September 24:Israel says it will move civilian settlers into East Jerusalem and the Golan
Heights.
November 22:The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 242 calling for peace in
the Middle East based on the exchange of land captured by Israel in the June war
for peace with its Arab neighbors.
1968
January:The British government announces its intention to withdraw its remaining
military posts from the Persian Gulf region by 1971.
April 10:Jewish activists attempt to establish a settlement in the Palestinian city of
Hebron. This leads to a prolonged political battle in which the activists will ulti-
mately prevail.
July 1–18:The Palestine National Council adopts the Palestine National Charter,
expressing a Palestinian national identity and calling for “armed struggle” to “liber-
ate” Palestine from Israeli control.
July 17:The Baath Party returns to power in Iraq in a bloodless coup. Ahmad Has-
san al-Bakr is named president and prime minister on July 31; Saddam Hussein is
a senior member of the Revolutionary Command Council, the ruling body.
1969
February 1–4:At a meeting in Cairo, the Fatah faction gains control of the Palestine
National Council, and its leader Yasir Arafat becomes chairman of the PLO Exec-
utive Committee. He will remain the Palestinian leader until his death in 2004.
March:Egyptian attacks on Israeli positions signal the start of a “war of attrition” that
will last until July 1970.
July 3:The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 267, with the strongest wording
yet censuring Israel for unilateral actions changing the legal status of Jerusalem.
August 3:Israel announces that it will keep the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the
Sinai Peninsula. Left unclear are Israeli intentions toward the occupied West Bank.
September 1:Libya’s King Idris is ousted in a coup. Army officer Muammar al-Qadhafi,
head of the Revolutionary Command Council, emerges as the leading figure in the
new government.
October 22:Nine emirates on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula announce the
formation of the Federation of Persian Gulf Emirates.
October 28:The new government in Libya orders the United States to withdraw from
Wheelus Air Force Base by the end of 1970. The United States will complete the
withdrawal by June 1970.
December 9:U.S. secretary of state William Rogers unveils a peace plan calling for
Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab lands in exchange for peace treaties with its
neighbors.
December 12:Israel rejects the Rogers plan.
1970
January 21: Renewed fighting breaks out between Israel and some of its Arab
neighbors.
August 7:A U.S.-sponsored cease-fire in the “war of attrition” between Israel and its
Arab neighbors goes into effect.
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