The Allied Invasion of Europe - June 1944: The invasion of Normandy heralded the end of World War II and the end of the Holocaust, in which 6,000,000 Jewish men, women and children, one third of world Jewry, were exterminated.

The U.N. Partition of Palestine, 1947: In the wake of the Holocaust, the newly-established United Nations votes to partition Palestine, further shrinking the land promised to the Jews into what General Yigal Alon described as a series of "small, unlinked sausages." The Jews, desperate to rescue the survivors of the Shoah, reluctantly accepted this, but the Arab states rejected it.

1948: The Jewish State is Reborn: The new state is recognized by the UN (Great Britain abstains on the vote). The Arab states denounce the creation of Israel and make war on it. Despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered by well-armed Arabs, and the deliberate efforts by the West to halt delivery of arms to the fledgling state, Israel won.

Ingathering of the Exiles: The ingathering of refugees from Europe, as well as 800,000 Jews from Arab nations, was the epic rescue of the century. Hundreds of thousands of traumatized refugees found welcome, housing, instant citizenship and vocational training. This was conducted with the financial and political help of Diaspora Jews, who rallied to aid the new state. The Arabs continued their unrelenting terrorist attacks, their economic boycott and their crude anti-Israel rhetoric in the United Nations.

The Suez War, 1956: When Nasser threatened to close the Suez Canal, cutting off crucial shipping lanes to Western Europe, Israel, France and England launched a pre-emptive strike, seizing the canal and the Sinai Peninsula. Nasser offered to resign, but after the successful campaign, France and England acceded to United States and UN demands and withdrew, leaving Israel to bear the brunt of blame with a restored Nasser at the helm of Egypt. This was followed by escalating terrorism launched against Israel from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan.

1956-1967: Terrorism, Economic Boycott, and Threats of Annihilation: Israel suffered continual terrorism as bombs and bullets rained down from the Golan Heights and Arab "fedayeen" infiltrated civilian centers from Jordan, Gaza, and the Sinai peninsula. Airplanes, schools, hospitals, supermarkets, movie theatres--all Israeli civilians were targets.

The Six Day War of 1967: Egypt shut off Israeli access to the Straits of Tiran (its opening to Israeli shipping had been one of the few positive results of the 1956 Sinai campaign) as Israel's Arab neighbors, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan, prepared for an anticipated final onslaught against the Jewish State. In a preemptive, lightning strike, Israel captured the Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and liberated Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria from Jordanian occupation. In spite of UN demands (and helped by Arab rejection of any peace talks), Israel resisted international pressure to withdraw. Subsequently Jerusalem was unified, and a large-scale settlement program began under Labor government auspices, especially in Jerusalem, Gaza, the Sinai, and the Golan Heights. Morale in Israel reached its highest point. Economically, too, despite the burden imposed by its socialist economy, Israel was doing better than ever before.

1973 - The Yom Kippur War: Afraid to lauch a pre-emptive strike after Henry Kissinger threatened to withhold U.S. aid, Israel endured a sudden attack by Syria and Egypt, leading to serious initial reverses. The strategic depth offered by the Sinai peninsula and the Golan Heights proved crucial in saving Israel's civilian population from devastating casualties, although Kissinger held back U.S. weapons for ten days to keep Israel from winning a decisive victory. Israel finally won the war, when it repelled Syrian forces in the Golan, captured the Suez Canal, and surrounded Egypt's Third Army. American threats caused Israel to release Egypt's army and withdraw its forces. In the wake of the war, a grassroots movement, Gush Emunim, began to settle Judea and Samaria.

1977 - The Sinai Surrender: Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem, igniting hopes and activating Israel's pacifist left. In a failure of nerve, and in the face of mounting American pressure, Begin agreed to a full withdrawal from the Sinai, and to "autonomy" for the Arabs of Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. Autonomy was the blueprint for ultimate statehood for Arabs in the heartland of the Jewish people.

1982 - The Lebanon War: After a series of devastating terrorist attacks from Southern Lebanon, Israel invaded in an effort to root out PLO and Syrian terrorist operations. The attack was successful, particularly in bringing security to Israel's northern villages, but again, American pressure, the threats from Russia and Western Europe, and an orchestrated media attack by all the Western press, demoralized Israel, which agreed to a cease fire. Israel permitted Arafat and his PLO forces to sail for Tunisia unimpeded. The unrelenting media attack led for the first time to a significant erosion of support for Israel among diaspora Jews, especially in the United States.

1988-1995, Ingathering of the Soviet Jews: With the

[(Continued on p.5)]

Outpost               - 4 -               December 1999