receives a sentence of life in prison. The court acquits a second defendant on all
charges.
February 6:Ariel Sharon, of the Likud Party, wins early elections to become Israel’s
next prime minister, soundly defeating the incumbent, Ehud Barak. Sharon prom-
ises tough action against the ongoing Palestinian violence.
May 21:The U.S.-appointed panel headed by former senator George J. Mitchell
reports that Israel and the Palestinians are both to blame for the current round of
violence, which began in September. The panel calls for “confidence-building” steps
by both sides, including a freeze in Jewish settlement in the occupied territories and
efforts to end Palestinian violence against Israelis. Prime Minister Sharon will reject
the call for a freeze on settlements.
June 8:Iranian president Mohammad Khatami is reelected with 77 percent of the vote,
but support among his core constituencies (reformers and the youth) appears to have
cooled since his first election in 1997.
June 13:Israelis and Palestinians agree to a cease-fire, mediated by CIA director George
Tenet, but both sides will soon violate it.
August 9:A Palestinian suicide bomber kills fourteen Israelis at a Jerusalem restaurant.
In response, the Israeli army occupies Orient House in East Jerusalem, an historic
building used by the Palestinian leadership.
August 13:The Israeli army reoccupies much of the West Bank Palestinian town of
Jenin, destroying a police station, in part of a broader Israeli offensive that will even-
tually involve the takeover of all or parts of several Palestinian towns, including
Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah, along with parts of the Gaza Strip.
September 9:Suicide bombers, posing as journalists, kill Afghan resistance leader
Ahmed Shah Massoud.
September 11:Nineteen members of al-Qaida commandeer four civilian airliners in the
United States and fly two of them into the World Trade Center towers in New
York City and a third into the Pentagon, outside Washington. The fourth plane
crashes in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people die in attacks, most of them as
the result of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
September 19:Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, in a speech to the nation, sug-
gests that he will agree to support an impending U.S. military campaign against the
Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistan had been the Taliban’s strongest supporter.
September 20:President George W. Bush tells Congress that the United States will
conduct a “war on terror” that will target all terrorist groups with a “global reach.”
He cites al-Qaida in particular.
October 7:U.S. and British armed forces launch an invasion of Afghanistan to oust the
Taliban government because of its support for al-Qaida. The invasion has crucial back-
ing from neighboring Pakistan and from the Northern Alliance, an Afghan militia.
November 13:The Northern Alliance captures Kabul. Although driven from power
and dispersed into the mountain ranges between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Tal-
iban are not destroyed as a fighting force. U.S. forces fail to capture either Taliban
leader Mullah Mohammad Omar or al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
November 21:President Bush warns that Iraq might give biological, chemical, or
nuclear weapons to terrorist groups. He does not provide evidence for this claim.
November 27:Anthony Zinni, appointed by President Bush as the U.S. envoy to the
Middle East, arrives in the region. He will soon depart after another upsurge of
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