May 17:The right-wing Likud Party wins in Israeli elections, ending the domination of the
Labor Party since 1948. Likud leader Menachem Begin will become prime minister.
November 9:Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat tells the National Assembly that “I
am ready to go to the Israeli parliament” to discuss peace.
November 17:Sadat accepts an invitation from Israeli prime minister Begin to address
the Knesset in Jerusalem.
November 19:Sadat arrives in Israel, becoming the first Arab leader to visit the coun-
try officially since its creation in 1948.
November 21:A day after addressing the Knesset, Sadat holds a joint news conference
with Israeli prime minister Begin, during which both men express a desire for peace.
November 26:Sadat invites leaders of other Arab countries, Israel, the United States,
and the Soviet Union to attend a peace conference in Cairo. Israel and the United
States accept, but the others refuse.
December 2:Arab leaders, meeting in Libya, denounce Egypt’s peace efforts.
December 5:Egypt severs diplomatic relations with Algeria, Iraq, Libya, South Yemen,
and Syria.
December 14:Representatives from Egypt, Israel, the United States, and the United
Nations meet in Cairo to prepare for resumption of long-stalled peace talks in
Geneva.
December 25:Begin and Sadat meet in Ismailia, Egypt, but reach no substantive
agreements.
1978
January:Iranian security forces kill several dozen student protesters in the religious
center of Qom, sparking a series of protests that escalate throughout the year.
March 14:Israel conducts its largest invasion to date of southern Lebanon in retalia-
tion for a Palestinian cross-border raid that killed thirty Israelis. Israel will withdraw
by June 13 but leave the territory it had occupied under the control of a pro-Israeli
Lebanese military commander.
April 27:Afghan president Daoud is ousted in a communist coup. A communist gov-
ernment headed by Muhammad Taraki will order numerous modernization pro-
grams that alienate conservative forces, who launch a widespread rebellion.
August 13:An estimated 200 people are killed when a bomb destroys a nine-story
building in Beirut housing the Fatah faction of the PLO and the Iraqi Palestine
Liberation Front (a rival group).
September 8:The Iranian military fires on antigovernment demonstrators in Tehran,
killing several hundred people.
September 17:After a series of meetings with President Jimmy Carter at Camp
David, Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar
al-Sadat sign two documents: a Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty
Between Egypt and Israel and a Framework for Peace in the Middle East. Nego-
tiations on the text of an Egypt-Israel treaty continue all through the rest of 1978
and into early 1979.
October 31:Thousands of Iranian oil workers go on strike to protest the government
crackdown on protests by students and others.
November 6:The shah imposes martial law in Iran in a failed attempt to halt the
protests.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE EAST, 1914–2007 667