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Chairman
of the Jewish Agency.
Louis A. Pincus and Arie
Dulzin.
Alternate
Chairman of the Executive of the WZO - Jewish Agency, American
Section: Charlotte Jacobson.
Treasurer
of the Jewish Agency: Arie
Dulzin.
Chairman
Settlement Department: Raanan Weitz.
Chairman
Youth Aliyah Department:Yosef Klarman.
Chairman
Immigration and Absorption: Pinhas Sapir, Mordechai Kirshblum.
New
immigrants in 1974: 31,979.
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January
11: US Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger begins shuttle talks with Israel and Egypt aimed
at attaining a separation of forces.
January
14: Fuel prices on Israel soar by 40% to 100%.
January
18 : Israel and Egypt sign the first Sinai disengagement
agreement after the shuttle diplomacy by Secretary of State
Henry
Kissinger. Israel withdraws from the Suez Canal's west bank
to a line 15 to 20 kilometers east of the canal. Egypt reoccupies
the east bank in a zone 8 to 10 kilometers wide; a UN buffer
zone is established between them. Egypt secretly agrees to clear
and reopen the Suez Canal and allow passage of nonmilitary cargoes
bound for Israel and to rebuild adjacent cities. Syria is not
a party to the agreement.
January
21: President Katzir
assigns the task of forming a new government to Golda
Meir.
February
2: The Syrians shell Israeli military positions and
civilian settlements on the Golan Heights.
February
3: Syrian Foreign Minister, A. H. Khaddam, announces
that Syria is carrying out a "continued and real war of
attrition. Its aim is "keeping Israel's reserves on active
duty and paralyzing its economy."
February
10: A grass
roots protest movement targets the political and military
establishment in the wake of the events of the Yom
Kippur War. One of its dominant figures is Motti
Ashkenazi, the commander of the fortification at the north
of the Suez Canal, the only fortification that did not fall
to the Egyptians.
February
25 : Israeli troops complete their withdrawal from
the west bank of the Suez Canal.
February:
U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger delivers a list to the
Israelis of their prisoners of war held by Syria. Israel later
declares that the receipt of this list fulfilled a condition
for holding disengagement talks with Syria.
March
10 : Prime Minister Golda
Meir and her new coalition cabinet, including Moshe
Dayan as defense minister, are sworn in. This government
is the shortest lived in the history of the State of Israel.
March
31: Israel is shocked by a statement from Washington,
that there is a "foreign legion" serving inside Syria
that consists of troops from Kuwait, Morocco and Saudi Arabia,
as well as a number of North Korean pilots, and an armored brigade
from Cuba with more than 100 tanks.
March:
The Gush
Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) movement is founded. It is
a religious organization whose purpose is to establish permanent
Jewish control over the territories occupied in 1967. Its spiritual
guide is Rabbi Zvi Judah Kook (1891-1982), son of the late chief
rabbi of Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935). It will
evolve into a politically active movement.
April
1 : The Agranat
Commission interim report on the Yom
Kippur War is released. It recommends the dismissal of Chief
of Staff David
Elazar,
intelligence chief Eliahu Zeira and his three deputies, and
the suspension of southern front commander Shmuel Gonen. It
absolves Defense Minister Moshe
Dayan and Prime Minister Golda
Meir of direct personal blame. Elazar resigns. The public
and press criticize the commission of absolving Dayan.
April
11: A government crisis ensues and Golda Meir resigns
as prime minister, bringing down the month-old coalition government.
April
11 : Palestinian terrorists infiltrate from Lebanon
and kill 16 civilians, mostly women and children, at Kiryat
Shmonah. Israel retaliates by raiding villages in Lebanon.
April
14: Motta
Gur is the new chief of staff.
April
26 : The Labor Party elects former Chief of Staff and
Ambassador to the U.S. Yitzhak
Rabin to form a new government.
May
15 : Three Palestinian terrorists infiltrate from Lebanon
into Ma'alot,
where they take about 120 schoolchildren hostage. Their demand
for the release of imprisoned Palestinian captives is rejected.
When Israeli troops storm the school, 20 children, 1 Israeli
soldier, and the 3 terrorists are killed. Israel retaliates
with jet raids on villages in Lebanon.
May:
Yitzhak Rabin forms a new Labor government. Notably absent are
Moshe
Dayan, Abba
Eban and Pinhas Sapir. Rabin is the first native-born Israeli
to lead his country. Shimon
Peres replaces Moshe Dayan as Minister of Defense.
May
31 : Israel and Syria sign a Golan Heights disengagement
agreement after one month of shuttle diplomacy. Israel returns
all territory captured in the Yom Kippur War plus the town of
Kuneitra, taken in 1967. The Syrians will renege on their agreement
to repopulate Kuneitra with civilians. Israel gains exchange
of prisoners of war. Buffer zones are established, separated
by a neutral zone occupied by UN forces.
June:
Several Palestinian terrorists infiltrate from Lebanon and attack
Kibbutz Shamir, in Upper Galilee, killing three women. Five
days later, infiltrating by sea, three Palestinian terrorists
attack a family in a Nahariya apartment house. A mother and
two children are killed, as well as an Israeli soldier. Israel
retaliates with air attacks on Lebanon.
June
12-24: UN President Richard
Nixon visits the Middle East, including Israel.
June
25 : Israeli troops complete their withdrawal from
the Golan Heights. An exchange of 56 prisoners of war for 382
Arabs, including 10 Iraqis and 5 Moroccans, takes place.
July
10: The Agranat Commission submits a second interim
report.
July
25: Several hundred Jewish settlers arrive at Sebastia
in the West Bank with the intention of erecting living quarters
without the approval of the government. A confrontation develops
with IDF soldiers. The incident ends on July 29 with the forcible
evacuation of the settlers.
August
18 : Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, Greek patriarchal
vicar in East Jerusalem, is arrested for smuggling arms into
Israel for use by terrorists.
August,
September: Confrontations with the PLO continue on
the Lebanese border and in "Fatah-land", and area
of southern Lebanon.
September:
A TWA airliner en route from Israel to New York crashes into
the Ionian Sea, killing all 88 aboard. In January 1975, the
U.S. will confirm the crash was caused by a bomb explosion.
October
5: Zalman
Shazar, Israel's third president, dies.
October
26-29: The Arab Summit at Rabat, including King
Hussein of Jordan, recognizes the PLO
as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian
people" and issues a declaration calling for the creation
of an independent Palestinian state. The manifestations of Palestinian
extremism and support in the arab world feed the mood in Israel
that gives increasing support for the settlement activity on
the West Bank, and encourages the opposition parties of the
Right in their determination to come to power after 36 years
of Labor governments.
November
8: The Israeli Lira us devalued from IL 4,20 to IL
6.00 to the dollar. The government cancels subsidies on basic
commodities and temporarily bans car imports. Protests are mounted
throughout the country.
November
13 : Yasser Arafat addresses
the UN General Assembly. Over 100,000 Israel supporters rally
in New York to protest Arafat's appearance at the UN.
November
19 : Three Palestinian terrorists shoot their way into
a Beit Shean apartment house, killing 4 and wounding 23 civilians.
November
22: The UN General Assembly recognizes the PLO as the
sole spokesman for the Palestine Arabs, grants the PLO observer
status at the UN, and affirms the Palestinian
right to national independence and sovereignty.
November:
The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's
(UNESCO) Commission for Social Sciences, Humanities and Culture
votes to invite the UNESCO director general to withhold assistance
to Israel for Israel's persistent alteration of the historical
features of Jerusalem. Later, UNESCO votes to exclude Israel
from the European regional group, making Israel the only member
not part of a regional group. A storm of protest ensues, with
the US Congress threatening to withhold contributions to UNESCO
until the body rescinds its anti-Israel measures.
November:
Russian ballet dancers Valery and Galina
Panova make their debut in Israel. They were granted permission
to emigrate to Israel, as the Soviet Union responds to world
opinion.
December:
Archbishop Hilarion Capucci is sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment
by an Israeli court for smuggling arms into Israel for use by
terrorists.
Aharon
Appelfeld, Israeli novelist, writes "Badenheim 1939",
which depicts the false tranquility of European Jewry before
World War II.
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August:
Sylva
Zalmanson, Soviet dissident jailed in 1970 for her part
in the plot to hijack an airliner from Leningrad to reach Israel,
is freed and leaves for Israel.
October:
Oscar
Schindler, a German Catholic who saved more than 1,500 Jews
during the Holocaust by employing them in his factory, dies.
More than 400 Jews whom he saved attend his funeral at the Latin
Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Mel
Brooks produces "Blazing
Saddles", a parody of American western films. It is
described by Brooks as a "Jewish western with a black hero."
The
publication of "The
Journal of Jewish Art" edited by Bezalel
Narkiss, Israeli scholar of Jewish art, begins under the
auspices of Spertus College, Chicago.
Abraham
David Beame becomes the first Jewish mayor of New York.
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