1882 | As a result of the persecution of Jews in Russian and Romania a year earlier, the first large-scale immigration of Jewish settlers to Palestine takes place. |
| 1891 | Arab notables in Jerusalem send a petition to the Ottoman government in Constantinople demanding the prohibition of Jewish immigration to Palestine and Jewish land purchases |
| 1896 | Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, publishes his pamphlet The Jewish State, which argues that the "Jewish Problem" can be solved only by setting up a Jewish State in Palestine, or somewhere else, so that Jews can live freely without fear of persecution. A year later, Herzl organizes the first Zionist Congress in Basil, Switzerland, to promote immigration to Palestine. |
| 1908 | The first Palestinian Arabic newspapers appear: Al-Quds, in Jerusalem and Al-Asma'i in Jaffa. |
| 1916 | The Sykes-Picot Agreement is forged by Britain, France, and Russia, carving up the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in World War I. As part of the agreement, Britain wins effective control over the area of Palestine, and France over the area that is now Lebanon and Syria. |
| 1917 | The Balfour Declaration is issued by British Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour, endorsing the idea of establishing a "national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine. |
| 1920 | France decrees the formation of the state of Greater Lebanon, knitting together Mt. Lebanon with the regions of Beruit, Tripoli, Sidon, Tyre, Akkar, and the Bekaa Valley. |
| 1936-39 | Inspired by other Arab nationalist movements, the Arabs of Palestine revolt in an attemp to halt the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Both Jewish settlements and British army units come under attack. |
| 1943 | Lebanon's Christian and Muslim leaders agree on a "National Pact" for sharing power and balancing Lebanon's Western and Arab orientations, enabling their country to become a state independent of France. |
| 1947 | The United Nations votes to partition Palestine into two states, one for the Jews and one for the Palestinian Arabs, with Jerusalem to become an international enclave. |
| 1948 | Britain withdraws from Palestine. Instead of implementing the UN partition plan, the surrounding Arab states join with the local Palestinians to try to prevent the emergence of a Jewish state. Israel is established anyway; Jordan occupies the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip. |
| 1956 | Israel, joining forces with Britain and France to attack Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt, occupies most of the Sinai Peninsula. Under pressure from both the United States and the Soviet Union, Israel later withdraws. |
| 1958 | The first Lebanese civil war erupts and some 15,000 American troops are sent to Beruit to help stabilize the situation. |
| 1964 | Arab heads of state led by Nasser establish the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Cairo. |
| 1967 | Israel launches a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan as they are preparing for was against the Jewish state. The Six-Day War ends with Israel occupying the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. |
| 1969 | Yasir Arafat, leader of the al-Fatah guerilla organization, is elected chairman of the executive committee of the PLO. |
| 1970 | King Hussein's army defeats Arafat's PLO guerillas in a civil war for control of Jordan. |
| 1973 | Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack against Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. |
| 1974 | An Arab Summit conference in Rabat, Morocco, affirms that the PLO is the "sole and legitimate representative" of the Palestinian people. |
| 1975 | Civil war breaks out again in Lebanon. |
| 1977 | Egyptian President Anwar Sadat goes to Jerusalem, addresses the Israeli parliament, and offers full peace in exchange for a total Israeli withdrawl from Sinai. |
| 1979 | Egypt and Israel sign their peace treaty. |
| 1982/02 | The Syrian government massacres thousands of its own citizens while suppressing a Muslim rebellion launched from the town of Hama. |
| 1982/06-09 | Israel invades Lebanon. Phalangist militia leader Bashir Gemayel is assassinated after his election as Lebanon's President. Phalangist militiamen massacre hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beruit, while the camps are surrounded by Israeli forces. U.S. Marines arrive in Beruit as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. |
| 1983 | The American embassy and U.S. Marine headquarters in Beruit are blown up by suicide car bombers. |
| 1984/02 | The Lebanese government of President Amin Gemayel splinters after Shiite Muslims and Druse in West Beruit launch a revolt against the Lebanese army. President Reagan abandons hope of rebuilding Lebanon and orders Marines home. |
| 1984/09 | Israel's Labor and Likud parties join together in a national unity government after July elections end in a stalemate. |
| 1985 | Israel unilaterally withdraws its army from most of Lebanon |
| 1987/12 | The Palestinian uprising, or intifada, begins in the West Bank and Gaza Strip |
| 1988/07 | Jordan's King Hussein renounces his country's legal and administrative ties to the West Bank in response to PLO and Arab pressure and a Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories. |
| 1988/12 | The Reagan Administration opens a dialogue with the PLO after the PLO embraces UN Resolution 242 and 338, recognizes Israel's right to exist, and renounces terrorism. |
| 1989/11 | The Berlin Wall is opened. |
| 1990/06 | The Bush Administration severs its dialogue with the PLO after Arafat fails to discipline a radical PLO faction that has launched a terrorist raid against Israel. |
| 1990/08 | Iraq invades Kuwait. |
| 1991/01 | The America-led anti-Iraq coalition begins air war to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait. |
| 1991/01 | The first Iraqi Scud missles hit Israel. |
| 1991/10 | The United States and the Soviet Union convene the Madrid peace conference, which brings Israel into the first-ever simultaneous face-to-face talks with Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians. |
| 1991/12 | The Soviet Union is dissolved after a failed coup attempt by old-line Communists. |
| 1991/12 | Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinians begin first bilateral talks in Washington after Madrid. |
| 1992/11 | Bill Clinton defeats George Bush and is elected U.S. President. |
| 1992/12 | The secret "Oslo channel" between Israel and the PLO is opened after Arab-Israeli talks sponsored by the U.S. State Department prove futile. |
| 1993/08 | The Israeli-PLO "Declaration of Principles" for transferring Gaza and Jericho to Palestinian control, and for allowing over 1 million Palestinians to assume control over day-to-day affairs, is initialed in secret in Oslo and then revealed to the world. Americans are taken by surprise. |
| 1993/09 | Arafat and Rabin sign the "Declaration of Principles" at the White House and engage in their historic handshake. |
| 1994/05 | Israel and the PLO complete the details for Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho, and Israeli troops withdraw from those areas. |
| 1994/07 | King Hussein and Prime Minister Rabin seal and end to the forty-six-year state of war between their two countries at a Washington ceremony with President Clinton. They commit to signing a peace treaty. |
| 1994/08 | In an unprecedented move, King Hussein flies over Israel and Jerusalem with an Israeli fighter escort on his way home from the Washington summit. |
| 1994/10 | Farouk al-Sharaa, Syria's Foreign Minister, gives the first interview ever granted by a Syrian official to Israel Television. |
| 1994/10 | Hamas blows up an Israeli city bus in the heart of Tel-Aviv, killing twenty-two Israelis. |
| 1994/10 | Prime Minister Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdul-Salam al-Majali of Jordan sign a peace treaty at Arava on the Israeli-Jordanian border, with President Clinton in attendance. |
