Israel is a very, very close friend of the U.S., and we don’t think we have to choose between Israel or any other country.”

Nov 26- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spoke out against Israel during a visit from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying, "We know what the state of Israel stands for -- a murderous arm of the Yankee empire."

Dec 30- Amidst mounting concern that Israel is planning to launch a preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, some are warning that they don't have the firepower to completely wipe out the Islamic Republic's suspected weapons program, and in the case of an Israeli strike, there is fear of an Iranian retaliation like nothing the nation has ever faced before.

2010
March 10 – During a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Israel announced approval to build an additional 1,600 apartments in a large Jewish housing development in northeastern Jerusalem. The U.S. government subsequently issued a strongly worded condemnation of the plan.
May 31, 2010 ¬ The Gaza flotilla raid was a military operation by Israel against six ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The flotilla, organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH), was carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials, with the intention of breaking the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip.
June 14 – One Israeli policeman was killed and three policemen were injured when Palestinian Arab militants opened fire on their vehicle on Highway 60, south of Hebron.
September 2 – U.S. launched direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Washington DC.

September 14 – A second round of Middle East peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority concluded in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

September 26 – The Israeli 10-month moratorium on construction of new settlement homes in the West Bank expired.
August 3 – Lebanon border clash – Lebanese Armed Forces fired at two IDF officers who were on a brush-clearing operation on Israel’s side of the border, killing one officer and seriously wounding the other. The IDF return fire killed two Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist.
August 31 – 2010 Palestinian militancy campaign: August 2010 West Bank shooting – Four Israelis, including a pregnant woman, were killed by Palestinian Arab militants in a shooting in the West Bank next to Kiryat Arba, when a gunman opened fire on their car. Hamas claim responsibility for the attack.
December 18 – An American Christian missionary, Kristine Luken, was murdered and her British-born Israeli friend was seriously wounded by two knife-wielding Arabs while hiking in a forest near Beit Shemesh, on the outskirts of Jerusalem.[48] Four Palestinian Arabs, members of a Palestinian terror cell, were later indicted for the attack, which was described as nationalist orientated.
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_in_Israel

2011

January 17 – The leader of the Israeli Labor Party, Ehud Barak, and four other Labor Party MKs resigned from the party and formed a new "centrist Zionist and democratic" faction called "Independence."

February 19 – The U.S. vetoed a draft of a UN Security Council resolution critical of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

April 7 – The Iron Dome mobile air defense system successfully intercepted a Grad rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at the Israeli city Ashkelon, marking the first time in history a short-range rocket was ever intercepted.

June 5 – Israeli forces defensibly fired on pro-Palestinian protesters attempting to breach the Syria-Israeli border in the Golan Heights on Naksa Day, marking the anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War; Syria claimed that close to 20 people were killed and over 325 injured, while Israeli officials confirmed at least 12 jures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_in_Israel - cite_note-40

July 10 – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel's recognition of the Republic of South Sudan and offered the new state economic help, following its declaration of independence from the Sudan the previous day.

July 14 - ongoing: 2011 Israeli housing protests.
September 2 – A UN report investigating the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid was published which found that the IDF acted “legitimately” in trying to enforce Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip, except for the lack of a final warning to the activists and the use of "excessive" force.
September 2 – Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador, downgraded ties with Israel and canceled all military agreements with Israel, hours before the UN report investigating the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid was published.

September 9 – Israeli embassy attack: several thousand Egyptian protesters forcibly infiltrated into the Israeli embassy in Egypt, situated in Giza, after breaking down a recently constructed wall to protect the compound. The six embassy staff members in a safe room were evacuated eventually from the site by Egyptian commandos, following the personal intervention of US President Barack Obama. Following the attack, the deputy ambassador remained in Cairo, and 85 staff members and their families returned to Israel.

September 14 – Israel evacuated the Israeli embassy in Jordan following a warning of a violent anti-Israel demonstration planned to take place near the embassy building. Nearly all the embassy staff returned to Israel at midnight.

September 23 - During the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, made a bid for a UN recognition in a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and have the East Jerusalem as its capital.

September 23 - The quartet of Middle East negotiators - the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations called on both Israel and Palestine to resume negotiations.
September 27 – An explosion destroyed the Arab Gas Pipeline in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula supplying natural gas to Jordan and Israel.

October 5 – Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of quasicrystals.

October 11 – The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration disrupted an attempt to bomb the Israeli and the Saudi embassies in Washington DC and an alleged terrorist plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador, with possible links to Iran.

October 18 - Israel and Hamas began a major prisoner swap in which the Israeli Army soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held in captivity for over five years, was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners held in Israel, of whom 477 prisoners were released immediately, including 280 serving life sentences for planning and perpetrating terror attacks, and 550 prisoners to be released in December 2011. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_in_Israel

2012

January

Muslim Brotherhood According to a report made by Jay Sekulow in early January 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood firmly said it will “not recognize Israel under any circumstances” as they continue to tighten their grip on the new Egyptian government. They also vowed to take legal-action against Israel aimed against canceling the security agreement signed in 1979.

Obama Administration Abandons Israel On January 20, 2012 General Patrick Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Israeli leaders that the U.S. would not back Israel in an attack against Iran despite the ongoing threats by the leaders of Iran to destroy against the Israeli state.

February

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei Threatens and Denounces Israel On February 3, 2012 reports flooded the Internet that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened Israel saying the Islamic Republic will help any nation or group that confronts the Jewish State, The Associated Press reported. In remarks to worshippers during Friday prayers in Tehran and were broadcast on state TV, Khamenei said Iran would continue its nuclear program and warned that any military strike by the U.S. would only make Iran stronger. He affirmed that Iran had provided assistance to terror groups Hizbullah and Hamas.

“We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hizbullah against Israel in 2006, and in the 22-day war” between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, Khamenei was quoted as having said. He added, “From now on, in any place, if any nation or any group confronts the Zionist regime, we will endorse and we will help. We have no fear expressing this.”

Khamenei said Israel was a “cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut,” and added that the U.S. would suffer defeat and lose standing in the region if it decides to use military force to stop the country’s nuclear program.

Endnotes Wikimedia Commons/www.kremlin.ru

Obama Administration Encourages Diplomacy That Is Not Working The New York Times reported on February 8, 2012 that the U.S. and Israeli split on the speed of Iran’s nuclear threat was escalating during international telephone discussions. President Obama discouraged Prime Minister Netanhayu from taking any action against Iran and naively or for some other unknown reason minimized the seriousness of Iran’s threats. Tensions over an Israeli military strike against Iran became more pronounced.

March Paelstinian Rocket Attacks Escalate on Israel In mid-March there was a significant escalation of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. Throughout the month─according to the Israel’s Security Agancy’s routine monthly summary, Palestinians fired 173 rockets and 19 mortar shells at Israel in 156 separate attacks.However, according to an additional report by the agency, during the escalation alone Palestinians fired 281 rockets at Israel, of which 86 were long-range.

June

Cross-Border Sinai Attack by Jihadi Islamic Group

Islamic Jihadi group based in Egypt’s Sinai has posted a video showing it carried out a cross-border attack in June, killing one Israeli at a border barrier construction site and raising doubts over Egypt’s security control over the desert peninsula.

Since the overthrow of U.S.-aligned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, the security grip has loosened over Sinai and groups of militant Islamists have spread across its northern part, attacking police stations and a pipeline exporting gas to Israel and Jordan.

A video posted online featuring members of a new group named “Magles Shoura al-Mujahddin” wearing military outfits and choosing as their target an Israeli security patrol and a border town. The men who according to the video carried out the attack, identified as Egyptian Abu Salah and a Saudi, Abu Hozaifa, said they sought revenge for “Muslims’ blood” and dedicated the attack to Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda’s leader. They stated: “We will head shortly to execute a double suicide operation targeting the Jewish enemy forces on the Egyptian borders,” Abu Salah said, reading out from a piece of paper before the attack with a black flag in the background covered with religious slogans.

Mubarak was succeeded by Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group ideologically hostile to the Jewish state, and linked to the Hamas Islamists who run the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that also abuts Sinai.

Endnotes

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/07/28/228946.html

August

U.S. Military Chief Martin Dempsey Continues to Adandon Israel - He said to Israel: “We won’t have your back if you attack Iran” Speaking to journalists in London at the opening of the Paralympic games, Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the United States would not have Israel’s back if it unilaterally attacked Iran. Distancing himself from any Israeli plan to bomb Iran, Dempsey said such an attack would “clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear programme.” He added: “I don't want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it.

UN Speaks Out against Iran’s Treatment of Israel Without naming Iran, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon actually denounced his hosts in Tehran for threatening to destroy Israel and for denying the Holocaust (Reuters reported).

He said, “I strongly reject threats by any member state to destroy another or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust,” Ban said in his speech to a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in the Iranian capital.

“Claiming that Israel does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines the very principle we all have pledged to uphold. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and this month described Israel as a ‘cancerous tumor.’ In 2005 he caused uproar by being quoted as saying that Israel should be ‘Wiped off the map.’”

Persian language scholars say a more correct translation of his comment would read: “Israel must vanish from the page of time” (as if that makes the threat more palatable).

Ban was attending the NAM summit despite calls from the United States and Israel that he should boycott the event.

Hebollah Holds Massive Military Drill On August 23, 2012 The Times of Israel reported that Hezbollah held a massive military Drill to simulate raids in Northern Israel, border clashes; 10,00 gunmen participated. Irans’ Revolutionary Guard - 2000 Hezbollah fighters said to be undergoing training in Iran.

September

Democrats Dump Jerusalem Capital and Any Reference to God from Convention Platform

Republicans on Tuesday, September 4, were disturbed and quick to jump on the Democrats’ 2012 platform for dropping calls for the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and for putting more emphasis on climate change than the economy. The next day, the second day of the convention the Democrats backtracked and in breaking news, the Paulding County Republican Examiner learned that the Democrat Party had restored the use of the word, “God” and stating that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel -- back to their Democratic National Convention (DNC) platform, most likely due to pressure from those (voters) who were offended by such irreverent behavior.

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer made it clear he could not understand the Democrats’ decision to abandon the commitment to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “Given O’s troubles w Israel and Jewish vote, why on earth did Ds drop Jerusalem as capital from their platform?” he tweeted.

Endnotes http://www.examiner.com/article/democrats-restore-god-jerusalem-as-capital-of-israel-to-dnc-convention-platform