- published: 03 Jan 2009
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- author: ashopesfade
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Al-Bireh
al-Bireh, al-Birah or el-Bira (Arabic: البيرة) is a Palestinian city adjacent to Ramallah in the central West Bank, 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) north of Jerusalem. It is situated on the central ridge running through the West Bank and is 860 meters (2,820 ft) above sea level, covering an area of 22.4 square kilometers (8.6 sq mi). Its name means “Water Well,” and is believed to be derived from the biblical Beeroth.
Because of its location al-Bireh served as an economic crossroad between the north and south, along the caravan route between Jerusalem and Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of approximately 39,538 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
Edward Robinson identified Al-Bireh as the biblical Be'eroth, although this has been challenged by other scholars. It is mentioned by Saint Jerome, who described it as "a large village on the way to Emmaus (Imwas), 7 miles from Jerusalem."
The Crusaders captured and named the town Birra. They built a castle, church and hospice there. The latter two buildings were built by the Templars in 1146 and belonged to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Ayyubids under Saladin drove away the Crusaders from Birra when they reconquered interior Palestine after the Battle of Hittin in 1187, and completely demolished the town. Yaqut al-Hamawi mentions seeing the ruins a few times during his travels in the area. Nearing the end of Ayyubid rule, in 1280, the modern town of al-Bireh was an inhabited village. The Ayyubids built a mosque in the town dedicated to Umar ibn al-Khattab adjacent to the church ruins. Until 1917, the city served as a political and administrative center for the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed]
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Algeria
Coordinates: 28°N 2°E / 28°N 2°E / 28; 2
Algeria
i/ælˈdʒɪəriə/ (Arabic: الجزائر, al-Jazā'ir; Berber: ⴷⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبية, al-Jumhūriyyah al-Jazāʾiriyyah ad-Dīmuqrāṭiyyah ash-Shaʿbiyyah), also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a large country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.
When referring to its land area, Algeria is the largest country in Africa, Maghreb and the Arab World. It is also the largest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea; it is also the tenth-largest country in the world. The country is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocco, in the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Its size is almost 2,400,000 square kilometres (926,645 sq mi) with an estimated population of 37.1 million as of 2012. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC and the United Nations. The country is also a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union.
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Amman
Amman (Arabic: عمان
/ɑːˈmɑːn/; ʿAmmān; Rabat Ammon) is the capital and largest city of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost 6.5 million by 2025 due to constant and rapid immigration. The recent economic growth experienced in Amman is unmatched by any other Arab city except those located in the Gulf. Amman is also the administrative seat of the homonymous governorate. Amman is also ranked a Gamma global city on the World city index.
Amman was named one of the MENA's best cities according to economic, labour, environmental, and socio-cultural factors. Amman is among the most popular locations for multinational corporations to set up their regional offices, alongside Doha and only behind Dubai. Furthermore, it is expected that in the next 10 years these three cities will capture the largest share of multinational corporation activity in the region. It is a major tourist destination in the region and the capital is especially popular among Gulf tourists. Amman is considered one of the richest and most Western-oriented cities in the Middle East.
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Arab League
The Arab League (Arabic: الجامعة العربية al-Jāmiʻa al-ʻArabiyya), officially called the League of Arab States (Arabic: جامعة الدول العربية Jāmiʻat ad-Duwal al-ʻArabiyya), is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia (Middle East). It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1949), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. The Arab League currently has 22 members (including Syria, whose participation was suspended in November 2011). The main goal of the league is to "draw closer the relations between member States and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries."
Through institutions such as the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League's Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU), the Arab League facilitates political, economic, cultural, scientific and social programs designed to promote the interests of the Arab world. It has served as a forum for the member states to coordinate their policy positions, to deliberate on matters of common concern, to settle some Arab disputes, and to limit conflicts such as the 1958 Lebanon crisis. The League has served as a platform for the drafting and conclusion of many landmark documents promoting economic integration. One example is the Joint Arab Economic Action Charter which sets out the principles for economic activities in the region.
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Battle of Jenin
The Battle of Jenin (April 1–11, 2002) took place in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered the camp, and other areas under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, during the Second Intifada, as part of Operation Defensive Shield. The Jenin camp was targeted after Israel alleged that it had "served as a launch site for numerous terrorist attacks against both Israeli civilians and Israeli towns and villages in the area."
The IDF employed infantry, commando forces, and assault helicopters. Palestinian militants had prepared for a fight, booby trapping the camp, and after an Israeli column walked into an ambush, the army began to rely more heavily on the use of armored bulldozers to clear out booby traps laid inside the camp. On April 11, Palestinian militants began to surrender. Israeli troops began withdrawing from the camp on April 18.
Jenin remained sealed throughout the invasion and claims of a massacre were circulated in the mass media by Palestinian officials. Stories of hundreds or thousands of civilians being killed in their homes as they were demolished spread throughout international media. Subsequent investigations found no evidence to substantiate claims of a massacre, and official totals from Palestinian and Israeli sources confirmed between 52 and 54 Palestinians, mostly gunmen, and 23 IDF soldiers as having been killed in the fighting.
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Battle of Karameh
The Battle of Karameh (Arabic: معركة الكرامة) was fought on March 21, 1968 in the town of Karameh, Jordan, between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and combined forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian Army. It was planned by Israel as two concurrent raids on PLO camps, one in Karameh and one in the distant village of Safi — codenamed Operation Inferno (Hebrew: מבצע תופת) and Operation Asuta (מבצע אסותא), respectively — but the former turned into a full-scale battle.
The attacks were in reprisal for a series of raids by the PLO against Israel, mostly by the Fatah faction, which culminated in an Israeli school bus hitting a mine. Israel assumed that the Jordanian Army would ignore the invasion, but the latter fought alongside the Palestinians and inflicted heavy losses upon the Israeli forces. The Israelis withdrew at the end of a day's battle, having destroyed most of the Karameh camp and taken hundreds of prisoners.
Both sides declared victory. On a tactical level, the battle did end in Israel's favor and the purpose of the mission was achieved. However, for the Palestinians it became a mythological victory that established their national claims. At first, the battle was seen as unifying the Hashemite Jordan with its many Palestinian refugees and residents, as King Hussein had proclaimed "I think we may reach a position where we are all fedayeen." After the battle however, the PLO's strength began to grow, and Palestinians spoke openly of taking over Jordan as part of Palestine. This situation eventually led to Black September in Jordan, in 1970.
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Battle of Nablus
The Battle of Nablus was fought from April 5 to April 8, 2002 in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian forces, as part of Operation Defensive Shield in the Second Intifada. It resulted in an Israeli victory.
Of all the West Bank towns, the IDF General Staff was particularly concerned about the expected resistance in Nablus, and especially in its Casbah. Hamas and Fatah had launched dozens of suicide bombers. Despite a previous successful raid on Balata, the General Staff still estimated hundreds of armed men would be entrenched in the city, causing the IDF heavy casualties. Two days after the start of Defensive Shield, an extension of the operation north of Ramallah, to Nablus and Jenin, was approved. Originally, the mission was given to a reserve division, but was later transferred to the more experienced West Bank Division. The division's commander, Brigadier General Yitzhak Gershon, received two regular infantry brigades, the Paratroopers Brigade and the Golani Brigade, along with a reserve armored division. A private contractor allowed the commander of the Paratroopers 890th battalion to use a construction site for training for three days. There was a near-mutiny among one reserve armored platoon, who claimed they were not properly trained for urban warfare. High ranking armor officers eventually talked them into joining the operation.
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Beirut
Coordinates: 33°53′13″N 35°30′47″E / 33.88694°N 35.51306°E / 33.88694; 35.51306
Beirut (Arabic: بيروت Bayrūt, Greek: Βηρυττός, Latin: Berytus, French: Beyrouth, Hebrew: ביירות Beyrut) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. As there has been no recent population census, the exact population is unknown; estimates in 2007 ranged from slightly less than 1 million to slightly more than 2 million. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport. The Beirut metropolitan area consists of the city and its suburbs. The first mention of this metropolis is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters, dating from the 15th century BC. The city has been inhabited continuously since then.
Beirut is Lebanon's seat of government and plays a central role in the Lebanese economy, with many banks and corporations based in its city centre, Hamra Street, Rue Verdun and Ashrafieh. The city is the focal point of the region's cultural life, renowned for its press, theatres, cultural activities and nightlife. After the destructive Lebanese Civil War, Beirut underwent major reconstruction, and the redesigned historic city centre, marina, pubs and nightlife districts have once again made it a tourist attraction. Beirut was named the top place to visit by The New York Times in 2009, and as one of the ten liveliest cities in the world by Lonely Planet in the same year.
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Beit Sahour
Beit Sahour (Arabic: بيت ساحور pronounced Bayt Saahoor (help·info)) (lit. Place of the Night Watch) is a Palestinian town east of Bethlehem under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority. The population of 12,367, is Christian and Muslim.
There are two enclosures in the eastern part of Beit Sahour which are claimed by different Christian denominations to be the actual 'Shepherds Field': one belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church and the other, the Catholic site, to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.
The name Beit Sahur belongs to two places in the vicinity: Beit Sahur al-Atiqah ("ancient Beit Sahur") and Beit Sahur an-Nasara ("Beit Sahur of the Christians"). 16th century Arab geographer Mujir al-Din mentions the former in a biography of a Muslim scholar Sha'ban bin Salim bin Sha'ban, who died in the town in 1483 at the age of 105. The former was noted by French geographer Guerin as being 40 minutes away from Jerusalem, a short distance south of the Qidron Valley.
Beit Sahur al-Atiqah surrounded the tomb of Sheikh Ahmad al-Sahuri, a local saint to whom the local Arab tribe of al-Sawahirah attribute their name. The Sawahirah originate from the Hejaz and entered Palestine through al-Karak. The Survey of Western Palestine describes the town as "Ruins of a village with wells and a mukam." The modern Beit Sahur was described by the same survey as "sort of a suburb of Bethlehem, situated on the same ridge, with the broad plateau east of it known as the 'shepherd's plain'".
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Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) is a former city gate, rebuilt in the late 18th century as a neoclassical triumphal arch, and now one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation). During the post-war Partition of Germany the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall, and the area around the gate featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989.
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Cairo
Cairo ( /ˈkaɪroʊ/ KYE-roh; Arabic: القاهرة al-Qāhira, literally "The Vanquisher" or "The Conqueror"), is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Located near the Nile Delta, it was founded in the year 969 A.D. making it 1,043 years old. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century AD.; but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the ancient cities of Memphis, Giza and Fustat which are nearby to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza.
Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Maṣr (Arabic: مصر), the Arabic pronunciation of the name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab World, as well as the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, and the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.
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Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands ( /ˈkeɪmən/ or /keɪˈmæn/) is a British Overseas Territory located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica. The Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is a major world offshore financial centre.
The Cayman Islands were first logged as sighted by Christopher Columbus on 10 May 1503 during his fourth and final voyage to the New World. He named the islands Las Tortugas after the large number of sea turtles observed there. The first recorded English visitor to the islands was Sir Francis Drake in 1586. He subsequently named the islands "Cayman" after caiman, a Neo-Taino word for "alligator".
The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century. While there is no archaeological evidence for an indigenous people on the islands, a variety of settlers from various backgrounds made their home on the islands, including pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, and deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( /ˈkoʊpənheɪɡən/ or /ˈkoʊpənhɑːɡən/; Danish: København pronounced [kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn] (
listen), Latin: Hafnia) is the capital of Denmark and its most populous city, with an urban population of 1,213,822 (as of 1 January 2012 (2012 -01-01)[update]) and a metropolitan population of 1,935,746 (as of 1 April 2012 (2012 -04-01)[update]). With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region. Within this region, Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö are growing into a combined metropolitan area. Copenhagen is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager.
First documented in the 11th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the beginning of the 15th century. During the 17th century, under the reign of Christian IV, it became a significant regional centre.
Copenhagen is a major regional centre of culture, business, media, and science, as indicated by several international surveys and rankings (see International rankings below). Life science, information technology and shipping are important sectors, and research & development plays a major role in the city's economy. Its strategic location and excellent infrastructure, with the largest airport in Scandinavia,Kastrup, located 14 minutes by train from the city centre, have made it a regional hub and a popular location for regional headquarters and conventions.
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Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, (i/ˈkjuːbə/; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] ( listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. To the north of Cuba lies the United States (140 km or 90 mi away) and the Bahamas, Mexico is to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic are to the southeast.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on and claimed the island now occupied by Cuba, for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba remained a territory of Spain until the Spanish–American War ended in 1898, and gained formal independence from the U.S. in 1902. A fragile democracy, increasingly dominated by radical politics eventually evolved, solidified by the Cuban Constitution of 1940, but was definitely quashed in 1952 by former president Fulgencio Batista, and an authoritarian regime was set up, intensifying and catalyzing already rampant corruption, political repression and crippling economic regulations.Batista was ousted in January 1959 by the July 26 movement, and a new administration under Fidel Castro established, which had by 1965 evolved into a single-party state under the revived Communist Party of Cuba, which holds power to date.
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Damascus
Damascus (Arabic: دِمَشق / ALA-LC: Dimashq; commonly known in Syria as al-Sham (Arabic: الشام / al-Shām), and as the City of Jasmine (Arabic: مدينة الياسمين / Madīnat al-Yāsmīn), is the capital and the second largest city of Syria. Both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious center of the Levant. The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 (2009 est.).
Located in southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area of 2.6 million people (2004). Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea-level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate due to the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.
First settled in the 2nd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. During Ottoman rule, the city decayed completely while maintaining a certain cultural prestige. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries. Damascus was chosen as the 2008 Arab Capital of Culture.
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Egypt
Egypti/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
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El-Sakakini
El-Sakakini (Arabic: السكاكيني; also spelled El-Sakkakini) is a small district (quarter) in Cairo, Egypt that neighbours the El Zaher and Abbaseya districts.
Sakakini was originally part of El Zaher, but it was named after a wealthy, famous, family of Syrian origin, whose patriarch (head of the family), Count Gabriel Habib Sakakini Pasha (1841–1923) had built a palace and a church in the area in 1897. In addition, Sakakini Pasha, is known to have established the Roman Catholic Patriarchate in Faggala and the Roman Catholic Cemetery in Old Cairo.
Coordinates: 30°03′N 31°16′E / 30.05°N 31.26°E / 30.05; 31.26
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Erez Crossing
Coordinates: 31°33′29.52″N 34°32′41.42″E / 31.5582°N 34.5448389°E / 31.5582; 34.5448389 The Erez Crossing (Hebrew: מעבר ארז) is a pedestrian/cargo terminal on the Israeli Gaza Strip barrier. It is located in the northern end of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Israel.
It is part of a complex formerly including the Erez Industrial Park.
The crossing is currently restricted to Arab residents under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and to Egyptian nationals or international aid officials only.
Israel's Highway 4 ends at the crossing. Until the early 1970s the rail line which connected Israel and Gaza also passed through Erez Crossing. Nowadays the railway in the Gaza Strip is dismantled and on the Israeli side, Israel Railways' active rail line ends about 4.5 km north of the crossing, though in the future it may be re-extended to the crossing to provide cargo service to the Gaza Strip.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Gaza
Gaza (Arabic: غزة Ġazzah, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈɣazːa]), also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories. Inhabited since at least the 15th-century BCE, Gaza has been dominated by several different peoples and empires throughout its history. The Philistines made it a part of their pentapolis after the Ancient Egyptians had ruled it for nearly 350 years. Under the Romans and later the Byzantines, Gaza experienced relative peace and its port flourished. In 635 CE, it became the first city in Palestine to be conquered by the Rashidun army and quickly developed into a centre of Islamic law. However, by the time the Crusaders invaded the city in the late 11th-century, it was in ruins. In later centuries, Gaza experienced several hardships—from Mongol raids to floods and locusts, reducing it to a village by the 16th-century when it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. During the first half of Ottoman rule, the Ridwan dynasty controlled Gaza and under them the city went through an age of great commerce and peace.
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Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (Arabic: قطاع غزة Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah, IPA: [qitˤaːʕ ɣazza]) lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, within the Middle East (at 31 25 N, 34 20 E). The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest, 11km long, and Israel on the east and north, 51km long. It is about 41 kilometres (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres (4–7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometres (140 sq mi). It has a 40 km coastline onto the Mediterranean Sea, but has no maritime claims due to Israeli administration. The territory takes its name from Gaza-city, its main city and administrative center.
The Gaza Strip has a temperate climate, with mild winters, and dry and hot summers, subject to drought. The terrain is flat or rolling, with dunes near the coast. The highest point is Abu 'Awdah (Joz Abu 'Auda), at 105 metres above sea level. Main resources are arable land (about a third of the strip is irrigated), and recently discovered natural gas. Environmental issues include desertification; salination of fresh water; sewage treatment; water-borne disease; soil degradation; and depletion and contamination of underground water resources.
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Green Line (Israel)
Green Line refers to the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighbours (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Green Line is also used to mark the line between Israel and the territories captured in the Six-Day War, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula (the latter has since been returned to Egypt as part of the 1979 peace treaty). The name derives from the green ink used to draw the line on the map while the talks were going on.
The Green Line is not an international or permanent border. Professor Stephen M. Schwebel, at the time a deputy legal advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Legal Adviser Office (1961–1981), wrote in the American Journal of International Law (1970) that "...modifications of the 1949 armistice lines among those States within former Palestinian territory are lawful (if not necessarily desirable), whether those modifications are...'insubstantial alterations required for mutual security' or more substantial alterations - such as recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem." In a footnote, he wrote: "It should be added that the armistice agreements of 1949 expressly preserved the territorial claims of all parties and did not purport to establish definitive boundaries between them."
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Hadera
Hadera (Hebrew: חֲדֵרָה, Ḥadera; Arabic: الخضيرة, Al-Ḫuḍayraḧ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel approximately 45 kilometers (28.0 mi) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 kilometers (4 mi) of the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain. The city has a population of 80,200 which includes a high proportion of immigrants arriving since 1990, notably from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union.
Hadera was established in 1891 as a farming colony by members of the Zionist group, Hovevei Zion, from Lithuania and Latvia. By 1948, it was a regional center with a population of 11,800. It was declared a city in 1952. With an area of jurisdiction of 53,000 dunams.
Several projects are under way to improve the quality of life in Hadera, including regenerating the city center, constructing a hi-tech business park, and building the world's largest desalination plant.
Hadera was founded in 1891, in the early days modern Zionism by Eastern European immigrants from Lithuania and Latvia on land purchased by Yehoshua Hankin, known as the Redeemer of the Valley. The land was purchased from Christian effendi Selim Khuri. This was the largest purchase of land in Palestine by a Zionist group, although the land was of low quality and mostly swampland. The only inhabitants prior to the purchase were a few families raising water buffaloes and selling reeds. The town may derive its name from the Arabic word khadra, meaning "green" in reference to the wild weeds which covered the marshes on which the town is built.
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Haifa
Haifa (Hebrew: חֵיפָה, Hebrew pronunciation: [χeiˈfä], Ḥefa; Arabic: حيفا Ḥayfā) is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher. Together these areas form a contiguous urban area home to nearly 600,000 residents which makes up the inner core of the Haifa metropolitan area. Haifa is a mixed city: 90% are Jews, more than a quarter of whom are immigrants from the former Soviet Union, while 10% are Arabs, predominantly of the Christian religion. It is also home to the Bahá'í World Centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, the history of settlement at the site spans more than 3,000 years. The earliest known settlement in the vicinity was Tell Abu Hawam, a small port city established in the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE). In the 3rd century CE, Haifa was known as a dye-making center. Over the centuries, the city has changed hands: It has been conquered and ruled by the Phoenicians, Persians, Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, British, and the Israelis. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the city has been governed by the Haifa Municipality.
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Hanoi
Hanoi (Hà Nội; listen), is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam. It was eclipsed by Huế during the Nguyen dynasty as the capital of Vietnam, but Hanoi served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 to 1954. From 1954 to 1976, it was the capital of North Vietnam.
The city is located on the right bank of the Red River. Hanoi is located at 1,760 km (1,090 mi) north of Ho Chi Minh City.
October 2010 officially marked 1000 years since the establishment of the city.
Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake, in central Hanoi
Emperor Lý Thái Tổ made Thăng Long (Hanoi) his capital in the 11th century
Colonial Hanoi
Modern Hanoi
Hanoi has been inhabited since at least 3000 BC. One of the first known permanent settlements is the Co Loa citadel (Cổ Loa) founded around 200 BC.
Hanoi has had many names throughout history, all of them of Sino-Vietnamese origin. During the Chinese domination of Vietnam, it was known first as Long Biên, then Tống Bình (Chinese: 宋平, Sòngpíng, "Song Peace") and Long Đỗ (Chinese: 龍肚, Lóngdù, "Dragonbelly"). In 866, it was turned into a citadel and named Đại La (Chinese: 大羅, Dàluó, "Big Net").
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Hebron
Hebron (Arabic: الخليل (help·info) al-Ḫalīl; Hebrew: חֶבְרוֹן (help·info), Standard Hebrew: Ḥevron, Tiberian: Ḥeḇrôn ISO 259-3: Ḥebron), is located in the southern West Bank, 30 km (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters (3,050 ft) above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to an estimated 175,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter. The city is most notable for containing the traditional burial site of the biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs and is therefore considered the second-holiest city in Judaism after Jerusalem. The city is also venerated by Muslims for its association with Abraham and was traditionally viewed as one of the "four holy cities of Islam."
Hebron is a busy hub of West Bank trade, responsible for roughly a third of the area's gross domestic product, largely due to the sale of marble from quarries. It is locally well known for its grapes, figs, limestone, pottery workshops and glassblowing factories, and is the location of the major dairy product manufacturer, al-Junaidi. The old city of Hebron is characterized by narrow, winding streets, flat-roofed stone houses, and old bazaars. The city is home to Hebron University and the Palestine Polytechnic University.
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Iran
Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
Iran (i/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.
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Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ or
i/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: 
جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.
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Israel
Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35
Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.
Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.[neutrality is disputed] Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
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Jabalya refugee camp
Jabalia also Jabalya (Arabic: جباليا) is a Palestinian city located 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) north of Gaza City. It is under the jurisdiction of the North Gaza Governorate, in the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Jabalia had a population of 82,877 in mid-year 2006. The Jabalia refugee camp is adjacent to the city to the North. The city is currently ruled by a Hamas administration.
A large cemetery dating to the 8th century BC was found near Jabalia. The workmanship indicates that the Christian community in Gaza was still very much in existence in the early Islamic era of rule in Palestine, and capable of artistic achievements. The remains of the pavement spared by the iconoclasts show depictions of wild game, birds and country scenes. The late dating of the mosaic pavement proves that the intervention of the iconoclasts, after 750, is later than previously thought and is associated with Abbasid conservatives.
While working on the Salah ad-Din Road, laborers accidentally uncovered a monastery from the Byzantine period. The site was excavated by the Palestinian Department of Antiquities. Now the stunning Byzantine mosaics of the monastery are covered with sand to shield them from erosion caused by the direct impact of the winter rain.
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Jenin
Jenin (Arabic: جنين (help·info) Ǧanīn, Hebrew: ג'נין) is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate and is a major agricultural center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, the city had a population of 39,004 Jenin is under the administration of the Palestinian Authority.
Jenin was known in ancient times as the village of "Ein-Jenin" or "Tel Jenin". Tell Jenin, is located at the center of what is today Jenin's business district. The word "'ayn" means "water spring" in Arabic and the word "Jenin" might be related to the Arabic word جنّة (janna), which means "garden".[citation needed] The arabicized name "Jenin" ultimately derives from this ancient name. The association of Jenin with the biblical city of Ein-Ganim was recognized by Ishtori Haparchi.[citation needed]
Jenin overlooks both the Jordan Valley to the east and the Jezreel Valley (known in Arabic as "Marj Ibn Amer") to the north, and from the south it connects to the Samaria mountains.
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Jericho
Jericho ( /ˈdʒɛrɪkoʊ/; Arabic: أريحا ʼArīḥā [ʔæˈriːħɑː] ( listen)); Hebrew: יְרִיחוֹ Yeriẖo [jeʁiˈħo] ( listen) is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route 16 kilometres (10 mi) north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently inhabited site on earth. It is also believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Described in the Old Testament as the "City of Palm Trees", copious springs in and around Jericho have made it an attractive site for human habitation for thousands of years. It is known in Judeo-Christian tradition as the place of the Israelites' return from bondage in Egypt, led by Joshua, the successor to Moses. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years (9000 BCE), almost to the very beginning of the Holocene epoch of the Earth's history.
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Jerusalem
Jerusalem ( /dʒəˈruːsələm/; Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם Yerushaláyim ; Arabic: القُدس al-Quds and/or أورشليم Ûrshalîm) is the capital of Israel, though not internationally recognized as such, and one of the oldest cities in the world. It is located in the Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea. If the area and population of East Jerusalem is included, it is Israel's largest city in both population and area, with a population of 801,000 residents over an area of 125.1 km2 (48.3 sq mi). Jerusalem is also a holy city to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent. Today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond its boundaries.
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Jordan
Jordan ( /ˈdʒɔr.dən/;Arabic: اَلأُرْدُنّ, Al-'Urdunn), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Arabic: اَلمَمْلَكَة اَلأُرْدُنِيَّة اَلهَاشِمِيَّة), Al-Mamlakah Al-Urdaniyyah Al-Hashimiyyah) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing control of the Dead Sea with the latter. Jordan's only port is at its south-western tip, at the Gulf of Aqaba, which is shared with Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Over half of Jordan is covered by the Arabian Desert. However, the western part of Jordan is arable land and forests. Jordan is part of the Fertile Crescent. The capital city is Amman. According to the CIA World Factbook, Jordan has the second highest life expectancy in the Middle East, after Israel. The average life expectancy is one position behind the United Kingdom, although the age remains exactly the same (80.05 years).
The precursor to modern Jordan was founded in 1921 as the Hashemite Emirate, and it was recognized by the League of Nations as a state under the British mandate in 1922 known as The Emirate of Transjordan. In 1946, Jordan became an independent sovereign state officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. After capturing the West Bank area of Cisjordan during the 1948–49 war with Israel, Abdullah I took the title King of Jordan and Palestine, and he officially changed the country's name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in April 1949.
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Jordan River
The Jordan River (American English) or River Jordan (British English) (Hebrew: נהר הירדן Nehar haYarden, Arabic: نهر الأردن Nahr al-Urdun) is a 251 kilometres (156 mi) long river in West Asia flowing to the Dead Sea. Currently, the river serves as the eastern border of the State of Israel and of the disputed Palestinian Territories. In Christian tradition, Jesus was baptised in it by John the Baptist. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan takes its name from this river.
The river drops rapidly in a 75 kilometre run to swampy Lake Hula, which is slightly above sea level. Exiting the lake, it drops much more in 25 kilometres to the Sea of Galilee. The last section has less gradient, and the river meanders before entering the Dead Sea, about 422 metres below sea level, which has no outlet. Two major tributaries enter from the east during this last section: the Yarmouk River and Jabbok River.
Its section north of the Sea of Galilee (Hebrew: כינרת kinneret, Arabic: Bohayrat Tabaraya, meaning Lake of Tiberias) is within the boundaries of Israel, and forms the western boundary of the Golan Heights. South of the lake, it forms the border between the Kingdom of Jordan (to the east) and Israel and the West Bank (to the west).
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Kiryat Arba
Kiryat Arba or Qiryat Arba (קִרְיַת־אַרְבַּע), lit. "Town of the Four," is an urban Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, in the Judean Mountains region of the West Bank. In 2008, Kiryat Arba had a population of 7,200.
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
Kiryat Arba is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The Book of Joshua chapter 14 verse 15 says (Darby_Bible): "Now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba; the great man among the Anakim..." There are various explanations for the name, not mutually exclusive. According to the great Biblical commentator Rashi, Kiryat Arba ("Town of Arba") means either the town (kirya) of Arba, the giant who had three sons, or the town of the four giants: Anak (the son of Arba) and his three sons - Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmi - who are described as being the sons of a "giant" in Numbers 13:22: "On the way through the Negev, they (Joshua and Caleb) came to Hebron where [they saw] Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmi, descendants of the Giant (ha-anak)..." Some say that Anak ("Giant", see Anak) is a proper name (Targum Jonathan and the Septuagint), and that he, Anak, may have been the father of the three others mentioned in the Book of Numbers as living in Hebron, previously known as "Kiryat Arba."
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Kuwait
Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwaiti/kuːˈweɪt/ (Arabic: دولة الكويت, Dawlat al-Kuwayt) is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the Arabic أكوات ākwāt, the plural of كوت kūt, meaning a fortress built near water. The country covers an area of 17,820 square kilometers (6,880 sq mi) and has a population of about 3.5 million.
Historically, the region was the site of Characene, a major Parthian port for trade between Mesopotamia and India. The Bani Utbah tribe were the first permanent Arab settlers in the region, and laid the foundation of the modern emirate. By the 19th century, Kuwait came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, and after World War I, it emerged as an independent sheikhdom under the protection of the British Empire. Kuwait's large oil fields were discovered in the late 1930s.
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Lebanon
Lebanon (i/ˈlɛbənɒn/ or /ˈlɛbənən/; Arabic: لبنان Libnān or Lubnān, Lebanese Arabic: [lɪbˈneːn]), officially the Lebanese Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية اللبنانية al-Jumhūrīyah al-Libnānīyah, Lebanese Arabic: [elˈʒʊmhuːɾɪjje l.ˈlɪbneːnɪjje]), is a country in the East Mediterranean. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history, and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity.
The earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than 7,000 years—predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Phoenicians, a maritime culture that flourished for nearly 2,500 years (3000–539 BC). Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, the five provinces that comprise modern Lebanon were mandated to France. The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon, which was mostly populated by Maronite Catholics and Druze, to include more Muslims. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, and established a unique political system, known as confessionalism, a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities – Bechara El Khoury who became independent Lebanon's first President and Riad El-Solh, who became Lebanon's first prime minister, are considered the founders of the modern Republic of Lebanon and are national heroes for having led the country's independence. French troops withdrew from Lebanon in 1946.
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Libya
Libya (Arabic: ليبيا Lībyā), Berber: ⵍⵉⴱⵢⴰ) is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.
With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the third largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The largest city, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 6.4 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica.
In 2009 Libya had the highest HDI in Africa and the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Africa, behind Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production.
As a result of the Libyan civil war, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which had at that time been in existence for 34 years, collapsed and Libya entered a period of governance by a transitional administration called the National Transitional Council. The NTC has stated its intention to oversee the first phase of a transition to constitutional democracy, after which it claims it will dissolve in favor of a representative legislature.
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Libyan Desert
The Libyan Desert covers an area of approximately 1,100,000 km2, it extends approximately 1100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle. Like most of the Sahara, this desert is primarily sand and hamada or stony plain.
Sand plains, dunes, ridges and some depressions (basins) typify the endorheic region, with no rivers draining into or out of the desert. The Gilf Kebir plateau reaches an altitude of just over 1000 m, and along with the nearby massif of Jebel Uweinat is an exception to the uninterrupted territory of basement rocks covered by layers of horizontally bedded sediments, forming a massive sand plain, low plateaus and dunes.
The desert features a striking diversity of landscapes including mountains such as Jebel Uweinat (1980 m), the Gilf Kebir plateau, and sand seas (see below). The Libyan Desert is barely populated apart from the modern settlements at oases of the lower Cyrenaica region in southeastern Libya. The indigenous population is Berber. In most of Upper Egypt, the desert is close to the Nile River, with a seasonal flood plain only a few kilometers wide between river and desert.
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Lod
Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד; Arabic: الْلُدّ al-Ludd; Greco-Latin: Lydda, Diospolis) is a city 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2011, it had a population of 74,000.
The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod. When al-Ludd, as it was known by its Arab inhabitants was captured by Israel, the Arab inhabitants fled or were expelled and the city was settled by Jewish immigrants, most of them refugees from Arab countries. Of the former Arab population, only 1,056 inhabitants remained. It is today known as Lod, its biblical name.
Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport (previously known as Lydda Airport, RAF Lydda, and Lod Airport) is located on the outskirts of the city.
The Hebrew name Lod appears in the bible as a town of Benjamin, founded by Shamed or Shamer (1 Chronicles 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37; 11:35). In the New Testament it appears as its Greek form, Lydda. The city also finds reference in an Islamic Hadith, as the location of the battlefield where 'Dajjal' (the Anti-Christ) will be slayed before the Day of Judgment.
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Lod Airport massacre
The Lod Airport massacre was a terrorist attack that occurred on May 30, 1972, in which three members of the Japanese Red Army killed 26 people and injured 80 others at Tel Aviv's Lod airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport). Two of the attackers were killed, while Kōzō Okamoto was captured after being wounded.
The dead comprised seventeen Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico, a Canadian citizen, and eight Israelis, including Professor Aharon Katzir, an internationally renowned protein biophysicist, whose brother, Ephraim Katzir, was elected President of Israel the following year.
Because airport security was focused on the possibility of a Palestinian attack, the use of Japanese terrorists took the guards by surprise. The attack has often been described as a suicide mission, but it has also been asserted that it was the outcome of a larger operation (the particulars of which remain unpublicized) that went awry. The three perpetrators—Okamoto, Tsuyoshi Okudaira, and Yasuyuki Yasuda—had been trained in Baalbek, Lebanon; the actual planning was handled by Wadie Haddad (a.k.a. Abu Hani), head of PFLP External Operations, with some input from Okamoto.
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Moroccan Quarter
The Moroccan Quarter or Mughrabi Quarter (Arabic حارَة المَغارِبة Hārat al-Maghāriba) was an 800-year old neighborhood in the southeast corner of the Old City of Jerusalem, bordering on the western wall of the Temple Mount on the east (including the Western Wall), the Old City walls on the south (including the Dung Gate), the Jewish Quarter to the west, and the Muslim Quarter to the north. Several schools and religious institutions were located there. The fifth and smallest of the old Jerusalem neighborhoods, it was largely demolished in 1967 by the Israeli government in order to make public access to the Western Wall easier. Today, most of the area has been fully absorbed into the Jewish Quarter and almost no trace of it is left.
The quarter was established in 1193 by Saladin's son al-Malik al-Afdal, according to the 15th-century historian Mujir ad-Din, as a waqf (charitable trust) dedicated to Moroccans ; he also established a school there, the Afdaliyyah. Later pious Moroccan donors extended this with several other waqfs: in 1303, one Umar ibn Abdullah ibn Abdun-Nabi al-Masmudi al-Mujarrad endowed a zaouia (religious school) for the benefit of Moroccans living in the Moroccan Quarter, while in 1320 Shuayb ibn Muhammad ibn Shuayb, a grandson of the major Sufi Abu Madyan al-Ghauth, endowed a second zaouia there to be funded by his lands at Ain Karim. In 1352, the Marinid king of Morocco himself, Ali ibn Uthman ibn Ya'qub ibn Abdul-Haqq, established a smaller waqf - a Qur'an donated to the al-Aqsa Mosque, together with a representative to ensure that it was read from regularly.
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Morocco
Morocco (Arabic: المغرب al-Maghrib ; Berber: ⵍⵎⴻⵖⵔⵉⴱ / ⴰⵎⴻⵔⵔⵓⴽElmeɣrib / Amerruk), officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of about 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², including the disputed region of the Western Sahara, seen by and mostly administered by Morocco as the Southern Provinces. Morocco is part of the Maghreb region, in addition to Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya, with which it shares cultural, historical and linguistic ties.
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive powers, including the power to dissolve the parliament. Executive power is exercised by the government but more importantly by the king himself. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of Representatives and the Assembly of Councillors. The king can also issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. The latest Parliamentary elections were held in November 25, 2011, and were considered by some neutral observers to be mostly free and fair. Voter turnout in these elections was estimated to be 43% of registered voters, but only about 25% of Moroccan adult citizens actually voted. The rest either chose not to vote or they were not registered as voters. The political capital is Rabat, but the largest city is Casablanca; other main cities include Marrakesh, Tetouan, Tangier, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, and Nador.
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Mount Arafat
Coordinates: 21°22′0″N 40°0′10″E / 21.366667°N 40.00278°E / 21.366667; 40.00278
Mount Arafat or Mount Arafah (Arabic: جبل عرفات; transliterated Jabal ‘Arafāt) is a granite hill east of Mecca. It is also known as the Mount of Mercy (Jabal ar-Rahmah). The hill is the place Muslims believe the Islamic prophet Muhammad stood and delivered the Farewell Sermon to the Muslims who had accompanied him for the Hajj towards the end of his life. It reaches about 70 m in height.
According to Islamic tradition, it was on Mount Arafah that Adam and Eve, separated for 200 years following their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, met and recognized each other and were reunited[citation needed]. Here too they were forgiven by Allah for their transgression after offering their repentance. A main reason of the ritual of pilgrimage is the renewal of that Prayer of Repentance every year standing on the hill of mercy, the climax of Hajj. The pilgrims will spend the whole day on Arafah supplicating to Allah to forgive their sins and praying for personal strength in the future.
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Mukataa
Mukataa (Arabic: المقاطعة, "The Separated") is the name used to refer to the offices and administrative centers of the Palestinian National Authority.
Mukataas were mostly built during the British Mandate as Tegart forts and were used both as British government centers and as dwellings for the British administrative staff. Some Mukataas also included police stations and prisons. After the British left, the buildings often functioned similarly under the Jordanians, and then the Israelis.
After the Oslo Accords, the Mukataas were used as governmental offices and headquarters for the Palestinian National Authority. The Mukaatas in Ramallah and Gaza, the two major Palestinian cities, were also used as headquarters to the high Palestinian Authority leadership, including as office for Yasser Arafat, long-time Palestinian Authority president.
During Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002, the Israeli Defence Forces raided the Mukataas in the West Bank. Some Mukataas, including the Mukataa in Hebron, were entirely demolished.
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Munich massacre
The Munich massacre is an informal name for events that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed by the Palestinian group Black September. Shortly after the crisis began, the Palestinians demanded the release of 234 prisoners held in Israeli jails. Black September called the operation "Ikrit and Biram", after two Christian Palestinian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by the Haganah in 1948.
By the end of the ordeals, the kidnappers had killed eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer. Five of the eight members of Black September were killed by police officers during a failed rescue attempt. The three surviving assassins were captured, but later released by West Germany following the hijacking by Black September of a Lufthansa airliner. Israel responded to the killings with Operation Spring of Youth and Operation Wrath of God, during which Palestinians suspected of involvement in the massacre were systematically tracked down and killed by Israeli intelligence and special forces. The Israeli operations cost the lives of one innocent in Norway (Lillehammer affair) and of four passersby in Lebanon during the killing of Ali Hassan Salameh.
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Nablus
Nablus (Arabic: نابلس Nāblus [næːblʊs] ( listen), Hebrew: שכם Šəḵem, Biblical Shechem ISO 259-3 Škem) is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately 63 kilometers (39 mi) north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.
Founded by the Roman Emperor Vespasian in 72 CE as Flavia Neapolis, Nablus has been ruled by many empires over the course of its almost 2,000-year-long history. In the 5th and 6th centuries, conflict between the city's Christian and Samaritan inhabitants climaxed in a series of Samaritan revolts against Byzantine rule, before their violent quelling in 529 CE drastically dwindled that community's numbers in the city. In 636, Neapolis, along with most of Palestine, came under the rule of the Islamic Arab Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab; its name Arabicized to Nablus. In 1099, the Crusaders took control of the city for less than a century, leaving its mixed Muslim, Christian and Samaritan population relatively undisturbed. After Saladin's Ayyubid forces took control of the interior of Palestine in 1187, Islamic rule was reestablished, and continued under the Mamluk and Ottoman empires to follow.
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Negev
The Negev (Hebrew: נֶּגֶב, Tiberian vocalization: Néḡeḇ; Arabic: النقب al-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. 185,000), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city of Eilat. It contains several development towns, including Dimona, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon, as well as a number of small Bedouin cities, including Rahat and Tel as-Sabi. There are also several kibbutzim, including Revivim and Sde Boker; the latter became the home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, after his retirement from politics.
The desert is home to the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, whose faculties include the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, both located on the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus adjacent to Sde Boker.
The origin of the word negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'. In the Bible the word Negev is also used for the direction 'south'. In Arabic, the Negev is known as al-Naqab, although it was created with the establishment of the Egypt-Palestine frontier in the 19th century and has no single traditional Arabic name. During the British Mandate it was called Beersheba sub-district.
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Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Norwegian and Swedish: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. It is awarded to those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
Per Alfred Nobel's will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a 5-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway. Since 1990, the prize is awarded in Oslo City Hall on 10 December each year. The prize was formerly awarded in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law (1947–89), the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–46) and the Parliament (1901–04).
According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
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North Korea
Coordinates: 40°00′N 127°00′E / 40°N 127°E / 40; 127 The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK; Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선민주주의인민공화국), commonly referred to as "North Korea" ( listen), is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea. The Amnok, or Yalu, and the Tumen rivers form the border between North Korea and China. A section of the Tumen River in the far northeast is the border with Russia.
The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was annexed by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War in 1910. It was divided into Soviet- and American-occupied zones in 1945, after the end of World War II. North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations–supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones. North and South Korea each claimed sovereignty over the whole Korean Peninsula, which led to the Korean War of 1950. The Armistice Agreement of 1953 ended the fighting; but the two countries are officially still at war against each other, for a peace treaty was never signed. Both states were accepted into the United Nations in 1991.
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Norway
Norwayi/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian: Norge (Bokmål) or Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.
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Operation Opera
Operation Opera (Hebrew: אופרה), also known as Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on 7 June 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq.
In 1976, Iraq purchased an "Osiris"-class nuclear reactor from France. While Iraq and France maintained that the reactor, named Osirak by the French, was intended for peaceful scientific research, the Israelis viewed the reactor with suspicion, and said that it was designed to make nuclear weapons. On 7 June 1981, a flight of Israeli Air Force F-16A fighter aircraft, with an escort of F-15As, bombed and heavily damaged the Osirak reactor. Israel claimed it acted in self-defense, and that the reactor had "less than a month to go" before "it might have become critical." Ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian were killed. The attack took place about three weeks before the elections for the Knesset.
The attack was strongly criticized around the world and Israel was rebuked by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in two separate resolutions. The destruction of Osirak has been cited as an example of a preventive strike in contemporary scholarship on international law.
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Pakistan
Pakistan (i/ˈpækɨstæn/ or i/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] (
listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
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Prague
Prague ( /ˈprɑːɡ/; Czech: Praha pronounced [ˈpraɦa] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and fourteenth largest city in European Union. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of nearly 2.0 million. The city has a temperate oceanic climate with warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague has been a political, cultural, and economic centre of central Europe with waxing and waning fortunes during its 1,100 year existence. Founded during the Romanesque and flourishing by the Gothic and Renaissance eras, Prague was the seat of two Holy Roman Emperors and thus then also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. It was an important city to the Habsburg Monarchy and its Austro-Hungarian Empire and after World War I became the capital of Czechoslovakia. The city played major roles in the Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years' War, and in modern history generally as the principal conurbation in Bohemia and Moravia whose second city is Brno.
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Qalqilyah
Qalqilya (Arabic: قلقيلية Qalqīlyaḧ; Hebrew קַלְקִילִיָה) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. Qalqilyah serves as the administrative centre for the Qalqilya Governorate. In the official 2007 census it had a population of 41,739. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank barrier with a narrow gap in the east controlled by the Israeli military and a tunnel to Hableh.
The region has been populated since prehistoric times, as attested to by the discovery of prehistoric flint tools.
In 1596, Qalqili appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the Nahiya of Bani Sa'b in the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 13 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops, olives, and goats or beehives.
In the early 1880s, Qalqilya was described as "A large somewhat straggling village, with cisterns to the north and a pool on the south-west. The houses are badly built."
Qalqilya became an independent local council in 1909.[citation needed] At the time of the 1931 census, Qalqilya had 796 occupied houses and a population of 3855 Muslims and 12 Christians.
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Qatar
Qatar (i/ˈkɑːtɑr/ or i/kəˈtɑr/;Arabic: قطر [ˈqɑtˤɑr]; local vernacular pronunciation: [ɡɪtˤɑr]), also known as the country or State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf. A strait of the Persian Gulf separates Qatar from the nearby island state of Bahrain.
Qatar has been ruled as an absolute monarchy by Al Thani family since the mid-19th century. Formerly a British protectorate noted mainly for pearling, it became independent in 1971, and has become one of the region's wealthiest states due to its enormous oil and natural gas revenues. In 1995, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani became Emir when he seized power from his father, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, in a peaceful coup d'état. The most important positions in Qatar are held by the members of the Al Thani family, or close confidants of the al-Thani family. Beginning in 1992, Qatar has built intimate military ties with the United States, and is now the location of U.S. Central Command’s Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center.
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Qibya massacre
The Qibya massacre, also known as the Qibya incident, occurred in October 1953 when Israeli troops under Ariel Sharon attacked the village of Qibya in the West Bank. Sixty-nine Palestinian Arabs, two thirds of them women and children were killed. Forty-five houses, a school, and a mosque were destroyed.
The act was condemned by the U.S. State Department, the UN Security Council, and by Jewish communities worldwide. The State Department described the raid as "shocking", and used the occasion to confirm publicly that economic aid to Israel had been suspended previously, for other non-compliance regarding the 1949 Armistice Agreements.
The operation was codenamed Operation Shoshana by the Israel Defense Force (IDF). It was carried out by two Israeli units at night: a paratroop company and Unit 101, a special forces unit of the IDF.
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Ramallah
Ramallah (Arabic: رام الله (help·info) Rāmallāh) (literally "Height of God") is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority. With a population of nearly 25,500, Ramallah was historically a Christian town, but today Muslims form the majority of the population, with a strong Christian minority.
Modern Ramallah was founded in the mid-16th century by the Haddadins, a Jordanian tribe of brothers descended from Ghassanid Christian Arabs. The Haddadins, led by Rashid Haddadin, arrived from east of the Jordan River near the Jordanian town of Shoubak. The Haddadin migration is attributed to fighting and unrest among clans in that area. According to modern living descendents of original Haddadin family members, Rashid's brother Sabra Haddadin was hosting Emir Ibn Kaysoom, head of a powerful Muslim clan in the region, when Sabra's wife gave birth to a baby girl. According to custom, the Emir proposed a betrothal to his own young son when they came of age. Sabra believed the proposal was in jest, as Muslim-Christian marriages were not customary, and gave his word. When the Emir later came to the Haddadins and demanded that they fulfill their promise, they refused. This set off bloody conflict between the two families. The Haddadins fled west and settled on the hilltops of Ramallah, where only a few Muslim families lived at the time. Today, a large community of people descended directly from the Haddadins live in the United States. The town is now predominately Muslim.
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Russia
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
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Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia (i/ˌsaʊdi əˈreɪbi.ə/ or i/ˌsɔːdiː əˈreɪbi.ə/; Arabic: السعودية as-Su‘ūdīyah[citation needed] or incorrectly as-Sa‘ūdīyah, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: المملكة العربية السعودية al-Mamlakah al-‘Arabīyah as-Su‘ūdīyah Arabic pronunciation (help·info)), is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab world, after Algeria. It is bordered by Jordan, and Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south. The Red Sea lies to its west, and the Persian Gulf lies to the east. Saudi Arabia has an area of approximately 2,250,000 km2 (870,000 sq mi), and it has an estimated population of 27 million, of which 9 million are registered foreign expatriates and an estimated 2 million are illegal immigrants. Saudi nationals comprise an estimated 16 million people.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (known for most of his career as Ibn Saud) in 1932, although the conquests which eventually led to the creation of the Kingdom began in 1902 when he captured Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud, referred to in Arabic as the Al Saud. The Saudi Arabian government, which has been an absolute monarchy since its inception, refers to its system of government as being Islamic, though this is contested by many due to its strong basis in Salafism, a minority school of thought in Islam. The kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam.
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Savoy Hotel Attack
The Savoy Hotel Attack was an attack by members of the Palestine Liberation Organization against the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 4–5, 1975.
At 11:00 p.m. on the night of March 4, 1975, eight Palestinians in two teams landed by boat on the Tel Aviv beach at the foot of Allenby Street. Shooting and throwing grenades, they took over the Savoy Hotel near the center of the city. The guests were taken hostage. The Palestinians threatened that if Israel did not release 20 Palestinian prisoners within four hours the hostages would be executed.
Early the next morning, the Israeli counter-terrorism unit Sayeret Matkal stormed the hotel, killing seven of the perpetrators and capturing one. Five hostages were freed, while eight were killed. Three soldiers, including former Sayeret Matkal commander Uzi Yairi, were also killed.
A few hours after the rescue operation, the ship that had transported the militants was captured on the high seas by the Israeli Navy, and its crew was arrested.
The Palestinian operation was planned by Abu Jihad in retaliation for a surgical raid that the Sayeret Matkal conducted in Beirut, Lebanon in April, 1973 (Operation Spring of Youth), where they killed three top PLO leaders.[citation needed]
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Shatila
Coordinates: 33°51′46.26″N 35°29′54.17″E / 33.86285°N 35.4983806°E / 33.86285; 35.4983806
The Shatila refugee camp (Arabic: مخيم شاتيلا) (also Chatila refugee camp) is a long-term refugee camp for Palestinian refugees, set up by UNRWA in 1949. The camp is located within the Lebanese capital Beirut. As of December 2003, it housed 12,235 registered refugees.[1] It is most widely known as the site of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in September 1982, but also played a significant role in the 1982 Lebanon war and the 1985 to 1987 war of the camps.
The Shatila camp is located in southern Beirut. Originally hosting hundreds of refugees, it has grown to more than 12,000 registered Palestinian refugees. Many of these refugees may live outside the camp, while non-Palestinians also live in the camp. The entire camp comprises approximately one square kilometer and thus has an exceptionally high population density.[2]
UNRWA operates one health center and two primary schools within the camp. NGOs active in the camp include Al-Najda, Beit Atfal Al-Soumoud, Norwegian Peoples' Aid, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the Association Najdeh.[3] [4]
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Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai (Arabic: سيناء sīnā' ; Hebrew סיני) is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two continents. The bulk of the peninsula is divided administratively into two of Egypt's 27 governorates (with three more straddling the Suez Canal area), and has a population of approximately 500,000 people. In addition to its formal name, Egyptians also refer to it affectionately as the "Land of Fayrouz", based on the Ancient Egyptian "Dumafkat", which has the same meaning.
The region has historically been the centre of conflict between various states, based largely on its strategic geopolitical location. In addition to periods of direct rule by Egyptian governments (including the Ayyubids, the Mamluks, the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, and the modern Egyptian republic), it was like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by the Ottoman Empire, and the United Kingdom (which occupied Egypt from 1882 until 1956). Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis (known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression) of 1956, and during the Six Day War of 1967. On 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the October War to liberate the peninsula, which was the site of fierce fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces. In 1982, after the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Israel withdrew from the entirety of Sinai. Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its natural setting, rich coral reefs, and biblical history. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in Abrahamic faiths.
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Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris. Nowadays, it houses several higher education and research institutions such as Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris-Sorbonne University, Paris Descartes University, the École Nationale des Chartes and the École pratique des hautes études.
The name is commonly used to refer to this historic University of Paris or one of its successor institutions (see below), but this is a recent usage, and "Sorbonne" has actually been used with different meanings over the centuries. For information on the historic University of Paris and the present universities, which are its successor institutions or the Collège de Sorbonne, please refer to the relevant articles.
The name is derived from the Collège de Sorbonne, founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris. The university as such predates the college by about a century, and minor colleges had been founded already in the late 12th century. During the 16th century, the Sorbonne became a focal point of the intellectual struggle between Catholics and Protestants. The University served as a major stronghold of Catholic conservative attitudes, and as such conducted a bitter struggle against king Francis I's policy of relative tolerance towards the French Protestants - except for a brief period in 1533 when the University was placed under Protestant control.
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Soviet Union
The Soviet Union (Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR; Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈstʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpublʲɪk] ( listen); abbreviated СССР, SSSR), was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
The Soviet Union was a single-party state ruled by the Communist Party from its foundation until 1990. A union of 15 subnational Soviet republics, the Soviet state was structured under a highly centralized government and economy.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the downfall of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution, there was a struggle for power between the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the anti-communist White movement. In December 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and the Soviet Union was formed with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
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Sudan
Sudan (i/suːˈdæn/ or /suːˈdɑːn/;Arabic: السودان, as-Sūdān), officially the Republic of the Sudan (Arabic: جمهورية السودان, Jumhūrīyat as-Sūdān), sometimes called North Sudan, is an Arab state in North Africa (sometimes also considered to be part of the Middle East). It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous inhabitants of Nile Valley, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the process of Arabisation common throughout the rest of the Arab World, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan. The majority of the population of Sudan adheres to Islam. The Nile divides the country between east and west sides.
The people of Sudan have a long history extending from antiquity which is intertwined with the history of Egypt. Sudan suffered seventeen years of civil war during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972) followed by ethnic, religious and economic conflicts between the Muslim Arab northern Sudanese and the mostly animist and Christian Nilotes of Southern Sudan. This led to the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983. Because of continuing political and military struggles, Sudan was seized in a bloodless coup d'état by colonel Omar al-Bashir in 1989, who thereafter proclaimed himself President of Sudan. The civil war ended with the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement which granted autonomy to what was then the southern region of the country. Following a referendum held in January 2011, South Sudan seceded on 9 July 2011 with the consent of Sudan's President al-Bashir.
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Syria
Syria (/ˈsɪriə/ ( listen) SIRR-ee-ə; Arabic: سورية Sūriyya or سوريا Sūryā; Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ; Kurdish: Sûrî), officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية al-Jumhūriyyah al-‘Arabīyah as-Sūriyyah Arabic pronunciation (help·info)), is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.
In English, the name Syria was formerly synonymous with the Levant, known in Arabic as Sham, while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.
The population of Syria is 74% Sunni, 12% Alawi, 10% Christian, and 3% Druze. Combined, 87% of the Syrian population is Muslim, while the other 10% is Christian, which includes mainly Arab Christians but also Assyrians and Armenians. Major ethnic minorities in Syria include Kurds (9%), Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmens and Circassians. The majority of the population is Arab (90%).
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Tel Aviv-Yafo
Tel Aviv, officially Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew: תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ; Arabic: تل أبيب), is the second most populous city in Israel. It has a population of 404,400 within city limits, on a land area of 52 km2 (20 sq mi). The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in central-west Israel. In 2010, it was the largest and most populous city in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area of 3,325,700 residents, known as Gush Dan. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as Tel Avivim.
Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 by the Jewish Community of Jaffa (Hebrew: יָפוֹ Yafo; Arabic: يافا Yāfā), on the outskirts of the ancient port city. The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population at the time. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings.
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Tripoli, Lebanon
Coordinates: 34°26′N 35°51′E / 34.433°N 35.85°E / 34.433; 35.85
Tripoli (Formal Arabic: طرابلس / ALA-LC: Ṭarābulus; Lebanese Arabic: Ṭrāblus; Greek: Τρίπολις / Tripolis) is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in Lebanon. Situated 85 km north of the capital Beirut, Tripoli is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District. Geographically located on the east of the Mediterranean, the city's history dates back to the 14th century BC. Tripoli is home to the easternmost port in Lebanon, and holds offshore a remarkable string of four small islands, the only surviving islands of Lebanon. The largest of these islands, the Island of Palm Trees, has been declared a protected reserve by UNESCO in 1992 for its rich ecosystem of green sea turtles and rare birds.
In ancient times, it was the center of a Phoenician confederation which included Tyre, Sidon and Arados, hence the name Tripoli, meaning "triple city" in Greek. Later, it was controlled successively by the Assyrian Empire, Persian Empire, Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Caliphate, the Seljuk Empire, Crusader States, the Mamluks, the Ottoman Empire and France. The Crusaders established the County of Tripoli there in the twelfth century.
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Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. The university is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts. The university emphasizes active citizenship and public service in all of its disciplines more than any peer school and is well known for its internationalism and study abroad programs. Among its schools is the United States' oldest graduate school of international relations, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
In 1852, Tufts College was founded by Christian Universalists who worked for years to open a non-sectarian institution of higher learning.Charles Tufts donated the land for the campus on Walnut Hill, the highest point in Medford, saying that he wanted to set a "light on the hill." The name was changed to Tufts University in 1954, although the corporate name remains "the Trustees of Tufts College." After more than a century, Tufts was a small New England liberal arts college. The French-American nutritionist Jean Mayer became president of Tufts in the late 1970s and, through a series of mergers with other institutions, transformed the school into an internationally renowned research university. It consistently ranks among the country's best colleges.
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Tulkarm
Tulkarem or Tulkarm (Arabic: طولكرم, Ṭūlkarm; Hebrew: טול כרם) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the northern Samarian mountain range in the Tulkarm Governorate. The Israeli cities of Netanya and Haifa are to the west, the Palestinian Nablus and Jenin to the east. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2007 Tulkarm had a population 0f 51,300 while its adjacent refugee camp had a population of 10,641.
"Tulkarem" means "the bountiful mountain." The Arabic name is derived from the Aramaic words "Toor Karma," meaning "mount of vineyards."
Tulkarm was founded by the Mamluks in the 13th century. It was established as a waqf to support al-Jawhariyya Madrasa, an Islamic religious school. The elite families of Tulkarm were the administrators of this trust, which granted them higher social and economic status. The population was increased through intermarriage with families fleeing clan violence and family feuds.
In 1596, Tulkarm appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Qaqun of the Liwa of Nablus. The largest village in the nahiya, Tulkarm had a population of 176 Muslim households (roughly 968 persons) and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, goats, beehives and a press for olives or grapes.
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Tunis
Tunis (Arabic: تونس Tūnis) is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants.
Situated on a large Mediterranean Sea gulf (the Gulf of Tunis), behind the Lake of Tunis and the port of La Goulette (Halq al Wadi), the city extends along the coastal plain and the hills that surround it. At the centre of more modern development (from the colonial era and later) lies the old medina. Beyond this district lie the suburbs of Carthage, La Marsa, and Sidi Bou Said.
The medina is found at the centre of the city: a dense agglomeration of alleys and covered passages, full of intense scents and colours, boisterous and active trade, and a surfeit of goods on offer ranging from leather to plastic, tin to the finest filigree, tourist souvenirs to the works of tiny crafts shops.
Just through the Sea Gate (also known as the Bab el Bahr and the Porte de France) begins the modern city, or Ville Nouvelle, transversed by the grand Avenue Habib Bourguiba (often referred to by popular press and travel guides as "the Tunisian Champs-Élysées"), where the colonial-era buildings provide a clear contrast to smaller, older structures. As the capital city of the country, Tunis is the focus of Tunisian political and administrative life; it is also the centre of the country's commercial activity. The expansion of the Tunisian economy in recent decades is reflected in the booming development of the outer city where one can see clearly the social challenges brought about by rapid modernization in Tunisia.
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Tunisia
Tunisia (USi/tuːˈniːʒə/ two-NEE-zhə or UK /tjuːˈnɪziə/ tew-NIZ-iə; Arabic: تونس Tūnis pronounced [ˈtuːnɪs]), officially the Republic of Tunisia (Arabic: الجمهورية التونسية al-Jumhūriyyah at-Tūnisiyyah), is the northernmost country in Africa. It is an Arab Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area is almost 165,000 square kilometres (64,000 sq mi), with an estimated population of just under 10.7 million. Its name is derived from the capital Tunis located in the northeast.
Tunisia is the smallest country in North Africa. The south of the country is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil and 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) of coastline.
Tunisia has relations with both the European Union—with whom it has an association agreement—and the Arab world. Tunisia is also a member of the Arab Maghreb Union, the Arab League, and the African Union. Tunisia has established close relations with France in particular, through economic cooperation, industrial modernization, and privatisation programs.
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Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.
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Uganda
Coordinates: 1°17′N 32°23′E / 1.28°N 32.39°E / 1.28; 32.39
Uganda ( /juːˈɡændə/ yew-GAN-də or /juːˈɡɑːndə/ yew-GAHN-də), officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also shared by Kenya and Tanzania.
Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south of the country including the capital Kampala.
The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, when Bantu-speaking populations migrated to the southern parts of the country. Uganda gained independence from Britain on 9 October 1962.
The official languages are English and Swahili, although multiple other languages are spoken in the country.
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United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emiratesi/juːˌnaɪtɨd ˌærəb ˈɛmɪrɨts/ (Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة, Al Imārāt al ‘Arabīyah al Muttaḥidah), sometimes simply called the Emirates or the UAE, is a country situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, as well as sharing sea borders with Qatar to the west and Iran to the north.
The UAE is a federation of seven emirates (equivalent to principalities), each governed by a hereditary emir, with a single national president. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is also the state's center of political, industrial, and cultural activities.
Prior to independence in 1971, the UAE was known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in reference to a 19th-century truce between the local sheikhs, hereditary rulers of the territories, and the United Kingdom. The term Pirate Coast was also used by some to refer to the emirates from the 18th to the early 20th century, owing to the preponderance of pirates operating from Emirati ports.
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United Arab Republic
The United Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية المتحدة Al-Gumhuriyah Al-Arabiyah Al-Muttahidah, Al-Jumhuriyah Al-Arabiyah Al-Muttahidah), often abbreviated as the U.A.R., was a sovereign union between Egypt and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union. Egypt continued to be known officially as the "United Arab Republic" until 1971. The President was Gamal Abdel Nasser. During most of its existence (1958–1961) it was a member of the United Arab States, a confederation with North Yemen.
The UAR adopted a flag based on the Arab Liberation Flag of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, but with two stars to represent the two parts. This continues to be the flag of Syria. In 1963, Iraq adopted a flag that was similar but with three stars, representing the hope that Iraq would join the UAR. The current flags of Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen are also based on the Arab Liberation Flag of horizontal red, white, and black bands.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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Venezuela
Venezuela (i/ˌvɛnɨˈzweɪlə/ VEN-ə-ZWAY-lə), officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela [repuˈβlika βoliβaˈɾjana ðe βeneˈswela]), is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south. Its northern coastline of roughly 2,800 kilometres (1,700 mi) includes numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea, and in the north east borders the northern Atlantic Ocean. Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba and the Leeward Antilles lie near the Venezuelan coast. Venezuela's territory covers around 916,445 square kilometres (353,841 sq mi) with an estimated population of 29,105,632. Venezuela is considered a state with extremely high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the Andes mountains in the west to the Amazon Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive llanos plains and Caribbean coast in the center and the Orinoco River Delta in the east.
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Vienna
Vienna ( /viːˈɛnə/; German: Wien (help·info) [viːn]) is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 9th-largest city by population in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was the largest German speaking city in the world, and before the first world war and the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian empire the city had 2 million inhabitants. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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West Bank
The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية aḍ-Ḍaffah l-Ġarbiyyah, Hebrew: הגדה המערבית, HaGadah HaMa'aravit also known as Hebrew: יהודה והשומרון Yehuda ve-Ha'Shomron (Judea and Samaria)) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant coastline along the western bank of the Dead Sea. Since 1967, most of the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation and is referred to as Judea and Samaria Area by Israel. A smaller part of the West Bank is administered by the Israeli civilian authorities as part of Jerusalem District.
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Yemen
The Republic of Yemen (Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhūrīyah al-Yamanīyah), commonly known as Yemeni/ˈjɛmən/ (Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman), is a country located in Western Asia, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east. Yemen is considered one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. Its capital and largest city is Sana'a. Yemen's territory includes over 200 islands, the largest of which is Socotra, about 415 km (258 mi) to the south of mainland Yemen, off the coast of Somalia. It is the only state in the Arabian Peninsula to have a purely republican form of government. Approximately 53% of Yemenis are Sunnis, while 45% are Zaydi Shias.
One etymology derives Yemen from yamin, meaning "on the right side", as the south is on the right when facing the sunrise. Another derives Yemen from yumn, meaning "felicity", as the region is fertile. The Romans called it Arabia Felix (Happy Arabia) as opposed to Arabia Deserta (Deserted Arabia), which was their term for northern Arabia.
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14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama (religious name: Tenzin Gyatso, shortened from Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, born Lhamo Dondrub, 6 July 1935) is the 14th and current Dalai Lama, as well as the longest lived incumbent. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and is also well known for his lifelong advocacy for Tibetans inside and outside Tibet. Tibetans traditionally believe him to be the reincarnation of his predecessors and a manifestation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
The Dalai Lama was born in Taktser, Qinghai (also known to Tibetans as Amdo), and was selected as the rebirth of the 13th Dalai Lama two years later, although he was only formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama on 17 November 1950, at the age of 15. He inherited control over a government controlling an area roughly corresponding to the Tibet Autonomous Region just as the nascent People's Republic of China wished to assert central control over it. There is a dispute over whether the respective governments reached an agreement for a joint Chinese-Tibetan administration.
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Aaron Klein
Aaron Klein (born 1979) is an American author, Middle East correspondent, head of the Jerusalem bureau for WorldNetDaily (WND), columnist for The Jewish Press, and radio talk show host. He is known for interviewing middle eastern political figures, along with various leaders of terrorist groups in the region on WABC (AM). His WND articles have been republished on Ynetnews and in The New York Sun. In addition to his own program, Klein appears regularly on John Batchelor's radio talk show as well as other radio programs and cable news networks. Klein has written four books.
Klein grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Torah Academy Boys High School in Philadelphia. In his book Schmoozing with Terrorists, Klein describes his upbringing: "I was a Talmud-studying modern orthodox Jew. I attended Jewish religious schooling my entire life from religious elementary school until college. I came from a tight-knit orthodox Jewish community." In an interview, Klein’s mother said that as a child he used to swing from the family’s dining room chandelier and throw tomatoes at the ceiling.
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Abdullah I of Jordan
Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan [‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Husayn] (February 1882 – 20 July 1951) (Arabic) عبد الله الأول بن الحسين born in Mecca, Second Saudi State, (in modern-day Saudi Arabia) was the second of three sons of Sherif Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca and his first wife Abdiyya bint Abdullah (d. 1886). He was educated in Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey and Hijaz. From 1909 to 1914, Abdullah sat in the Ottoman legislature, as deputy for Mecca, but allied with Britain during World War I. Between 1916 to 1918, working with the British guerrilla leader T. E. Lawrence, he played a key role as architect and planner of the Great Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule, leading guerrilla raids on garrisons. He was the ruler of Transjordan and its successor state, Jordan, from 1921 to 1951—first as Emir under a British Mandate from 1921 to 1946, then as King of an independent nation from 1946 until his assassination.
In 1910 Abdullah persuaded his father to stand, successfully, for Grand Sharif of Mecca, a post for which Hussein acquired British support. In the following year he became deputy for Mecca in the parliament established by the Young Turks, acting as an intermediary between his father and the Ottoman government. In 1914, Abdullah paid a secret agent visit to Cairo to meet Lord Kitchener to seek British support for his father's ambitions in Arabia.
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Abu Daoud
Mohammad Daoud Oudeh (Arabic: محمد داود عودة), commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Daoud or Abu Dawud (Arabic: أبو داود) (1936/37, Silwan – July 3, 2010, Damascus) was a Palestinian militant known as the planner, architect and mastermind of the Munich massacre. He served in a number of commanding functions in Fatah's armed units in Lebanon and Jordan.
Oudeh lived in Jerusalem until the 1967 Six-Day War, when he was displaced as Israel captured the eastern portion of the city; he resettled in Jordan, where he joined the PLO. In 1970, Daoud was one of the founders of Fatah. From 1971, he was leader of the Black September, a Fatah offshoot created to avenge the September 1970 expulsion of the Fedayeen Movement from Jordan and carry out international operations. The group gained international notoriety for its role in the Munich massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which a number of athletes on the Israeli team were taken hostage by Black September. Eleven Israeli athletes and a German policeman were killed by the end of the multi-day standoff.
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Abu Iyad
Salah Mesbah Khalaf (Arabic: صلاح مصباح خلف), also known as Abu Iyad (أبو إياد) (born 1933 – January 14, 1991) was deputy chief and head of intelligence for the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the second most senior official of Fatah after Yasser Arafat.
Khalaf has been described as "of medium height and sturdy build, undistinguished in a crowd." When Christopher Dobson, hoping for an interview, was introduced to him in Cairo in the early 1970s, Khalaf made "so little an impression" during the brief encounter that Dobson did not realize until later that he had already met Israel's most-wanted terrorist.
Khalaf and his family left Jaffa after Israel took the city in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He moved to Cairo in the early 1950s. There he became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1951, he met Yasser Arafat at the al-Azhar University—where he studied literature—during a meeting of the General Union of Palestinian Students. In 1958, he founded the organization of Fatah with Arafat and other Palestinians in Kuwait.
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Abu Jihad
Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir (Arabic: خليل إبراهيم الوزير), also known by his kunya "Abu Jihad" (أبو جهاد — father of the struggle) (October 10, 1935 – April 16, 1988), was a Palestinian military leader and founder of the secular nationalist party Fatah. As a top aide of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman, Yasser Arafat, al-Wazir had considerable influence in Fatah's military activities, eventually becoming the commander of Fatah's armed wing al-Assifa. The majority of the Palestinians viewed him as a martyr who died resisting the Israeli occupation or at least sympathized with his cause, while most Israelis considered him to be a high-profile terrorist for planning the killings of Israelis.
Al-Wazir became a refugee when his family was expelled from Ramla during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and began leading a minor fedayeen force in the Gaza Strip. In the early 1960s, he established connections for Fatah with Communist regimes and prominent third-world leaders. He opened Fatah's first bureau in Algeria. He played an important role in the 1970–71 Black September clashes in Jordan, by supplying surrounded Palestinian fighters with weapons and aid. Following the PLO's defeat by the Jordanian Army, al-Wazir joined the PLO in Lebanon.
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Abu Nidal
Abu Nidal (Arabic: أبو نضال) (May 1937 – August 16, 2002), born Sabri Khalil al-Banna (Arabic: صبري خليل البنا), was the founder of Fatah–The Revolutionary Council (Arabic: فتح المجلس الثوري), a militant Palestinian splinter group also known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). At the height of his power in the 1970s and 1980s, Abu Nidal, or "father of [the] struggle," was widely regarded as the most ruthless of the Palestinian political leaders. He told Der Spiegel in a rare interview in 1985: "I am the evil spirit which moves around only at night causing ... nightmares."
Part of the secular Palestinian rejectionist front, so called because they reject proposals for a peaceful settlement with Israel, the ANO was formed after a split in 1974 between Abu Nidal and Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Setting himself up as a freelance contractor, Abu Nidal is believed by the United States Department of State to have ordered attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring over 900 people. The group's most notorious attacks were on the El Al ticket counters at Rome and Vienna airports in December 1985, when Arab gunmen high on amphetamines opened fire on passengers in simultaneous shootings, killing 18 and wounding 120. Patrick Seale, Abu Nidal's biographer, wrote of the attacks that their "random cruelty marked them as typical Abu Nidal operations."
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Adlai Stevenson III
Adlai Ewing Stevenson III (born October 10, 1930) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He represented the state of Illinois in the United States Senate from 1970 until 1981.
Adlai Stevenson III was born in Chicago. He attended the Milton Academy in Massachusetts, Harrow School in England, and Harvard College.
He received a law degree in 1957 from Harvard Law School.
Stevenson was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1952, served in Korea and was discharged from active duty in 1954. He continued to serve in the Marine Reserves and was discharged in 1961 as a captain.
In 1957, Stevenson went to work as a clerk for a Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court and worked there until 1958 when he joined the law firm of Brown and Platt.
In 1964, Stevenson was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as an at-large representative due to reapportionment problems, serving from 1965 to 1967. He then served as Illinois Treasurer (1967–1970).
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Ahmad Sa'adat
Ahmad Sa'adat (also transliterated from Arabic as Ahmed Sadat/Saadat, Arabic: احمد سعدات) (born in 1953 in West Bank village of al-Bireh) is a Palestinian militant in the and Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a left-wing, Palestinian nationalist organisation. Sa'adat graduated in 1975 from the UNRWA Teachers College, Ramallah, specializing in Mathematics.
Saadat became the Secretary-General of the PFLP in October 2001. He succeeded Abu Ali Mustafa to the post, after Mustafa was assassinated by Israelis at his office in Ramallah in the West Bank. He believes in the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants back to their former homes.
He was imprisoned in Jericho by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 2002. In March 2006, the US and British team in charge of monitoring the prison left because of poor security conditions. Israeli forces subsequently carried out the so-called Operation Bringing Home the Goods and kidnapped Sa'adat and took him to Israel; he is currently in solitary confinement in an Israeli prison and on hunger strike.
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Ahmad Shukeiri
Ahmad al-Shukeiri (January 1, 1908–February 26, 1980) (Arabic: أحمد الشقيري) also transcribed al-Shuqayri, Shuqeiri, Shukeiry, etc.), was the first Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, serving in 1964–67.
Shukeiri was born in Tebnine, south Lebanon then Ottoman Empire to a Turkish mother and an Arab father, As'ad Shukeiri (1860–1940) (who was a member of the Arab Higher Committee and a member of the Nashashibi party in the Pekha (province) of Acre and was elected to the Ottoman Parliament in 1908 and 1912). Ahmad acquired the Turkish language from his mother. After studying law in the British law college in Jerusalem, he became a prominent lawyer in British-Palestine and a member of the Independence Party. In 1945 he went to Washington to establish a palestinian office and in 1946 joined the Arab Higher Committee. He was a member of the Syrian delegation to the United Nations from 1949 to 1951.
He then became assistant Secretary General for the Arab League from 1950–56, Saudi ambassador to the United Nations from 1957 to 1962. At the 1964 Arab League summit (Cairo), he was given a mandate to initiate contacts aimed at establishing a Palestinian entity. In May 1964, he was elected the first Chairman of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). He resigned in December 1967 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in June. His enemies and opponents used him as a scapegoat.
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Ahmed Qurei
Ahmed Ali Mohammed Qurei (or Qureia; أحمد علي محمد قريع, Aḥmad ʿAlī Muḥammad Qurayʿ), also known by his Arabic Kunya Abu Alaa (أبو علاء, Åbú Oɑláº) (born March 26, 1937) is a former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. First appointed to the position in October 2003, he tendered his resignation on January 26, 2006, following the defeat of the Fatah party in the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006, and remained in office in a caretaker capacity until 19 February when he was succeeded by Ismail Haniya. During his tenure as prime minister, he has also had responsibility for security matters. He has previously served as speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and held a variety of significant positions within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from the 1970s on.
Qurei was born in Abu Dis (near Jerusalem) in 1937 to a relatively wealthy family. He joined the Fatah, the largest of the political and military organizations making up the Palestine Liberation Organization, in 1968. As a banker, he used his expertise during the 1970s as the director of the PLO's foreign investment branch and director-general of the PLO's economic branch, helping to make the organization one of the largest employers in Lebanon. He followed Yasser Arafat to Tunis after the PLO was forced to leave Lebanon. As more senior leaders died, Qurei rose to prominence and was elected to the Fatah Central Committee in August 1989.
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Ahmed Yassin
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin (1937 – 22 March 2004) (Arabic: الشيخ أحمد إسماعيل حسن ياسين ash-shaykh Aḥmad Ismāʻīl Ḥasan Yāsīn) was a founder of Hamas, an Islamist Palestinian paramilitary organization and political party. Yassin also served as the spiritual leader of the organization. Hamas gained popularity in Palestinian society by establishing hospitals, education systems, libraries and other services, but it has also claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks targeting Israeli civilians, leading to its being characterized by the European Union,Israel, Japan, Canada, and the United States as a terrorist organization.
Yassin, a quadriplegic who was nearly blind, had used a wheelchair since a sporting accident at the age of 12. He was assassinated when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at him as he was being wheeled from early morning prayers. His killing, in an attack that claimed the lives of both his bodyguards and nine bystanders, precipitated both criticism and praise of Israel, and many observers suggested that the act would negatively impact the peace process. 200,000 Palestinians attended his funeral procession.
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Al-Husayni
Husayni (Arabic: الحسيني also spelled Husseini) is the name of a prominent Palestinian Arab clan formerly based in Jerusalem. Several members of the clan held important political positions such as Mayor and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and founded and led many Palestinian Arab Islamist groups such as the Holy War Army, the Palestine Arab Party and the Arab Higher Committee. Conflicts involving these groups included, the 1920 Palestine riots, the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, 1948 Arab-Israeli War. One member of the al-Husayni clan, Hajj Amin al-Husayni would under threat from the British in WWII eventually leave the then British Mandate of Palestine and head via Syria to Iraq then Iran and eventually to Italy and then finally arriving in Berlin. In Berlin, Hajj Amin al-Husayni was photographed with many important Nazi leaders including Adolf Hitler and Husayni went to the Balkans on behalf of the Nazis to give speeches to recruits of the 13th Waffen SS division. Hajj Amin al-Husayni also broadcasted pro-Axis statements into the Middle East on Nazi radio stations.
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Alan Hart (writer)
Alan Hart is an author, former Middle East Chief Correspondent for Independent Television News, and former BBC Panorama presenter specialising in the Middle East.
Hart began his career as a reporter in Central Africa, on the Nyasaland Times, and served as a war correspondent in Vietnam. He tells of having been the first Western correspondent to reach the banks of the Suez Canal with the Israeli army in 1967. He also tells of having been friendly with both Golda Meir and Yasser Arafat at roughly the same time and having been on friendly terms with such leaders as Saudi Arabia's King Faisal, Jordan's King Hussein, and both Egyptian Presidents Nasser and Sadat.
Hart says he was told by his editor Geoffrey Cox early in his career, "Never forget that leaders are the most lonely people in the world because they are surrounded by sycophants who only tell them what they want to hear. They, the leaders, are crying out for honest conversation." Inspired by this advice, he says, he held "private one-on-one conversations over the years with leaders on both sides of the Arab-Israeli connection, giving him a rare insight into the truth of what they really believed and feared as opposed to what they said in public for propaganda and myth-sustaining purposes."
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Ali Khamenei
Grand AyatollahSayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei (Persian: سید علی حسینی خامنه ای, Azerbaijani: سید علی حسینی خامنهای – Seyyid Əli Xameneyi, pronounced [ʔæˈliː hoseiˈniː xɒːmeneˈʔiː] ( listen); born 17 July 1939) is the Supreme Leader of Iran, and a Twelver Shi'a marja. He had also served as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1981 to 1989. In 2010, Forbes selected him 26th in the list of 'World's Most Powerful People'.
Holding absolute power in his country, he has been described as one of only three people having "important influence" during the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran . Khamenei was the victim of an attempted assassination in June 1981 that paralyzed his right arm, although so far the biggest challenge to his leadership has been the mass protests following the June 2009 presidential elections during which he strongly supported president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They have had a falling out since.
Khamenei holds the title of Sayyed, which means that he claims direct patrilineal descent from Ali ibn Abi Talib. Some[which?] of Khamenei's ancestors are from Tafresh in today's Markazi province, and had migrated from their original home in Tafresh to Tabriz. Born in Mashhad, he is second eldest of eight children, and two of his brothers are also clerics. His younger brother, Hadi Khamenei, is a renowned newspaper editor and cleric. Khamenei is Iranian Azeri on his father's side and his mother is a Yazd-native Persian.
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Alva Myrdal
Alva Myrdal (née Reimer; 31 January 1902 – 1 February 1986) was a Swedish sociologist and politician. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982. She married Gunnar Myrdal in 1924.
Born in Uppsala, she first came to public notice in the 1930s, and was one of the main driving forces in the creation of the Swedish welfare state. She coauthored with Gunnar Myrdal the book entitled Crisis in the Question of Population (Swedish: Kris i befolkningsfrågan, 1934). The basic premise of Crisis in the Question of Population is to find what social reforms are needed to allow for individual liberty (especially for women) while also promoting child-bearing, and encouraging Swedes to have children. While heralding many sweeping social reforms seen as positive for Sweden, the book also incorporated some of the zeitgeist of the 1930s, in its promotion of the idea of racism, eugenics and compulsory sterilization programs. With architect Sven Markelius she designed Stockholm's cooperative Collective House in 1937 with an eye towards developing more domestic liberty for women.
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Amin al-Husayni
Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini (Arabic: محمد أمين الحسيني, Muhammad Amin al-Husayni; born between 1895 and 1897; died July 4, 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in the Mandatory Palestine.
Al-Husseini was an ambitious Arab nationalist and following the end of the First World War positioned himself in Damascus, as a supporter of the Arab Kingdom of Syria. However, following the fiasco of the Franco-Syrian War, his positions on pan-Arabism shifted to a form of local nationalism for the Arabs of Palestine and he moved back to Jerusalem. From as early as 1920, in order to secure the independence of Palestine as an Arab state he actively opposed Zionism, and was implicated as a leader of a violent riot that broke out over the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. From 1921 to 1937 al-Husseini was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, using the position to promote Islam and rally Arab nationalism against Zionism.
His opposition to the British peaked during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. In 1937, evading an arrest warrant, he fled Palestine and took refuge in, successively, the French Mandate of Lebanon and the Kingdom of Iraq, until he established himself in Italy and finally Germany. During World War II he actively collaborated with both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, meeting Adolf Hitler personally and asking him to back Arab independence. He requested, as part of the Pan-Arab struggle, Hitler's support to oppose the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home. He was promised the leadership of the Arabs after German troops had driven out the British. He helped recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS. At war's end, he came under French protection, and managed to slip away to Cairo to avoid eventual prosecution.
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Amira Hass
Amira Hass (Hebrew: עמירה הס; born 28 June 1956) is a prominent left-wing Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Ha'aretz. She is particularly recognized for her reporting on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has also lived for a number of years.
The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Hass is the only child of a Sarajevo-born Jewish mother, who survived nine months in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and a Romanian-born Jewish father. Hass was born in Jerusalem, and was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she studied the history of Nazism and the European Left's relation to the Holocaust. Early in her career, she traveled widely and worked in several different jobs.
For some years during the 1980's, Hass lived in Amsterdam, being married to a Dutchman. She spoke fluenct Dutch and was involved with various Left-wing, Feminist and Jewish dissident groups. However, her marriage broke down and she returned to Israel.
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Ammar ibn Yasir
ʻAmmār ibn Yāsir b. ʿĀmir b. Mālik Abū l-Yaqẓān (Arabic: عمار بن یاسر) was one of the companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was one of the Muhajirun, and referred to as by Shia Muslims as one of the Four Companions.
Ammār was born in the Year of the Elephant, which was the same year as Muhammad. ʻAmmār was a friend of Muhammad even before conversion and was one of the intermediaries in Muhammad's marriage to Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. His mother was Sumayyah bint Khayyat and his father was Yasir ibn Amir. Yasir and Sumayyah were pagan converts to Islam who were tortured and crucified in the last year before the Hijra . ʻAmmār and his family were repeatedly tortured by Meccan polytheists . Once when ʻAmmār was being tortured, it is reported that he spoke idolatrously and contradicted his faith. This incident is often used as an example of taqiyya (“the concealment of one’s true beliefs in times of adversity” ) because ʻAmmār only denounced his beliefs because he was being tortured so horribly. After the persecution of Muslims was over, Hamza and the Muhammad's other companions went to the location where the torture and persecution took place; they found every persecuted Muslim dead except ʻAmmār, who had survived the torture. ʻAmmār’s parents were both among the group of persecuted Muslims who did not survive. Abu Jahl killed his mother Sumayyah, who is considered the first Muslim martyr.
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Anwar Sadat
Anwar El Sadat (Arabic: محمد أنور السادات Anwar as-Sādāt, Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mæˈħæmmæd ˈʔɑnwɑɾˤ essæˈdæːt]; 25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981. In his eleven years as president he changed Egypt's direction, departing from some of the economic and political principles of Nasserism by re-instituting the multi-party system, and launching the Infitah economic policy.
He was a senior member of the Free Officers group that overthrew the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and a close confidant of President Gamal Abdul Nasser, whom he succeeded as President in 1970. As president he led Egypt in the October War of 1973 to re-acquire Egyptian territory lost to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, making him a hero in Egypt and, for a time, the wider Arab World. Afterwards he engaged in negotiations with Israel, culminating in the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. This won him the Nobel Peace Prize but also made him unpopular among some Arabs, resulting in a temporary suspension of Egypt's membership in the Arab League, and eventually his assassination.
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Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs (Arabic: عرب, ʿarab), are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing an important part of Arab identity.
The word "Arab" has had several different, but overlapping, meanings over the centuries (and sometimes even today). In addition to including all Arabized people of the world (with language tending to be the acid test), it has also at times been used exclusively for bedouin (Arab nomads [although a related word, "`a-RAB," with the Arabic letter "alif" in the second syllable, once was sometimes used when this specific meaning was intended] and their now almost entirely settled descendants). It is sometimes used that way colloquially even today in some places. Townspeople once were sometimes called "sons of the Arabs." As in the case of other ethnicities or nations, people identify themselves (or are identified by others) as "Arabs" to varying degrees. This may not be one's primary identity (it tends to compete with country, religion, sect, etc.), and whether it is emphasized may depend upon one's audience.
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Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon (Hebrew: אריאל שרון, also known by his diminutive Arik, אַריק, born Ariel Scheinermann, אריאל שיינרמן on 26 February 1928) is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006.
Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army since its inception in 1948. As a paratrooper and then officer he participated prominently in the 1948 War of Independence, becoming platoon commander of the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in many battles, including Operation Ben Nun Alef. He was an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101, the Retribution operations, the 1956 Suez War, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. During his military career, he was considered the greatest Field Commander in Israel's history, and one of the country's greatest ever military strategists. After his assault of the Sinai in the Six-Day War and his encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army in the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli public nicknamed him "The King of Israel" and "The Lion of God".
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Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL (/ˈbælfʊər/; 25 July 1848 – 19 March 1930) was a British Conservative politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from July 1902 to December 1905, and was later Foreign Secretary in 1916–1919.
Born in Scotland and educated as a philosopher, Balfour first entered parliament in the 1874 general election. At first seen as something of a dilettante, he attained prominence as Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1887–1891. In this post, he authored the Perpetual Crimes Act (1887) (or Coercion Act) aimed at the prevention of boycotting, intimidation and unlawful assembly in Ireland during the Irish Land War.
Balfour succeeded his uncle Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader in July 1902 (Balfour had been Conservative leader in the House of Commons since 1891). As Prime Minister, Balfour oversaw such events as the Entente Cordiale, but his party was split over tariff reform and in December 1905 he relinquished power to the Liberals. The general election the following January was a disaster for the Conservatives and their Liberal Unionist allies, left with a mere 157 seats in Parliament. Balfour himself lost his Manchester East seat and was rushed back to parliament in a by-election for the City of London constituency. He continued as Leader of the Opposition throughout the crisis over the Lloyd George People's Budget and the Parliament Act, but after failing to win either of the two General Elections in 1910 he resigned as leader in November 1911.
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Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi MP AC (Burmese:
; MLCTS: aung hcan: cu. krany, IPA: [ʔàʊɴ sʰáɴ sṵ tɕì]; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese opposition politician and General Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma. In the 1990 general election, the NLD won 59% of the national votes and 81% (392 of 485) of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained under house arrest before the elections. She remained under house arrest in Burma for almost 15 of the 21 years from 20 July 1989 until her most recent release on 13 November 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent (now former) political prisoners.
Suu Kyi received the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992 she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the government of India and the International Simón Bolívar Prize from the government of Venezuela. In 2007, the Government of Canada made her an honorary citizen of that country; at the time, she was one of only four people ever to receive the honor. In 2011, she was awarded the Wallenberg Medal.
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Avraham Sela
Avraham Sela is a scholar on the Middle East and international relations, currently the A. Ephraim and Shirley Diamond Professor of International Relations and a senior research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute, both at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He is the author of The Decline of the Arab Israeli Conflict: Middle East Politics and the Quest for Regional Order (1998) and co-author of The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence and Adjustment (2000).
Sela studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem gaining a BA in 1971, an MA in 1974 and a PhD in 1986.
Sela is fairly critical of the writings of the New Historians, particularly of Benny Morris and Avi Shlaim.
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Aziz Duwaik
Aziz Duwaik (Arabic: عزيز دويك, ʿAzīz Duwayk) (born c. 1950) has been the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) since his election to that post on 18 January 2006. He was imprisoned in Israel on 6 August 2006 on charges of being a member of Hamas, but he was released on 22 June 2009. Some Palestinians consider Duwaik, as speaker of the PLC, to be the acting President of the Palestinian National Authority, since the elected term of Mahmoud Abbas officially expired on 9 January 2009.
Prior to becoming involved in political office, Duwaik was a professor of urban geography at An-Najah National University in Nablus on the West Bank. He holds a PhD in Regional and Architecture Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Married, with seven children, one of his daughters is a school principal, and three of his other children are students of medicine or pharmacy. Duwaik's wife runs a daycare centre out of the family's house named Marj az-Zahour, after the place in Lebanon where her husband spent a year in exile in 1992.
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Bachir Gemayel
Bachir Gemayel (10 November 1947 – 14 September 1982) (first name also spelled Bashir and surname also spelled al-Jumayyil, El Gemaiel, Joomayyeel) (بشير الجميّل) was a Lebanese politician, militia commander, and president-elect. He was a senior member of the Phalange party and the commander of the Lebanese Forces militia amid the first several years of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90). He was elected president on August 23, 1982 while the country was torn by civil war and occupied by both Israel and Syria. He was assassinated on September 14, 1982, along with 26 others, when a bomb exploded in the Beirut headquarters of the Phalange. The bomb was planted by Habib Tanious Shartouni. The FBI blamed the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
Bachir was born on November 10, 1947 in the Achrafieh neighborhood of Beirut, the youngest of six children. The Gemayel family is originally from the Bikfaya village in the Matn District of Lebanon and is one of the most influential Christian families in Lebanon. His father was Pierre Gemayel, who founded the Phalange party in 1936 as a youth movement. The Phalange, a conservative party that though is officially secular, is supported mostly by Maronite Christians. Gemayel attended College de Notre Dame de Jamhour and the Institution Moderne du Liban (I.M.L) - Fanar. He completed his formal university education at St. Joseph University (Université Saint-Joseph - U.S.J.) in Beirut. After teaching for three years at the Lebanese Modern Institute, he graduated in 1971 with a degree in Law and another in Political Sciences in 1973. In 1971, Gemayel also took another law qualification from the American and International Law Academy in Dallas, Texas. Qualifying in 1972, he joined the bar association and opened an office in Hamra, West Beirut.
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Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: بشار حافظ الأسد, Baššār al-ʾAsad, Arabic pronunciation: [bæʃˈʃɑːɾɪlˈʔæsæd]); born 11 September 1965) is the current President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Syrian-led branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000.
Al-Assad graduated from the medical school of the University of Damascus in 1988, and started to work as a doctor in the army. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital, in London, specializing in ophthalmology. In 1994, Al-Assad entered the military academy and in 1998, Al-Assad took charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. In December 2000, Assad married Asma Assad, née Akhras. Al-Assad was elected as President of Syria in 2000 and 2007, unopposed each time. During the Syrian uprising, activists and protesters have called for President al-Assad's resignation.
Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, the son of Aniseh (née Makhluf) and Hafez al-Assad. His father, Hafez al-Assad, born to a poor family of Alawite background, had risen through the Party ranks, to take control of the Syrian-led branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in the 1970 Corrective Revolution, thus installing himself as president. Hafez al-Assad purged the Party, and introduced effective Alawite rule of Syria.
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Bassam Abu Sharif
Bassam Abu Sharif (born 1946) is a former senior adviser to the late Yasser Arafat and press officer of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Formerly a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Abu Sharif was dubbed the "face of terror" by Time Magazine for his role in the Dawson's Field hijackings in 1970, when the PFLP hijacked Pan Am, Swissair, and TWA flights — a fourth pair of hijackers on an El Al flight were overpowered by security guards and passengers — and blew them up in the Jordanian desert, triggering King Hussein's expulsion of the PLO from Jordan, which became known as Black September.
He lost four fingers, and was left deaf in one ear and blind in one eye, when a bomb exploded in his hands in Beirut, Lebanon in 1972. The assassination attempt was carried out by Mossad who hid the explosives in the book The Memoirs of Che Guevara, and sent the book to Sharif.
Within PFLP, he began to favor a reduced emphasis on armed struggle and closer cooperation with Fatah, the dominant PLO faction. As a result, he was removed from the PFLP Politburo in 1981, and demoted running external relations. In drawing closer to Fatah leader Yasir Arafat and meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, he was expelled from the PFLP in 1987. In a non-partisan role, he became an advisor to Arafat and was able to float some peace proposals based on a two-state solution and preparing Palestinians for the compromises made in Oslo. He returned to Ramallah in 1996 as a presidential advisor and often writing unofficial statements of the Palestinian position in the peace process.
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Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (Hebrew: בִּנְיָמִין "בִּיבִּי" נְתַנְיָהוּ (help·info); born 21 October 1949) is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.
Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister born in Israel after the founding of the state. Netanyahu joined the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1967 Six-Day War, and became a team leader in the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit. He took part in many missions, including Operation Gift and Operation Isotope, during which he was shot in the shoulder. He fought on the front lines in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, taking part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal, and then leading a commando assault deep into Syrian territory. He achieved the rank of captain before being discharged. Netanyahu served as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988, member of the Likud Party, and was Prime Minister from June 1996 to July 1999.
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Benny Morris
Benny Morris (Hebrew: בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948 in Ein HaHoresh, Israel) is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel. He is a key member of the group of Israeli historians known as the "New Historians".
Morris's work on the Arab-Israeli conflict and especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has won praise and criticism from both sides of the political divide. He is accused by some academics in Israel of only using Israeli and never Arab sources, creating an "unbalanced picture". Regarding himself as a Zionist, he writes, "I embarked upon the research not out of ideological commitment or political interest. I simply wanted to know what happened."
Morris was born in Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh, the son of Jewish immigrants from the United Kingdom. His father, Ya'akov Morris, was an Israeli diplomat, historian, and poet. According to The New Yorker, Benny Morris "grew up in the heart of a left-wing pioneering atmosphere".
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Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance.
Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has served as the United States Secretary of State since 2009 and was a Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. Both Clintons received law degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state's education system, and served as Chair of the National Governors Association.
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Bill Emmott
Bill Emmott (born August 6, 1956) is an English journalist.
Emmott was educated at Latymer Upper School in London and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he attained a First Class Degree in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). After graduation, he worked for The Economist newspaper in Brussels, Tokyo and London, becoming editor in March 1993. He resigned on 20 February 2006. During his tenure, the circulation of The Economist doubled from 500,000 to nearly 1,100,000 weekly sales. Also during this time, The Economist editorialized in favour of the Iraq war, of legalising gay marriage, of abolishing the British monarchy and in opposition to Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister of Italy.
He is chairman of the London Library, a trustee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and chairman of an online start-up in social-media rankings, PeerIndex; he is also a member of the Swiss Re Chairman's Advisory Panel; a member of the board of the Salzburg Global Seminar; and co-Chairs the Canada Europe Roundtable for Business. He is especially known for several well-received books about Japan.
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Camille Chamoun
Camille Nimr Chamoun (Arabic: كميل نمر شمعون, Kamīl Sham'ūn) (April 3, 1900 – August 7, 1987) was President of Lebanon from 1952 to 1958, and one of the country's main Christian leaders during most of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990).
Camille Nimr Chamoun was born at Deir el-Qamar on 3 April 1900, into a prominent Maronite family. He was educated in France and became a lawyer. He was first elected to the Lebanese parliament in 1934, and was reelected in 1937 and 1943. A champion of independence from France, he was arrested on 11 November 1943, and was imprisoned in Rashaïa castle, where he was held for eleven days, along with Bishara el-Khoury and Riad el-Solh, who were to become the first President and Prime Minister, respectively, of the new republic. Massive public protests led to their release on 22 November, which has since been celebrated as the Lebanese Independence Day.
Chamoun was reelected to parliament, now called the National Assembly, in 1947 and 1951. He was frequently absent, however, as he served as ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1944 to 1946, and as ambassor to the United Nations thereafter.
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Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Azriel Weizmann, Hebrew: חיים עזריאל ויצמן, Arabic: حاييم وايزمان Hayyiyim Wayizman (November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Zionist leader, President of the Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952.
Weizmann was also a chemist who developed the ABE-process, which produces acetone through bacterial fermentation. He founded the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
Weizmann was born in the village of Motal near Pinsk in Belarus (at that time part of the Russian Empire). He was the third of 15 children. His father was a timber merchant. Until the age of 11, he attended a traditional heder. At the age of 11, he entered high school in Pinsk.
Weizmann studied chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute of Darmstadt, Germany, and University of Fribourg, Switzerland. In 1899, he was awarded a doctorate with honors. In 1901, he was appointed assistant lecturer at the University of Geneva and, in 1904, senior lecturer at the University of Manchester.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Corazon Aquino
Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office. She led the 1986 People Power Revolution, which toppled Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines. She was named "Woman of the Year" in 1986 by Time Magazine.
A self-proclaimed "plain housewife", Aquino was married to Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., the staunchest critic of then President Ferdinand Marcos. Senator Aquino was assassinated on August 21, 1983 upon returning to the Philippines after three years in exile in the United States. After her husband's assassination, Corazon Aquino emerged as the leader of the opposition against the Marcos administration. In late 1985, when President Marcos called for a snap election, Aquino ran for president with former senator Salvador Laurel as her vice-presidential running mate. After the elections were held on February 7, 1986, and the Batasang Pambansa proclaimed Marcos the winner in the elections, she called for massive civil disobedience protests, declaring herself as having been cheated and as the real winner in the elections. Filipinos enthusiastically heeded her call and rallied behind her. These events eventually led to the ousting of Marcos and the installation of Aquino as President of the Philippines on February 25, 1986 through the "People Power Revolution".
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Danny Rubenstein
Daniel "Danny" Rubinstein (born 1937) is an Israeli journalist and author. He previously worked for Haaretz, where he was an Arab affairs analyst and a member of the editorial board.
Rubinstein was born in Jerusalem in 1937. He grew up in Neveh Bezalel, a small neighborhood between Nahlaot and the city center. He majored in Middle Eastern studies and sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Rubinstein was a reserve soldier in a Jerusalem reconnaissance unit led by Yossi Langotsky. This unit was the first to cross the cease-fire line into the Jordanian-controlled West Bank.
He lives in Jerusalem's Beit Hakerem neighborhood.
From 1967 to 1990, Rubinstein worked as a columnist and Jerusalem bureau chief for the now-defunct newspaper Davar. From 1990-2008, he worked for Haaretz, where he was a member of the editorial board. He wrote regular columns on the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian affairs. He now writes a weekly column on the Palestinian economy for Calcalist, an Israeli business daily published by Yediot Ahronoth.
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Dany Chamoun
Dany Chamoun (Arabic: داني شمعون) (26 August 1934 – 21 October 1990) was a prominent Lebanese politician. A Maronite Christian and the younger son of former President Camille Chamoun, Dany Chamoun was also a politician in his own right, and was known for his opposition to the occupation of Lebanese territory by foreign forces, whether Syrian or Israeli.
Dany Chamoun was born at Deir el-Qamar. He became the National Liberal Party Secretary of Defense in January 1976, after the death of its predecessor Naim Berdkan. As Supreme Commander of the NLP's military wing, the Tigers, he also played a major role in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War.
In 1976, the NLP Tigers under Dany's command along with the Phalangist Kataeb Regulatory Forces, Al-Tanzim and Guardians of the Cedars formed a joined militia command under the name Lebanese Forces.
By 1980, the Phalangist-dominated Lebanese Forces were under the command of Bachir Gemayel. Rivalry began to arise between Bashir and Dany. Dany's Tigers were eliminated as a military force in a massacre perpetrated on 7 July 1980 by the rival Phalangists. Chamoun's life was spared and he fled to the Sunni Muslim-dominated West Beirut. He temporarily quit politics.
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David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion (help·info) (Hebrew: דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן, Arabic: دافيد بن غوريون Dafeed Bin Ghuriyyun, born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the main founder and the first Prime Minister of Israel.
Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he became the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led the provisional government of Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father".
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David Frum
David J. Frum (/ˈfrʌm/; born June 30, 1960) is a Canadian American journalist active in both the United States and Canadian political arenas. A former economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush, he is also the author of the first "insider" book about the Bush presidency. His editorial columns have appeared in a variety of Canadian and American magazines and newspapers, including the National Post and The Week. He is a featured writer for The Daily Beast and Newsweek, which he joined after a brief stint as the founder of FrumForum.com (formerly NewMajority.com), a political group blog, and serves on the board of directors of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He is the son of Barbara Frum.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Frum is the son of the late Barbara Frum, a well-known journalist and broadcaster, and Murray Frum, a dentist, who later became a real estate developer, philanthropist, and art collector. Frum's sister, Linda Frum, is a member of the Canadian Senate. Frum is married to writer Danielle Crittenden, the stepdaughter of former Toronto Sun editor Peter Worthington. The couple has three children. He is a distant cousin of economist Paul Krugman.
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David Ho (scientist)
David Da-i Ho (Chinese: 何大一; born November 3, 1952) is a Taiwanese AmericanAIDS researcher famous for pioneering the use of protease inhibitors in treating HIV-infected patients with his team. He is the scientific director and chief executive officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Irene Diamond Professor at the Rockefeller University in New York.
Born in Taichung, Taiwan, to Paul (何步基, an engineer) and Sonia Ho (江雙如). David Ho attended Taichung Municipal Guang-Fu Elementary School until sixth grade before immigrating to the United States with his mother and younger brother to unite with his father, who had already been in the US since 1957. He grew up in Los Angeles and received his bachelor of science in physics with highest honors from the California Institute of Technology (1974) and MD from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (1978). Subsequently, he did his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at UCLA School of Medicine (1978–1982) and Massachusetts General Hospital (1982–1985), respectively. He was a resident in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1981 when he came into contact with some of the first reported cases of what was later identified as AIDS.
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David Trimble
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC (born 15 October 1944, in Belfast), is a politician from Northern Ireland. He served as Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP; 1995–2005), was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland (1998–2002), and was a Member of the British Parliament (1990–2005). He is currently a life peer for the Conservative Party. Trimble was awarded the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, along with John Hume.
While a professor of law at Queen's University Belfast, he was elected to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention. He served as Member of Parliament for Upper Bann from 1990 until 2005. He resigned leadership of the UUP soon afterwards. In June 2006, he became a member of the House of Lords, as The Right Honourable William David Trimble by the name, style, and title of Baron Trimble, of Lisnagarvey in the County of Antrim. In April 2007 he left the UUP to join the Conservative Party.
In June 2010, the Israeli government appointed Lord Trimble to be one of two international observers serving on an Israeli commission of inquiry looking into the events surrounding an Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara, along with Canadian former Judge Advocate General Ken Watkin. The panel concluded both Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and the interception of the flotilla “were found to be legally pursuant to the rules of international law”.
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Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (IPA: [tə̂ŋ ɕjɑ̀ʊpʰǐŋ] ( listen); 22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy. While Deng never held office as the head of state, head of government or General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (historically the highest position in Communist China), he nonetheless served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1992. As the core of the second generation leaders Deng shared his power with the two most powerful men after him: Li Xiannian and Chen Yun.
Born into a peasant background in Guang'an, Sichuan, China, Deng studied and worked in France in the 1920s, where he was influenced by Marxism. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1923. Upon his return to China he worked as a political commissar in rural regions and was considered a "revolutionary veteran" of the Long March. Following the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Deng worked in Tibet and other southwestern regions to consolidate Communist control. He was also instrumental in China's economic reconstruction following the Great Leap Forward in the early 1960s. His economic policies were at odds with the political ideologies of Chairman Mao Zedong. As a result, he was purged twice during the Cultural Revolution but regained prominence in 1978 by outmaneuvering Mao's chosen successor, Hua Guofeng.
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Dennis Ross
Dennis B. Ross (born November 26, 1948) is an American diplomat and author. He has served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W. Bush, the special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton, and was a special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia (which includes Iran) to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Ross was born in San Francisco and grew up in Marin County. His Jewish mother and Catholic stepfather raised him in a non-religious atmosphere. Ross graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 1970 and did graduate work there, writing his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decision-making. He later became religiously Jewish after the Six Day War. In 2002 he co-founded the Kol Shalom synagogue in Rockville, Maryland.
During President Jimmy Carter's administration, Ross worked under Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in the Pentagon. There, he co-authored a study recommending greater U.S. intervention in "the Persian Gulf Region because of our need for Persian Gulf oil and because events in the Persian Gulf affect the Arab-Israeli conflict." During the Reagan administration, Ross served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs in the National Security Council and Deputy Director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (1982–84).
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Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu (born 7 October 1931) is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. He was the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa).
Tutu has been active in the defense of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. He has campaigned to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984; the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986; the Pacem in Terris Award in 1987; the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999; the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2005; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Tutu has also compiled several books of his speeches and sayings.
Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, the second of the three children of Zacheriah Zililo Tutu and his wife, Aletta, and the only son. Tutu's family moved to Johannesburg when he was twelve. His father was a teacher and his mother was a cleaner and cook at a school for the blind. Here he met Trevor Huddleston who was a parish priest in the black slum of Sophiatown. "One day," said Tutu, "I was standing in the street with my mother when a white man in a priest's clothing walked past. As he passed us he took off his hat to my mother. I couldn't believe my eyes – a white man who greeted a black working class woman!"
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Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert (Hebrew: אהוד אולמרט, IPA: [eˈhud ˈolmeʁt] ( listen), born 30 September 1945) is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006. Between his first and second stints as a cabinet member, he served as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003.
In 2003 Olmert was re-elected to the Knesset (he had earlier served eight terms), and became a Cabinet Minister and Acting Prime Minister in the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. On 4 January 2006, after Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke, Olmert began exercising the powers of the office of Prime Minister. Olmert led Kadima to a victory in the March 2006 elections (just two months after Sharon had suffered his stroke), and continued on as Acting Prime Minister. On 14 April, two weeks after the election, Sharon was declared permanently incapacitated, allowing Olmert to legally become Interim Prime Minister. Less than a month later, on 4 May, Olmert and his new, post-election government were approved by the Knesset, thus Olmert officially became Prime Minister of Israel.
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Elie Wiesel
Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE ( /ˈɛli vɨˈzɛl/; Hungarian: Wiesel Lázár; born September 30, 1928) is a Romanian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps. Wiesel is also the Advisory Board chairman of the Algemeiner Journal newspaper.
When Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, the Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a "messenger to mankind," stating that through his struggle to come to terms with "his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps", as well as his "practical work in the cause of peace", Wiesel had delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity.
Wiesel was born in Sighet,Transylvania (now Sighetu Marmaţiei), Maramureş, Kingdom of Romania, in the Carpathian Mountains. His mother, Sarah Feig, was the daughter of Dodye Feig, a celebrated Vizhnitz Hasid and farmer from a nearby village. He was active and trusted within the community, and in the early years of his life had spent a few months in jail for having helped Polish Jews who escaped and were hungry. It was his father, Chlomo, who instilled a strong sense of humanism in his son, encouraging him to learn Hebrew and to read literature, whereas his mother encouraged him to study the Torah. Wiesel has said his father represented reason, and his mother Sarah promoted faith. In his home, his family spoke Yiddish most of the time, but also Romanian, Hungarian and German. Wiesel had three sisters – older sisters Hilda and Beatrice, and younger sister Tzipora. Beatrice and Hilda survived the war and were reunited with Wiesel at a French orphanage. They eventually emigrated to North America, with Beatrice moving to Montreal, Canada. Tzipora, Chlomo and Sarah did not survive the Holocaust.
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Emile Lahoud
General Émile Jamil Lahoud (born 12 January 1936) is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for a Maronite Catholic, the Parliament of Lebanon speaker's post for a Shia Muslim and the prime minister's post is reserved for a Sunni Muslim. Before being elected in 1998, he was Chief of Staff in the Army.
Lahoud served as a colonel for a number of years before he crossed over into the Muslim area which was backed by the Syrian army. A Maronite military officer was needed to assume the position of army commander for the West Beirut-based Lebanese government endorsed by the 1989 Taif Agreement[citation needed]. Lahoud was offered the position.
He served in various posts in the military, including commander-in-chief of the army from 1989 to 1998, and then ran for the presidency in 1998, after having the constitution amended to allow the army commander-in-chief to run for office within three years of holding that post.
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Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He co-founded and served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1940, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government he supported the creation of NATO.
Bevin was born in the village of Winsford in Somerset, England, to Diana Bevin who, since 1877, had described herself as a widow. His father is unknown. After his mother's death in 1889, the young Bevin lived with his half-sister's family, moving to Morchard Bishop in Devon. He had little formal education, having briefly attended two village schools and then Hayward's School, Crediton, starting in 1890 and leaving in 1892. He later recalled being asked as a child to read the newspaper aloud for the benefit of adults in his family who were illiterate. At the age of eleven, he went to work as a labourer, then as a lorry driver in Bristol, where he joined the Bristol Socialist Society. In 1910 he became secretary of the Bristol branch of the Dockers' Union, and in 1914 he became a national organiser for the union.
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F. W. de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk (born 18 March 1936), often known as F. W. de Klerk, was the seventh and last State President of apartheid-era South Africa, serving from September 1989 to May 1994. De Klerk was also leader of the National Party (which later became the New National Party) from February 1989 to September 1997.
De Klerk is best known for engineering the end of apartheid, South Africa's racial segregation policy, and supporting the transformation of South Africa into a multi-racial democracy by entering into the negotiations that resulted in all citizens, including the country's black majority, having equal voting and other rights. He won the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize in 1991, the Prince of Asturias Award in 1992 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Nelson Mandela for his role in the ending of apartheid.
He was one of the Deputy Presidents of South Africa during the presidency of Nelson Mandela until 1996, the last white person to hold the position to date. In 1997 he retired from politics.
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Fahd of Saudi Arabia
Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, (Arabic: فهد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود Fahd ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Su‘ūd) (16 March 1920 – 1 August 2005) was King of Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005.
King Fahd is the eighth son of Ibn Saud and is the fifth king of Saudi Arabia. Fahd ascended to the throne on the death of his half-brother, King Khalid, on 13 June 1982. He was a member of Sudairi Seven. In fact, he was the eldest of Sudairi Brothers.
Fahd was appointed Crown Prince when Khalid succeeded their half-brother King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975. Fahd was viewed as the de facto prime minister during King Khalid's reign in part due to the latter's ill health.
Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke on 29 November 1995, after which he was unable to continue performing his full official duties. His half-brother, Abdullah, then-Crown Prince, served as de facto regent of the kingdom and succeeded Fahd as monarch upon his death on 1 August 2005.
King Fahd is credited for having introduced the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia in 1992.
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Faisal I of Iraq
Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi, (Arabic: فيصل بن حسين بن علي الهاشمي Fayṣal ibn Ḥusayn; 20 May 1885 – 8 September 1933) was for a short time King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of the Kingdom of Iraq (today Iraq) from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was a member of the Hashemite dynasty.
Faisal encouraged overcoming cleavage between Sunni and Shiite to foster common loyalty and promote pan-Arabism in the goal of creating an Arab state that would include Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Fertile Crescent. While in power, Faisal tried to diversify his administration by including different ethnic and religious groups in offices. He faced great challenges in achieving this because the region was under European, specifically French and British, control and other Arab leaders of the time were hostile to his ideas as they pursued their own political aspirations for power. In addition, Faisal’s attempt at pan-Arab nationalism inevitably isolated certain religious groups.
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Farouk Kaddoumi
Farouk al-Kaddoumi (alternative transliteration, Faruq al-Qaddumi) (Arabic: فاروق القدومي), also known as Abu al-Lutf, born in 1931. Secretary-general of Fatah's central committee and PLO's political department in Tunisia.
Farouk Kaddoumi was born in the town of Jinsafut near Nablus and later his family moved to Jaffa in present-day Israel. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War they fled to Nablus in the West Bank. For three years in the early 1950s he worked in Saudi Arabia for the Arab-American Petroleum Company (ARAMCO). In 1954 he moved to Egypt and while studying economy and political science at the Cairo University, he joined the Baath party.
In 1960 he joined Fatah in the United Arab Emirates. In 1965-66 he worked for the ministry of health of Kuwait but in 1966 was expelled from the country for anti-governmental activities connected with the PLO. By 1969 he became one of key figures in the PLO and after 1973 he headed its political department in Damascus, Syria.
In 1976, Arafat and Kaddoumi met with Meir Vilner and Tawfik Toubi, heads of Rakah (New Communist List), which had developed after the 1965 split in the Israeli Communist Party, and from which Hadash eventually developed. This meeting led to a close cooperation.
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Farouk of Egypt
Farouk I of Egypt (Arabic: فاروق الأول Fārūq al-Awwal) (11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965), was the tenth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936.
His full title was "His Majesty Farouk I, by the grace of God, King of Egypt and Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, of Kordofan, and of Darfur." He was overthrown in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and was forced to abdicate in favor of his infant son Ahmed Fuad, who succeeded him as King Fuad II. He died in exile in Italy.
His sister was Princess Fawzia Fuad, first wife and Queen Consort of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
As Crown Prince, Farouk held the rank of First Scout of Egypt.
The great-great-grandson of Muḥammad Alī, Farouk was of Albanian descent as well as native Egyptian and Turkish descent through his mother Queen Nazli Sabri. Before his father's death, he was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, England. Upon his coronation, the 16-year-old King Farouk made a public radio address to the nation, the first time a sovereign of Egypt had ever spoken directly to his people in such a way:
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Fathi Arafat
Fathi Arafat (January 11, 1933 – December 1, 2004), born in Cairo, was a Palestinian physician and a founder and long-term chairman of the Palestine Red Crescent Society. He studied medicine at Cairo University from 1950 until 1957 and thereafter practiced as a pediatrician in Cairo, Kuwait and Jordan. He was a younger brother of the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.
Arafat became a member of the Palestinian National Council in 1967. From 1968 he was also President of Palestine General Union of Physicians and Pharmacists. He served as Chief Delegate for Palestine to the World Health Organization in Geneva from 1982 onwards. From 1992 he was President of the Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (formerly Palestine Academy for Scientific Research) and President of the Palestine Higher Health Council.
He died in Cairo on December 1, 2004, from stomach cancer, less than a month after the death of Yasser Arafat.
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Folke Bernadotte
Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (in Swedish: Greve af Wisborg; 2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 450 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt released on 14 April 1945. In 1945, he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected.
After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1947–1948. He was assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948 by the militant Zionist group Lehi while pursuing his official duties. The decision to assassinate him had been taken by Natan Yellin-Mor, Yisrael Eldad and Yitzhak Shamir, who was later to become Prime Minister of Israel.
Folke Bernadotte was born in Stockholm into the House of Bernadotte. He was the son of Count Oscar Bernadotte of Wisborg (formerly Prince Oscar of Sweden, Duke of Gotland) and his wife Ebba Munck af Fulkila. His grandfather was King Oscar II of Sweden.
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Fouad Siniora
Fuad Siniora (alternative spellings: Fouad Sanyoura, Fuad Sinyora, Fouad Sanioura, Fouad Seniora, Fouad Siniora) (Arabic: فؤاد السنيورة , Fu'ād as-Sanyūrah) is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to May 25, 2008 the date of the election of the new President of Lebanon; he was renominated to the post on 28 May 2008 and held the post as Acting President between those dates. He stepped down on 9 November 2009 in favor of Saad Hariri, the late Rafiq Hariri's son. He currently serves as a member of Parliament from Saida and is a member of the Club de Madrid, a of former leaders of democratic countries committed to strengthening democratic governance.
Siniora was born into a Sunni Muslim family in Sidon on April 14, 1943. He earned a Masters in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut after attending the American School for Boys in Sidon. He speaks fluent English. In the 1970s, Siniora worked for Citibank and taught at his alma mater in Beirut and at the Lebanese University. He then joined the audit committee at Lebanon's Central Bank in 1977. In 1982, he was recruited by successful businessman Rafik Hariri to help him manage and expand his massive business empire. Upon the end of Lebanon's Civil War, Hariri became Lebanon's Prime Minister. Hariri appointed Siniora as his Minister of Finance in his successive cabinets. He was the Chairman and Managing Director of Groupe Mediterranee which encompasses four Hariri-owned banks. He is known for his interest in Arab literature and poetry.
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Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (Arabic: جمال عبد الناصر حسين, IPA: [ɡæˈmæːl ʕæbdenˈnɑːsˤeɾ ħeˈseːn]; 15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of modernization, and socialist reform in Egypt together with a profound advancement of pan-Arab nationalism, including a short-lived union with Syria.
Nasser is seen as one of the most important political figures in both modern Arab history and politics in the 20th century. Under his leadership, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company and came to play a central role in anti-imperialist efforts in the Arab World and Africa. The imposed ending to the Suez Crisis made him a hero throughout the Arab world. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the international Non-Aligned Movement. He is well known for his nationalist policies and version of pan-Arabism, also referred to as Nasserism, which won a great following in the Arab World during the 1950s and 1960s. Although his status as "leader of the Arabs" was badly damaged by the Israeli victory over the Arab armies in the Six-Day War, as well as Egypt's failure to win the subsequent War of Attrition against Israel, many in the general Arab population still view Nasser as a symbol of Arab dignity and freedom.
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George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States (1989–93). He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States (1981–89), a congressman, an ambassador, a Director of Central Intelligence, and is currently the oldest surviving president.
Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Senator Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush postponed going to college, enlisted in the US Navy on his 18th birthday, and became the youngest aviator in the Navy at the time. He served until the end of the war, then attended Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business, becoming a millionaire by the age of 40.
He became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives, among other positions. He ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States in 1980, but was chosen by party nominee Ronald Reagan to be the vice presidential nominee, and the two were subsequently elected. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation and fighting drug abuse.
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George Habash
George Habash (Arabic: جورج حبش) also known by his laqab "al-Hakim" (Arabic:الحكيم — the wise one or the doctor) (August 2, 1926 – January 26, 2008) was a Palestinian Christian who founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Habash served as Secretary-General of the Palestine Front until 2000, when ill-health forced him to resign.
Habash was born in Lydda (today's Lod) to an Eastern Orthodox Palestinian family. As a child, he sang in the church choir. Habash, a medical student at the American University of Beirut, was visiting his family during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In July 1948, the Israeli Defence Force captured Lydda from Jordanian and Arab Liberation Army forces. Habash and his family became refugees and were not allowed to return home.
In 1951, after graduating first in his class from medical school, Habash worked in refugee camps in Jordan, and ran a clinic with Wadie Haddad in Amman. He firmly believed that the state of Israel should be ended by all possible means, including political violence. In an effort to recruit the Arab world to this cause, Habash founded the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM) in 1951 and aligned the organization with Gamal Abdel Nasser's Arab nationalist ideology.
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George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. The eldest son of Barbara Bush and George H. W. Bush, he was born in New Haven, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush worked in oil businesses. He married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. In a close and controversial election, Bush was elected President in 2000 as the Republican candidate, defeating Vice President Al Gore in the Electoral College. Bush is the second American president to have been the son of a former president. He is also the brother of Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida.
Terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bush's first term as president on September 11, 2001. In response, Bush announced the War on Terror, an international military campaign which included the war in Afghanistan launched in 2001 and the war in Iraq launched in 2003. In addition to national security issues, Bush promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, and social security reform. He signed into law broad tax cuts, the PATRIOT Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and Medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors. His tenure saw national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, and enhanced interrogation techniques. His administration also withdrew the U.S. from a some international treaty processes, including the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
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Ghassan Kanafani
Ghassan Kanafani (غسان كنفاني, April 9, 1936 in Akka, Palestine – July 8, 1972 in Beirut, Lebanon) was a Palestinian writer and a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was assassinated by car bomb in Beirut, allegedly by the Mossad.
Ghassan Fayiz Kanafani was born in 1936 in the then Acre (Akka), British Mandate of Palestine. His father was a lawyer, and sent Ghassan to French missionary school in Jaffa.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Kanafani and his family were forced into exile, a part of the Palestinian exodus. Their home city became part of Israel.
The family initially fled north to neighbouring Lebanon, less than 11 miles north, but soon moved on to Damascus, Syria, to live there as Palestinian refugees. Kanafani completed his secondary education in Damascus, receiving a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) teaching certificate in 1952.
Kanafani was a part of the mass movement of Palestinians and knew first hand the terror the people faced. He and his family lived in exile in most Arab countries where they never had official approval. The Palestinians were forced to carry passbooks with their identification information. With out the books they could not travel outside of their villages and towns. Kanafani’s families lack of official papers forced them to remain hidden for months at a time. The Jews had kicked the Palestine’s out of their homeland and left them with no where to go. The anger between the Jews and Palestinian’s was fierce and it could not be settled. Kanafani grew up in a world where he never felt accepted, and always feared for his life. He grew up constantly questioning his identity and longing to be a part of something. When he was older he became an active member in several organizations. He used his anger that had bottled inside of him when he felt alone to further his dedication in the Palestinian cause.
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Gilbert, Martin
Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, PC (born 25 October 1936) is a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history. Gilbert is a leading historian of the modern world, and is known as the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill.
Gilbert was born in London to Peter and Miriam Gilbert. Nine months after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was evacuated to Canada as part of the British efforts to safeguard children. Vivid memories of the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to Quebec sparked his curiosity about the war in later years. After the war he attended Highgate School, and then completed two years of National Service in the Intelligence Corps before going on to study at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating in 1960 with a first-class BA in modern history. One of his tutors at Oxford was A.J.P. Taylor. After his graduation, Gilbert undertook postgraduate research at St Antony's College, Oxford. In 1963, he married Helen Constance Robinson, with whom he had a daughter. He had two sons with his second wife, Susan Sacher, whom he married in 1974. Since 2005, he has been married to the Holocaust historian Esther Gilbert, née Goldberg. Gilbert describes himself as a proud practising Jew and a Zionist.
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Golda Meir
Golda Meir (Hebrew: גּוֹלְדָּה מֵאִיר [ɡolˈda] or [ˈɡolda] [meˈʔiʁ]; earlier Golda Meyerson, born Golda Mabovich (Голда Мабович); May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of Israel.
Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17, 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister. Israel's first and the world's third woman to hold such an office, she was described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet became associated with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Former prime minister David Ben-Gurion used to call Meir "the best man in the government"; she was often portrayed as the "strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people."
In 1974, after the conclusion of the Yom Kippur War, Meir resigned as prime minister. She died in 1978.
Golda Mabovitch (Ukrainian: Ґольда Мабович) was born on May 3, 1898, in Kiev, Russian Empire, in present-day Ukraine, to Blume Neiditch (died 1951) and Moshe Mabovitch (died 1944), a carpenter. Meir wrote in her autobiography that her earliest memories were of her father boarding up the front door in response to rumors of an imminent pogrom. She had two sisters, Sheyna and Tzipke, as well as five other siblings who died in childhood. She was especially close to Sheyna.
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Hafez al-Assad
Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: حافظ الأسد Ḥāfiẓ al-Asad, 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was the President of Syria for three decades.
Born to a poor family of minority Alawite background, he served in the Syrian air force, before rising through the ranks of the Syrian-led branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and seizing power in the 1970 Corrective Revolution. He purged the party, introducing Alawite rule of Syria, who came to occupy leading positions in every sector of Syrian society.
On the one hand, Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government, bringing stability after decades of coups and counter-coups, and continued foreign influence related to the cold war. His rule brought changes, including the 1973 constitution which stated that it guaranteed women's "equal status in society". Assad attempted to industrialize the country, and it was opened up to foreign markets. Oil was discovered, and some degree of the revenue invested in infrastructure, education, medicine, literacy and urban construction.
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Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953). As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States (1945), he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his unprecedented fourth term.
During World War I, Truman served in combat in France as an artillery officer in his National Guard unit. After the war, he joined the Democratic Party political machine of Tom Pendergast in Kansas City, Missouri. He was elected a county official and in 1934 United States senator. After he had gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, Truman replaced vice president Henry A. Wallace as Roosevelt's running mate in 1944.
Truman faced many challenges in domestic affairs. The disorderly postwar reconversion of the economy of the United States was marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of the Taft–Hartley Act over his veto. He confounded all predictions to win election in 1948, helped by his famous Whistle Stop Tour of rural America. After his election, he passed only one of the proposals in his liberal Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to end racial discrimination in the armed forces and created loyalty checks that dismissed thousands of communist supporters from office.
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Hassan Nasrallah
Hasan Nasrallah (born August 31, 1960; Arabic: حسن نصرالله) became the third Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary organization Hezbollah after Israel assassinated the previous leader, Abbas al-Musawi, in 1992. Hezbollah is regarded as a legitimate resistance movement and political party throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds, but is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the Netherlands, Israel, and Canada. The group's military wing by itself is designated a proscribed terrorist group by the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia.
Hasan Nasrallah was born the ninth of ten children in Bourj Hammoud, Matn District (an eastern suburb of Beirut) on August 31, 1960 . His father, Abdul Karim, was born in Bazouriyeh, a village in Jabal Amel (South Republic of Lebanon) located near Tyre to Iranian grandparents. Although his family was not particularly religious, Hasan was interested in theological studies. He attended an-Najah school and later a public school in Sin el Fil (Christian area) Beirut.
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Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger ( /ˈkɪsɪndʒər/; born May 27, 1923) is a German-born American writer, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, he served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. After his term, his opinion was still sought by many subsequent presidents and many world leaders.
A proponent of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a dominant role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with the People's Republic of China, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. Various American policies of that era, including the bombing of Cambodia, remain controversial to many.
Kissinger is still a controversial figure today. He is the founder and chairman of Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm.
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Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (Arabic: محمد حسني السيد مبارك, Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mæˈħæmːæd ˈħosni ˈsæjjed moˈbɑːɾˤɑk], Muḥammad Ḥusnī Sayyid Mubārak; born 4 May 1928) is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
Mubarak was appointed Vice President of Egypt in 1975, and assumed the presidency on 14 October 1981, following the assassination of President Anwar El Sadat. His almost thirty-year presidency made him Egypt's longest-serving ruler since Muhammad Ali Pasha. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force, serving as its commander from 1972 to 1975 and rising to the rank of air chief marshal.
Mubarak was ousted after 18 days of demonstrations during the 2011 Egyptian revolution when, on 11 February, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned as president and transferred authority to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. On 13 April, a prosecutor[which?] ordered Mubarak and both his sons to be detained for 15 days of questioning about allegations of corruption and abuse of power. He was then ordered to stand trial on charges of premeditated murder of peaceful protestors during the revolution. These trials officially began on 3 August 2011. Egypt’s military prosecutors then also proclaimed that they are investigating Mubarak's role in the assassination of his predecessor Anwar Sadat.
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Hussein of Jordan
Hussein bin Talal (Arabic: حسين بن طلال, Ḥusayn bin Ṭalāl; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from the abdication of his father, King Talal, in 1952, until his death. Hussein's rule extended through the Cold War and four decades of Arab-Israeli conflict. He recognized Israel in 1994, becoming the second Arab head of state to do so.
Hussein claimed to be a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his relations with the ancient Hashemite family.
Hussein was born in Amman on 14 November 1935 to Talal bin Abdullah and Princess Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil. After completing his elementary education in Amman, he was educated at Victoria College in Alexandria. He proceeded to Harrow School in England, where he befriended his cousin Faisal II of Iraq. He pursued further study at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
On 20 July 1951, Prince Hussein traveled to Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque with his grandfather, King Abdullah I, where an assassin opened fire on Abdullah and his grandson. Abdullah was killed, but the 15-year-old Hussein survived the assassination attempt, and according to the Jordanian government, pursued the gunman. The Jordanian government claims that the gunman turned his weapon on the young prince, who was saved when the bullet was deflected by a medal on his uniform which had been given to him by his grandfather.
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Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada (c. 1924 – 16 August 2003) was the military dictator and third President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military coup of January 1971, deposing Milton Obote. He later promoted himself to Field Marshal while he was the head of state. While serving in the British Regiment he toured Kenya.
Amin's rule was characterised by gross human rights abuse, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption, and gross economic mismanagement. The number of people killed as a result of his regime is estimated by international observers and human rights groups to range from 100,000 to 500,000. During his years in power, Amin shifted in allegiance from being a pro-Western ruler enjoying considerable Israeli support to being backed by Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi, the Soviet Union and East Germany.
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Ion Mihai Pacepa
Ion Mihai Pacepa (Romanian pronunciation: [iˈon miˈhaj paˈt͡ʃepa]; born 28 October 1928 in Bucharest, Romania) is the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected, besides Iacob Eremie, from the former Eastern Bloc. He is now a United States citizen, a writer, and a columnist.
During July 1978, Pacepa was a three-star Romanian Securitate general who simultaneously had the rank of advisor to President Nicolae Ceauşescu, acting chief of his foreign intelligence service and a state secretary of Romania’s Ministry of Interior. He defected to the United States after President James Carter's approval of his request for political asylum.
Subsequently, he worked with American intelligence in various operations against the former Eastern Bloc. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) described his cooperation as "an important and unique contribution to the United States".
Pacepa studied industrial chemistry at the University Politehnica of Bucharest, but just months before graduation he was drafted by the Securitate, and got his engineering degree only four years later. Between 1957 and 1960 he served as chief of the Romanian intelligence station in West Germany, and, between 1972 and 1978, he was Ceauşescu's adviser for national security and technological development and the deputy chief of the Romanian foreign intelligence service. He claims that during the 1960s he was involved with the establishment of a Romanian automobile industry. Romanian army colonel Titus Simon who directed the military intelligence bureau in West Germany during Pacepa's stint there alleged in his book "Quo Vadis Pacepa" that during those years Pacepa had been recruited by American intelligence.
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Ismail Haniya
Ismail Haniyeh (Arabic: إسماعيل هنية, Ismaʻīl Haniyya; sometimes transliterated as Ismail Haniya, Ismail Haniyah) ( Arabic pronunciation (help·info)); (born January 29, 1963) is a senior political leader of Hamas and one of two disputed Prime Ministers of the Palestinian National Authority, the matter being under political and legal dispute. He became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas conflict, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues to exercise prime ministerial authority in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Legislative Council also continues to recognise his authority.
Haniyeh was born in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. His parents became refugees, after they were expelled from their homes in Majdal (currently Ashkelon, Israel) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War by Jewish militias. In 1987, he graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza with a degree in Arabic literature. In 1989, he was imprisoned for three years by Israeli authorities for participation in the First Intifada and membership with Hamas. Following his release in 1992, he was exiled to Lebanon with Ahmed Yassin, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi and other senior Hamas politicians. A year later, he returned to Gaza and was appointed as Dean of the Islamic University.
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Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac ( /ʒɑːk ʃɨˈræk/; French pronunciation: [ʒɑk ʃiʁak]; born 29 November 1932) is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 (making him the only person to hold the position of Prime Minister twice under the Fifth Republic), and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.
After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, a term at Harvard University and the École nationale d'administration (ENA), Chirac began his career as a high-level civil servant, and soon entered politics. He subsequently occupied various senior positions, including Minister of Agriculture, Minister of the Interior, Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris, and finally President of the French Republic.
Chirac's internal policies included lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism, and business privatisation. He also argued for more socially responsible economic policies, and was elected in 1995 after campaigning on a platform of healing the "social rift" (fracture sociale). After less statist policy when he was Prime Minister (1986–1988), he changed his method. Then, his economic policies, based on dirigisme, state-directed ideals, stood in opposition to the laissez-faire policies of the United Kingdom, which Chirac famously described as "Anglo-Saxon ultraliberalism". Chirac is the second-longest serving President of France (two full terms, the first of seven years and the second of five years), after François Mitterrand. As President, he also served as an ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the French Légion d'honneur.
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Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos (/beɪzəs/, born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, Inc., an online merchant of books and later of a wide variety of products. Under his guidance, Amazon.com became the largest retailer on the World Wide Web and the model for Internet sales.
Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen and Ted Jorgensen. His maternal ancestors were settlers who lived in Texas, and over the generations acquired a 25,000 acre (101 km2 or 39 miles2) ranch in Cotulla. Bezos' maternal grandfather was a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque. He retired early to the ranch, where Bezos spent many summers as a youth, working with him. At an early age, Bezos displayed a striking mechanical aptitude – as a toddler, he tried dismantling his crib with a screwdriver.
Bezos was born to a teenage mother in Albuquerque. Her marriage to his father lasted little more than a year. When Jeff was five, she remarried, this time to Miguel Bezos. Miguel was born in Cuba, immigrated to the United States alone when he was fifteen years old, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque, married, and legally adopted Jeff. After the marriage, the family moved to Houston, Texas, and Miguel became an engineer for Exxon. The young Bezos attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston from fourth to sixth grade. As a child, he spent summers at his grandfather's ranch in southern Texas, "laying pipe, vaccinating cattle and fixing windmills."
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Jeremy Bowen
Jeremy Francis John Bowen (born 6 February 1960) is a Welsh journalist and television presenter. He was the BBC's Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem between 1995 and 2000, and has been its Middle East Editor since 2005.
Bowen was born in Cardiff. He was educated at Cardiff High School, University College London (BA History) and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. His father Gareth reported the 1966 Aberfan coal slurry disaster for the BBC, and became editor of news at Radio Wales.
He joined the BBC in 1984 and has been a war correspondent for much of his career, starting with El Salvador in 1989. He has reported from more than 70 different countries, predominantly in the Middle East and in the Balkans. He reported from Bosnia-Herzegovina during the civil war there, and from Kosovo during the 1999 conflict, during which he was robbed at gunpoint by bandits.
Bowen has been under fire on assignment a number of times. In what he was later to describe as the pivotal moment of his life, a colleague and friend was killed on 23 May 2000 in Lebanon. This took place while Bowen was covering the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) pullout from Lebanon: Bowen's car came under tank fire and his "fixer" and driver were killed. Bowen and his cameraman escaped, but Bowen suffered post traumatic stress disorder and retreated from the frontline, moving to work in the studio as a presenter, hosting the daily news and entertainment morning show Breakfast with Sophie Raworth between 2000 and 2002. He was also a guest host on the satirical panel game Have I Got News for You, and presented the BBC's 2001 three-part series Son of God, an investigation into the life of Jesus. He also presented Moses in 2002, a similar documentary that chronicled the life of Moses.
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Jibril Rajoub
Jibril Rajoub (Arabic: جبريل رجوب, born 1953), also known by his kunya Abu Rami is a Palestinian political figure. He was the head of the Preventive Security Force in the West Bank until being dismissed (along with the force's chief in Gaza, Ghazi Jabali) in 2002. He was elected to the Fatah Central Committee at the party's 2009 congress. He also leads the Palestinian Football Federation and the Palestine Olympic Committee.
Rajoub was born in the town of Dura, near Hebron. In 1968, he was arrested by Shin Bet at age 15 on suspicion of aiding fleeing Egyptian officers, and spent four months in prison. While in prison, he met a local Fatah leader, who recommended that he be accepted into the organization, which was then secretive. After his release, he joined Fatah. His tasks were to assist fighters and build up cells in the Hebron hills.
In September 1970, he was arrested for throwing a grenade at an Israeli army bus near Hebron. He was tried and convicted of this attack and of membership in an armed group, and sentenced life in prison. He became a prominent figure among prisoners, leading hunger strikes and protests. He also studied Zionism and Hebrew extensively, and together with a cellmate, translated "The Revolt" by Menachem Begin into Arabic. Rajoub spent time in numerous prisons throughout the West Bank and Israel, as Israeli authorities moved prisoners around to disrupt their organization.
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Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter served as a U.S. Naval officer, was a peanut farmer, served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia (1971–1975).
During Carter's term as President, two new cabinet-level departments were created: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. Throughout his career, Carter strongly emphasized human rights. He took office during a period of international stagflation, which persisted throughout his term. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (at the end of 1979), 1980 Summer Olympics boycott by the United States of the Moscow Olympics and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
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Jody Williams
Jody Williams (born 1950) is an American political activist known around the world for her work in banning antipersonnel landmines, her defense of human rights – and especially those of women, and her efforts to promote new understandings of security in today’s world.
She served as the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) from early 1992 until February 1998. Prior to that work, she spent eleven years on various projects related to the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador.
In an unprecedented cooperative effort with governments, UN bodies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, she served as a chief strategist and spokesperson for the ICBL, which she developed from two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with a staff of one – herself – to an international powerhouse of 1,300 NGOs in ninety countries.
From its small beginning and official launch in 1992, Williams and the ICBL dramatically achieved the campaign’s goal of an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines during a diplomatic conference held in Oslo in September 1997. Three weeks later, she and the ICBL were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At that time, she became the tenth woman – and third American woman – in its almost hundred-year history to receive the Prize.
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John K. Cooley
John Kent Cooley (November 25, 1927 – August 6, 2008) was an American journalist and author who specialized in terrorism and the Middle East. Based in Athens, he worked as a radio and off-air television correspondent for ABC News and was a long-time contributing editor to the Christian Science Monitor.
Cooley was one of only a handful of Western journalists widely regarded and trusted in the Middle East as an expert on the area's history and politics. He interviewed several of the region's heads of state and was personally acquainted with the senior leadership of the PLO. His many awards include the Council on Foreign Relations' Fellowship for American Foreign Correspondents, and the coveted George Polk Award for distinguished career achievement in international reporting. He was a key part of the ABC News Prime Time Live team that won an Emmy in 1990 for its investigation into the December 21, 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.[citation needed]
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Cooley served with the U.S. Army in postwar Germany and Austria from 1946-7. Returning to America, he undertook his postgraduate studies at the New School University in New York, then began his journalistic career at the New York Herald Tribune. He lived in North Africa from 1953 to 1964, covering the Algerian War for UPI, NBC News and The Observer, and in 1965 became Middle East correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor in Beirut.
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John Loftus
John Joseph Loftus (February 12, 1950, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American author, former US government prosecutor and former Army intelligence officer. He is a president of The Intelligence Summit and, although he is not Jewish, a president of the Florida Holocaust Museum. Loftus also serves on the Board of Advisers to Public Information Research. He currently resides in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Son of a Boston firefighter, Loftus is a graduate of Boston College (BA, 1971) and Suffolk University (JD, 1977). He served in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1974, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant. He began working for the US Department of Justice in 1977 and in 1979 joined their Office of Special Investigations, which was charged with prosecuting and deporting Nazi war criminals in the US. Loftus' now-expired Web site claimed, "As a young U.S. Army officer, John Loftus helped train Israelis on a covert operation that turned the tide of battle in the 1973 Yom Kippur War."
Loftus is the author and co-author of several controversial books on Nazis, espionage, and similar topics including The Belarus Secret (1982), Unholy Trinity: How the Vatican's Nazi Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets (1992), The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People (1994), Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, the Nazis, and the Swiss Banks (1998). Although Loftus' first book, The Belarus Secret, is nonfiction, it was adapted into a TV-film, Kojak: The Belarus File (1985), with Telly Savalas.
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José Ramos-Horta
José Manuel Ramos-Horta GCL (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ ˈʁɐmuz ˈoɾtɐ]; born 26 December 1949) was the President of East Timor from 20 May 2007 to 20 May 2012, the second since independence from Indonesia. He is a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize and a former prime minister, having served from 2006 until his inauguration as president after winning the 2007 East Timorese presidential election. As a founder and former member of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), Ramos-Horta served as the exiled spokesman for the East Timorese resistance during the years of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975 to 1999). While he has continued to work with FRETILIN, Ramos-Horta resigned from the party in 1988, becoming an independent politician.
After East Timor achieved independence in 2002, Ramos-Horta was appointed as the country's first foreign minister. He served in this position until his resignation on 25 June 2006, amidst political turmoil. On 26 June, following the resignation of prime minister Mari Alkatiri, Ramos-Horta was appointed acting prime minister by then president, Xanana Gusmão. Two weeks later, on 10 July 2006, he was officially sworn in as the second prime minister of East Timor. On 11 February 2008, Ramos-Horta was injured when he was shot during an assassination attempt.
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Józef Rotblat
Sir Joseph Rotblat,KCMG, CBE, FRS (born Józef Rotblat on 4 November 1908, died 31 August 2005), was a Polish-born, British-naturalised physicist.
His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty. A signatory of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, he was secretary general of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from its founding until 1973. In conjunction with the Pugwash Conferences, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts towards nuclear disarmament.
Józef Rotblat was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland, on November 4, 1908, as one of seven children (two not surviving childbirth). His father Zygmunt built up and ran a nationwide horse-drawn carriage business, owned land and bred horses. Józef's early years were spent in what was a prosperous household but circumstances changed at the outbreak of World War I. Borders were closed and horses requisitioned, leading to the failure of the business and poverty of their family.
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Kamal Jumblatt
Kamal Jumblatt (Arabic: كمال جنبلاط) ; (December 6, 1917 – March 16, 1977) was an important Lebanese politician. He was the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War until his assassination in 1977. He is the father of the present Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
Kamal Jumblatt was born in 1917 in Moukhtara, in the Chouf area of Lebanon. He was born into the prestigious Jumblatt family, who were traditional leaders of the Lebanese Druze community. The origin of the Jumblatt family is the Kurdish Janpoulad family coming from Shamel Janpoulade and dating back to Janboulad Ibn Kassem al Kirdi al Kaisari, known as Ibn Arabou (1530–1580), and governor of Aleppo. His father, the powerful Druze chieftain Fouad Joumblatt, director of the Chouf District, was assassinated on August 6, 1921. After his father’s death, Kamal Jumblatt’s mother Nazira played a significant political role in the Druze community for over a quarter of a century.
In 1926, the young Kamal Jumblatt joined the Lazarus Fathers Institute in Aintoura, where he completed his elementary studies in 1928. He achieved his high school diploma, having studied French, Arabic, science and literature, in 1936, and a philosophy diploma in 1937.
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Kamal Nasser
Kamal Nasser (1925 – April 9/April 10, 1973) was an Palestinian political leader, writer and poet.
Nasser was born in Gaza to a Palestinian Christian family from Bir Zeit near Ramallah. He was educated at Bir Zeit school (now Bir Zeit University and the American University of Beirut. Later he worked as a teacher while studying law in Jerusalem. In the period following Israeli independence Nasser worked as a journalist.
He was responsible for producing the al-Ba‘ath newspaper from Ramallah and also set up al-Jil al-Jadid (The New Era), a militant newspaper. In 1956 he was elected to Jordanian parliament as Ba‘ath member for Ramallah district. He did not serve out his term as a result of his expulsion from Parliament during the subsequent martial law period in Jordan. Expelled from West Bank by Israel in 1967, Nasser became editor of PLO newspaper, Filastin al-Thawra. In addition, at that time he became a member of PLO Executive Committee from February 1969 through July 1971 serving as an official with the office of National Guidance.
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Ken Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr (born July 21, 1946) is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration.
Starr served as a federal Court of Appeals judge and also at another time as Solicitor General. He received the most publicity for his tenure as Independent Counsel while Bill Clinton was U.S. president. Starr was initially appointed to investigate the suicide death of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater real estate investments of Bill Clinton. The three-judge panel charged with administering the Independent Counsel Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous areas including an extramarital affair that Bill Clinton had with Monica Lewinsky. After several years of investigation Starr filed the Starr Report which alleged that Bill Clinton had lied about existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation opened the door for the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the five-year suspension of Clinton's law license.
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Khaled al-Hassan
Khaled al-Hassan also known as Abu Said (1928-1994) was an early adviser of Yasser Arafat, PLO leader and a founder of the Palestinian political and militant organization Fatah. Khaled is the older brother of Hani al-Hassan.
Al-Hassan was born in Haifa in 1928. He and his family lived there until they were exiled as refugees after Israel's capture of the city in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which he participated in on the side of Palestinian Arab forces. His family settled in Sidon, Lebanon, but he left for Egypt. He was briefly detained in Egypt "just for being Palestinian" according to him. After being released, he reunited with his family in Lebanon where he lived briefly.
In 1949 he formed the short-lasing commando group Tahrir Filastin. A year later he moved to Syria. During this time, al-Hassan worked as a teacher in Damascus and he helped found the Islamic Liberation Party in 1952. Syrian authorities threatened to arrest him that year for attempting to set up another Palestinian commando group, but he left to Kuwait. There, he worked as a civil servant, typist, and later as Secretary-General of the Municipal Council Board in the country until 1967. He was awarded Kuwaiti citizenship in the mid-1950s.
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Khaled Mashal
Khaled Mashal, (Arabic: خالد مشعل Khālid Mashʻal, Levantine Arabic: [xaːled maʃʕal], also transcribed Khaled Mashaal, Khaled Meshaal and Khalid Mish'al ; born May 28 1956) has been the main leader of Hamas since the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004. In addition, Mashal heads the Syrian branch of the political bureau of Hamas.
Mashal was born in Silwad, a village north of Ramallah and moved to Jordan in 1967. While attending Kuwait University, Mashal, as an Islamic student leader, challenged the dominance of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization, participating in the foundation of the Islamic Haqq Bloc, which competed with Fatah for leadership of the General Union of Palestinian Students in Kuwait. After the founding of Hamas in 1987, Mashal came to lead the Kuwaiti branch of the organization. Mashal moved from Kuwait to Jordan in 1991. Since the expulsion of the Hamas leadership from Jordan in August 1999, Mashal lived in Qatar before moving to the Syrian capital of Damascus in 2001. In 2010, The British Magazine New Statesman Listed Khaled Mashal at number 18th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".
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Khalil al-Wazir
Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir (Arabic: خليل إبراهيم الوزير), also known by his kunya "Abu Jihad" (أبو جهاد — father of the struggle) (October 10, 1935 – April 16, 1988), was a Palestinian military leader and founder of the secular nationalist party Fatah. As a top aide of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman, Yasser Arafat, al-Wazir had considerable influence in Fatah's military activities, eventually becoming the commander of Fatah's armed wing al-Assifa. The majority of the Palestinians viewed him as a martyr who died resisting the Israeli occupation or at least sympathized with his cause, while most Israelis considered him to be a high-profile terrorist for planning the killings of Israelis.
Al-Wazir became a refugee when his family was expelled from Ramla during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and began leading a minor fedayeen force in the Gaza Strip. In the early 1960s, he established connections for Fatah with Communist regimes and prominent third-world leaders. He opened Fatah's first bureau in Algeria. He played an important role in the 1970–71 Black September clashes in Jordan, by supplying surrounded Palestinian fighters with weapons and aid. Following the PLO's defeat by the Jordanian Army, al-Wazir joined the PLO in Lebanon.
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Kim Dae-jung
Kim Dae-jung (3 December 1925 – 18 August 2009) was 15th President of the Republic of Korea from 1998 to 2003, and the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He came to be called the "Nelson Mandela of Asia" for his long-standing opposition to authoritarian rule.
Kim was thought to have been born on 6 January 1924, but it is reported that he later changed this to 3 December 1925 to avoid conscription during the time when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. Kim was born in Sinan in what was then the Jeolla province; the city is now in Jeollanam-do. Kim graduated from Mokpo Commercial High School in 1943 at the top of the class. After working as a clerk for a Japanese-owned shipping company during the Japanese occupation of Korea, he became its owner and became very rich. Kim escaped Communist capture during the Korean War.
Kim first entered politics in 1954 during the administration of Korea's first president, Syngman Rhee. Although he was elected as a representative for the National Assembly in 1961, a military coup led by Park Chung-hee, who later assumed dictatorial powers, voided the elections. He was able to win a seat in the House in the subsequent elections in 1963 and 1967 and went on to become an eminent opposition leader. As such, he was the natural opposition candidate for the country's presidential election in 1971. He nearly defeated Park, despite several handicaps on his candidacy which were imposed by the ruling regime.
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Klaus Schwab
Klaus Martin Schwab (born March 30, 1938) is a German economist, best known as the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. His wife and former secretary, Hilde, co-founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship with him. He was born in 1938, in Ravensburg, Germany.
In 1971, Schwab founded the World Economic Forum as a not-for-profit foundation committed to improving the state of the world, later building it into today's global partnership of business, political, and intellectual leaders.
In 1998, Schwab and his wife founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 2004, Schwab created a new foundation using the US$ 1 million prize money from the Dan David Prize he received that year. The Forum of Young Global Leaders aims to bring together over 500 people under 40 from all walks of life who have demonstrated their commitment to improving the state of the world, and encourage them to work together over the span of five years to identify and realize global change.
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Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية) was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000[citation needed] fatalities. Another one million people (a quarter of the population) were wounded,[citation needed] and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced within Lebanon.[citation needed] There was also a mass exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.
It has been argued that the antecedents of the war can be traced back to the conflicts and political compromises reached after the end of Lebanon's administration by the Ottoman Empire. The Cold War had a powerful disintegrative effect on Lebanon, which was closely linked to the polarization that preceded the 1958 political crisis. The establishment of the state of Israel and the displacement of a hundred thousand Palestinian refugees to Lebanon (around 10% of the total population of the country) changed the demographics of Lebanon and provided a foundation for the long-term involvement of Lebanon in regional conflicts. By 1975, the presence of a foreign armed force in the form of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas, who exercised a veto on Lebanese politics, had a serious effect on Lebanon. The militarization of the Palestinian refugee population, with the arrival of the PLO guerrilla forces, sparked an arms race amongst the different Lebanese political factions.
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Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa (commonly rendered Walesa) (Polish: [ˈlɛx vaˈwɛ̃sa] ( listen), English: /ˌlɛk vəˈwɛnsə/ or /wɔːˈlɛnsə/; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 1995.
Wałęsa was an electrician by trade, with no higher education. Soon after beginning work at the Gdańsk (then, "Lenin") Shipyards, he became a trade-union activist. For this he was persecuted by the Polish communist government, placed under surveillance, fired in 1976, and arrested several times. In August 1980 he was instrumental in negotiations that led to the ground-breaking Gdańsk Agreement between striking workers and the government, and he became a co-founder of the Solidarity trade-union movement. Arrested again after martial law was imposed and Solidarity was outlawed, upon release he continued his activism and was prominent in the establishment of the 1989 Round Table Agreement that led to semi-free parliamentary elections in June 1989 and to a Solidarity-led government.
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Lester B. Pearson
Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, and politician, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis. He was the 14th Prime Minister of Canada from 22 April 1963 to 20 April 1968, as the head of two back-to-back minority governments following elections in 1963 and 1965.
During Pearson's time as Prime Minister, his minority government introduced universal health care, student loans, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the current Canadian flag. During his tenure, Prime Minister Pearson also convened the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. With these accomplishments, together with his ground-breaking work at the United Nations and in international diplomacy, Pearson is generally considered among the most influential Canadians of the 20th century.
Pearson was born in the town of Newtonbrook (now part of Toronto), the son of Annie Sarah (née Bowles) and Edwin Arthur Pearson, a Methodist (later United Church of Canada) minister. He was brother to Vaughan Whitier Pearson and Marmaduke Pearson. He graduated from Hamilton Collegiate Institute in Hamilton, Ontario in 1913 at the age of 16. Later that same year, he entered Victoria College at the University of Toronto, where he lived in residence in Gate House and shared a room with his brother Duke. While at the University of Toronto, he joined the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He was subsequently elected to the Pi Gamma Mu social science honour society's chapter at the University of Toronto for his outstanding scholastic performance in history and sociology.
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Lisa Beyer
Lisa Beyer is currently vice president of communications at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). Prior to joining IAVI, Beyer was assistant managing editor at TIME Magazine until early 2007.[citation needed]
Beyer served as TIME bureau chief in Jerusalem for much of the time between the two Persian Gulf Wars. A native of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, Beyer has also lived in Austin, Texas, Hong Kong, Singapore and currently resides in New York City.
On April 16, 2002, she appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.[citation needed]
Beyer is a journalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.[citation needed]
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Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Korbelová Albright (born May 15, 1937) was the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by US President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997.
Albright currently serves as a Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. She holds a PhD from Columbia University. She holds honorary degrees from Brandeis University (1996); the University of Washington (2002); Smith College (2003); University of Winnipeg (2005); the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2007), and Knox College (2008). In May 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Barack Obama. Secretary Albright also serves as a Director on the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Albright is fluent in English, French, Russian, and Czech; she speaks and reads Polish and Serbo-Croatian as well.
Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelová (Czech pronunciation: [ˈmarɪjɛ ˈjana ˈkorbɛlovaː]) in the Smíchov district of Prague, Czechoslovakia. At the time of her birth, Czechoslovakia had been independent for less than twenty years, having gained independence from Austria after World War I. Her father, Josef Korbel, was a Czech Jewish diplomat and supporter of the early Czech democrats, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš. She was his first child with his Jewish wife, Anna (née Spieglová), who later also had another daughter Katherine (a schoolteacher) and son John (an economist).
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Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas (Arabic: مَحْمُود عَبَّاس, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born 26 March 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen (Arabic: أَبُو مَازِن, Åbú Mázɩn), has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah (فتح Fataḥ) ticket.
Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally extended his term for another year and continues in office even after that second deadline expired. As a result of this, Fatah's main rival, the political party Hamas announced that it would not recognise the extension or view Abbas as rightful president. Abbas was chosen as the President of the State of Palestine by the Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council on 23 November 2008, a job he had held unofficially since 8 May 2005. Abbas served as the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority from March to October 2003 when he resigned citing lack of support from Israel and the United States as well as "internal incitement" against his government. Before being named prime minister, Abbas led the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department.
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Persian: محمود احمدینژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadinezhād [mæhˈmuːd(-e) æhmædiːneˈʒɒːd] ( listen),English: /ɑːkməˈdɪnɨʒɒd/; born 28 October 1956) is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country. An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became President on 3 August 2005. His second presidency term ends on August 3, 2013. He is not eligible to run for another term under the current Iranian constitution.
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Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish (Arabic: محمود درويش) (13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. In his work, Palestine became a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile.
Darwish was born in the village of al-Birwa in the Western Galilee. He was the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish. His family were landowners. His mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read. After Israeli forces assaulted his village of al-Birwa in June 1948 the family fled to Lebanon first in Jezzin and then in Damour. The village was then razed and destroyed by the Israeli army to prevent its inhabitants from returning to their homes inside the new Jewish state. A year later, Darwish's family returned to the Acre area, which was now part of Israel, and settled in Deir al-Asad. Darwish attended high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of Jadeidi. He eventually moved to Haifa.
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Mairead Maguire
Mairead Maguire (born 27 January 1944), also known as Mairead Corrigan Maguire and formerly as Mairéad Corrigan, is a Northern Irishpeace activist. She co-founded, with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, the Community of Peace People, an organisation dedicated to encouraging a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Maguire and Williams were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. Maguire has also won several other awards.
In recent years, she has criticized the Israeli government's policy towards Gaza, in particular to the naval blockade. In June 2010, Maguire went on board the MV Rachel Corrie as part of a flotilla that unsuccessfully attempted to breach the blockade.
Maguire was born into a Roman Catholic community in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the second of seven children – five sisters and two brothers. Her parents were Andrew and Margaret Corrigan. She attended St. Vincent's Primary School, a private Catholic school, until the age of 14, at which time her family could no longer pay for her schooling. After working for a time as a babysitter at a Catholic community center, she was able to save enough money to enroll in a year of business classes at Miss Gordon's Commercial College, which led her at the age of 16 to a job as an accounting clerk with a local factory. She volunteered regularly with the Legion of Mary, spending her evenings and weekends working with children and visiting interns at Long Kesh prison. When she was 21 she began working as a secretary for the Guinness brewery, where she remained employed until December 1976.
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Marwan Barghouti
Marwan Hasib Ibrahim Barghouti (Arabic: مروان حسيب ابراهيم البرغوثي) (born June 6, 1959) is a Palestinian political figure and convicted murderer. He is regarded as a leader of the First and Second Intifadas. Barghouti at one time supported the peace process, but later became disillusioned, and after 2000 went on to become the main figure behind the Al-Aqsa Intifada in the West Bank. Barghouti is said to have founded Tanzim. He is also referred to by Uri Avnery as "Palestine's Mandela".
Barghouti has also been called a terrorist, and has been accused by Israeli authorities of directing numerous attacks and suicide bombings against civilians. Barghouti was arrested by Israel Defense Forces in 2002 in Ramallah. Israeli authorities accused him of murder of Israeli civilians and attacks on Israeli soldiers. He was tried and convicted on charges of murder, and sentenced to five life sentences. Marwan Barghouti refused to present a defense to the charges brought against him, maintaining throughout that the trial was illegal and illegitimate.
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Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan (Persian: مهدی بازرگان; Azerbaijani: Mehdi Bazərgan; 1 September 1907 – 20 January 1995) was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the head of the first engineering department of Tehran University. A well-respected religious intellectual, known for his honesty and expertise in the Islamic and secular sciences, he is credited with being one of the founders of the contemporary intellectual movement in Iran.
Bazargan was born to an Iranian Azeri family in Azerbaijan, but grew up in Tehran. His father, Hajj 'Abbasqoli Tabrizi (d.1954) was a self-made merchant and a devout religious activist who was the head of the Azarbaijani mosque and community in Tehran.
Bazargan was educated in thermodynamics and engineering at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris. After his graduation, Bazargan voluntarily joined the French army and fought against Nazi Germany. Bazargan then came back from France and became the head of the first engineering department at Tehran University in the late 1940s. In 1951, with the leadership of Mohammad Mossadegh, the Iranian parliament nationalized the Iranian oil industry (National Iranian Oil Company) and removed it from British control. Bazargan served as the first Iranian head of the National Iranian Oil Company under the administration of Prime Minister Mossadegh.
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Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin (help·info) (Hebrew: מְנַחֵם בֵּגִין, Polish: Mieczysław Biegun, Arabic: مناحيم بيغن Munahayyim Beeghin, Russian: Менахем Вольфович Бегин Menakhem Vol'fovich Begin, 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine.
Begin was elected to the first Knesset, as head of Herut, the party he founded, and was at first on the political fringe, embodying the opposition to the Mapai-led government and Israeli establishment. He remained in opposition in the eight consecutive elections (except for a national unity government around the Six-Day War), but became more acceptable to the political center. His 1977 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labour Party political dominance. He probably served as Opposition Leader longer than anyone in the history of modern democratic politics.
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Michael Oren
Michael B. Oren (Hebrew: מיכאל אורן; born Michael Scott Bornstein; 1955) is an American-born Israeli historian, author, and the Israeli ambassador to the United States. He has written books, articles, and essays on Middle Eastern history, and is the author of the best-selling Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present and Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, which won the Los Angeles Times History Book of the Year Award. He was a Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and a contributing editor to The New Republic and the Shalem Center's quarterly journal, Azure.
Oren was born Michael Scott Bornstein in upstate New York, the son of Marilyn (née Goldstein), a marriage and family therapist, and Lester Milton Bornstein, a hospital director. His father was an officer in the U.S. Army who took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944 and fought in the Korean War. Oren grew up in West Orange, New Jersey in a Conservative Jewish household. As the only Jewish boy in a heavily Catholic neighborhood, he says he experienced antisemitism on a daily basis. In his youth, he was an activist in Zionist and Jewish youth groups such as USY and a gold medal winning athlete in the Maccabiah Games. At age 15, he made his first trip to Israel with youth movement Habonim Dror, working on Kibbutz Gan Shmuel.
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Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: Михаи́л Серге́евич Горбачёв, tr. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov; IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈɡʲejəvʲɪtɕ ɡərbɐˈtɕof] ( listen); born 2 March 1931) is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the Soviet Union, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. He was the only general secretary in the history of the Soviet Union to have been born during the Communist rule.
Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai into a peasant Ukrainian–Russian family, and in his teens operated combine harvesters on collective farms. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law. While he was at the university, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and soon became very active within it. In 1970, he was appointed the First Party Secretary of the Stavropol Kraikom, First Secretary to the Supreme Soviet in 1974, and appointed a member of the Politburo in 1979. Within three years of the deaths of Soviet Leaders Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko, Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo in 1985. Before he reached the post, he had occasionally been mentioned in western newspapers as a likely next leader and a man of the younger generation at the top level.
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Mohammed Dahlan
Mohammed Dahlan (Arabic: محمد دحلان) born on September 29, 1961 in Khan Younis Refugee Camp, Khan Younis, Gaza Strip also known by the kunya or nom de guerre Abu Fadi (Arabic: أبو فادي) (Muhammad Dahlan is another spelling of his name) is a Palestinian politician, the former leader of Fatah in Gaza. Dahlan was born to a refugee family from Hamama, the youngest of six children.
Dahlan became politically active as a teenager and in 1981 helped to establish the Gaza branch of the Fatah Youth Movement Fatah Hawks in the Gaza Strip. Between 1981 and 1986, he was arrested by Israel 11 times for his leading role in the movement. During his time in prison, he learned to speak Hebrew fluently. Following his release from prison, Dahlan completed a BA in Business Administration at the Islamic University of Gaza.
In 2007, Dahlan assisted in a U.S. plan to overthrow the elected Hamas government in Gaza, but the coup failed when Hamas carried out a counter-coup, and routed Fatah forces in Gaza instead.
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Mona Juul
Mona Juul (born 1959 in Steinkjer) is an official in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former politician for the Labour Party.
She hailed from Sparbu, and was educated in political science. Along with her husband Terje Rød-Larsen she played a key role in the Oslo Accords. The secret negotiations led to the peace agreement signing on September 13, 1993 in Washington D.C., between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Juul and the rest of the Oslo team of facilitators focused on the conflict between Israel and the PLO, knowing that a peace agreement would have to be created by the adversaries themselves and that a group acting as mediator would be vital in making appropriate arrangements for negotiations.
During the first cabinet Stoltenberg, from 2000 to 2001, Juul was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2001 to 2004 she served as the Norwegian ambassador to Israel. Since 2005 she serves as deputy director and ambassador in the Norwegian delegation to the United Nations in New York City.
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Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan (Hebrew: משה דיין; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. The fourth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–58), he became a fighting symbol to the world of the new State of Israel. He went on to become Defense Minister and later Foreign Minister of Israel.
Moshe Dayan was born on Kibbutz Degania Alef near the shores of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) in pre-Mandate Palestine. His parents were Shmuel and Devorah, Jewish immigrants from Ukraine.
He was the second child to be born on the kibbutz. He was named Moshe after Moshe Barsky, the first member of the kibbutz to be killed in an Arab attack. Soon after, his parents moved to Nahalal, the first moshav (settlement) to be established. Moshe attended the Agricultural School there.
At the age of 14, he joined the newly formed Jewish militia known as the Haganah. In 1938 he joined the Palestine Supernumerary Police and became a motorized patrol ("MAN") commander. One of his military heroes was the British pro-Zionist officer Orde Wingate, under whom he served in several Special Night Squads operations.
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Mother Teresa
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Albanian: Nënë Tereza) as she is known to the Catholic Church, or Mother Teresa as she is commonly known, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (pronounced [aɡˈnɛs ˈɡɔndʒa bɔjaˈdʒiu]). Although born on the 26 August 1910, she considered 27 August, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday". “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997 and is not yet a Catholic Saint. In late 2003, the leaders of the church completed the process of beatification, the third step toward possible sainthood. A second miracle credited to Mother Teresa is required before she can be recognized as a saint by the Catholic church.
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor". The Missionaries of Charity at the time of her death had 610 missions in 123 countries including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programmes, orphanages and schools.
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Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (Arabic: معمر محمد أبو منيار القذافي) (June 1942 – 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi /ˈmoʊ.əmɑr ɡəˈdɑːfi/ (Arabic: مُعَمَّر القَذَّافِي Muʿammar al-Qaḏḏāfī audio (help·info)) or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Gaddafi seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1969 and served as the country's head of state until 1977, when he stepped down from his official executive role as Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of Libya, and claimed subsequently to be merely a symbolic figurehead. He styled himself as "Leader of the Revolution"; in 2008 a meeting of traditional African rulers bestowed on him the title "King of Kings". A leading advocate for a United States of Africa, he served as Chairperson of the African Union (AU) from 2 February 2009 to 31 January 2010.
Gaddafi replaced the Libyan Constitution of 1951 with laws based on the political ideology he had formulated, which he called the Third International Theory and published in The Green Book. After establishing the Jamahiriya (جماهيرية, "state of the masses") system in 1977, he officially stepped down from power and after that time held a largely symbolic role within the country's official governance structure. Rising oil prices and extraction in Libya led to increasing revenues. By exporting as much oil per capita as Saudi Arabia and through various welfare programs, Libya achieved the highest living standards in Africa; Libya remained debt-free.
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Muhammad
Muhammad (c. 26 April 570 – 8 June 632; also transliterated as Mohammad, Mohammed, or Muhammed; Arabic: محمد), full name: Muhammad Ibn `Abd Allāh Ibn `Abd al-Muttalib (Arabic: محمد بن عبدالله بن عبد المطلب ) was a leader from Mecca who unified the tribes of Arabia into a single religious polity under Islam. He is believed by Muslims and Bahá'ís to be a messenger and prophet of God. Muslims believe that Islam was not his own invention but was revealed by God, and most consider him to be the last prophet of God Muslims thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith (islām) of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets.
Born in 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25. Being in the habit of periodically retreating to a cave in the surrounding mountains for several nights of meditation and prayer, he later reported that it was there, at age 40, that he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām) is the only way (dīn) acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets.
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Munib Masri
Munib Rashid al-Masri (Arabic: منيب المصري) (1934-), known as the "Duke of Nablus" is a member of the Palestine Legislative Council and former Jordanian Cabinet Minister. During his term as cabinet minister he helped Yasser Arafat and his Fatah commanders escape Jordan during the Black September period.
He was born in Nablus and attended the an-Najah National University. He was involved in establishing the al-Quds University.
He is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin in the US.
His wealth is rooted in the oil and gas business, but much of his investments fall under the Edgo Group, his holding company based in London which operates in contracting, industrial development, trading, distribution and representation, project development, operation and maintenance.
Between 1998-2000 he built a house which he named "Beit Falasteen" or House of Palestine, inspired by Andrea Palladio, near Nablus
Masri launched a political movement to rival Fatah and Hamas, called the Palestine Forum on 16 November 2007.
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Musa Arafat
"Major General" Moussa Arafat al-Qudwa (born Jaffa January 23, 1940/41 — killed in Gaza City September 7, 2005) was a cousin of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In July 2004, Arafat was appointed head of the Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip. This appointment and corruption claims against Arafat's family were partially the catalyst for intense armed conflict in the streets of Gaza between Palestinian 'militants' of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade group and fighters loyal to Chairman Arafat's Fatah.
Following the conflict, Yasser Arafat reshuffled the Gaza security apparatus and appointed Abdel-Razek al-Majaideh to the new post of overall director of security for the West Bank and Gaza, outranking Moussa Arafat.
In April 2005 Arafat was removed from his position as security chief but was subsequently named as adviser on military affairs with ministerial rank.
A power struggle between rival Palestinian factions emerged in Gaza and the West Bank in anticipation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw troops and settlers from the occupied territory by the end of 2005.
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Nabil Amr
Nabil Amr (Arabic: نبيل عمرو 1947) is a former information minister (2003) in the Palestinian National Authority, and previous ambassador to Egypt. He was an outspoken critic of Yasir Arafat, especially regarding his behavior at the 2000 Camp David Summit.
In July 2004 he was shot in the legs through the window of his house in Ramallah by unknown gunmen.
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Nasser al-Qudwa
Nasser al-Qudwa (Arabic: ناصر القدوة) (born 1959) whose full name is Sayed Nasser Arafat al-Qudwa from the Arafat al-Qudwa[clarification needed] who are a family of notables from Gaza and of the Ashraf class.[citation needed] Nasser is a Palestinian diplomat and was the Permanent Observer from the Palestinian National Authority for the United Nations. Qudwa joined Fatah in 1969 and then became president of the General Union of Palestinian Students in 1974. He attended Cairo University, graduating with a degree in dentistry in 1979 and then became an executive member of the Palestinian Red Crescent shortly later. Qudwa represented his uncle Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization as an unofficial observer in the United Nations in 1987, then as a permanent observer in 1991. In 2005, he was succeeded by Riyad H. Mansour. Al-Qudwa currently lives in New York City with his wife, daughter and three other Palestinian diplomats.
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Nayef Hawatmeh
Nayef Hawatmeh (kunya Abu an-Nuf, b. 1935/37 in Salt, Jordan), Jordanian Christian politician. His name can be transliterated from the Arabic in many ways; variants include Naif Hawatma, Niaf Hawathme, etc.
Hawatmeh hails from a Jordanian tribe of Catholic Christians. He is the General Secretary of the Marxist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) since its formation in a 1969 split from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), of which he was also a founder. He was active as a left-wing leader in the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), which preceded the PFLP.
He presently resides in exile in Syria, from which the DFLP receives some support; Israel blames the DFLP for the 1974 Ma'alot massacre, and so will not permit him to enter the Palestinian territories.
Hawatmeh opposed the 1993 Oslo Accords, calling them a "sell-out", but became more conciliatory in the late 1990s. In 1999 he agreed to meet with Yassir Arafat (who had signed the accords) and even shook hands with the Israeli President, Ezer Weizmann, at the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan, drawing strong criticism from his Palestinian and Arab peers.
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Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (/ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher,cognitive scientist, historian, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and a major figure of analytic philosophy. His work has influenced fields such as computer science, mathematics, and psychology.
Ideologically identifying with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism, Chomsky is known for his critiques of U.S. foreign policy and contemporary capitalism, and he has been described as a prominent cultural figure. His media criticism has included Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), co-written with Edward S. Herman, an analysis articulating the propaganda model theory for examining the media.
According to the Arts and Humanities Citation Index in 1992, Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar from 1980 to 1992, and was the eighth most cited source overall. Chomsky is the author of over 100 books. He is credited as the creator or co-creator of the Chomsky hierarchy, the universal grammar theory, and the Chomsky–Schützenberger theorem.
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Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, (Arabic: الشعب الفلسطيني, ash-sha‘b al-Filasṭīnī) also referred to as Palestinians (Arabic: الفلسطينيون, al-Filasṭīniyyūn), are descendants of the peoples who have lived in Palestine over the centuries. Today, Palestinians are largely culturally and linguistically Arab. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Israel. In this combined area, as of 2004, Palestinians constituted 49% of all inhabitants, encompassing the entire population of the Gaza Strip (1.6 million), the majority of the population of the West Bank (approximately 2.3 million versus close to 500,000 Jewish Israeli citizens which includes about 200,000 in East Jerusalem), and 16.5% of the population of Israel proper as Arab citizens of Israel.
Throughout the aforementioned combined area, many are Palestinian refugees or internally displaced Palestinians, including more than a million in the Gaza Strip, three-quarters of a million in the West Bank,, and about a quarter of a million in Israel proper. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, making up what is known as the Palestinian diaspora, more than half of these are stateless refugees lacking citizenship in any country. About 2.6 million of the diaspora population live in neighboring Jordan where they make up approximately half the population, 1.5 million live between Syria and Lebanon, a quarter of a million in Saudi Arabia, with Chile's half a million representing the largest concentration outside the Arab world.
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Peter Ueberroth
Peter Victor Ueberroth (/ˈjuːbərɒθ/; born September 2, 1937) is an American executive. He served as the sixth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1984 to 1989. He was recently the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee; he was replaced by Larry Probst in October 2008.
Although Ueberroth was born in Evanston, Illinois, he grew up in northern California. While attending Fremont High School, Ueberroth excelled in football, baseball, and swimming. After graduating from high school, Ueberroth attended San Jose State University on an athletic scholarship. While attending San Jose State he joined Delta Upsilon. He competed in the 1956 United States Olympic water polo trials but failed to make the team. Ueberroth ultimately graduated from San Jose State in 1959 with a degree in business.
After college, Ueberroth became a vice president and shareholder in Trans International Airlines (he was 22 years old at the time). Ueberroth worked at Trans International until 1963, when he founded his own travel company, which would become First Travel Corporation. By the time he sold First Travel in 1980, it was the second largest travel business in North America.
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Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus PP. II, Italian: Giovanni Paolo II, Polish: Jan Paweł II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła (Polish: [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛf vɔjˈtɨwa]; 18 May 1920, Wadowice, Republic of Poland – 2 April 2005, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City), reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the second-longest serving Pope in history and the first non-Italian since 1523.
John Paul II was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century. He was instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. Though criticised by progressives for upholding the Church's teachings against artificial contraception and the ordination of women, and by traditionalists for his support of the Church's Second Vatican Council and its reform, he was also widely praised for his firm, orthodox Catholic stances.
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Ralph Bunche
Ralph Bunche (/bʌntʃ/; August 7, 1903 (disputed) or 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize. He was involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations and in 1963, received the Medal of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy.
Bunche was born in Detroit, Michigan to an African American family and baptized at the city's Second Baptist Church. His father, Fred, was a barber, while his mother, Olive Agnes (née Johnson), was an amateur musician. His father had ancestors who were freed before the American Revolution. When he was a child, the family moved to Toledo, Ohio then in 1915, Albuquerque, New Mexico in an effort to improve his parents' health. His mother died in 1916, and his father, who had left Albuquerque to look for work before Olive's death, did not return for Ralph or his sister. His father remarried and Ralph never saw him again. Bunche and his sister, Grace, went to live in Los Angeles with their maternal grandmother, Lucy Taylor Johnson, though some sources list her name as Agnes Johnson.
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Ramadan Shallah
Ramadan Shallah is a Palestinian academic and one of the founders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). He became the Secretary-General of PIJ when Fathi Shaqaqi was killed in 1995. Shallah is sometimes referred to as Abdullah Ramadan Shallah ( عبد الله رمضان شلح) and other variations.
Shallah has been under embargo by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department since 27 November 1995. He is under indictment in the United States on 53 criminal counts. On 24 February 2006 Shallah and fellow PIJ member Abd Al Aziz Awda were added to the FBI's list of Most Wanted Terrorists. Both Shallah and Awda, along with most members of the politburos of PIJ and Hamas, are currently sheltered by Syria.
Shallah was born as 'Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah' (Arabic: رمضان عبد الله محمد شلح) on 1 February 1958 in Shuja'iyya, also called Gaza Sejaiya district, a neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. At the time, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control. Shallah was born into the middle of that occupation, in 1958. Egypt, since 1949, had recognized an "All-Palestine Government." But in 1959, a year after Shallah's birth, the president of Egypt, Gamal Abdul Nasser, annulled the All-Palestine government by decree. In 1967, Gaza came under Israeli control as a result of the Six Day War.
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Rawhi Fattouh
Rawhi Fattuh (Arabic: روحي فتوح, Rawḥī Fatūḥ, also transliterated as Rauhi Fattouh) (born 1949) is the former Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and was the interim President of the Palestinian Authority, following the death of Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004 until January 15, 2005. Under Palestinian law, he was to hold the post for 60 days until an election is held. The elections were held and won by Mahmoud Abbas, who was sworn in on January 15, 2005.
A member of Arafat's Fatah movement, Fattuh became the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (i.e. parliament) on March 10, 2004. He was elected in 1996 as a representative of the town of Rafah (in the Gaza Strip), where he was born and has lived for most of his life. He served as secretary to the council until November 2003, when he became the Minister of Agriculture in the government of Ahmed Qureia.
In March 2004, Fatah nominated him as its candidate for the post of speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, with 34 Fatah delegates voting in favour and 10 against. Fattuh is generally considered a moderate. He supported Ahmed Qureia, his predecessor as Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, as Arafat's permanent replacement. Qureia is considered to have played an instrumental role in the negotiation of the Oslo Accords.
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Rawhi Fattuh
Rawhi Fattuh (Arabic: روحي فتوح, Rawḥī Fatūḥ, also transliterated as Rauhi Fattouh) (born 1949) is the former Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and was the interim President of the Palestinian Authority, following the death of Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004 until January 15, 2005. Under Palestinian law, he was to hold the post for 60 days until an election is held. The elections were held and won by Mahmoud Abbas, who was sworn in on January 15, 2005.
A member of Arafat's Fatah movement, Fattuh became the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (i.e. parliament) on March 10, 2004. He was elected in 1996 as a representative of the town of Rafah (in the Gaza Strip), where he was born and has lived for most of his life. He served as secretary to the council until November 2003, when he became the Minister of Agriculture in the government of Ahmed Qureia.
In March 2004, Fatah nominated him as its candidate for the post of speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, with 34 Fatah delegates voting in favour and 10 against. Fattuh is generally considered a moderate. He supported Ahmed Qureia, his predecessor as Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, as Arafat's permanent replacement. Qureia is considered to have played an instrumental role in the negotiation of the Oslo Accords.
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Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (IPA: [ɾeˈd͡ʒep tajˈjip ˈæɾdoan]; born 26 February 1954) has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Commercial Sciences. Erdoğan was also a semi-professional footballer from 1969 to 1982.
Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul in the local elections of 27 March 1994. He was banned from office and sentenced to a prison term for reciting a poem during a public address in the province of Siirt on 12 December 1997. The poem was allegedly quoted from a book published by a state enterprise and one that had been recommended to teachers by the Ministry of Education. After six months in prison, Erdoğan established the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on August 14, 2001. From its first year, the AK Party became the largest publicly-supported political movement in Turkey. In the general election of 2002 the AK Party won nearly two-thirds of the seats in parliament, forming the first single-party government for 9 years.
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Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum (born 9 January 1959, Laj Chimel, El Quiché, Guatemala) is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the K'iche' ethnic group. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), and to promoting indigenous rights in the country. She received the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize and Prince of Asturias Award in 1998. She is the subject of the testimonial biography I, Rigoberta Menchú (1983) and the author of the autobiographical work, Crossing Borders.
Menchú is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. She has also become a figure in indigenous political parties and ran for President of Guatemala in 2007.
Menchú received a primary-school education as a student at several Catholic boarding schools. After leaving school, she worked as an activist campaigning against human rights violations committed by the Guatemalan armed forces during the country's civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996.
Her mother, Vicente Menchú was a member of the guerrilla movement Guerrilla Army of the Poor and died in 1980 during the Burning of the Spanish Embassy. In 1981, Rigoberta Menchú escaped to Mexico. In 1982, she narrated a book about her life to Venezuelan author and anthropologist Elizabeth Burgos, "Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia" (My Name is Rigoberta Menchu and this is how my Conscience was Born), which was translated into five other languages including English and French. The book made her an international icon at the time of the ongoing conflict in Guatemala.
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Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( /ˈrɒnəld ˈwɪlsən ˈreɪɡən/; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989. Prior to that, he was the 33rd Governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and a radio, film and television actor.
Born in Tampico, Illinois and raised in Dixon, Reagan was educated at Eureka College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. After his graduation, Reagan moved first to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in to Los Angeles in 1937 where he began a career as an actor, first in films and later television. Some of his most notable films include Knute Rockne, All American, Kings Row, and Bedtime for Bonzo. Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later as a spokesman for General Electric (GE); his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, his positions began shifting rightward in the late 1950s, and he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and general election in 1980, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.
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Ruhollah Khomeini
Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (روحاللّه مصطفوی موسوی خمینی, Persian pronunciation: [ruːholˈlɑːhe muːsæˈviːje xomeiˈniː], 22 or 24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader — a position created in the constitution as the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation – until his death.
Khomeini was a marja ("source of emulation") in Twelver Shi'a Islam, author of more than forty books, but is primarily known for his political activities. He spent more than 15 years in exile for his opposition to the last Shah. In his writings and preachings he expanded the Shi'a Usuli theory of velayat-e faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult (clerical authority)" to include theocratic political rule by the Islamic jurists. This principle (though not known to the wider public before the revolution) was installed in the new Iranian constitution after being put to a referendum.
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Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītī; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, which espoused ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup, later referred to as the 17 July Revolution, that brought the party to long-term power of Iraq.
As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were filled with Sunnis, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.
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Said Aburish
Said K. Aburish (Arabic: سعيد أبو ريش) (born 1935, al-Eizariya) is a Palestinian journalist, and writer.
Born into a Palestinian family, Abu Rish attended school in Jerusalem and Beirut. He returned to Beirut in the 1950s as a reporter for Radio Free Europe and the London Daily Mail.
Over the years, Aburish has written extensively about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and his works on the subject include, Cry Palestine, Children of Bethany, and The Forgotten Faithful: The Christians of the Holy Land. He has disputed the common narrative that 700,000 Arabs were expelled from Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War:
Our home was not taken over by the Israelis. No Israeli tank or platoon or soldiers came over and said Get out of here, you know, Get out of here, you know, We want to take this house.
Aburish has written a trio of biographies regarding three of the most prominent Arab Socialists, Nasser: The Last Arab, Arafat: From Defender to Dictator, and Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge. Aburish has also been a strong critic of the Saudi royal family, most notably in the book The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud.
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Said K. Aburish
Said K. Aburish (Arabic: سعيد أبو ريش) (born 1935, al-Eizariya) is a Palestinian journalist, and writer.
Born into a Palestinian family, Abu Rish attended school in Jerusalem and Beirut. He returned to Beirut in the 1950s as a reporter for Radio Free Europe and the London Daily Mail.
Over the years, Aburish has written extensively about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and his works on the subject include, Cry Palestine, Children of Bethany, and The Forgotten Faithful: The Christians of the Holy Land. He has disputed the common narrative that 700,000 Arabs were expelled from Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War:
Our home was not taken over by the Israelis. No Israeli tank or platoon or soldiers came over and said Get out of here, you know, Get out of here, you know, We want to take this house.
Aburish has written a trio of biographies regarding three of the most prominent Arab Socialists, Nasser: The Last Arab, Arafat: From Defender to Dictator, and Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge. Aburish has also been a strong critic of the Saudi royal family, most notably in the book The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud.
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Salah Jadid
Salah Jadid (1926 – 19 August 1993, Arabic: صلاح جديد) was a Syrian general and political figure in the Arab Socialist Baath Party in Syria, and the country's de facto leader from 1966 until 1970.
Jadid was born in 1926 in the village of Duwayr B'abda, near the coastal city of Jableh, which in turn was close to Lattakia, to a Alawite family. He studied at the Homs Military Academy, and entered the Syrian Army in 1946. Jadid was originally a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), but later became a member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, led by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, in the 1950s through an associate of Akram al-Hawrani. Even so, Jadid remained close to the SNPP; his brother, Ghassan, was one of its most prominent members in Syria. He changed allegiance again in the 1950s, when he became a member of the Arab Liberation Movement, a party supporting Gamal Abdel Nasser's ideological beliefs. Jadid supported Syria's ascension into the United Arab Republic (UAR), a union republic consisting of Egypt and Syria.
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Salah Khalaf
Salah Mesbah Khalaf (Arabic: صلاح مصباح خلف), also known as Abu Iyad (أبو إياد) (born 1933 – January 14, 1991) was deputy chief and head of intelligence for the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the second most senior official of Fatah after Yasser Arafat.
Khalaf has been described as "of medium height and sturdy build, undistinguished in a crowd." When Christopher Dobson, hoping for an interview, was introduced to him in Cairo in the early 1970s, Khalaf made "so little an impression" during the brief encounter that Dobson did not realize until later that he had already met Israel's most-wanted terrorist.
Khalaf and his family left Jaffa after Israel took the city in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He moved to Cairo in the early 1950s. There he became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 1951, he met Yasser Arafat at the al-Azhar University—where he studied literature—during a meeting of the General Union of Palestinian Students. In 1958, he founded the organization of Fatah with Arafat and other Palestinians in Kuwait.
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Salam Fayyad
Salam Fayyad (Arabic: سلام فياض, Salām Fayāḍ; born 1952) is a Palestinian politician and Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. His first appointment, on 15 June 2007, which was justified by President Mahmoud Abbas on the basis of "national emergency", has not been confirmed by the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Palestinian Authority's parliament. He was reappointed on 19 May 2009. Fayyad has also been the finance minister from 17 March 2007 and previously held the post from June 2002 to November 2006. Fayyad is an internationally respected economist and politician.
Salam Fayyad was born in Deir al-Ghusun. He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1975 and received his MBA from St. Edward's University in 1980. Fayyad has a PhD in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a student of William Barnett and did early research on the American Divisia Monetary Aggregates, which he continued on the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Fayyad began his career teaching economics at Yarmouk University in Jordan, before joining the International Monetary Fund in 1987, where he served as representative to the Palestinian National Authority from 1996-2001. Following this Fayyad served as the regional manager of the Arab Bank in the West Bank and Gaza until he accepted an offer to become Yasser Arafat's finance minister.
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Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres (help·info) GCMG (Hebrew: שמעון פרס, born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923) is the ninth and current President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until 2007, when he became President.
He held several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after Israel's War of Independence. His first high-level government position was as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952, and Director-General in 1953 through 1959. During his career, he has represented five political parties in the Knesset: Mapai, Rafi, the Alignment, Labor and Kadima, and has led Alignment and Labour. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords.
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Shukri al-Quwatli
Shukri al-Quwatli (1891 – June 30, 1967) (Arabic: شكري القوتلي) was the president of Syria from 1943 to 1949 and from 1955 to 1958.
He was born in Damascus into a Turkish family, originally from Konya.
Quwatli entered Syrian politics in the 1930s as a member of the National Bloc, a coalition of Arab parties that led the opposition to French rule. As a young man, he had been involved in al-Fatat, an underground opposition group in Ottoman Syria, and been arrested for his activities in 1916. In jail, because of harsh torture, he feared that he would tell the names of his comrades in al-Fatat. To avoid that, he slit open his wrist in a suicide attempt but was saved at the last minute by his friend and colleague Dr Ahmad Qadri. He was released when World War I ended to become a civil servant in post-Ottoman era of King Faisal I. When the French Mandate was proclaimed in July 1920, the French sentenced Quwatli to death.
He fled to Egypt and then Geneva and co-established the Syrian-Palestinian Congress in exile, with a group of other exiled nationalists from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. He returned in 1924, and participated in the Syrian Revolt of 1925-27, although he quickly fell out with the Revolt's main protagonist, the Druze leader Sultan Pasha Al-Atrash because of the latter's pro-Hashemite policies. Quwatli was exiled once again in 1927, only to return under a general amnesty in 1932. An associate and protégé of Hashim al-Atassi, the republic's first president, Quwatli gradually rose in the ranks of the National Bloc.
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Suha Arafat
Suha Arafat (Arabic: سهى عرفات, Sʋeıª Oɑrɑfát), née Suha Daoud Tawil (Arabic: سهى داود الطويل, Sʋeıª Dáuʋd alƟ̑ɑuíl) (born 17 July 1963), is the widow of former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
Suha was born in the West Bank in 1963 into an affluent Christian family who lived in Nablus and then Ramallah (both cities under Jordanian authority at the time). Suha's father Daoud Tawil, an Oxford-educated banker, was born in Jaffa (now part of Tel Aviv). Suha's mother, Raymonda Hawa Tawil, born in Acre, was a politically active Palestinian militant, poet and writer.
Suha attended a convent school, Rosary Sisters' School, in Beit Hanina, Jerusalem and the Sorbonne in Paris. As a student, Suha was a leader in the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) in France, where she organized demonstrations for the Palestinian cause.
Suha, her mother, and her sisters met Arafat for the first time in 1985. When he visited France in 1989, she acted as an interpreter at the meetings with visitors and French government officials. Soon after his departure from Paris, Arafat asked Suha to come and work with him in Tunisia (where the Palestinian Liberation Organization had set up a haven).
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Talal of Jordan
Talal I bin Abdullah (Arabic: طلال بن عبد الله Ṭalāl ibn `Abd Allāh) 26 February 1909 – 7 July 1972) was King of Jordan from 20 July 1951 until forced to abdicate in favour of his son Hussein due to health reasons (reported as schizophrenia) on 11 August 1952.
Talal's family claims a direct line of descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Talal was born on the 26 February 1909 at Mecca in the Ottoman Empire to Abdullah and his first wife Musbah.
He was educated privately before attending the British Army's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst from which he graduated in 1929 when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Cavalry Regiment of the Arab Legion. His regiment was attached to a British regiment in Jerusalem and also to the Royal Artillery in Baghdad.
Talal ascended the Jordanian throne after the assassination of his father, Abdullah I, in Jerusalem. His son, Hussein, who was accompanying his grandfather at Friday prayers was also a near victim. On 20 July 1951, Prince Hussein traveled to Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque with his grandfather, King Abdullah I. A Palestinian, fearing the king might normalize relations with the newly created state of Israel, opened fire on Abdullah and his grandson. Abdullah was killed, but the 15-year-old Hussein survived.
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Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television. As a philanthropist, he is known for his $1 billion gift to support UN causes, which created the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to broaden support for the UN. Turner serves as Chairman of the United Nations Foundation board of directors.
Turner's media empire began with his father's billboard business, which he took over at 24 after his father's suicide. The business, Turner Outdoor Advertising, was worth $1 million when Turner took it over in 1963. Purchase of an Atlanta UHF station in 1970 began the Turner Broadcasting System. Cable News Network revolutionized news media, covering the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Turner turned the Atlanta Braves baseball team into a nationally popular franchise and launched the charitable Goodwill Games. He helped reinvent interest in professional wrestling when he owned one of the most popular wrestling companies of the middle to late 1990s known as World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The Monday night show that it put on was the highest rated on cable and helped boost Turner's channels of TNT and WTBS.
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Terje Rød-Larsen
Terje Rød-Larsen (born 22 November 1947) is a Norwegian diplomat, politician and sociologist.
He came to wide international prominence as a key figure in the negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords, when he served as the Director of the Fafo institute. In 1993, he was appointed Ambassador and Special Adviser for the Middle East Peace process to the Norwegian Foreign Minister, and the following year, he became the United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories at the rank of Under-Secretary-General. He briefly served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Planning and Cooperation of Norway in the Jagland cabinet in 1996, and returned to the United Nations, where he again became an Under-Secretary-General, serving as the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority from 1999 to 2004.
Since 2004, he has been the president of the International Peace Institute.
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The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register (it became The Times on 1 January 1788). The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International, itself wholly owned by the News Corporation group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967.
The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, including The Times of India (1838), The Straits Times (1845), The New York Times (1851), The Irish Times (1859), the Los Angeles Times (1881), The Seattle Times (1891), The Daily Times (Malawi) (1900), The Canberra Times (1926), and The Times (Malta) (1935). For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the "London Times" or "The Times of London".
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Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl (Hebrew: תאודור הרצל, Hungarian: Herzl Tivadar; May 2, 1860 – July 3, 1904), born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl (Hebrew: בִּנְיָמִין זְאֵב הֵרצְל, also known as חוֹזֵה הַמְדִינָה, Hozeh HaMedinah, lit. "Visionary of the State") was an Ashkenazi Jewish Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.
He was born in Pest, Hungary, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Zimony (today Zemun, Serbia), which was then part of Austria-Hungary. He was second child of Jeanette and Jakob Herzl, who were German-speaking, assimilated Jews. A precocious, moody daydreamer, he aspired to follow the footsteps of Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal. He did not succeed in the sciences, and he developed a growing enthusiasm for poetry and the humanities. This passion would later develop into a successful career in journalism and a less celebrated pursuit of play-writing.
Herzl had minimal interest in religious Judaism as a child, consistent with his parents’ lax adherence to the Jewish tradition. His mother relied more on German humanist Kultur than Jewish ethics. Instead of a Bar Mitzvah, Herzl's thirteenth birthday was advertised as a "confirmation". He grew up as a "thoroughly emancipated, antitraditional, secular, would-be German boy" who dismissed all religion, and spoke of Judaism with "mocking cynicism." He exhibited a secularist disdain toward religion, which he saw as uncivilized. Even after becoming interested in the "Jewish question," Herzl's writing retained traces of Jewish self-contempt, according to Elon.
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Tommy Lapid
Yosef (Joseph) "Tommy" Lapid (Hebrew: יוסף "טומי" לפיד, born as Tomislav Lampel (Serbian: Томислав Лампел); 27 December 1931 – 1 June 2008) was an Israeli radio and television presenter, journalist, politician and government minister known for his sharp tongue and acerbic wit. Lapid headed the secular-liberal Shinui party from 1999–2006. He fiercely opposed the ultra-orthodox political parties and actively sought to exclude any religious observance from the legal structure of the Israeli State.
Lapid was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia) to a family of Hungarian Jewish descent. His family was seized by the Nazis and deported to the Budapest ghetto. His father was deported to a concentration camp, where he was murdered. Lapid and his mother survived the war and moved to Israel in 1948. After serving as a mechanic in the Israel Defense Forces, Lapid graduated with a law degree from Tel Aviv University in 1957. He was married to Shulamit Lapid, an acclaimed novelist. They had three children. Their son, Yair Lapid, is a well-known politician, columnist and television host. Their oldest daughter, Michal, was killed in a car accident.
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Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He resigned from all of these positions in June 2007.
Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election of July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under his leadership, the party used the phrases "New Labour" and "New Socialism" to define its policy, and moved away from its support of state socialism since the 1960s and created a new version of the ethical socialism that was last pursued by Clement Attlee. Critics of Blair claim that "New Labour" did not adhere to socialism as claimed, and that it effectively advocated capitalism. Blair subsequently led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election. At 43 years old, he became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. In the first years of the New Labour government, Blair's government implemented a number of 1997 manifesto pledges, introducing the minimum wage, Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information Act, and carrying out devolution, establishing the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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Tony Blankley
Anthony David "Tony" Blankley (January 21, 1948 – January 7, 2012) was an English-American political analyst who gained fame as the press secretary for Newt Gingrich, the first Republican Speaker of the House in forty years, and as a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group. He later became an Executive Vice President with Edelman public relations in Washington, D.C. He was a Visiting Senior Fellow in National-Security Communications at the Heritage Foundation, a weekly contributor to the nationally syndicated public radio program Left, Right & Center, the author of The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations? and American Grit: What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century, and a regular guest on various news programs.
He was a regular commentator for radio shows including The Diane Rehm Show,Left, Right & Center and The Steve Gill Show with a segment titled Fill In the Blanks. Earlier in his career, he was an editorial page editor for The Washington Times, a contributing editor and monthly columnist for George Magazine, and a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group.
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Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery (Hebrew: אורי אבנרי, also transliterated Uri Avneri, born 10 September 1923) is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement.
A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965–74 and 1979–81. He was also the owner of HaOlam HaZeh, an Israeli news magazine, from 1950 until it closed in 1993.
He is famous for crossing the lines during the Siege of Beirut to meet Yassir Arafat on 3 July 1982, the first time the Palestinian leader ever met with an Israeli. Avnery is the author of several books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including 1948: A Soldier’s Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem (2008); Israel’s Vicious Circle (2008); and My Friend, the Enemy (1986).
Avnery was born in Beckum, Germany as Helmut Ostermann, to a well-established German Jewish family. Avnery and his family emigrated to Palestine in 1933, following Adolf Hitler's rise to power. He attended school in Nahalal and then in Tel Aviv, leaving after 7th grade, at age 14, in order to help his parents. He started work as a clerk for a lawyer, a job he held for about five years.
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Yahya Hammuda
Yahya Hammuda (Arabic: يحيى حمودة b. 1908 - d. 2006) was the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee from 24 December 1967 to 2 February 1969 Following the resignation of Ahmad Shukeiri. He was succeeded by Yasser Arafat.
Hammuda was born in the village of Lifta in 1908. A founding member of the General Refugee Congress (GRC). The first congress of the GRC occurred on 17 March 1949 in Ramallah where Muhammad Nimr al-Hawari was elected as President with Yahya Hammuda and ‘Aziz Shihada as deputies. The Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC) hoping to gain a degree of independent Palestinian representation, invited GRC delegates to come and appear before the PCC.
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Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (Arabic: محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني; 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat (Arabic: ياسر عرفات) or by his kunya Abu Ammar (Arabic: أبو عمار, 'Abū `Ammār), was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and leader of the Fatah political party, which he founded in 1959. Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Originally opposed to Israel's existence, he modified his position in 1988 when he accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242. Arafat and his movement operated from several Arab countries. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Fatah faced off with Jordan in a brief civil war. Forced out of Jordan and into Lebanon, Arafat and Fatah were major targets of Israel's 1978 and 1982 invasions of that country.
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Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (help·info) (Hebrew: יִצְחָק רַבִּין IPA: [jitsˈχak ʁaˈbin]; March 1, 1922 – November 4, 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995.
In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. He was assassinated by right-wing Israeli radical Yigal Amir, who was opposed to Rabin's signing of the Oslo Accords. Rabin was the first native-born prime minister of Israel, the only prime minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol.
Rabin was born in Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine to Nehemiah and Rosa (née Cohen), two immigrants of the Third Aliyah, the third wave of Jewish immigration to Israel from Europe. Nehemiah Rubitzov was born in the Ukrainian village Sydorovychi near Ivankiv in 1886. His father died when he was a child, and he worked to support his family from a young age. At the age of 18, he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the Poale Zion party and changed his surname to Rabin. In 1917, Nehemiah went to the British Mandate of Palestine with a group of volunteers from the Jewish Legion.
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Yousef an-Najjar
Muhammad Youssef Al-Najjar (1930 - April 10, 1973), commonly known as Abu Youssef, was a Palestinian militant. Originally from Yibna, he began his involvement in the General Union of Palestinian Students. When the Fatah organization formed in the late 1950s, Youssef was an early activist, traveling to Qatar to form similar groups, and taking command of Fatah's military wing.
In 1968 Youssef was appointed to the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Two months before his death, Youssef was interviewed by the Beirut newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour. In it he explained his conviction to the Palestinian cause: "We plant the seeds, and the others will reap the harvest... Most probably we'll all die, killed because we are confronting a fierce enemy. But the youth will replace us." This group was responsible for the 1972 Munich Massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed in the crossfire between the German police and the Black September group. This prompted Israel to launch a revenge campaign called Operation Wrath of God, with Youssef as a principal target.
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Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (Russian: Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов, tr. Yuriy Vladimirovich Andropov; IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ɐnˈdropəf]; 15 June [O.S. 2 June] 1914 – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.
Andropov was the son of a railway official Vladimir Konstantinovich Andropov, who was a member of a Don Cossack noble family. His mother was Yevgenia Karlovna Fleckenstein, a daughter of a wealthy Moscow businessman, Karl Franzovich Fleckenstein, a German Russian from Vyborg. Andropov was educated at the Rybinsk Water Transport Technical College.
Andropov joined the Komsomol in 1930. He became a member of the Communist Party in 1939 and was First Secretary of the Central Committee of Komsomol in the Soviet Karelo-Finnish Republic from 1940 to 1944.
During World War II, Andropov took part in partisan guerrilla activities in Finland. From 1944 onwards, he left Komsomol for Communist Party work. In 1947, he was elected Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.
wn.com/Yuri_Andropov -
Óscar Arias
Óscar Arias Sánchez (born 13 September 1940) is a Costa Rican politician who was President of Costa Rica from 2006 to 2010. He previously served as President from 1986 to 1990 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to end civil wars then raging in several other Central American countries.
He is also a recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security. In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's TrustFund for Victims. He is also currently a member of the Club de Madrid, a nonprofit composed of 81 former leaders of democratic states, that works to strengthen democratic institutions.
Raised by an upper class family in the province of Heredia, Óscar Arias concluded his secondary schooling at the Saint Francis College in the capital city of San José. He then went to the United States and enrolled in Boston University with the intention of studying medicine, but he soon returned to his home country and completed degrees in law and economics at the University of Costa Rica. In 1967, Arias traveled to the United Kingom and enrolled in the London School of Economics. He receive a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Essex in 1974. Arias has received over fifty honorary degrees, including doctorates from Harvard University, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Oberlin College, Wake Forest University, Ithaca College and Washington University in St. Louis.
wn.com/Óscar_Arias
Arafat, Yasser Filmography
- Joschka und Herr Fischer (2011)
- War of the Gods (2010)
- Secrets of Body Language (2008)
- Catalunya.cat (2008)
- Va, vis et deviens (2005)
- 50 y más (2005)
- Att tala med djävulen (2005)
- Last Laugh '04 (2004)
- Celsius 41.11: The Temperature at Which the Brain... Begins to Die (2004)
- Verder dan de maan (2003)
- Året der gik 2003 (2003)
- Biography of the Year 2003 (2003)
- Obor kalandia (2003)
- Les dix (2003)
- My Terrorist (2002)
- Der Frieden und sein Preis - Das Vermächtnis des Alfred Nobel (2001)
- Operation Thunderbolt: Entebbe (2000)
- ABC 2000: The Millennium (1999)
- Yitzhak Rabin: Warrior/Peacemaker (1999)
- Assassinations That Changed the World (1996)
- Underground (1995)
- Juan Carlos I: Crónica de 20 años (1995)
- Peter's Friends (1992)
- Desert Storm: The War Begins (1991)
- Wer die Erde liebt (1973)
- El Assifa (1970)
Famous quotes by Yasser Arafat:
"the Lebanese people have the right to defend their land."
"extremely damaging to the Palestinian cause."
"This is my homeland no one can kick me out."
"Continued to press on soldiers of freedom! We will not bend or fail until the blood of every last Jew from the youngest child to the oldest elder is spilt to redeem or land!"
"The victory march will continue until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem and in all of Palestine."
"In order to obtain the goal of returning to Palestine, all of us sometimes have to grit our teeth."
"Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations."
"I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
"We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. . . . We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem."
"Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist"
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Paul McGrath Interviews Yasser Arafat, 1991
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:50
- Updated: 01 Dec 2012
Paul McGrath interviews Yasser Arafat regarding the gulf war and the Palestinian leader's support for Saddam Hussein. From CBC's "The Journal", 1991.
http://wn.com/Paul_McGrath_Interviews_Yasser_Arafat,_1991
Paul McGrath interviews Yasser Arafat regarding the gulf war and the Palestinian leader's support for Saddam Hussein. From CBC's "The Journal", 1991.
PLO: History of a Revolution - Episode 1 - 13 Jul 09
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 24:08
- Updated: 03 Dec 2012
Masters of their own Destiny is the first episode in Al Jazeera's six-part series on the history of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It looks at the challenges encountered as Palestinians sought to wrest control of their own destiny from Arab regimes and create an independent Palestinian organisation that would lead the struggle for a national home.
http://wn.com/PLO_History_of_a_Revolution_Episode_1_13_Jul_09
Masters of their own Destiny is the first episode in Al Jazeera's six-part series on the history of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It looks at the challenges encountered as Palestinians sought to wrest control of their own destiny from Arab regimes and create an independent Palestinian organisation that would lead the struggle for a national home.
- published: 13 Jul 2009
- views: 52151
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Yasser Arafat Speech Young at the UN (United Nations)in 1974
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:03
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
The first part of the Yasser Arafat speech at the United nations 1974. Famous for the Olive tree and freedom fighter statement
http://wn.com/Yasser_Arafat_Speech_Young_at_the_UN_United_Nationsin_1974
The first part of the Yasser Arafat speech at the United nations 1974. Famous for the Olive tree and freedom fighter statement
- published: 11 Nov 2010
- views: 41266
- author: Nader Jaber
Al Jazeera Investigates - What Killed Arafat?
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 50:39
- Updated: 10 Sep 2012
A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera discovered rare, radioactive polonium on the ex-Palestinian leader's final belongings. The finding suggests that Arafat was poisoned with polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. The polonium was found in blood, sweat, urine and saliva stains on his personal effects, and the levels recorded by forensic pathologists in Switzerland - who studied the items - do not occur naturally. Al Jazeera's Clayton Swisher reports.
http://wn.com/Al_Jazeera_Investigates_What_Killed_Arafat?
A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera discovered rare, radioactive polonium on the ex-Palestinian leader's final belongings. The finding suggests that Arafat was poisoned with polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. The polonium was found in blood, sweat, urine and saliva stains on his personal effects, and the levels recorded by forensic pathologists in Switzerland - who studied the items - do not occur naturally. Al Jazeera's Clayton Swisher reports.
- published: 04 Jul 2012
- views: 72187
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Yasser Arafat and the Lies
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:13
- Updated: 22 Nov 2012
Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian leader and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), president of the Palestinian National Authority, and leader of the Fatah, which he founded in 1959. Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Originally opposed to Israel's existence, he engaged in peace negotiations with the state of Israel in the early 90s (mainly the Oslo Accords 1993). Although he has said to have accepted Israel's right to exist, his actions show the contradictory and he most likely never changed his strategy, which was to destroy Israel and continue the terrorist attacks against civilians. Special thanks to, www.HonestReporting.com Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel www.imdb.com
http://wn.com/Yasser_Arafat_and_the_Lies
Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian leader and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), president of the Palestinian National Authority, and leader of the Fatah, which he founded in 1959. Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Originally opposed to Israel's existence, he engaged in peace negotiations with the state of Israel in the early 90s (mainly the Oslo Accords 1993). Although he has said to have accepted Israel's right to exist, his actions show the contradictory and he most likely never changed his strategy, which was to destroy Israel and continue the terrorist attacks against civilians. Special thanks to, www.HonestReporting.com Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel www.imdb.com
- published: 13 Sep 2009
- views: 8051
- author: enevighet17
Yasser Arafat's body exhumed in Ramallah
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:09
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
A planned military funeral was cancelled, and Arafat's remains were quietly returned to his tomb later on Tuesday morning. The whole process took about 10 hours. Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reports.
http://wn.com/Yasser_Arafat's_body_exhumed_in_Ramallah
A planned military funeral was cancelled, and Arafat's remains were quietly returned to his tomb later on Tuesday morning. The whole process took about 10 hours. Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal reports.
- published: 27 Nov 2012
- views: 2242
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Inside Story - Probing Yasser Arafat's death
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 24:38
- Updated: 28 Nov 2012
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that Russian experts will join a team of Swiss and French investigators in exhuming the remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat later this month. Abbas made the announcement during a ceremony to mark the eighth anniversary of Arafat's death on Sunday, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas says he hopes the Russian involvement will help the investigation.
http://wn.com/Inside_Story_Probing_Yasser_Arafat's_death
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that Russian experts will join a team of Swiss and French investigators in exhuming the remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat later this month. Abbas made the announcement during a ceremony to mark the eighth anniversary of Arafat's death on Sunday, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abbas says he hopes the Russian involvement will help the investigation.
- published: 13 Nov 2012
- views: 2842
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Exhuming Yasser Arafat
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:17
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
CNN's Fred Pleitgen on how experts will analyze Yasser Arafat's remains to see if he was poisoned.
http://wn.com/Exhuming_Yasser_Arafat
CNN's Fred Pleitgen on how experts will analyze Yasser Arafat's remains to see if he was poisoned.
- published: 26 Nov 2012
- views: 14410
- author: CNN
Yasser Arafat
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:33
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
ya 7abebe
http://wn.com/Yasser_Arafat
ya 7abebe
- published: 28 Dec 2006
- views: 77420
- author: zamanal3jeb
Behind the wall, meeting Yasser Arafat
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:14
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
Yasser Arafat talks about the Israeli wall built around the West Bank and about depleted uranium used against Palestinians
http://wn.com/Behind_the_wall,_meeting_Yasser_Arafat
Yasser Arafat talks about the Israeli wall built around the West Bank and about depleted uranium used against Palestinians
- published: 22 Nov 2007
- views: 54792
- author: vittoriolonghi
Bill Clinton slams Yasser Arafat for Rejecting Peace
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:14
- Updated: 03 Dec 2012
In 2000, Bill Clinton proposed a two-state peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. The Israelis agreed--accepting enormous concessions on territory, security, and Jerusalem. Tragically, the Palestinian Authority--led by Yasser Arafat--rejected the offer and launched the Second Intifada. Note: I do not own the right to the audio or visuals in this video.
http://wn.com/Bill_Clinton_slams_Yasser_Arafat_for_Rejecting_Peace
In 2000, Bill Clinton proposed a two-state peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. The Israelis agreed--accepting enormous concessions on territory, security, and Jerusalem. Tragically, the Palestinian Authority--led by Yasser Arafat--rejected the offer and launched the Second Intifada. Note: I do not own the right to the audio or visuals in this video.
- published: 05 Feb 2012
- views: 9508
- author: Jules Szanton
238 Palestinian President Yassir Arafat on 911
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:18
- Updated: 11 Nov 2012
Yassir Arafat 911 - View the truth at youtu.be Hate and Vengence Because the Koran teaches that to be memorizied from infancy Koran from the University of Michigan www.hti.umich.edu Burn Unbelievers 4:56 Abrogation. 2:106 Lying. 2:225, 66:2 No non-Muslim friends. 3:28 Punish Unbeliever. 2:6-7, 2:23-24 Jews and Christians hated like apes. 2:62-3-4, 5:59-60, 7:166 Jews must pay extortion. 2:40-43, 2:83 Killed for Islam is life. 3:169-70, 22:58-59 Who disbelieve: Strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. 8:12 Accuse others of the evil you did. 2:79, 2:85 Fight unbelievers, Jews, Christians. 9_29-31 After four months, kill them. Lie in wait and use very kind of ambush! 9_2-5 Murder and crusify those who war against Allah and Mohammad. 5:33 What the Bible says about Mohammad and his god of force: Daniel 11:36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Daniel 11:37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. Daniel 11:38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Daniel 11:39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds ...
http://wn.com/238_Palestinian_President_Yassir_Arafat_on_911
Yassir Arafat 911 - View the truth at youtu.be Hate and Vengence Because the Koran teaches that to be memorizied from infancy Koran from the University of Michigan www.hti.umich.edu Burn Unbelievers 4:56 Abrogation. 2:106 Lying. 2:225, 66:2 No non-Muslim friends. 3:28 Punish Unbeliever. 2:6-7, 2:23-24 Jews and Christians hated like apes. 2:62-3-4, 5:59-60, 7:166 Jews must pay extortion. 2:40-43, 2:83 Killed for Islam is life. 3:169-70, 22:58-59 Who disbelieve: Strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. 8:12 Accuse others of the evil you did. 2:79, 2:85 Fight unbelievers, Jews, Christians. 9_29-31 After four months, kill them. Lie in wait and use very kind of ambush! 9_2-5 Murder and crusify those who war against Allah and Mohammad. 5:33 What the Bible says about Mohammad and his god of force: Daniel 11:36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Daniel 11:37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. Daniel 11:38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Daniel 11:39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds ...
- published: 07 May 2012
- views: 1606
- author: donaldjjohnsonsr
حصار الشهيد ياسر عرفات Siege of Yasser Arafat
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 30:45
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
www.facebook.com تجربة الموت مثيرة بكل تفاصيلها ، لكن أن تنتظر قدومه في كل لحظة فهذا ما كان الجديد في تجربتي ... تستحضرك كل التفاصيل الصغيرة والدقيقة التي لم يسبق لك أن تذكر...
http://wn.com/حصار_الشهيد_ياسر_عرفات_Siege_of_Yasser_Arafat
www.facebook.com تجربة الموت مثيرة بكل تفاصيلها ، لكن أن تنتظر قدومه في كل لحظة فهذا ما كان الجديد في تجربتي ... تستحضرك كل التفاصيل الصغيرة والدقيقة التي لم يسبق لك أن تذكر...
- published: 06 Feb 2011
- views: 154393
- author: Abn Fateh
Yasser Arafat's body is exhumed
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:11
- Updated: 29 Nov 2012
Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's body has been exhumed and is being tested for Polonium poisoning by an international team of experts. Report by Genelle Aldred. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com . Subscribe to ITN News! www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Yasser_Arafat's_body_is_exhumed
Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's body has been exhumed and is being tested for Polonium poisoning by an international team of experts. Report by Genelle Aldred. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com . Subscribe to ITN News! www.youtube.com
- published: 27 Nov 2012
- views: 1751
- author: itnnews
yatzpan - sharon and arafat song
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:28
- Updated: 09 Jul 2012
A reminder of older times, when both Sharon and Arafat were up and walking. יצפאן
http://wn.com/yatzpan_sharon_and_arafat_song
A reminder of older times, when both Sharon and Arafat were up and walking. יצפאן
- published: 18 Aug 2006
- views: 60487
- author: micolly
Palestinian Incitement: Yasser Arafat After J'lem Bombing
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:02
- Updated: 22 Nov 2012
Visit us at www.vitalperspective.com This is an incitement video, subtitled in English, of Yasser Arafat with Boy Scouts in Ramallah two days after a suicide bombing on the Number 19 bus in Jerusalem. It appeared on Palestinian television on January 31, 2004.
http://wn.com/Palestinian_Incitement_Yasser_Arafat_After_J'lem_Bombing
Visit us at www.vitalperspective.com This is an incitement video, subtitled in English, of Yasser Arafat with Boy Scouts in Ramallah two days after a suicide bombing on the Number 19 bus in Jerusalem. It appeared on Palestinian television on January 31, 2004.
- published: 22 Jun 2006
- views: 49526
- author: vitalperspective
Arafat body exhumed, Qatar obsessed with Israel trace
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:47
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
The remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat have been reburied - after being exhumed earlier on Tuesday. An international team of forensic experts have taken tissue samples from the remains - hoping to clear doubts over the cause of his death in 2004. RT LIVE rt.com Subscribe to RT! www.youtube.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Follow us on Twitter twitter.com Follow us on Google+ plus.google.com RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.
http://wn.com/Arafat_body_exhumed,_Qatar_obsessed_with_Israel_trace
The remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat have been reburied - after being exhumed earlier on Tuesday. An international team of forensic experts have taken tissue samples from the remains - hoping to clear doubts over the cause of his death in 2004. RT LIVE rt.com Subscribe to RT! www.youtube.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Follow us on Twitter twitter.com Follow us on Google+ plus.google.com RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.
- published: 27 Nov 2012
- views: 9613
- author: RussiaToday
Yasser Arafat exhumation: Why now?
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:18
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
Former Palestinian leader's remains tested to determine cause of death. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.
http://wn.com/Yasser_Arafat_exhumation_Why_now?
Former Palestinian leader's remains tested to determine cause of death. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.
- published: 27 Nov 2012
- views: 1710
- author: CNN
Yasser Arafat - Hands of Thyme and Stone
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:31
- Updated: 29 Nov 2012
For two hands, of stone and of thyme I dedicate this song.. For Ahmad, forgotten between two butterflies The clouds are gone and have left me homeless, and The mountains have flung their mantles and concealed me Music: Marcel Khalife Lyrics: Mahmoud Darwish Album: Ahmad Al Arabi "I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the green branch fall from my hand.. Do not let the green branch fall from my hand.." (Speech at the United Nations General Assembly, November 13, 1974) Yasser Arafat (Jerusalem 04.08.1929 - Paris 11.11.2004)
http://wn.com/Yasser_Arafat_Hands_of_Thyme_and_Stone
For two hands, of stone and of thyme I dedicate this song.. For Ahmad, forgotten between two butterflies The clouds are gone and have left me homeless, and The mountains have flung their mantles and concealed me Music: Marcel Khalife Lyrics: Mahmoud Darwish Album: Ahmad Al Arabi "I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the green branch fall from my hand.. Do not let the green branch fall from my hand.." (Speech at the United Nations General Assembly, November 13, 1974) Yasser Arafat (Jerusalem 04.08.1929 - Paris 11.11.2004)
- published: 30 Oct 2010
- views: 17211
- author: Palestine663644
Documentaire sur Yasser Arafat - Biographie
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 88:10
- Updated: 02 Dec 2012
Documentaire sur la vie de Yasser Arafat le leader et ancien président de l'autorité Palestinienne. Cette biographie retrace l'histoire de Yasser Arafat longtemps considéré par l'opinion publique comme un terroriste, il deviendra un véritable médiateur pour la paix entre la Palestine et Israël. Rejoignez notre page Facebook : "Pour la création d'un Etat Palestinien" : www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/Documentaire_sur_Yasser_Arafat_Biographie
Documentaire sur la vie de Yasser Arafat le leader et ancien président de l'autorité Palestinienne. Cette biographie retrace l'histoire de Yasser Arafat longtemps considéré par l'opinion publique comme un terroriste, il deviendra un véritable médiateur pour la paix entre la Palestine et Israël. Rejoignez notre page Facebook : "Pour la création d'un Etat Palestinien" : www.facebook.com
- published: 02 Oct 2011
- views: 16098
- author: Palestiniens
Witness - Last days of Yasser Arafat - Sherine Salama
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:47
- Updated: 15 Apr 2012
By late 2003, Yasser Arafat, the iconic Palestinian leader, had been effectively imprisoned in his Ramallah compound for almost a year. To Sherine Salama, an Australian journalist, this represented a challenge and she set herself the task of making a definitive documentary about the Palestinian leader - but it would not prove easy. It took her over a year of filming in and around Yasser Arafat's compound before she finally managed to persuade Arafat's aides to arrange an interview. It would be the last interview Arafat ever gave. A month later he was dead. The Last Days of Yasser Arafat tells the final chapter in the story of one of the most controversial public figures of recent times.
http://wn.com/Witness_Last_days_of_Yasser_Arafat_Sherine_Salama
By late 2003, Yasser Arafat, the iconic Palestinian leader, had been effectively imprisoned in his Ramallah compound for almost a year. To Sherine Salama, an Australian journalist, this represented a challenge and she set herself the task of making a definitive documentary about the Palestinian leader - but it would not prove easy. It took her over a year of filming in and around Yasser Arafat's compound before she finally managed to persuade Arafat's aides to arrange an interview. It would be the last interview Arafat ever gave. A month later he was dead. The Last Days of Yasser Arafat tells the final chapter in the story of one of the most controversial public figures of recent times.
- published: 11 Nov 2009
- views: 14322
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Yasser Arafat - Um Mito - Especial Reportage TV Brazil
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:08
- Updated: 29 Nov 2012
Músicas do melhor cantor arabe de todos os tempos, baixe aqui: rapidshare.com Especial Fantastico 2004 Rede Globo TV Brazil
http://wn.com/Yasser_Arafat_Um_Mito_Especial_Reportage_TV_Brazil
Músicas do melhor cantor arabe de todos os tempos, baixe aqui: rapidshare.com Especial Fantastico 2004 Rede Globo TV Brazil
- published: 20 Feb 2007
- views: 45042
- author: paulovlog
RIP yasser arafat
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:54
- Updated: 28 Nov 2012
nobody cann forget yasser arafat rest in peace abu 3mar
http://wn.com/RIP_yasser_arafat
nobody cann forget yasser arafat rest in peace abu 3mar
- published: 19 Sep 2008
- views: 34450
- author: assef jawaada
photo: UN / Shareef Sarhan
02 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Guest Writer Gilad Atzmon. Israel suffered a humiliating defeat at The UN recently. The nations of the world stood up and said NO to the Jewish state - NO to Israeli occupation, NO to Israeli human rights abuse, NO to Jewish racism. In effect, they stood up and confessed to serious Zio-fatigue ... This is a very good news indeed. But interestingly, this united opposition to Israel is not in response to Israeli strength ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)
photo: AP / Bassem Tellawi
04 Dec 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) â President Barack Obama warned Syria on Monday that the use of chemical weapons would be "totally unacceptable" and that the country's leaders would be held accountable ... Obama stopped short of detailing those consequences....(size: 6.7Kb)
photo: AP / Nasser Nasser
05 Dec 2012
Police in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, have clashed with protesters angry at what they say is the rushed drafting of a new constitution and by President Morsi's recent extension of his powers. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the presidential palace. The police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, some of whom managed to cut through barbed wire around the palace ... Press action ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)
photo: AP / Karlos Manlupig
05 Dec 2012
The death toll from a powerful storm that hit the southern Philippines is continuing to rise, as rescue teams headed for affected areas. Typhoon Bopha struck Mindanao island on Tuesday, bringing rain and high winds. Tens of thousands were evacuated ahead of the storm, which is now passing over the western island of Palawan ... Water and mud rushed down mountainous slopes to engulf a school and a village hall serving as evacuation centres ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)
photo: NATO
05 Dec 2012
BRUSSELS. NATO on Tuesday approved member state Turkey's request for Patriot missiles to defend its border against Syria following a series of blunt warnings to Damascus not to use chemical weapons ... "We say to anyone who would want to attack Turkey -- don't even think about it," he remarked, announcing the decision after the first day of a two-day meeting in Brussels ... ....(size: 4.9Kb)
The Miami Herald
05 Dec 2012
The most prominent Palestinian group was Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization and its Fatah political wing. In the next few years, the PLO would negotiate an accord with the Israelis that allowed Arafat to settle in the West Bank, at the head of the Palestinian Authority, with expectations that a permanent peace agreement soon would be worked out....(size: 3.6Kb)
Sacramento Bee
05 Dec 2012
The most prominent Palestinian group was Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization and its Fatah political wing. In the next few years, the PLO would negotiate an accord with the Israelis that allowed Arafat to settle in the West Bank, at the head of the Palestinian Authority, with expectations that a permanent peace agreement soon would be worked out....(size: 7.1Kb)
Novosti
05 Dec 2012
POLITICS. . Participants at Tuesday’s Russia-NATO Council meeting failed to find common ground on the majority of problem issues, such as the missile shield in Europe, NATO expansion and the conflict in Syria. The meeting focused mainly on cooperation in Afghanistan. (Kommersant). ... ... Forensic tests on the remains of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will take from five to six months, a Swiss scientist said....(size: 3.8Kb)
Bloomberg
05 Dec 2012
The U.S. secretary of State sweepstakes is on. Who’s it going to be? Susan Rice, John Kerry, Tom Donilon or some mystery candidate who will surprise us all?. Forget the who for a moment ... 1. Anatomy really is destiny ... Yet he had star quality. As does Hillary Clinton ... Madeleine Albright worked for a year and half to set up an agreement between Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat that President Clinton brokered at a summit in the fall of 1998....(size: 9.5Kb)
American Spectator
04 Dec 2012
By Aaron Goldstein on 12.3.12 @ 12.05PM ... Oh, I see ... The same cannot be said of the Palestinians ... I also seem to remember that Israel offered the Palestinians the West Bank and East Jerusalem at Camp David only to have Yasser Arafat walk away ... ....(size: 1.5Kb)
Khaleej Times
04 Dec 2012
Jordan’s King Abdullah II will visit Ramallah on Thursday, the first Arab leader to travel to the Israeli-occupied territory since the Palestinians won UN non-member state status, a Palestinian official said ... US funding for the Palestinian government is also on hold over the move ... Abdullah paid his first visit to the Palestinian territories in May 1999, just months after being crowned king, meeting the late Yasser Arafat in Gaza ... ....(size: 3.1Kb)
Huffington Post
04 Dec 2012
Angered by the U.N ... "We reiterate our long-standing opposition to Israeli settlement activity and East Jerusalem construction," he said. (Reporting By Jeff Mason; Editing by Bill Trott). Also on HuffPost ... A Palestinian youth wearing a late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat portrait around his head throws stones as they clash with Israeli security forces in the Jalama checkpoint in the West Bank near Jenin city, on November 16, 2012 ... Like ... ....(size: 8.1Kb)
photo: UN / Mark Garten
02 Dec 2012
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas returned to the West Bank on Sunday after winning upgraded UN status for the Palestinians, telling cheering crowds. “Yes, now we have a state ... He laid a wreath and said a brief prayer at the grave of the iconic late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is buried within the presidential complex, later dedicating the UN victory to the former president’s memory. ....(size: 2.6Kb)
noodls
02 Dec 2012
I am somewhat overwhelmed, but I'm obviously thinking I should sit down ... (Laughter.) ... And I am so appreciative of all those very much too kind words ... MS ... But after Yasser Arafat said no at Camp David - and I don't care how many people try to revise that history, the fact is he said no at Camp David - some months later he calls my husband, when Bill is no longer President, and says, "You know that deal that you offered? I'll take it now."...(size: 55.7Kb)
American Spectator
01 Dec 2012
The Siasat Daily
01 Dec 2012
December 01.. Stating that the growth of the State was not possible with ensuring social justice, Telangana Rashtra Samithi deputy floor leader T Harish Rao on Saturday demanded that the State Government introduce Sub-Plan for Minorities and Backward Classes ... Recommend Twitter. Comments(8) ... Imran KhanHead constable shoots self in Outer DelhiFive killed as Boko Haram attacks border towns60 samples taken in Yasser Arafat poison probe ... ....(size: 2.7Kb)
Huffington Post
01 Dec 2012
JERUSALEM — Israel responded swiftly Friday to U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, revealing it will build 3,000 more homes for Jews on Israeli-occupied lands that the world body overwhelmingly said belong to the Palestinians ... Successive U.S ... (and) only isolates Israel further." ... Palestinian Christians light candles next to portraits of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, left, and President Mahmoud Abbas, right, at St ... ....(size: 14.0Kb)
The Siasat Daily
30 Nov 2012
The widow of Yasser Arafat says she sees a spiritual significance in the timing of her late husband's exhumation, which came just two days before a UN vote on whether to recognise a Palestinian state ... Yasser Arafat's widow calls his death a mysteryAssange 'suffering from chronic lung ailment'Romney has lunch with Obama at White ......(size: 2.3Kb)
"Yasir Arafat" redirects here. For the cricketer, see Yasir Arafat (cricketer).
| ياسر عرفات Yasser Arafat (Yāsir `Arafāt) Kunya: Abu `Ammar ( ; 'Abū `Ammār) |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Yasser Arafat speaking at the World Economic Forum in 2001 | |
| 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority | |
| In office 20 January 1996 – 11 November 2004 |
|
| Prime Minister | Mahmoud Abbas Ahmed Qurei |
| Succeeded by | Rawhi Fattuh (interim) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (1929-08-24)24 August 1929 Cairo, Egypt |
| Died | 11 November 2004(2004-11-11) (aged 75) Clamart, Paris, France |
| Nationality | Palestinian |
| Political party | Fatah |
| Spouse(s) | Suha Arafat (m. 1990–2004) |
| Children | Zahwa Arafat (b. 1995) |
| Profession | Civil engineer |
| Religion | Sunni Islam[1] |
| Signature |  |
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (Arabic: محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني; 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat (Arabic: ياسر عرفات) or by his kunya Abu Ammar (Arabic: أبو عمار, 'Abū `Ammār), was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA),[2] and leader of the Fatah political party, which he founded in 1959.[3] Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Originally opposed to Israel's existence, he modified his position in 1988 when he accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242. Arafat and his movement operated from several Arab countries. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Fatah faced off with Jordan in a brief civil war. Forced out of Jordan and into Lebanon, Arafat and Fatah were major targets of Israel's 1978 and 1982 invasions of that country.
Arafat remains a highly controversial figure whose legacy has been widely disputed. He was "revered by many Arabs," and the majority of the Palestinian people, regardless of political ideology or faction, viewed him as a freedom fighter who symbolized their national aspirations. However he was "reviled by many Israelis" who viewed him as a terrorist.[4] Israel has also accused him of mass corruption, secretly amassing a personal wealth estimated to be USD $1.3 billion in 2002 despite the degrading economic conditions of the Palestinians.[5]
Later in his career, Arafat engaged in a series of negotiations with the government of Israel to end the decades-long conflict between it and the PLO. These included the Madrid Conference of 1991, the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2000 Camp David Summit. His political rivals, including Islamists and several PLO leftists, often denounced him for being corrupt or too submissive in his concessions to the Israeli government. In 1994, Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize, together with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, for the negotiations at Oslo. During this time, Hamas and other militant organizations rose to power and shook the foundations of the authority that Fatah under Arafat had established in the Palestinian territories.
In late 2004, after effectively being confined within his Ramallah compound for over two years by the Israeli army, Arafat became ill, fell into a coma and died on 11 November 2004 at the age of 75. While the exact cause of his death remains unknown and no autopsy was performed, his doctors spoke of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and cirrhosis.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Birth and childhood[link]
Arafat was born in Cairo to Palestinian parents.[6] His father, Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, was a Palestinian from Gaza, whose mother, Yasser's paternal grandmother, was Egyptian. Arafat's father worked as a textile merchant in Cairo's religiously mixed Sakakini District. Arafat was the second-youngest of seven children and was, along with his younger brother Fathi, the only offspring born in Cairo. His mother, Zahwa Abul Saud, was from a Jerusalem family. She died from a kidney ailment in 1933, when Arafat was four years of age.[7]
Arafat's first visit to Jerusalem came when his father, unable to raise seven children alone, sent him and his brother Fathi to their mother's family in the Moroccan Quarter of the Old City. They lived there with their uncle Salim Abul Saud for four years. In 1937, their father recalled them to be taken care of by their older sister, Inam. Arafat had a deteriorating relationship with his father; when he died in 1952, Arafat did not attend the funeral, nor did he visit his father's grave upon his return to Gaza. Arafat's sister Inam stated in an interview with Arafat's biographer, British historian Alan Hart, that Arafat was heavily beaten by his father for going to the Jewish quarter in Cairo and attending religious services. When she asked Arafat why he would not stop going, he responded by saying that he wanted to study the Jewish mentality.[7]
Education and 1948 Arab–Israeli War[link]
In 1944, Arafat enrolled in the University of King Fuad I and graduated in 1950.[7] He later claimed to have sought a better understanding of Judaism and Zionism by engaging in discussions with Jews and reading publications by Theodor Herzl and other prominent Zionists.[8] At the same time, he became an Arab nationalist and began procuring weapons to be smuggled into the former British Mandate of Palestine, for use by irregulars in the Arab Higher Committee and the Army of the Holy War militias.[9]
During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Arafat left the University and, along with other Arabs, sought to enter Palestine to join Arab forces fighting against Israeli troops. However, instead of joining the ranks of the Palestinian fedayeen, Arafat fought alongside the Muslim Brotherhood, although he did not join the organization. He took part in combat in the Gaza area (which was the main battleground of Egyptian forces during the conflict). In early 1949, the war was winding down in Israel's favor, and Arafat returned to Cairo from a lack of logistical support.[7]
After returning to the University, Arafat studied civil engineering and served as president of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) from 1952 to 1956. During his first year as president of the union, the University was renamed Cairo University after a coup was carried out by the Free Officers Movement overthrowing King Farouk I. By that time, Arafat had graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and was called to duty to fight with Egyptian forces during the Suez Crisis; however, he never actually fought on the battlefield.[7] Later that year, at a conference in Prague, he donned a solid white keffiyeh–different from the checkered one he adopted later in Kuwait, which was to become his emblem.[10]
Name[link]
Arafat's full name was Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini. Mohammed Abdel Rahman was his first name, Abdel Raouf was his father's name and Arafat his grandfather's. Al-Qudwa was the name of his tribe and al-Husseini was that of the clan to which the al-Qudwas belonged. al-Husseini was based in Gaza and should not be confused with the well-known, but unrelated, al-Husayni clan of Jerusalem.[7]
Since Arafat was raised in Cairo, the tradition of dropping the Mohammed or Ahmad portion of one's first name was common; notable Egyptians such as Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak did so. However, Arafat also dropped Abdel Rahman and Abdel Raouf from his name as well. During the early 1950s, Arafat adopted the name Yasser, and in the early years of Arafat's guerrilla career, he assumed the nom de guerre of Abu Ammar. Both names are related to Ammar ibn Yasir, one of Muhammad's early companions. Although he dropped most of his inherited names, he retained Arafat due to its significance in Islam.[7]
Rise of Fatah[link]
Founding of Fatah[link]
Following the Suez Crisis in 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, a leader of the Free Officers Movement, agreed to allow the United Nations Emergency Force to establish itself in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip, causing the expulsion of all guerrilla or "fedayeen" forces there—including Arafat. Arafat originally attempted to obtain a visa to Canada and later Saudi Arabia, but was unsuccessful in both attempts.[7][11] In 1957, he applied for a visa to Kuwait (at the time a British protectorate) and was approved, based on his work in civil engineering. There he encountered two Palestinian friends: Salah Khalaf ("Abu Iyad") and Khalil al-Wazir ("Abu Jihad"), both official members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Arafat had met Abu Iyad while attending Cairo University and Abu Jihad in Gaza. Both became Arafat's top aides in future politics. Abu Iyad traveled with Arafat to Kuwait in late 1960; Abu Jihad, also working as a teacher, had already been living there since 1959.[12] After settling in Kuwait, Abu Iyad helped Arafat obtain a temporary job as a schoolteacher.[13]
As Arafat began to develop friendships with Palestinian refugees (some of whom he knew also from his Cairo days), he and the others gradually founded the group that became known as Fatah. The exact date for the establishment of Fatah is unknown. However, in 1959, the group's existence was attested to in the pages of a Palestinian nationalist magazine, Filastununa Nida al-Hayat (Our Palestine, The Call of Life), which was written and edited by Abu Jihad.[3] FaTaH is a reverse acronym of the Arabic name Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini which translates into "The Palestinian National Liberation Movement".[13][14] "Fatah" is also a word that was used in early Islamic times to refer to "conquest."[13]
Fatah dedicated itself to the liberation of Palestine by an armed struggle carried out by Palestinians themselves. This differed from other Palestinian political and guerrilla organizations, most of which firmly believed in a united Arab response.[13][15] Arafat's organization never embraced the ideologies of the major Arab governments of the time, in contrast to other Palestinian factions, which often became satellites of nations such as Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and others.[16]
In accordance with his ideology, Arafat generally refused to accept donations to his organization from major Arab governments, in order to act independently of them. However, he did not want to alienate them, and sought their undivided support by avoiding alliances with groups loyal to other ideologies. He worked hard in Kuwait, however, to establish the groundwork for Fatah's future financial support by enlisting contributions from the many wealthy Palestinians working there and other Gulf States, such as Qatar (where he met Mahmoud Abbas in 1961).[17] These businessmen and oil workers contributed generously to the Fatah organization. Arafat continued this process in other Arab countries such as Libya and Syria.[13]
In 1962, Arafat and his closest companions migrated to Syria—a country sharing a border with Israel—which had recently seceded from its ephemeral union with Nasser's Egypt. Fatah had approximately three hundred members by this time, but none were fighters.[13] In Syria, however, he managed to recruit members by offering them higher incomes to enable his armed attacks against Israel. Fatah's manpower was incremented further after Arafat decided to offer new recruits much higher salaries than members of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA), the regular military force of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was created by the Arab League in the summer of 1964. On 31 December of that same year, a squad from al-Assifa, Fatah's original armed wing, attempted to infiltrate Israel, but they were intercepted and detained by Lebanese security forces. Several other raids with Fatah's poorly trained and badly equipped fighters followed this incident. Some were successful, others failed in their missions. Arafat often led these incursions personally.[13]
Arafat and his top aide Abu Jihad were detained in Syria when a pro-Syrian Palestinian leader, Yusef Urabi was murdered. Hours before he was killed, Arafat was discussing with him ways to unite their factions and to request Orabi's support for Arafat against his rivals within the Fatah leadership. Shortly after Arafat left the meeting, Orabi was thrown out of the window of a three-story building and Syrian police loyal to Hafez al-Assad (Assad and Orabi were "close friends"), suspected Arafat was involved in the incident. Assad appointed a panel, which found Arafat and Abu Jihad guilty of the murder. Nonetheless, both were pardoned by Syrian President Salah Jadid. The incident, however, brought Assad and Arafat to unpleasant terms, which would surface later when Assad became President of Syria.[13]
Leader of the Palestinians[link]
On 13 November 1966, Israel launched a major raid against the Jordanian administered West Bank town of as-Samu, in response to a Fatah-implemented roadside bomb attack, which had killed three members of the Israeli security forces near the southern Green Line border. In the resulting skirmish, scores of Jordanian security forces were killed and 125 homes razed. This raid was one of several factors that led to the 1967 Six-Day War.[18]
The Six-Day war began when Israel launched air strikes against Egypt's air force on 5 June 1967. The war ended in an Arab defeat and Israel's occupation of several Arab territories, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although Nasser and his Arab allies had been defeated, Arafat and Fatah could claim a victory, in that the majority of Palestinians, who had up to that time tended to align and sympathize with individual Arab governments, now began to agree that a 'Palestinian' solution to their dilemma was indispensable.[19] Many primarily Palestinian political parties, including George Habash's Arab Nationalist Movement, Hajj Amin al-Husseini's Arab Higher Committee, the Islamic Liberation Front and several Syrian-backed groups, virtually crumbled after their sponsor governments' defeat. Barely a week after the defeat, Arafat crossed the Jordan River in disguise and entered the West Bank, where he set up recruitment centers in Hebron, the Jerusalem area and Nablus, and began attracting both fighters and financiers for his cause.[19]
At the same time, Nasser contacted Arafat through the former's adviser Mohammed Heikal and Arafat was declared by Nasser to be the "leader of the Palestinians."[20] In December 1967 Ahmad Shukeiri resigned his post as PLO Chairman. Yahya Hammuda took his place and invited Arafat to join the organization. Fatah was allocated 33 of 105 seats of the PLO Executive Committee while 57 seats were left for several other guerrilla factions.[19]
Battle of Karameh[link]
Main article: Battle of Karameh
Throughout 1968, Fatah and other Palestinian armed groups were the target of a major Israeli army operation in the Jordanian village of Karameh, where the Fatah headquarters—as well as a mid-sized Palestinian refugee camp—were located. The town's name is the Arabic word for 'dignity', which elevated its symbolism in the eyes of the Arab people, especially after the collective Arab defeat in 1967. The operation was in response to attacks, including rockets strikes from Fatah and other Palestinian militias, within the occupied West Bank. According to Said Aburish, the government of Jordan and a number of Fatah commandos informed Arafat that large-scale Israeli military preparations for an attack on the town were underway, prompting fedayeen groups, such as George Habash's newly formed group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Nayef Hawatmeh's breakaway organization the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), to withdraw their forces from the town. Though advised by a pro-Fatah Jordanian divisional commander to withdraw his men and headquarters to the nearby hills, Arafat refused,[19] stating, "We want to convince the world that there are those in the Arab world who will not withdraw or flee."[21] Aburish writes that it was on Arafat's orders that Fatah remained, and that the Jordanian Army agreed to back them if heavy fighting ensued.[19]
On the night of 21 March, the IDF attacked Karameh with heavy weaponry, armored vehicles and fighter jets.[19] Fatah held its ground, surprising the Israeli military. As Israel's forces intensified their campaign, the Jordanian Army became involved, causing the Israelis to redeploy in order to avoid widening the conflict.[22] By the end of the battle, nearly 150 Fatah gunmen had been killed and a similar number captured.[23] At least eighty-four Jordanian soldiers and twenty-eight Israelis were also killed. Despite the higher Arab death toll and the fact that the battle was decided in Israel's favor,[24] Fatah considered themselves victorious because of the Israeli army's withdrawal.[19] Some have alleged that Arafat himself was on the battlefield, but the details of his involvement are unclear. However, his allies–as well as Israeli intelligence–confirm that he urged his men throughout the battle to hold their ground and continue fighting.[25]
The battle was covered in detail by Time, and Arafat's face appeared on the cover of the 13 December 1968 issue, bringing his image to the world for the first time.[26] Amid the post-war environment, the profiles of Arafat and Fatah were raised by this important turning point, and he came to be regarded as a national hero who dared to confront Israel. With mass applause from the Arab world, financial donations increased significantly, and Fatah's weaponry and equipment improved. The group's numbers swelled as many young Arabs, including thousands of non-Palestinians, joined the ranks of Fatah.[27]
When the Palestinian National Council convened in Cairo on 3 February 1969, Yahya Hammuda stepped down from his chairmanship of the PLO. Arafat was elected chairman on 4 February.[28][29] He became Commander-in-Chief of the Palestinian Revolutionary Forces two years later, and in 1973, became the head of the PLO's political department.[19]
Jordan[link]
See also: Black September in Jordan
In the late 1960s, tensions between Palestinians and the Jordanian government increased greatly; heavily armed Arab resistance elements had created a virtual "state within a state" in Jordan, eventually controlling several strategic positions in that country. After their victory in the Battle of Karameh, Fatah and other Palestinian militias began taking control of civil life in Jordan. They set up roadblocks, publicly humiliated Jordanian police forces, molested women and levied illegal taxes—all of which Arafat either condoned or ignored.[21] King Hussein considered this a growing threat to his kingdom's sovereignty and security, and attempted to disarm the militias. However, in order to avoid a military confrontation with opposition forces, Hussein dismissed several of his anti-PLO cabinet officials, including some of his own family members, and invited Arafat to become Prime Minister of Jordan. Arafat refused, citing his belief in the need for a Palestinian state with Palestinian leadership.[30]
Despite Hussein's intervention, militant actions in Jordan continued. On 15 September 1970, the PFLP hijacked five planes and landed three of them at Dawson's Field, located 30 miles (48 km) east of Amman. After the passengers were moved to other locations, three of the planes were blown up. This tarnished Arafat's image in many western nations, including the United States, who held him responsible for controlling Palestinian factions that belonged to the PLO. Arafat, bowing to pressure from Arab governments, publicly condemned the hijackings and suspended the PFLP from any guerrilla actions for a few weeks. (He had taken the same action after the PFLP attacked Athens Airport.) The Jordanian government moved to regain control over its territory, and the next day, King Hussein declared martial law.[30] On the same day, Arafat became supreme commander of the PLA.[31]
As the conflict raged, other Arab governments attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution. As part of this effort, Gamal Abdel Nasser led the first ever emergency Arab League summit in Cairo on 21 September. Arafat's speech drew sympathy from attending Arab leaders. Other heads of state took sides against Hussein, among them Muammar Gaddafi, who mocked him and his schizophrenic father King Talal. The attempt to establish a peace agreement between the two sides failed. Nasser died of a massive heart attack hours after the summit.[30]
By 25 September, the Jordanian army achieved dominance, and two days later Arafat and Hussein agreed to a ceasefire in Amman. The Jordanian army inflicted heavy casualties on the Palestinians—including civilians—who suffered approximately 3,500 fatalities.[31] After repeated violations of the ceasefire from both the PLO and the Jordanian Army, Arafat called for King Hussein to be toppled. Responding to the threat, in June 1971, Hussein ordered his forces to oust all remaining Palestinian fighters in northern Jordan—which they accomplished. Arafat and a number of his forces, including two high-ranking commanders, Abu Iyad and Abu Jihad, were forced into the northern corner of Jordan. They relocated near the town of Jerash, near the border with Syria. With the help of Munib Masri, a pro-Palestinian Jordanian cabinet member, and Fahd al-Khomeimi, the Saudi ambassador to Jordan, Arafat managed to enter Syria with nearly two thousand of his fighters. However, due to the hostility of relations between Arafat and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad (who had previously ousted President Salah Jadid), the Palestinian fighters crossed the border into Lebanon to join PLO forces in that country, where they set up their new headquarters.[32]
Lebanon[link]
Official recognition[link]
Because of Lebanon's weak central government, the PLO was able to operate virtually as an independent state. During this time in the 1970s, numerous leftist PLO groups took up arms against Israel, carrying out attacks against civilians as well as military targets within Israel and outside of it.
Two major incidents occurred in 1972. The Fatah subgroup Black September hijacked a Sabena flight on route to Vienna and forced it to land at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, Israel.[33] The PFLP and the Japanese Red Army carried out a shooting rampage at the same airport, killing twenty-four civilians.[33][34] Israel later claimed that the assassination of PFLP spokesman Ghassan Kanafani was a response to the PFLP's involvement in masterminding the latter attack. Two days later, various PLO factions retaliated by bombing a bus station, killing eleven civilians.[33]
| “ | Our basic aim is to liberate the land from the Mediterranean Seas to the Jordan River. We are not concerned with what took place in June 1967 or in eliminating the consequences of the June war. The Palestinian revolution's basic concern is the uprooting of the Zionist entity from our land and liberating it. | ” |
|
—Yasser Arafat, 1970[35] |
||
At the Munich Olympic Games, Black September kidnapped and killed eleven Israeli athletes.[36] A number of sources, including Mohammed Oudeh (Abu Daoud), one of the masterminds of the Munich massacre, and Benny Morris, a prominent Israeli historian, have stated that Black September was an armed branch of Fatah used for paramilitary operations. According to Abu Daoud's 1999 book, "Arafat was briefed on plans for the Munich hostage-taking."[37] The killings were internationally condemned. In 1973–74, Arafat closed Black September down, ordering the PLO to withdraw from acts of violence outside Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[38]
In 1974, the PNC approved the Ten Point Program (drawn up by Arafat and his advisers), and proposed a compromise with the Israelis. It called for a Palestinian national authority over every part of "liberated Palestinian territory",[39] which refers to areas captured by Arab forces in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War (present-day West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip). This caused discontent among several of the PLO factions; the PFLP, DFLP and other parties formed a breakaway organization, the Rejectionist Front.[40]
Israel and the US have alleged also that Arafat was involved in the 1973 Khartoum diplomatic assassinations, in which five diplomats and five others were killed. A 1973 United States Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded "The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat."[41][42] Arafat denied any involvement in the operation and insisted it was carried out independently by the Black September group. Israel claimed that Arafat was in ultimate control over these organizations and therefore had not abandoned terrorism.[43]
In addition, some circles within the US State Department viewed Arafat as an able diplomat and negotiator who can get support from many Arab governments at once. An example of that we find in March 1973, when Arafat tried to arrange for a meeting between the President of Iraq and the Emir of Kuwait in order to resolve their disputes.[44]
Also in 1974, the PLO was declared the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" and admitted to full membership of the Arab League at the Rabat Summit.[40] Arafat became the first representative of a non-governmental organization to address a plenary session of the UN General Assembly. Arafat was also the first leader to address the UN while wearing a holster, although it did not contain a gun.[45][dubious – discuss] In his United Nations address, Arafat condemned Zionism, but said, "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."[46] His speech increased international sympathy for the Palestinian cause.[40]
Following recognition, Arafat established relationships with a variety of world leaders, including Saddam Hussein and Idi Amin. Arafat was Amin's best man at his wedding in Uganda in 1975.[47][48]
Fatah involvement in Lebanese Civil War[link]
See also: Lebanese Civil War
Although hesitant at first to take sides in the conflict, Arafat and Fatah played an important role in the Lebanese Civil War. Succumbing to pressure from PLO sub-groups such as the PFLP, DFLP and the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), Arafat aligned the PLO with the Communist and Nasserist Lebanese National Movement (LNM). The LNM was led by Kamal Jumblatt, who had a friendly relationship with Arafat and other PLO leaders. Although originally aligned with Fatah, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad feared a loss of influence in Lebanon and switched sides. He sent his army, along with the Syrian-backed Palestinian factions of as-Sa'iqa and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) led by Ahmad Jibril to fight alongside the radical right-wing Christian forces against the PLO and the LNM. The primary components of the Christian front were the Maronite Phalangists loyal to Bachir Gemayel and the Tigers Militia—which was led by Dany Chamoun, a son of former President Camille Chamoun.[49]
In February 1975, the Tigers shot an important pro-Palestinian Lebanese MP, Ma'arouf Sa'ad, founder of the Popular Nasserite Organization.[50] His death, from his wounds, the following month, and the murder in April of that year of twenty-seven Palestinians and Lebanese travelling on bus from Sabra and Shatila to the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp by Phalangist forces, precipitated the Lebanese Civil War.[51] Arafat was reluctant to respond with force, but many other Fatah and PLO members felt otherwise.[21] For example, the DFLP carried out several attacks against the Lebanese Army. In 1976, an alliance of Christian militias with the backing of the Lebanese and Syrian Army besieged Tel al-Zaatar camp in east Beirut.[52][53] The PLO and LNM retaliated by attacking the town of Damour, a Phalangist stronghold. Over 330 people were killed and many more wounded.[52] The Tel al-Zaatar camp fell to the Christians after a six-month siege, and a massacre followed in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.[54] Arafat and Abu Jihad blamed themselves for not successfully organizing a rescue effort.[49]
PLO cross-border raids against Israel grew during the late 1970s. One of the most severe—known as the Coastal Road massacre—occurred on 11 March 1978. A force of nearly a dozen Fatah fighters landed their boats near a major coastal road connecting the city of Haifa with Tel Aviv-Yafo. There they hijacked a bus and sprayed gunfire inside and at passing vehicles, killing thirty-seven civilians.[55] In response, the IDF launched Operation Litani three days later, with the goal of taking control of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. The IDF achieved this goal, and Arafat withdrew PLO forces north into Beirut.[56]
After Israel withdrew from Lebanon, cross-border hostilities between PLO forces and Israel continued, though from August 1981 to May 1982, the PLO adopted a unilateral policy of refraining from responding to provocations.[57] Beirut was soon besieged and bombarded by the IDF;[49] Arafat declared the city to be the "Hanoi and Stalingrad of the Israeli army."[49] The Civil War's first phase ended and Arafat—who was commanding Fatah forces at Tel al-Zaatar—narrowly escaped with assistance from Saudi and Kuwaiti diplomats.[58] Towards the end the siege, the US and European governments brokered an agreement guaranteeing safe passage for Arafat and the PLO—guarded by a multinational force of eight hundred US Marines supported by the US Navy—to exile in Tunis.[49]
Arafat returned to Lebanon a year after his eviction from Beirut, this time establishing himself in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. This time Arafat was expelled by a fellow Palestinian working under Hafez al-Assad. Arafat did not return to Lebanon after his second expulsion, though many Fatah fighters did.[49]
Tunisia[link]
Arafat and Fatah's center for operations was based in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, until 1993. In 1985 he narrowly survived an Israeli assassination attempt when Israeli Air Force F-15s bombed his headquarters there as part of Operation Wooden Leg, leaving 73 people dead. Arafat had gone out jogging that morning.[59]
First Intifada[link]
During the 1980s, Arafat received financial assistance from Libya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which allowed him to reconstruct the badly battered PLO. This was particularly useful during the First Intifada in December 1987, which began as an uprising of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The word Intifada in Arabic is literally translated as "tremor", however, it is generally defined as an uprising or revolt.[60]
The first stage of the Intifada began following an incident at the Erez checkpoint where four Palestinian residents of the Jabalya refugee camp were killed in a traffic accident involving an Israeli driver. Rumors spread that the deaths were a deliberate act of revenge for an Israeli shopper that was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in Gaza four days earlier. Mass rioting broke-out and within weeks and partly upon consistent requests by Abu Jihad, Arafat attempted to direct the uprising, which lasted until 1992–93. Abu Jihad had previously been assigned the responsibility of the Palestinian territories within the PLO command and according to biographer Said Aburish, had "impressive knowledge of local conditions" in the Israeli-occupied territories. On 16 April 1988, as the Intifada was raging, Abu Jihad was assassinated in his Tunis household, allegedly by an Israeli hit squad. Arafat considered Abu Jihad a PLO counterweight to local Palestinian leadership, and led a funeral procession for him in Damascus.[60]
The most common tactic used by Palestinians during the Intifada was throwing stones, molotov cocktails, and burning tires.[61] The local leadership in some West Bank towns commenced non-violent protests against Israeli occupation by engaging in tax resistance and other boycotts. Israel responded by confiscating large sums of money in house-to-house raids.[60][62] As the Intifada came to a close, new armed Palestinian groups—in particular Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)—began targeting Israeli civilians with the new tactic of suicide bombing and internal fighting amongst the Palestinians increased dramatically.[60]
Change in direction[link]
There is reason to believe that Arafat was considering some kind of territorial compromise with the State of Israel at least since 1974. Recently declassified documents show that in early 1976, at a meeting with US Senator Adlai Stevenson III, Arafat suggested a "few kilometers" of Israeli withdrawal from parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip while transferring responsibility to the UN, and this, he claimed "would give him something to show his people before he could acknowledge Israel's right to exist".[63]
On 15 November 1988, the PLO proclaimed the independent State of Palestine. Though he had frequently been accused of and associated with terrorism,[64][65][66] in speeches on 13 and 14 December Arafat accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242, Israel's right "to exist in peace and security" and repudiated 'terrorism in all its forms, including state terrorism'.[67][68] Arafat's statements were greeted with approval by the US administration, which had long insisted on these statements as a necessary starting point for official discussions between the US and the PLO. These remarks from Arafat indicated a shift away from one of the PLO's primary aims—the destruction of Israel (as entailed in the Palestinian National Covenant)–and toward the establishment of two separate entities: an Israeli state within the 1949 armistice lines, and an Arab state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On 2 April 1989, Arafat was elected by the Central Council of the Palestine National Council, the governing body of the PLO, to be the president of the proclaimed State of Palestine.[60]
Prior to the Gulf War in 1990–91, when the Intifada's intensity began to wear down, Arafat supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and opposed the US-led coalition attack on Iraq. He made this decision without the consent of other leading members of Fatah and the PLO. Arafat's top aide Abu Iyad vouched to stay neutral and opposed an alliance with Saddam; On 17 January 1991, Abu Iyad was assassinated by the pro-Iraqi Abu Nidal Organization. Arafat's decision also severed relations with Egypt and many of the oil-producing Arab states that supported the US-led coalition. Many in the US also used Arafat's position as a reason to disregard his claims to being a partner for peace. After the end of hostilities, many Arab states that backed the coalition cut off funds to the PLO and began providing financial support for the organization's rival Hamas as well as other Islamist groups.[60]
In 1990, Arafat married Suha Tawil, a Palestinian Christian when he was 61 and Suha, 27. Before their marriage, she was working as a secretary for Arafat in Tunis after her mother introduced her to him in France.[69][70] Prior to Arafat's marriage, he adopted fifty Palestinian war orphans.[71] Arafat narrowly escaped death again on 7 April 1992, when an Air Bissau aircraft he was a passenger on crash-landed in the Libyan Desert during a sandstorm. Two pilots and an engineer were killed; Arafat was bruised and shaken.[72]
Palestinian Authority and peace negotiations[link]
Further information: Palestinian_views_on_the_peace_process#Yasser_Arafat_and_the_PLO
Oslo Accords[link]
In the early 1990s, Arafat and leading Fatah officials engaged the Israeli government in a series of secret talks and negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords.[43][73] The agreement called for the implementation of Palestinian self-rule in portions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip over a five year period, along with an immediate halt to and gradual removal of Israeli settlements in those areas. The accords called for a Palestinian police force to be formed from local recruits and Palestinians abroad, to patrol areas of self-rule. Authority over the various fields of rule, including education and culture, social welfare, direct taxation and tourism, would be transferred to the Palestinian interim government. Both parties agreed also on forming a committee that would establish cooperation and coordination dealing with specific economic sectors, including utilities, industry, trade and communication.[74]
Prior to signing the accords, Arafat—as Chairman of the PLO and its official representative—signed two letters renouncing violence and officially recognizing Israel. In return, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on behalf of Israel, officially recognized the PLO.[75]
The following year, Arafat and Rabin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Shimon Peres.[76] The Palestinian reaction was mixed. The Rejectionist Front of the PLO allied itself with Islamists in a common opposition against the agreements. It was rejected also by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan as well as by many Palestinian intellectuals and the local leadership of the Palestinian territories. However, the inhabitants of the territories generally accepted the agreements and Arafat's promise for peace and economic well-being.[77]
Establishing authority in the territories[link]
In accordance with the terms of the Oslo agreement, Arafat was required to implement PLO authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He insisted that financial support was imperative to establishing this authority and needed it to secure the acceptance of the agreements by the Palestinians living in those areas. However, the Gulf Arab States—Arafat's usual source for financial backing—still refused to provide him and the PLO with any major donations because of his sympathy for Iraq during the Gulf War, in 1991.[77] Ahmed Qurei—a key Fatah negotiator during the negotiations in Oslo—openly announced that the PLO was bankrupt.[78]
In 1994, Arafat moved to Gaza City, one of the territories controlled by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)—the provisional entity created by the Oslo Accords.[76] Arafat became the President and Prime Minister of the PNA, the Commander of the PLA and the Speaker of the PLC. In July, after the PNA was declared the official government of the Palestinians, the Basic Laws of the Palestinian National Authority was published,[79] in three different versions by the PLO. Arafat proceeded with creating a structure for the PNA. He established an executive committee or cabinet composed of twenty members. Arafat also took the liberty to replace and assign mayors and city councils for major cities such as Gaza and Nablus. He began subordinating non-governmental organizations that dealt in education, health, and social affairs under his authority by replacing their elected leaders and directors with PNA officials loyal to him. He then appointed himself chairman of the Palestinian financial organization that was created by the World Bank to control most aid money towards helping the new Palestinian entity.[77]
Arafat established a Palestinian police force, named the Preventive Security Service (PSS), that became active on 13 May. It was mainly composed of PLA soldiers and foreign Palestinian volunteers. Arafat assigned Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub to head the organization.[77] Amnesty International accused Arafat and the PNA leadership for failing to adequately investigate abuses by the PSS (including torture and unlawful killings) of political opponents and dissidents as well as the arrests of human rights activists.[80]
On 24 July 1995, Arafat's wife Suha gave birth to a daughter in Sorbonne, France. She was named Zahwa after Arafat's deceased mother.[70]
Throughout November and December 1995, Arafat toured dozens of Palestinian cities and towns that were evacuated by Israeli forces including Jenin, Ramallah, al-Bireh, Nablus, Qalqilyah and Tulkarm, declaring them "liberated". The PNA also gained control of the West Bank's postal service during this period.[81] On 20 January 1996, Arafat was elected president of the PNA, with an overwhelming 88.2% majority (the only other candidate was charity organizer Samiha Khalil). However, because Hamas, the DFLP and other popular opposition movements chose to boycott the presidential elections, the choices were limited. Arafat's landslide victory guaranteed Fatah 51 of the 88 seats in the PLC. After Arafat was elected to the post of President of the PNA, he was often referred to as the Ra'is, (literally president in Arabic), although he spoke of himself as "the general".[82] In 1997, the PLC accused the executive branch of the PNA of financial mismanagement causing the resignation of four members of Arafat's cabinet. Arafat refused to resign his post.[83]
Other peace agreements[link]
In mid-1996, Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister of Israel by a margin of just one percent. Palestinian-Israeli relations grew even more hostile as a result of continued conflict.[84] Despite the Israel-PLO accord, Netanyahu opposed the idea of Palestinian statehood.[85] In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton persuaded the two leaders to meet. The resulting Wye River Memorandum detailed the steps to be taken by the Israeli government and PNA to complete the peace process.[86]
Arafat continued negotiations with Netanyahu's successor, Ehud Barak, at the Camp David Summit in July 2000. Due partly to his own politics (Barak was from the leftist Labor Party, whereas Netanyahu was from the rightist Likud Party) and partly due to insistence for compromise by President Clinton, Barak made what many Israelis called a "generous offer". Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in 73% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian percentage of sovereignty would extend to 91% (94% excluding Jerusalem) over a ten to twenty-five year period. Israel would annex the border settlement blocs (encompassing most Israeli settlements), and would cede the equivalent area in the Israeli Negev desert to the Palestinians. To ensure contiguity, an elevated roadway and railway would pass over the Negev from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. All remaining Israeli settlements would be removed, with the exception of Kiryat Arba, which was to remain an Israeli enclave linked by a bypass road. An Israeli road from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea would also cut through the West Bank, but Palestinians would have free passage. Israel would take sovereignty over Jewish neighborhoods, sites holy to Judaism, and some Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, while the Palestinians would take sovereignty over some Palestinian neighborhoods, three Quarters of the Old City, and the remaining Palestinian neighborhoods would come under Palestinian autonomy. Palestinians would also have "custodianship" over the Temple Mount, and sovereignty on all Islamic and Christian holy sites. Palestine would have no military, and would rely on the PA's well-armed paramilitary security forces, and an international force in the Jordan Valley. Other demands were temporary Israeli observation of border crossings, sharing of water resources, Israeli right to build radar stations in Palestine and deploy troops in case of an emergency, no alliances without Israeli approval, the dismantling of all militant groups, and no foreign forces east of the Jordan River. Also included in the offer was the return of 100,000 refugees, $30 billion to resettle the remaining refugees, and compensation for those not allowed to return. Arafat rejected Barak's offer and refused to make an immediate counter-offer.[73] He stated to President Clinton that, "the Arab leader who would surrender Jerusalem is not born yet".[87] Arafat also made it clear that he would never relinquish the Palestinian right of return. The move was criticized by a member of his own negotiating team and cabinet, Nabil Amr.[73]
After the September 2000 outbreak of the Second Intifada, negotiations continued at the Taba summit in January 2001; this time, Ehud Barak pulled out of the talks to campaign in the Israeli elections. In October and December 2001, suicide bombings by Palestinian militant groups increased and Israeli counter strikes intensified. Following the election of Ariel Sharon in February, the peace process took a steep downfall. Palestinian elections scheduled for January 2002 were postponed—the stated reason was an inability to campaign due to the emergency conditions imposed by the Intifada, as well as IDF incursions and restrictions on freedom of movement in the Palestinian territories. In the same month, Sharon ordered Arafat to be confined to his Mukata'a headquarters in Ramallah, following an attack in the Israeli city of Hadera;[87] US President George W. Bush supported Sharon's action, claiming that Arafat was "an obstacle to the peace."[88]
Political survival[link]
Arafat's long personal and political survival was taken by most Western commentators as a sign of his mastery of asymmetric warfare and his skill as a tactician, given the extremely dangerous nature of politics of the Middle East and the frequency of assassinations.[89] Some commentators believe his survival was largely due to Israel's fear that he could become a martyr for the Palestinian cause if he were assassinated or even arrested by Israel.[90] Others believe that Israel refrained from taking action against Arafat because it feared Arafat less than Hamas and the other Islamist movements gaining support over Fatah. The complex and fragile web of relations between the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab states contributed also to Arafat's longevity as the leader of the Palestinians.[89]
Israel attempted to assassinate Arafat on a number of occasions, but has never used its own agents, preferring instead to "turn" Palestinians close to the intended target, usually using blackmail.[91] According to Alan Hart, the Mossad's specialty is poison.[91] According to Abu Iyad, two attempts were made on Arafat's life by the Israeli Mosaad and the Military Directorate in 1970.[92] In 1976, Abu Sa'ed, a Palestinian traitor-agent who had been working for the Mossad for four years, was enlisted in a plot to put poison pellets that looked like grains of rice in Arafat's food. Abu Iyad explains that Abu Sa'ed confessed after he received the order to go ahead, explaining that he was unable to go through with the plot because, "He was first of all a Palestinian and his conscience wouldn't let him do it."[93] Arafat claimed in a 1988 interview with Time that because of his fear of assassination by the Israelis, he never slept in the same place two nights in a row.[94]
Relations with Hamas and other militant groups[link]
Arafat's ability to adapt to new tactical and political situations was perhaps tested by the rise of the Hamas and PIJ organizations, Islamist groups espousing rejectionist policies with Israel. These groups often bombed non-military targets, such as malls and movie theaters, to increase the psychological damage and civilian casualties. In the 1990s, these groups seemed to threaten Arafat's capacity to hold together a unified nationalist organization with a goal of statehood.[89] They appeared to be out of Arafat's influence and control, and were actively fighting with Fatah. Some allege that activities of these groups were tolerated by Arafat as a means of applying pressure on Israel.[60]
An attack carried out by Hamas militants killed twenty-nine Israeli civilians celebrating Passover including many senior citizens.[95] In response, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield, a major military offensive into major West Bank cities. Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas leader in Gaza, stated in September 2010 that Arafat had instructed Hamas to launch what he termed "military operations" against Israel in 2000 when Arafat felt that negotiations with Israel would not succeed.[96]
Some Israeli government officials opined in 2002 that the armed Fatah sub-group al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades commenced attacks towards Israel in order to compete with Hamas.[97] On 6 May, the Israeli government released a report, based in part on documents captured during the Israeli occupation of Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, which included copies of papers signed by Arafat authorizing funding for al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades' activities.[98]
Attempts to marginalize[link]
Persistent attempts by the Israeli government to identify another Palestinian leader to represent the Palestinian people failed. Arafat was enjoying the support of groups that, given his own history, would normally have been quite wary of dealing with or supporting him. Marwan Barghouti (a leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades) emerged as a possible replacement during the Second Intifada, but Israel had him arrested for being involved in the killing of twenty-six civilians, and he was sentenced to five life terms.[99]
Arafat was finally allowed to leave his compound on 2 May after intense negotiations led to a settlement: six PFLP militants—including the organization's secretary-general Ahmad Sa'adat—wanted by Israel, who had been holed up with Arafat in his compound, would not be turned over to Israel, but neither would they be held in custody by the PNA. Rather, a combination of British and American security personnel would ensure that the wanted men remained imprisoned in Jericho.[100] (The men were later captured by Israel in an overnight raid on the prison in 2006.)[101] With that, and a promise that he would issue a call to the Palestinians to halt attacks on Israelis, Arafat was released.[100] He issued such a call on 8 May, but as with previous attempts, it was largely ignored.[102] In 2003, Arafat ceded his post as Prime Minister to Mahmoud Abbas amid pressures by the US.[103]
In 2004, President Bush dismissed Arafat as a negotiating partner, saying he had "failed as a leader" and accused him of undercutting Abbas when he was prime minister (Abbas resigned the same year he was given the position).[104] Arafat had a mixed relationship at best with the leaders of other Arab nations. His support from Arab leaders tended to increase whenever he was pressured by Israel; for example, when Israel declared in 2003 it had made the decision, in principle, to remove him from the Israeli-controlled West Bank.[87] In an interview with the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera, Arafat responded to Ariel Sharon's suggestion that he be exiled from the Palestinian territories permanently, by stating, "Is it his [Sharon's] homeland or ours? We were planted here before the Prophet Abraham came, but it looks like they [Israelis] don't understand history or geography."[87]
Financial dealings[link]
In August 2002, the Israeli Military Intelligence Chief alleged that Arafat's personal wealth was in the range of USD $1.3 billion.[5] In 2003 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted an audit of the PNA and stated that Arafat diverted $900 million in public funds to a special bank account controlled by Arafat and the PNA Chief Economic Financial adviser. However, the IMF did not claim that there were any improprieties, and it specifically stated that most of the funds had been used to invest in Palestinian assets, both internally and abroad.[105][106]
However in 2003, a team of American accountants–hired by Arafat's own finance ministry–began examining Arafat's finances; this team reached a different conclusion. The team claimed that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion, with investments in companies like a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Ramallah, a Tunisian cell phone company and venture capital funds in the US and the Cayman Islands. The head of the investigation stated that "although the money for the portfolio came from public funds like Palestinian taxes, virtually none of it was used for the Palestinian people; it was all controlled by Arafat. And none of these dealings were made public."[107]
An investigation conducted by the General Accounting Office reported that Arafat and the PLO held over $10 billion in assets even at the time when he was publicly claiming bankruptcy.[108]
Although Arafat lived a modest lifestyle, Dennis Ross, former Middle East negotiator for Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, stated that Arafat's "walking-around money" financed a vast patronage system known as neopatrimonialism. According to Salam Fayyad—a former World Bank official whom Arafat appointed Finance Minister of the PNA in 2002—Arafat's commodity monopolies could accurately be seen as gouging his own people, "especially in Gaza which is poorer, which is something that is totally unacceptable and immoral." Fayyad claims that Arafat used $20 million from public funds to pay the leadership of the PNA security forces (the Preventive Security Service) alone.[107]
Fuad Shubaki, former financial aide to Arafat, told the Israeli security service Shin Bet that Arafat used several million dollars of aid money to buy weapons and support militant groups.[109] During Israel's Operation Defensive Shield, the Israel army recovered counterfeit money and documents from Arafat's Ramallah headquarters. The documents showed that, in 2001, Arafat personally approved payments to Tanzim terrorists.[110] The Palestinians claimed that the counterfeit money was confiscated from criminal elements.[111]
Illness and death[link]
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First reports of Arafat's treatment by his doctors for what his spokesman said was the "flu" came on 25 October 2004, after he vomited during a meeting. His condition deteriorated in the following days.[112] Following visits by other doctors, including teams from Tunisia, Jordan, and Egypt—and agreement by Israel not to block his return—Arafat was taken to France on a French government jet, and was admitted to the Percy military hospital in Clamart, a suburb of Paris.[113] The official statement announcing his death failed to determine a cause of death, saying only that he had a "mystery blood disorder".[114] On 3 November, he had lapsed into a gradually deepening coma. Various sources speculated that Arafat was comatose, in a "vegetative state" or dead. However, Palestinian authorities and Arafat's Jordanian doctor denied reports that Arafat was brain dead and had been kept on life support.[115]
A controversy erupted between officials of the PNA and Suha Arafat when officials from the PNA traveled to France to see Yasser Arafat. Suha stated "They are trying to bury Abu Ammar [Arafat] alive".[116] French law forbids physicians from discussing the condition of their patients with anybody with the exception, in case of grave prognosis, of close relatives.[117] Accordingly, all communications concerning Arafat's health had to be authorized by his wife. Palestinian officials expressed regret that the news about Yasser Arafat was "filtered" by her.[118]
The next day, chief surgeon Christian Estripeau of Percy reported that Arafat's condition had worsened, and that he had fallen into a deeper coma.[119] Sheikh Taissir Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court of the Palestinian territories—who held a vigil at Arafat's bedside—visited Arafat and declared that it was out of the question to disconnect him from life support since, according to him, such an action is prohibited in Islam.[87]
Arafat was pronounced dead at 3:30 am UTC on 11 November at the age of 75. The exact cause of his illness is unknown. Tamimi described it as "a very painful scene."[87] When Arafat's death was announced, the Palestinian people went into a state of mourning, with Qur'anic mourning prayers emitted from mosque loudspeakers, and tires were burned in the streets.
The Canard Enchaîné newspaper reported alleged leaks of information by unnamed medical sources at Percy hospital that had access to Arafat and his medical file. According to the newspaper, the doctors at Percy hospital suspected, from Arafat's arrival, grave lesions of the liver responsible for an alteration of the composition of the blood; Arafat was therefore placed in a hematology service. Leukemia was "soundly ruled out". According to the same source, the reason why this diagnosis of cirrhosis could not be made available was that, in the mind of the general public, cirrhosis is generally associated with the consequences of alcohol abuse. Even though the diagnosis was not of alcoholic cirrhosis and Arafat was not known for consuming any alcohol, there was a likelihood of rumors. The source explained that Arafat's living conditions did little to improve the situation. Thus, according to the source, the probable causes of the disease were multiple; Arafat's coma was a consequence of the worsened cirrhosis. The French newspaper Le Monde quoted doctors as saying that he suffered from "an unusual blood disease and a liver problem".[120]
After Arafat's death, the French Ministry of Defense said that Arafat's medical file would be transmitted to only his next of kin. It was determined that Arafat's nephew and PNA envoy to the UN, Nasser al-Qudwa, was a close enough relative, thus working around Suha Arafat's silence on her husband's illness. Nasser al-Qudwa was given a copy of Arafat's 558-page medical file by the French Ministry of Defense.[121]
Rumors about cause of death[link]
Bassam Abu Sharif, Arafat's former advisor, claimed that the Mossad poisoned Arafat through his medications[122] by a lethal dose of thallium.[123] Another "senior Israeli physician" claimed in the article in Haaretz that it was "a classic case of food poisoning", probably caused by a meal eaten four hours before he fell ill that may have contained a toxin such as ricin, rather than a standard bacterial poisoning. However, in the same week as the report in Haaretz, The New York Times published a separate report, also based on access to Arafat's medical records, which claimed that it was highly unlikely that Arafat had food poisoning.[124][125] Both publications further speculated that the cause of death may have been an infection of an unknown nature or origin. However, rumors of Arafat's poisoning have persisted, especially in the Arab world. Al-Kurdi lamented the fact that Arafat's widow Suha had refused an autopsy, which would have answered many questions regarding cause of death.[126][127] In 2005, al-Kurdi called for the creation of an independent commission to carry out investigations concerning Arafat's suspicious death, stating, "any doctor would tell you that these are the symptoms of a poisoning".[126][128]
John Loftus reported on ABC radio that Arafat had died of AIDS. According to Loftus, the CIA had knowledge of his condition, and convinced Israel not to assassinate him and wait for his inevitable death of the disease, since the subsequent widespread connotations of the disease with homosexuality would discredit him.[129] David Frum, a former speechwriter for U.S. President George W. Bush, speculated that Arafat had contracted AIDS as a result of homosexual affairs with his bodyguards, based on Ion Mihai Pacepa's book Red Horizons in which Pacepa reported that he had a conversation with a Romanian intelligence officer in which this officer claimed to have video recordings of Arafat engaging in homosexual activities.[129]
In September 2005, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that French experts could not determine the cause of Arafat's death. The paper quoted an Israeli AIDS expert who claimed that Arafat bore all the symptoms of AIDS, a hypothesis later rejected in The New York Times.[124] On the issue of AIDS; a statement rejecting this suggestion was made in an article printed in numerous American news publications by an anonymous Israeli infectious disease expert; "An Israeli infectious disease specialist said he would have performed the test, if only to be thorough and to refute the rumors that surrounded the case. He said news accounts during Arafat's illness made him strongly suspect that Arafat had AIDS. But after studying the records, he said that was improbable, given the sudden onset of the intestinal troubles." This same article notes that it is also highly unlikely that Yasser Arafat died from poisoning. The article further states that Yasser Arafat died from a stroke linked to an unknown infection which could have possibly been standard food poisoning, which could kill an elderly man already in a general sick condition, which had been caused from living under Israeli siege for years in his Ramallah compound.[130][131]
According to Israel Radio, "A former Palestinian intelligence officer, attorney Fahmi Shabana, says that Yasser Arafat's political rivals were responsible for his death, and that he was poisoned with polonium. Shabana, who took part in the investigation into Arafat's death in a French hospital in 2004, said that several months after his death, the same cell murdered the head of military intelligence in Gaza, General Musa Arafat, a relative of the PLO leader, in order to prevent a blood feud. The lawyer called on Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas to reopen the investigation into Arafat's death."[132]
A recent report by the French doctors who treated him rules out cancer and an acute infection, and states it was a platelet disorder. The cause of this platelet disorder is unknown.[133] No poison was detected.[134]
Aftermath[link]
Funeral[link]
On 11 November, a French Army Honor Guard held a brief ceremony for Arafat, with his coffin draped in a Palestinian flag. A military band played the French and Palestinian national anthems, and a Chopin funeral march.[135] French President Jacques Chirac stood alone beside Arafat's coffin for about ten minutes in a last show of respect for Arafat, whom he hailed as "a man of courage".[136] The next day, Arafat's body was flown from Paris aboard a French Air Force transport plane to Cairo, Egypt for a brief military funeral there, attended by several heads of states, prime ministers and foreign ministers.[137] Egypt's top Muslim cleric Sayed Tantawi led mourning prayers preceding the funeral procession.[113]
Israel refused Arafat's wish to be buried near the Al-Aqsa Mosque or anywhere in Jerusalem, citing widespread security concerns.[138] Israel also feared that his burial would strengthen Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem. Israeli cabinet minister Tommy Lapid stated that "Jerusalem is the burial place of Jewish kings, not of Arab terrorists".[139] Following the Cairo procession, Arafat was "temporarily" buried within the Mukataa in Ramallah; tens of thousands of Palestinians attended the ceremony.[113] Also attending were at least one Israeli peace activist (Uri Avnery, head of Gush Shalom) and a Christian minister.[140] Arafat was buried in a stone, rather than wooden coffin, and Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erekat said that Arafat would be reburied in East Jerusalem following the establishment of a Palestinian state. After Sheikh Taissir Tamimi discovered that Arafat was buried improperly and in a coffin—which is not in accordance with Islamic law—Arafat was reburied on the morning of 13 November at around 3:00 am.[141] On 10 November 2007, prior to the third anniversary of Arafat's death, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas unveiled a mausoleum for Arafat near his tomb in commemoration of him.[142]
Successor[link]
Upon Arafat's death, PLC Speaker Rawhi Fattouh succeeded Arafat as interim President of the PNA. PLO Secretary-General Mahmoud Abbas was selected Chairman of the PLO, and Farouk Kaddoumi became head of Fatah.[143] The PNA and the leadership of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon declared forty days of mourning for Arafat.[113] Abbas won the January 2005 presidential election by a comfortable margin, solidifying himself as the successor to Arafat as leader of the Palestinians.
See also[link]
- List of Fatah members
- List of Palestinians
- Nobel Prize controversies
- Person of the Year
- Yasser Arafat International Airport
Notes and references[link]
- ^ Yasser Arafat – NNDB
- ^ Some sources use the term Chairman, rather than President; the Arabic word for both titles is the same. See President of the Palestinian National Authority for further information.
- ^ a b Aburish, Said K. (1998). From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 33–67. ISBN 1-58234-049-8. Aburish says the date of Fatah's founding is unclear but claims in 1959 it was exposed by its magazine.
Zeev Schiff, Raphael Rothstein (1972). Fedayeen; Guerillas Against Israel. McKay, p.58; Schiff and Rothstein claim Fatah was founded in 1959.
Salah Khalaf and Khalil al-Wazir state Fatah’s first formal meeting was in October 1959. See Anat N.Kurz (2005) Fatah and the Politics of Violence: The Institutionalization of a Popular Struggle. Brighton, Portland: Sussex Academic Press (Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies), pp.29–30 - ^ Hockstader, Lee (11 November 2004). "A Dreamer Who Forced His Cause Onto World Stage". Washington Post Foreign Service (The Washington Post Company). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41509-2004Nov10.html. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
- ^ a b Alon, Gideon; Amira Hass (14 August 2002). "MI chief: terror groups trying hard to pull off mega-attack". Haaretz. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=197188&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0. Retrieved 21 July 2007. [dead link]
- ^ Not certain; Disputed; Most sources including Tony Walker, Andrew Gowers, Alan Hart and Said K. Aburish indicate Cairo as Arafat's place of birth, but others list his birthplace as Jerusalem as well as Gaza. See here [1] and here [2] for more information. Some believe also that the Jerusalem birthplace might have been a little known rumor created by the KGB [3].
- ^ a b c d e f g h Aburish, Said K. (1998). From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 7–32. ISBN 1-58234-049-8.
- ^ "Yasser Arafat: Homeland a dream for Palestinian Authority Chief". CNN News (Cable News Network). http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/fyi/school.tools/profiles/Yasser.Arafat/student.storypage.html. Retrieved 15 September 2007. [dead link]
- ^ Rubenstein, Dany (1995). The Mystery of Arafat. New York: Steerforth Press. p. 38. ISBN 1-883642-10-8.
- ^ Aburish, Said K. (1998). From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 46. ISBN 1-58234-049-8.
- ^ Hart, Alan (1994). Arafat. Sidgwick & Jackson. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-283-06220-9.
- ^ Mattar, Phillip (12 November 2000). "Biography of Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad)". Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. Facts on File; 1st edition. http://www.palestineremembered.com/al-Ramla/al-Ramla/Story175.html. Retrieved 17 July 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Aburish, Said K. (1998). From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 33–67. ISBN 1-58234-049-8.
- ^ Hussein, Hassan Khalil. Abu Iyad, Unknown Pages of his Life. p. 64.
- ^ Cooley, John K. (1973). Green March, Black September. Frank Crass & Co.. p. 100. ISBN 0-7146-2987-1.
- ^ Abu Sharif, Bassam; Uzi Mahmaini (1996). Tried by Fire. Time Warner Paperbacks. p. 33. ISBN 0-7515-1636-8.
- ^ Gowers, Andrew; Tony Walker (1991). Behind the Myth: Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Revolution. Interlink Pub Group Inc. p. 65. ISBN 0-940793-86-5.
- ^ Oren, Michael (2003). Six Days of War, June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. New York: The Random House Publishing Group. pp. 33–36. ISBN 0-345-46192-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Aburish, Said K. (1998). From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 69–98. ISBN 1-58234-049-8.
- ^ Aburish, Said K. (2004). Nasser, The Last Arab. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 031228683.
- ^ a b c Sayigh, Yezid (1997). Armed Struggle and the Search for State, the Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-829643-6.
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- ^ id@246
- ^ Livingstone, Neil; David Halevy (1990). Inside the PLO. pp.80: Reader's Digest Association. ISBN 978-0-7090-4548-9.
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- ^ Constitution of Palestine (1994) Wikisource 2006-07-26. Accessed on 7 November 2007
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- ^ Miller, Judith (10 November 2004). "Obituary: Yasir Arafat, Palestinian Leader, Dies at 75". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/10/international/middleeast/10WIRE-ARAFAT.html?pagewanted=print&position=. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
- ^ Aburish, Said K. (1998). From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 293–320. ISBN 1-58234-049-8.
- ^ "Profile: Binyamin Netanyahu-Binyamin Netanyahu was one of the most right-wing and controversial leaders in Israel's history.". BBC News (BBC MMVII). 20 December 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2393677.stm.
- ^ "Hardliners Gain Around Likud Vote". BBC News (BBC MMIII). 9 December 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2558451.stm. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ "The Wye River Memorandum". The State of Israel (Translated from Hebrew). 1998. http://www.knesset.gov.il/process/docs/wye_eng.htm. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f "Yasser Arafat (1929–2004)" (PDF). PASSIA. 11 December 2004. http://www.passia.org/Arafat/Arafat.pdf.
- ^ "Mid-East press reflects on Arafat legacy: Israeli newspaper Maariv". BBC News (BBC MMIII). 5 November 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4002497.stm. Retrieved 17 September 2007.
- ^ a b c Aburish, Said K. (1998). From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 321–325. ISBN 1-58234-049-8.
- ^ Beyer, Lisa (12 November 2004). "A Life in Retrospect: Yasser Arafat". Time: p. 2. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,781566-2,00.html. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
- ^ a b Hart, Alan (1989). Arafat, a political biography (Illustrated ed.). Indiana University Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-253-32711-3, 9780253327116. http://books.google.ca/books?id=KwfvvbnEh-IC&pg=PA429&dq=poison+arafat&cd=6#v=onepage&q=poison%20arafat&f=false.
- ^ Hart Arafat, a political biography, Alan (1989) (Illustrated ed.). Indiana University Press. p. 320. ISBN 0-253-32711-3, 9780253327116. http://books.google.ca/books?id=KwfvvbnEh-IC&pg=PA429&dq=poison+arafat&cd=6#v=onepage&q=poison%20arafat&f=false.
- ^ Hart, Alan (1989). Arafat, a political biography (Illustrated ed.). Indiana University Press. pp. 429–420. ISBN 0-253-32711-3, 9780253327116. http://books.google.ca/books?id=KwfvvbnEh-IC&pg=PA429&dq=poison+arafat&cd=6#v=onepage&q=poison%20arafat&f=false.
- ^ Karsten Prager, Murray J. Gart, & Yasser Arafat (7 November 1988). "Interview: with Yasser Arafat: Knowing the Enemy". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,968859,00.html. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
- ^ "Al-Aqsa Intifada timeline: 2002". BBC News (BBC MMVII). 29 September 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3677206.stm. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
- ^ Khaled Abu Toameh, "Arafat ordered Hamas attacks against Israel in 2000", Jerusalem post, 29 September 2010 "This was the first time that a senior Hamas official disclosed that some of the Hamas suicide bombings during the second intifada, which erupted 10 years ago, were ordered by Arafat. Until now it was widely believed that Arafat had only ordered his Fatah militiamen to carry out terror attacks on Israel."
- ^ Bowen, Jeremy (7 November 2003). "Palestinian Authority funds go to militants". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3243071.stm. Retrieved 26 August 2007.
- ^ Naveh, Dani (6 May 2002). "The Involvement of Arafat, PA Senior Officials and Apparatuses in Terrorism against Israel- Corruption and Crime". Ministry of Foreign Affairs – The State of Israel. http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/5/The%20Involvement%20of%20Arafat-%20PA%20Senior%20Officials%20and. Retrieved 15 October 2007. [dead link]
- ^ "Profile: Marwan Barghouti". BBC News. 13 December 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1473585.stm. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
- ^ a b Pipes, Daniel (6 May 2002). "Arafat's Failure May Offer Seeds of Hope". Los Angeles Times (1980–2007 Daniel Pipes). http://www.danielpipes.org/article/399. Retrieved 7 October 2007.
- ^ Israel holds militant after siege BBC News 14 March 2006.
- ^ Schmemann, Serge (22 September 2002). "Arafat Remains Defiant Amid Rubble of His Compound". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E6DE1739F931A1575AC0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2. Retrieved 17 February 2006.
- ^ Amayreh, Khalil (23 July 2003). "Arafat vs Abbas". Al-Ahram Weekly. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/647/re2.htm. Retrieved 17 February 2006.
- ^ Hillman, G. Robert (19 September 2003). "Bush dismisses Arafat as Partner, Pushes for New Leader". The Dallas Morning News. http://media.www.westerncourier.com/media/storage/paper650/news/2003/09/19/Nation/Bush-Dismisses.Arafat.Pushes.For.New.Leader-470765.shtml. Retrieved 21 July 2007. [dead link]
- ^ Nashashibi, Karim; Adam Bennett (20 September 2003). "Business & Economy: IMF audit reveals Arafat diverted $900 million to account under his personal control". The Electronic Intifada. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1958.shtml. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ For a general overview of the crucial importance of foreign funding in the peace process, and the PNA's use of such aid, see Rex Brynen, A Very Political Economy: Peacebuilding and Foreign Aid in the West Bank and Gaza, United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000
- ^ a b Stahl, Lesley (9 November 2003). "Arafat's Billions, One Man's Quest To Track Down Unaccounted-For Public Funds". CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/07/60minutes/main582487.shtml. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ Backgrounder: Corruption in the PLO’s Financial Empire, www.cdn-friends-icej.co/medigest/jul98/backgrnd.html.
- ^ Katz, Yaakov (17 May 2006). "Arafat used aid to buy weapons". JPost. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961361493&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ Documents seized during Operation Defensive Shield linking Arafat to Terrorism – 15 April 2002 http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/4/Documents%20seized%20during%20Operation%20Defensive%20Shield
- ^ Israel Claims Finding Evidence Against Arafat
- ^ "Ending of Yasser's Life". Palestine: The Mystery Country. http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC052021/Government/GovernmentPage.html.
- ^ a b c d Biles, Peter (12 November 2004). "Arafat's funeral held in Cairo: Mystery illness". BBC News (BBC MMVII). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4005027.stm. Retrieved 2 November 2007.
- ^ "Arafat's doctor calls for autopsy". Sydney Morning Herald. 12 November 2004. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/11/12/1100131178126.html?from=storylhs.
- ^ Lindgren, Jim (4 November 2004). "Arafat: If he is "brain-dead," he is dead". The Volokh Conspiracy using passage published by France-Press. http://www.volokh.com/posts/chain_1100148783.shtml.
- ^ Stahl, Julie (8 November 2004). "'They're Trying to Bury My Husband Alive' Suha Arafat Says". CNS News (Cybercast News Service). Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070929103031/http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200411/FOR20041108c.html. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
- ^ "Code of Public Health" (in French). Legifrance. 5 March 2002. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnArticleDeCode?commun=&code=CSANPUNL.rcv&art=L1110-4.
- ^ "Top Palestinians arrive in Paris 'Apologize'". BBC News (BBC MMVII). 8 November 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3991153.stm. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
- ^ "Arafat's health unchanged: French official". China View. Xinhua News Agency. 7 November 2004. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-11/07/content_2187955.htm.
- ^ "Palestinians head to Paris to probe Arafat's death". Oscar-Tango (Despardes Inc.). 17 November 2004. http://www.despardes.com/oscartango/111704.html. Retrieved 26 September 2007.
- ^ "Arafat doctors found 'no poison':Tests on Yasser Arafat's body showed no traces of any known poisons, according to medical files released on Monday.". BBC News (BBC MMVII). 22 November 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4032257.stm. Retrieved 2 September 2007.
- ^ "Israeli Mossad poisoned Arafat through his medications.". Al-Jazeerah. 22 July 2009. http://www.aljazeerah.info/News/2009/July/21%20n/Israeli%20Mossad%20poisoned%20Arafat%20through%20his%20medications,%20says%20Bassam%20Abu%20Sharif.htm.
- ^ Arafat's aide: New information on president's death, Ma'an News Agency, 10 January 2011.
- ^ a b "Cause of Arafat death 'unknown' Medical records of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat appear to show that doctors could not determine the underlying cause of his death.". BBC News (BBC MMVII). 8 September 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4225332.stm.
- ^ "Arafat’s doctor wants autopsy". Associated Press. 12 November 2004. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6472056/. Retrieved 12 December 2007.
- ^ a b Rubenstein, Danny (8 September 2005). "Arafat's doctor: There was HIV in his blood, but poison killed him". Haaretz (Haaretz). http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=892231&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1.
- ^ Erlanger, Steven; Lawrence K. Altman (8 September 2005). "Medical Records Say Arafat Died From a Stroke". The New York Times (New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/international/middleeast/08arafat.html?n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FP%2FPoisoning%20and%20Poisons&pagewanted=print. Retrieved 26 September 2007.
- ^ Kapeliouk, Amnon (2 November 2005). "Yasser Arafat a-t-il été assassiné? ("Was Arafat murdered?")" (in French). Le Monde diplomatique. http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2005/11/KAPELIOUK/12894?var_recherche=arafat. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ a b McDermott, Rose (2008), Presidential leadership, illness, and decision making, Cambridge University Press, p. 244, ISBN 978-0-521-88272-9
- ^ Erlanger, Steven; Altman, Lawrence K. (8 September 2005). "Best Books Of 2003". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-09-08/news/17388635_1_medical-records-percy-army-teaching-hospital-unexplained-death-last-year.
- ^ Erlanger, Steven; Altman, Lawrence K. (8 September 2005). "Medical Records Say Arafat Died From a Stroke". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/international/middleeast/08arafat.html?_r=2&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FP%2FPoisoning%20and%20Poisons&pagewanted=print.
- ^ Israel Radio English news, 17 Jan. 2011, 0430 UTC
- ^ http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=435849
- ^ http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149649#.Ts_427KBqU8
- ^ Left, Sarah (11 November 2004). "Arafat begins final journey". The Guardian (London: Guardian News and Media Limited). http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1348445,00.html. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
- ^ Bennet, James; Erlanger, Steven (11 November 2004). "Arafat's Body Arrives in Cairo Ahead of Ceremony on Friday". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/middleeast/11cnd-araf.html?pagewanted=2. Retrieved 6 December 2007.
- ^ "Arafat's funeral: Who was there". BBC News (BBC MMVII). 12 November 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4003463.stm. Retrieved 2 November 2007.
- ^ "Israel Plans for Arafat Burial in Gaza". Associated Press. 4 November 2004. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/11/7/113931.shtml. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ [6][dead link]
- ^ THE DEATH OF ARAFAT: THE PALESTINIANS; An Emotion-Driven Flock Storms the Burial Ceremony,New York Times,13 Nov. 2004
- ^ "No way to die". The Guardian (London: Guardian News and Media Limited). 16 December 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1374609,00.html. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
- ^ "Arafat mausoleum opened by Abbas". BBC News (BBC MMVII). 10 November 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7088743.stm. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
- ^ Hardy, Roger (1 December 2004). "Who could follow Arafat?". BBC News (BBC MMVII). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1362216.stm. Retrieved 2 November 2007.
Further reading[link]
- Aburish, Said K. (1998). Arafat: From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58234-049-4.
- Gowers, Andrew; Tony Walker (2005). Arafat: The Biography. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-1-85227-924-0.
- Hart, Alan (1994). Arafat. Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0-283-06220-9.
- Karsh, Efraim (2003). Arafat's War: The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-1758-9.
- Livingstone, Neil (1990). Inside the PLO. Reader's Digest Association. ISBN 978-0-7090-4548-9.
- Rubin, Barry M.; Judith Colp Rubin (2003). Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516689-7.
- Rubenstein, Danny; Dan Leon (1995). The Mystery of Arafat. Steerforth Press. ISBN 978-1-883642-10-5.
- Sela, Avraham. "Arafat, Yasser." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. pp. 166–171.
- Wallach, Janet (1990). Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder. Lyle Stuart. ISBN 978-0-8184-0533-4.
External links[link]
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Yasser Arafat |
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yasser Arafat |
- Yasser Arafat official website
- Biography of Yasser Arafat at Nobelprize.org
- Yasser Arafat (1929–2004) at PASSIA
- A Life in Retrospect: Yasser Arafat, Time
- Life and times of Yassir Arafat, Profile: Yassir Arafat, The Times
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Yasser Arafat at the Internet Movie Database
- Works by or about Yasser Arafat in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Yasser Arafat collected news and commentary at The Jerusalem Post
- Yasser Arafat collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Yasser Arafat at the Notable Names Database
- Yasser Arafat at the Open Directory Project
- Booknotes interview with John and Janet Wallach on Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder, 23 December 1990.
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Arafat, Yasser |
| Alternative names | ياسر عرفات (Arabic); Abu `Ammar (kunya) |
| Short description | President of the Palestinian Authority |
| Date of birth | 4 or 24 August 1929 |
| Place of birth | Cairo, Egypt |
| Date of death | 11 November 2004 |
| Place of death | Paris, France |
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| In office January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001 |
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| Vice President | Al Gore |
| Preceded by | George H. W. Bush |
| Succeeded by | George W. Bush |
| 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas | |
| In office January 11, 1983 – December 12, 1992 |
|
| Lieutenant | Winston Bryant Jim Tucker |
| Preceded by | Frank White |
| Succeeded by | Jim Tucker |
| In office January 9, 1979 – January 19, 1981 |
|
| Lieutenant | Joe Purcell |
| Preceded by | Joe Purcell as Acting Governor |
| Succeeded by | Frank White |
| 50th Attorney General of Arkansas | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 9, 1979 |
|
| Governor | David Pryor Joe Purcell (Acting) |
| Preceded by | Jim Tucker |
| Succeeded by | Steve Clark |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Jefferson Blythe III (1946-08-19) August 19, 1946 (age 65) Hope, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Hillary Rodham (m. 1975-present) |
| Children | Chelsea (b. 1980) |
| Alma mater | Georgetown University University College, Oxford Yale Law School |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Baptist |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Clinton Presidential Library |
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance.
Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has served as the United States Secretary of State since 2009 and was a Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. Both Clintons received law degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state's education system, and served as Chair of the National Governors Association.
Clinton was elected president in 1992, defeating incumbent president George H.W. Bush. As president, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. He implemented Don't ask, don't tell, a controversial intermediate step to full gay military integration. After a failed health care reform attempt, Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, for the first time in forty years. Two years later, the re-elected Clinton became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term as president. He successfully passed welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children. Later, he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in a scandal involving a White House intern, but was acquitted by the U.S. Senate and served his complete term of office. The Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clinton's presidency.
Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II. Since then, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Based on his philanthropic worldview, Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as prevention of AIDS and global warming. In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life, and was involved in his wife's and then Barack Obama's campaigns for president in 2008. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, and after the 2010 earthquake he teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U.S. presidents.
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Early life and career[link]
Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, III, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas.[1][2] His father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., was a traveling salesman who died in an automobile accident three months before Bill was born.[3] His mother Virginia Dell Cassidy (1923–1994) traveled to New Orleans to study nursing soon after he was born. She left Bill in Hope with grandparents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store.[2] At a time when the Southern United States was segregated racially, Bill's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races.[2] In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton, Sr., who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas with his brother.[2] The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.
Although he assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Billy (as he was known then) turned fifteen[4] that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather.[2] Clinton says he remembers his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton, Jr., to the point where he intervened multiple times with the threat of violence to protect them.[2][5]
In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School – where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician.[2] He was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life:
"Sometime in my sixteenth year, I decided I wanted to be in public life as an elected official. I loved music and thought I could be very good, but I knew I would never be John Coltrane or Stan Getz. I was interested in medicine and thought I could be a fine doctor, but I knew I would never be Michael DeBakey. But I knew I could be great in public service."[2]
Clinton has named two influential moments in his life that contributed to his decision to become a public figure, both occurring in 1963. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy.[2][5] The other was listening to Martin Luther King's 1963 I Have a Dream speech, which impressed him enough that he later memorized it.[6]
College and law school years[link]
With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.) degree in 1968. He spent the summer of 1967, the summer before his senior year, interning for Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright.[2] While in college, he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Clinton was also a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry, but he never became a Freemason.[7] He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity.[8]
Upon graduation, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, though because he had switched programs and had left early for Yale University, he did not receive a degree there.[5][9] He developed an interest in rugby union, playing at Oxford[10] and later for the Little Rock Rugby club in Arkansas. While at Oxford he also participated in Vietnam War protests and organized an October 1969 Moratorium event.[2]
Clinton's political opponents charge that to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War during his college years, he used the political influence of a U.S. Senator, who employed him as an aide.[11] Col. Eugene Holmes, an Army officer who was involved in Clinton's case, issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign: "I was informed by the draft board that it was of interest to Senator Fullbright's office that Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, should be admitted to the ROTC program... I believe that he purposely deceived me, using the possibility of joining the ROTC as a ploy to work with the draft board to delay his induction and get a new draft classification."[12][13] Although legal, Clinton's actions were criticized by conservatives and some Vietnam veterans during his presidential campaign in 1992.[14][15][16]
After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973.[5] In a Yale library in 1971 he met fellow law student Hillary Rodham, who was a year ahead of him.[17] They began dating and soon were inseparable. After only about a month, Clinton proposed to Rodham and postponed his plans to be a coordinator for the McGovern campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election in order to move in with her in California.[18] They later married on October 11, 1975, and their only child, Chelsea, was born on February 27, 1980.[17]
Clinton did eventually move to Texas with Rodham to take a job leading McGovern's effort there in 1972. He spent considerable time in Dallas, at the campaign's local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue, where he had an office. There, Clinton worked with future two-term mayor of Dallas, Ron Kirk, future governor of Texas, Ann Richards, and then unknown television director (and future filmmaker), Steven Spielberg.
Political career 1978–1992[link]
Further information: Electoral history of Bill Clinton
Governor of Arkansas[link]
Further information: Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1978, Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1980, and Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1982
After graduating from Yale Law School, Clinton returned to Arkansas and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas. A year later, he ran for the House of Representatives in 1974. The incumbent, Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt, defeated Clinton in the general election by a 52% to 48% margin. With only minor opposition in the primary and no opposition at all in the general election,[19] Clinton was elected Arkansas Attorney General in 1976.[5]
Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978, having defeated the Republican candidate Lynn Lowe, a farmer from Texarkana. He became the youngest governor in the country at 32. Due to his youthful appearance, Clinton was often called the "Boy Governor", a referent that continues to be used to refer to him during his gubernatorial era on occasion.[20][21][22] He worked on educational reform and Arkansas's roads, with wife Hillary leading a successful committee on urban health care reform. However, his term included an unpopular motor vehicle tax and citizens' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980. Monroe Schwarzlose of Kingsland in Cleveland County, polled 31% of the vote against Clinton in the Democratic gubernatorial primary of 1980. Some suggested Schwarzlose's unexpected voter turnout foreshadowed Clinton's defeat in the general election that year by Republican challenger Frank D. White. As Clinton once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history.[5]
Clinton joined friend Bruce Lindsey's Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings.[23] In 1982, he was again elected governor and kept this job for ten years.[19] He helped Arkansas transform its economy and significantly improve the state's educational system. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats.[24][25] The New Democrats, organized as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), were a branch of the Democratic Party that called for welfare reform and smaller government, a policy supported by both Democrats and Republicans. He gave the Democratic response to President Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address and served as Chair of the National Governors Association from 1986 to 1987, bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas.[5] Clinton made economic growth, job creation and educational improvement high priorities. For senior citizens, he removed the sales tax from medications and increased the home property-tax exemption.[24]
In the early 1980s, Clinton made reform of the Arkansas education system a top priority. The Arkansas Education Standards Committee, chaired by Clinton's wife, attorney and Legal Services Corporation chair Hillary Rodham Clinton, succeeded in reforming the education system, transforming it from the worst in the nation into one of the best. Many have considered this the greatest achievement of the Clinton governorship. Clinton and the committee were responsible for state educational improvement programs, notably more spending for schools, rising opportunities for gifted children, an increase in vocational education, raising of teachers' salaries, inclusion of a wider variety of courses, and compulsory teacher testing for aspiring educators.[5][24] He defeated four Republican candidates for governor: Lowe (1978), White (1982 and 1986), and businessmen Woody Freeman of Jonesboro, (1984) and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock (1990).[19]
The Clintons' personal and business affairs during the 1980s included transactions that became the basis of the Whitewater investigation that dogged his later presidential administration.[26] After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.[5][27]
According to some sources, Clinton was in his early years a death penalty opponent who switched positions.[28][29] During Clinton's term, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty had been re-enacted on March 23, 1973).[30] As Governor, he oversaw four executions: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. Later, as president, Clinton was the first President to pardon a death-row inmate since the federal death penalty was reintroduced in 1988.[31]
Democratic presidential primaries of 1988[link]
In 1987, there was media speculation Clinton would enter the race after then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of marital infidelity. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton for governor, initially favored – but ultimately vetoed – by the First Lady).[32] For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, which at 33 minutes was criticized for being too long.[33] Presenting himself as a moderate and a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.[24][34]
1992 presidential campaign[link]
Further information: Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1992, United States presidential election, 1992, and Bill Clinton presidential campaign, 1992
In the first primary contest, the Iowa caucus, Clinton finished a distant third to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. During the campaign for the New Hampshire primary, reports of an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers surfaced. As Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls,[5] following Super Bowl XXVI, Clinton and his wife Hillary went on 60 Minutes to rebuff the charges. Their television appearance was a calculated risk, but Clinton regained several delegates. He finished second to Tsongas in the New Hampshire primary, but after trailing badly in the polls and coming within single digits of winning, the media viewed it as a victory. News outlets labeled him "The Comeback Kid" for earning a firm second-place finish.[35]
Winning the big prizes of Florida and Texas and many of the Southern primaries on Super Tuesday gave Clinton a sizable delegate lead. However, former California Governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside his native South.[5][34] With no major Southern state remaining, Clinton targeted New York, which had many delegates. He scored a resounding victory in New York City, shedding his image as a regional candidate.[34] Having been transformed into the consensus candidate, he secured the Democratic Party nomination, finishing with a victory in Jerry Brown's home state of California.[5]
During the campaign, questions of conflict of interest regarding state business and the politically powerful Rose Law Firm, at which Hillary Rodham Clinton was a partner, arose. Clinton argued the questions were moot because all transactions with the state had been deducted before determining Hillary's firm pay.[2][36] Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents "for the price of one".[37]
While campaigning for U.S. President, the then Governor Clinton returned to Arkansas to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but did not understand the idea of death. According to Arkansas state and Federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed. The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in a The New York Times article as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations.[28][38]
Because Bush's approval ratings were in the 80% range during the Gulf War, he was described as unbeatable. However, when Bush compromised with Democrats to try to lower Federal deficits, he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes, hurting his approval rating. Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush for making a promise he failed to keep.[34] By election time, the economy was souring and Bush saw his approval rating plummet to just slightly over 40%.[34][39] Finally, conservatives were previously united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, the party lacked a uniting issue. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention – with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform – many moderates were alienated.[40] Clinton then pointed to his moderate, "New Democrat" record as governor of Arkansas, though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious.[41] Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their support to Clinton.[42] Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, toured the country during the final weeks of the campaign, shoring up support and pledging a "new beginning".[42]
Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (43.0% of the vote) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (37.4% of the vote) and billionaire populist Ross Perot, who ran as an independent (18.9% of the vote) on a platform focusing on domestic issues; a significant part of Clinton's success was Bush's steep decline in public approval.[42] Clinton's election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty-four years. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress,[3] the first time one party controlled both the executive and legislative branches since Democrats held the 95th United States Congress during the Jimmy Carter presidency in the late 1970s.[43]
Presidency, 1993–2001[link]
Main article: Presidency of Bill Clinton
During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, much of which was enacted into law or was implemented by the executive branch. Some of his policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance, while on other issues his stance was left-of-center.[44][45] Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history.[46][47][48] The Congressional Budget Office reported budget surpluses of $69 billion in 1998, $126 billion in 1999, and $236 billion in 2000,[49] during the last three years of Clinton's presidency.[50] At the end of his presidency, Clinton moved to New York and helped his wife win election to the U.S. Senate there.
First term, 1993–1997[link]
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 Video of the First inauguration of Bill Clinton.
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Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993. Shortly after taking office, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 on February 5, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. This action had bipartisan support,[51] and proved quite popular with the public.[52]
On February 15, 1993, Clinton made his first address to the nation, announcing his plan to raise taxes to cap the budget deficit.[53] Two days later, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on reducing the deficit rather than on cutting taxes for the middle class, which had been high on his campaign agenda.[54] Clinton's advisers pressured him to raise taxes on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.[55]
On May 19, 1993, Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office, causing a controversy even though the Travel Office staff served at the pleasure of the President, who could dismiss them without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming the firings were done because of financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation.[56] Critics contended the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and that the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted.[57]
"Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America."
Inaugural address, January 20, 1993.[58]
Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 in August of that year, which passed Congress without a Republican vote. It cut taxes for fifteen million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses,[59] and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers. Additionally, through the implementation of spending restraints, it mandated the budget be balanced over a number of years.[60]
Clinton made a major speech to Congress regarding a health care reform plan on September 22, 1993, aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan. This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda, and resulted from a task force headed by Hillary Clinton. Though at first well received in political circles, it was eventually doomed by well-organized opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. However, John F. Harris, a biographer of Clinton's, states the program failed because of a lack of coordination within the White House.[27] Despite the Democratic majority in Congress, the effort to create a national health care system ultimately died when compromise legislation by George J. Mitchell failed to gain a majority of support in August 1994. It was the first major legislative defeat of Clinton's administration.[24][27]
In November 1993, David Hale, the source of criminal allegations against Bill Clinton in the Whitewater affair, alleged that Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, pressured him to provide an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater land deal.[61] A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation did result in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains innocence in the affair.
Clinton signed the Brady Bill into law on November 30, 1993, which imposed a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers.[27]
In December of that year, allegations by Arkansas state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in the American Spectator. Later known as Troopergate, the allegations by these men were that they arranged sexual liaisons for Bill Clinton back when he was governor of Arkansas. The story mentioned a woman named Paula, a reference to Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism" and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives."[62]
 Clinton's December 8, 1993 remarks on the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement
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That month, Clinton implemented a Department of Defense directive known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexuality a secret, and forbade the military from inquiring about an individual's sexual orientation. This move garnered criticism from the left (for being too tentative in promoting gay rights) and from the right (who opposed any effort to allow gays to serve). Some gay-rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions.[63] Their position was that Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting that President Harry Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton's defenders argue that an executive order might have prompted the Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future.[24] Later in his presidency, in 1999, Clinton criticized the way the policy was implemented, saying he did not think any serious person could say it was not "out of whack."[64] The policy remained controversial, and was finally repealed in 2011, removing open sexual preference as a reason for dismissal from the armed forces.[65]
On January 1, 1994, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law.[66] Throughout his first year in office, Clinton consistently supported ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. Clinton and most of his allies in the Democratic Leadership Committee strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong disagreement within the party. Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with 234 votes against 200 opposed (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans, and 1 independent against). The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the President.[66]
Clinton's 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill made many changes to U.S. law, including the expansion of the death penalty to include crimes not resulting in death, such as running a large-scale drug enterprise. During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons."[67]
"When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web.... Now even my cat has its own page."
Bill Clinton's announcement of Next Generation Internet initiative, 1996.[68]
The Clinton administration also launched the first official White House website, whitehouse.gov, on October 21, 1994.[69][70] It was followed by three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000.[71][72] The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web-based communication. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U.S. court system and the U.S. military onto the Internet, thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before. On July 17, 1996, Clinton issued Executive Order 13011 – Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to utilize information technology fully to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public."[73]
After two years of Democratic Party control, the Democrats lost control of Congress in the mid-term elections in 1994, for the first time in forty years.[74]
Law professor Ken Gromley's book The Death of American Virtue reveals that Clinton escaped a 1996 assassination attempt in the Philippines by terrorists working for Osama bin Laden.[75] During his visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Manila in 1996, he was saved shortly before his car was due to drive over a bridge where a bomb had been planted. Gromley said he was told the details of the bomb plot by Louis Merletti, a former director of the Secret Service. Clinton was scheduled to visit a local politician in central Manila, when secret service officers intercepted a message suggesting that an attack was imminent. A transmission used the words "bridge" and "wedding", supposedly a terrorist's code words for assassination. The motorcade was re-routed and the US agents later discovered a bomb planted under the bridge. The report said the subsequent US investigation into the plot "revealed that it was masterminded by a Saudi terrorist living in Afghanistan named Osama bin Laden". Gromley said, "It remained top secret except to select members of the US intelligence community. At the time, there were media reports about the discovery of two bombs, one at Manila airport and another at the venue for the leaders' meeting".[76]
The White House FBI files controversy of June 1996 arose concerning improper access by the White House to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations.[77] In March 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined that there was no credible evidence of any crime. Ray's report further stated, "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files.[78]
On September 21, 1996, barely three years after the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" imbroglio, and further straining relations with the LGBT community, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.[79] Paul Yandura, speaking for the White House gay and lesbian liaison office, said that Clinton's signing of DOMA "was a political decision that they made at the time of a re-election." Administration spokesman Richard Socarides said, "... the alternatives we knew were going to be far worse, and it was time to move on and get the president re-elected."[80] Clinton himself stated that DOMA was something "which the Republicans put on the ballot to try to get the base vote for President Bush up, I think it’s obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican Congress from presenting that."[81] Others were more critical. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) called these claims "historic revisionism”.[80] In a July 2, 2011 editorial the New York Times opined, "The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 as an election-year wedge issue, signed by President Bill Clinton in one of his worst policy moments."[82]
As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) on September 30, 1996. Appointed by Clinton,[83] the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people a year to about 550,000.[84][85]
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to influence the domestic policies of the United States, before and during the Clinton administration, and involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself. The Chinese government denied all accusations.[86]
Second term, 1997–2001[link]
In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2% of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7% of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4% of the popular vote), becoming the first Democratic incumbent since Lyndon Johnson to be elected to a second term and the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected President more than once.[87] The Republicans lost a few seats in the House and gained a few in the Senate, but retained control of both houses of the 105th United States Congress. Clinton received 379, or over 70% of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes.
In the January 1997 State of the Union address, Clinton proposed a new initiative to provide coverage to up to five million children. Senators Ted Kennedy – a Democrat – and Orrin Hatch – a Republican – teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in 1997, and succeeded in passing legislation forming the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That year, Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later she succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act.
Impeachment[link]
In a lame-duck session of Congress after the 1998 elections, the House voted to impeach Clinton, based on the results of the Lewinsky scandal.[27] This made Clinton only the second U.S. president to be impeached (the first being Andrew Johnson). Impeachment proceedings were based on allegations that Clinton had lied about his relationship with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky in a sworn deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit.[88] After the Starr Report was submitted to the House providing what it termed "substantial and credible information that President Clinton Committed Acts that May Constitute Grounds for an Impeachment",[89] the House began impeachment hearings against Clinton before the mid-term elections. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame-duck session in December 1998.
While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely with Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony about his relationship to Lewinsky during a sexual harassment lawsuit[90] brought by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. The obstruction charge was based on his actions during the subsequent investigation of that testimony.
The Senate later voted to acquit Clinton on both charges.[91] The Senate refused to meet to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly.[92] The Senate finished a twenty-one-day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote (55 Not Guilty/45 Guilty) on both counts falling short of the Constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an officeholder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty, and only a handful of Republicans voting not guilty.[91]
Clinton controversially issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001.[27][93] Most of the controversy surrounded Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision-making regarding the pardons.[94] Some of Clinton's pardons remain a point of controversy.[95]
Military and foreign events[link]
Further information: Foreign policy of the Bill Clinton administration
Many military events occurred during Clinton's presidency. The Battle of Mogadishu also occurred in Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S. helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenade attacks to their tail rotors, trapping soldiers behind enemy lines. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and one was taken prisoner. There were many more Somali casualties. Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets – a spectacle broadcast on television news programs. In response, U.S. forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground.
In 1995, U.S. and NATO aircraft attacked Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U.N. safe zones and to pressure them into a peace accord. Clinton deployed U.S. peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995, to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement.
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Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the United States government from the presidency of Bill Clinton until bin Laden's death in 2011.[96] It has been asserted by Mansoor Ijaz that in 1996 while the Clinton Administration had begun pursuit of the policy, the Sudanese government allegedly offered to arrest and extradite Bin Laden as well as to provide the United States detailed intelligence information about growing militant organizations in the region, including Hezbollah and Hamas,[97] and that U.S. authorities allegedly rejected each offer, despite knowing of bin Laden's involvement in bombings on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.[97] However, the 9/11 Commission found that although "former Sudanese officials claim that Sudan offered to expel Bin Laden to the United States", "we have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim."[98] In 1998, two years after the warning, the Clinton administration ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden that failed.[99]
In response to the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed a dozen Americans and hundreds of Africans, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. First was a Sudanese Pharmaceutical company suspected of assisting Osama Bin Laden in making chemical weapons. The second was Bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.[100] Clinton was subsequently criticized when it turned out that a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan (originally alleged to be a chemical warfare plant) had been destroyed.
To stop the ethnic cleansing and genocide[101][102] of Albanians by nationalist Serbians in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's province of Kosovo, Clinton authorized the use of American troops in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, named Operation Allied Force. General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission. With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the bombing campaign ended on June 10, 1999. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force.[103] NATO announced that its forces had suffered zero combat deaths,[104] and two deaths from an Apache helicopter crash.[105] Opinions in the popular press criticized pre-war genocide statements by the Clinton administration as greatly exaggerated.[106][107] A U.N. Court ruled genocide did not take place, but recognized, "a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments".[108] The term "ethnic cleansing" was used as an alternative to "genocide" to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement, though critics charge there is no difference.[109] Slobodan Milošević, the President of Yugoslavia at the time, was eventually charged with the "murders of about 600 individually identified ethnic Albanians" and "crimes against humanity."[110]
In Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address, he warned Congress of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's possible pursuit of nuclear weapons:
Together we must also confront the new hazards of chemical and biological weapons, and the outlaw states, terrorists and organized criminals seeking to acquire them. Saddam Hussein has spent the better part of this decade, and much of his nation's wealth, not on providing for the Iraqi people, but on developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The United Nations weapons inspectors have done a truly remarkable job, finding and destroying more of Iraq's arsenal than was destroyed during the entire gulf war. Now, Saddam Hussein wants to stop them from completing their mission. I know I speak for everyone in this chamber, Republicans and Democrats, when I say to Saddam Hussein, "You cannot defy the will of the world", and when I say to him, "You have used weapons of mass destruction before; we are determined to deny you the capacity to use them again.[111]
To weaken Saddam Hussein's grip of power, Clinton signed H.R. 4655 into law on October 31, 1998, which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not provide for direct intervention on the part of American military forces.[112] The administration then launched a four-day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox, lasting from December 16 to December 19, 1998. For the last two years of Clinton's presidency, U.S. aircraft routinely attacked hostile Iraqi anti-air installations inside the Iraqi no-fly zones.
Clinton's November 2000 visit to Vietnam was the first by a U.S. President since the end of the Vietnam War.[113] Clinton remained popular with the public throughout his two terms as President, ending his presidential career with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-term approval rating of any President since Dwight D. Eisenhower.[114] Further, the Clinton administration signed over 270 trade liberalization pacts with other countries during its tenure.[115] On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) trade status to People's Republic of China.[116] The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform.[117] Clinton also oversaw a boom of the U.S. economy. Under Clinton, the United States had a projected federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969.[118]
After initial successes such as the Oslo accords of the early 1990s, Clinton attempted to address the Arab-Israeli conflict. Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David.[27] Following the peace talk failures, Clinton stated Arafat "missed the opportunity" to facilitate a "just and lasting peace." In his autobiography, Clinton blames Arafat for the collapse of the summit.[2][119] The situation broke down completely with the start of the Second Intifada.[27]
Judicial appointments[link]
Main articles: Bill Clinton Supreme Court candidates and Bill Clinton judicial appointments
Clinton appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court:
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg – 1993[120]
- Stephen Breyer – 1994[121]
Along with his two Supreme Court appointments, Clinton appointed 66 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 305 judges to the United States district courts. His 373 judicial appointments are the second most in American history behind those of Ronald Reagan. Clinton also experienced a number of judicial appointment controversies, as 69 nominees to federal judgeships were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. In all, 84% of his nominees were confirmed.[122]
Public opinion[link]
Clinton's job approval rating fluctuated in the 40s and 50s throughout his first term. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s.[123] After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point.[124] He finished with an approval rating of 68%, which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era.[125]
As he was leaving office, a CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll revealed 45% said they would miss him. While 55% thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life", 68% thought he would be remembered for his "involvement in personal scandal", and 58% answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?" Forty-seven percent of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters. The same percentage said he would be remembered as either "outstanding" or "above average" as a president, while 22% said he would be remembered as "below average" or "poor".[126]
The Gallup Organization published a poll in February 2007, a correspondents to name the greatest president in U.S. history; Clinton came in fourth place, capturing 13% of the vote. In a 2006 Quinnipiac University poll asking respondents to name the best president since World War II, Clinton ranked number two behind Ronald Reagan. However, in the same poll, when respondents were asked to name the worst president since World War II, Clinton was placed number three behind Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.[127] In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor, George W. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned.[128]
ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as, "You can't trust him, he's got weak morals and ethics – and he's done a heck of a good job."[129] After leaving office, Clinton's Gallup Poll rating of 66% was the highest approval rating of any postwar, three points ahead of both Reagan and John F. Kennedy.[130]
In March 2010, a Newsmax/Zogby poll asking Americans which of the current living former presidents they think is best equipped to deal with the problems the country faces today, found that a wide margin of respondents would pick Bill Clinton. Clinton received 41% of the vote, while George W. Bush received 15%, George H. W. Bush received 7%, and Jimmy Carter received 5%.[131]
Public image[link]
Main article: Public image of Bill Clinton
As the first baby boomer president, Clinton was the first president in a half-century not to have been alive during World War II.[132] Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward state Clinton's innovative use of sound bite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning was a major factor in his high public approval ratings.[133][134] When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as "the MTV president."[135] Opponents sometimes referred to him as "Slick Willie",[136] a nickname first applied while he was governor of Arkansas and lasting throughout his presidency.[137] Standing at a height of 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), Clinton is tied with five others as the fourth-tallest president in the nation's history.[138][139] His folksy manner led him to be nicknamed "Bubba", especially in the Southern U.S.[140]
Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and made improving race relations a major theme of his presidency.[141] In 1998, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas".[142] Noting that Clinton's sex life was scrutinized more than his career accomplishments, Morrison compared this to the stereotyping and double standards that blacks typically endure.[142]
Allegations of sexual misconduct[link]
Main article: Sexual misconduct allegations against Bill Clinton
Clinton has been subject to several allegations of sexual misconduct, though he has only admitted extramarital relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers.[143]
In 1991, Paula Jones brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton in 1994 which he denied. The case was initially dismissed,[144] but Jones appealed.[145] During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit, which was held at the White House,[146] Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky – a denial that became the basis for the impeachment charge of perjury.[147] He later agreed to an out-of-court settlement and paid $850,000.[148] His attorney Bob Bennett stated that he only made the settlement so he could end the lawsuit for good and move on with his life.[149]
In 1992 nude model and actress Gennifer Flowers stated that she had a relationship with Clinton that began in 1980.[150] Flowers at first denied that she had an affair with Clinton, but later changed her story.[151][152] Clinton admitted that he had a sexual encounter with Flowers.[153]
In 1998, Kathleen Willey alleged Clinton groped her in a hallway in 1993. An independent counsel determined Willey gave "false information" to the FBI, inconsistent with sworn testimony related to the Jones allegation.[154] Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged Clinton had raped her though she did not remember the exact date, which may have been 1978.[155] In another 1998 event, Elizabeth Ward Gracen recanted a six-year-old denial and stated she had a one night stand with Clinton in 1982.[156] Gracen later apologized to Hillary Clinton.[157]
Post-presidential career[link]
Main article: Post-presidency of Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton continues to be active in public life, giving speeches, fundraising, and founding charitable organizations.[158] Altogether, Clinton has spoken at the last six Democratic National Conventions, dating to 1988.
Activities up until 2008 campaign[link]
In 2002, Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq would have unwelcome consequences.[159][160] In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal.[161]
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas was dedicated in 2004.[162] Clinton released a best-selling autobiography, My Life in 2004.[163] In 2007, he released Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, which also became a The New York Times Best Seller and garnered positive reviews.[164]
In the aftermath of the 2005 Asian tsunami, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort.[165] After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton joined with fellow former President George H. W. Bush to establish the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund in January 2005, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in October of that year.[166] As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show,[167] and traveled to the affected areas.[168] They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin in 2007.[169]
Based on his philanthropic worldview,[170] Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address issues of global importance. This foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict.[171] In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugared drinks in schools.[172] Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative.[173] The foundation has received donations from a number of governments all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East.[174] In 2008, Foundation director Inder Singh announced that deals to reduce the price of anti-malaria drugs by 30% in developing nations.[175] Clinton also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.[176]
2008 presidential election[link]
During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary Clinton. Through speaking engagements and fundraisers, he was able to raise $10 million toward her campaign.[177] Some worried that as an ex-president, he was too active on the trail, too negative to Clinton rival Barack Obama, and alienating his supporters at home and abroad.[178] Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary, which Obama won. Later in the 2008 primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania.[179] Considering Bill's remarks, many thought that he could not rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary.[180] Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008, when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying that all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead".[181] After Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was over, Bill Clinton continued to raise funds to help pay off her campaign debt.[182][183]
After the 2008 election[link]
In 2009, Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China.[184] Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994.[184] After Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim issued a pardon.[185][186]
Since then, Clinton has been assigned a number of other diplomatic missions. He was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti in 2009.[187] In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Clinton and George W. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's recovery.[188] Clinton continues to visit Haiti to witness the inauguration of refugee villages, and to raise funds for victims of the earthquake.[189] In 2010, Clinton announced support of, and delivered the keynote address for, the inauguration of NTR, Ireland's first environmental foundation.[190][191] In July 2012 Clinton will give the keynote address at the Re|Source Conference, a collaboration between Oxford University, the Stordalen Foundation and the Rothschild Foundation.[192]
Post-presidential health concerns[link]
In September 2004, Clinton received a quadruple bypass surgery.[193] In March 2005, he underwent surgery for a partially collapsed lung.[194] On February 11, 2010, he was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City after complaining of chest pains, and had two coronary stents implanted in his heart.[193][195] It has been widely reported that Clinton has become a vegan for health reasons,[196] but he still occasionally eats fish.[197]
Honors and accolades[link]
Main article: List of honors and awards earned by Bill Clinton
Various colleges and universities have awarded Clinton honorary degrees, including Doctorate of Law degrees[198][199] and Doctor of Humane Letters degrees.[200] Schools have been named for Clinton,[201][202][203] and statues do homage him.[204][205][206] The Clinton Presidential Center was opened in Little Rock, Arkansas in his honor on December 5, 2001.[207] He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic,[208] New Guinea,[209] Germany,[210] and Kosovo.[204] U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri,[211] Arkansas,[212] Kentucky,[213] and New York.[214] He was presented with the Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen in 2001.[215]
In 1993, Clinton was selected as Time's "Man of the Year",[216] and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr.[217] From a poll conducted of the American people in December 1999, Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century.[218] He has been honored with a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, a J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding,[219] a TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design),[220] and many other awards and honors.
Authored books[link]
- Between Hope and History. New York: Times Books. 1996. ISBN 978-0-8129-2913-3.
- My Life (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. 2004. ISBN 978-1-4000-3003-3.
- Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (1st ed.). New York: Knopf. 2007. ISBN 0-307-26674-5.
- Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy. Knopf. 2011. ISBN 978-0-307-95975-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=-S2JCDOpgXYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Bill+Clinton%22&hl=en.
See also[link]
References[link]
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- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Clinton, Bill (2004). My Life. Random House. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
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- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Maraniss, David (1996). First In His Class: A Biography Of Bill Clinton. Touchstone. ISBN 0-684-81890-6.
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- ^ R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. (1996). Boy Clinton: The Political Biography. Eagle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-89526-439-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=rLSJ5oJG3fcC&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=Clinton+%22Boy+Governor%22&source=bl&ots=IvG0Oi5-36&sig=jKPu8r0TAEssgFVsCNlaC8jGj5g&hl=en&ei=wTxZTuTYBo7H0AGw0qmsCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Clinton%20%22Boy%20Governor%22&f=false.
- ^ Michael Kelly (November 27, 1992). "Little Rock Hopes Clinton Presidency Will Put Its Dogpatch Image to Rest". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/27/us/little-rock-hopes-clinton-presidency-will-put-its-dogpatch-image-to-rest.html. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
- ^ Jonathan W. Nicholsen. "Bill Clinton Timeline". Timeline Help. http://www.timeline-help.com/bill-clinton-timeline.html. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f Klein, Joe (2002). The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton. Doubleday. ISBN 0-7679-1412-0.
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- ^ Blumenthal, Sidney (2003). The Clinton Wars (1st ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12502-3.
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- ^ a b George Stephanopoulos, All Too Human: A Political Education, 1999, ISBN 978-0-316-92919-6
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- ^ David Maraniss, First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton (New York: Random House, 1996; ISBN 978-0-684-81890-0).
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- ^ Ifill, Gwen (March 17, 1992). "Hillary Clinton Defends Her Conduct in Law Firm". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/17/us/the-1992-campaign-hillary-clinton-defends-her-conduct-in-law-firm.html. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
- ^ MacGillis, Alec; Kornblut, Anne E. (December 21, 2007). "Hillary Clinton Embraces Her Husband's Legacy". The Washington Post: p. A1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122102588.html. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
- ^ Applebome, Peter (January 25, 1992). "Arkansas Execution Raises Questions on Governor's Politics". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/25/us/1992-campaign-death-penalty-arkansas-execution-raises-questions-governor-s.html. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
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- ^ "Revenues, Outlays, Deficits, Surpluses, and Debt Held by the Public, 1968 to 2007, in Billions of Dollars" (PDF). Congressional Budget Office. September 2008. http://www.cbo.gov/budget/data/historical.pdf. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
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- ^ U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 103rd Congress – 1st Session, United States Senate. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
- ^ New Nationwide Poll Shows Strong Support for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Protect Family Leave. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
- ^ Richard L. Burke (February 15, 1993). "White House Hones All-Out Campaign to Sell Sacrifice". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/15/us/white-house-hones-all-out-campaign-to-sell-sacrifice.html?scp=3&sq=bill+clinton&st=nyt. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
- ^ "The Clinton Years: Chronology". Frontline: PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/cron/. Retrieved June 13, 2010.
- ^ Woodward, Bob, Maestro, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), p 116
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- ^ Ken Gormley, The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, Crown Publishers (New York), 2010. ISBN 978-0-307-40944-7. pp. 70–71.
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- ^ "Honorary Degrees". UNC-Chapel Hill Office of Faculty Governance. 1993. http://faccoun.unc.edu/awards/honorary-degrees/. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "President Bill Clinton with an honorary doctorate of law". Tulane University. May 19, 2006. http://www.tulane.edu/newwave/cornerpics/051906_grads.html. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "Clinton to address graduates, Honorary doctorate will be bestowed". RIT News, Rochester Institute of Technology. May 18, 2007. http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=45649. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "Clinton Elementary". Compton Unified School District. http://www.compton.k12.ca.us/www/schoolsites/showschool.aspx?id=13900. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
- ^ "William Jefferson Clinton Middle School". Los Angeles Unified School District. http://www.lausd.net/Clinton_MS/. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "Clinton School of Public service". University of Arkansas. http://www.clintonschool.uasys.edu/. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ a b "Kosovo unveils Clinton's statue". BBC News Online. November 1, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8336789.stm. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
- ^ "Kosovo to honor Bill Clinton with statue". Reuters. May 23, 2007. http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/05/23/us-serbia-kosovo-clinton-idUSL2316200920070523. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
- ^ Robert Bridge (November 2, 2009). "Clinton unveils statue to (guess who?) in Kosovo". Russiatoday.com. http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-11-02/clinton-unveils-statue-kosovo.html. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ Van Natta, Don, Jr. (June 28, 1999). "Dinner for a Presidential Library, Contributions Welcome". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/28/us/dinner-for-a-presidential-library-contributions-welcome.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
- ^ "List of Individuals Awarded the Order of the White Lion". Old.hrad.cz. October 13, 2005. http://old.hrad.cz/kpr/rady/rbl_lide_uk.html. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
- ^ "It's now 'Chief Bill Clinton". UPI. December 3, 2006. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2006/12/03/Its-now-Chief-Bill-Clinton/UPI-99431165188768/. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "International Prize of the city of Aachen (German)". Archived from the original on February 6, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080206203817/http://www.karlspreis.de/index.php?id=12&doc=42.
- ^ DeMolay International. "DeMolay Hall of Fame". Demolay.org. http://www.demolay.org/aboutdemolay/halloffame.php. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
- ^ Purdum, Todd S. (October 17, 2002). "Campaign Season; Another First for Clinton". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/17/us/campaign-season-another-first-for-clinton.html. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
- ^ Kentucky Colonels, Honorable Order of. "Colonels website". Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. http://kycolonels.org/index.cgi?id=54. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
- ^ Dunlap, David. "Pataki Offers Peek at 9/11 Memorial Progress", The New York Times (November 23, 2004). Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen presents the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service to President Bill Clinton in a ceremonial farewell at Fort Myer, Va., on Jan. 5, 2001.". U.S. Department of Defense. http://www.defense.gov/photos/newsphoto.aspx?newsphotoid=3174. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
- ^ Elizabeth P. Valk (January 4, 1993). "Bill Clinton, Man of the Year". Time. http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19930104,00.html. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ Nancy Gibbs (December 28, 1998). "Kenneth Starr & Bill Clinton, Men of the Year". Time. http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19981228,00.html. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ The Gallup Poll 1999. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc. 1999. pp. 248–249.
- ^ "William Jefferson Clinton". Fulbright Association. http://www.fulbright.org/saluting-leadership/fulbright-prize/previous-laureates/william-jefferson-clinton. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
- ^ "2007 TED Prize winner Bill Clinton on TEDTalks". TED Blog. April 4, 2007. http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2007/04/2007_ted_prize__2.html. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
Further reading[link]
Primary sources[link]
- Clinton, Bill. (with Al Gore). Science in the National Interest. Washington, D.C.: The White House, August 1994.
- --- (with Al Gore). The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October 1993.
- Taylor Branch The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. (2009) Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-4333-6
- Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1994–2002.
- S. Daniel Abraham Peace is Possible, foreword by Bill Clinton
Popular books[link]
- Peter Baker The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton (2000) ISBN 0-684-86813-X
- James Bovard Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (2000) ISBN 0-312-23082-6
- Joe Conason and Gene Lyons The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (2003) ISBN 0-312-27319-3
- Elizabeth Drew On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994) ISBN 0-671-87147-1
- David Gergen Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership. (2000) ISBN 0-684-82663-1
- Nigel Hamilton Bill Clinton: An American Journey (2003) ISBN 0-375-50610-1
- Christopher Hitchens No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999) ISBN 1-85984-736-6
- Michael Isikoff Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story (1999) ISBN 0-609-60393-0
- Mark Katz Clinton and Me: A Real-Life Political Comedy (2004) ISBN 978-0-7868-6949-7
- David Maraniss The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998) ISBN 0-684-86296-4
- Dick Morris with Eileen McGann Because He Could (2004) ISBN 0-06-078415-6
- Richard A. Posner An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999) ISBN 0-674-00080-3
- Mark J. Rozell The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government (2000) ISBN 0-87840-777-4
- Michael Waldman POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency (2000) ISBN 0-7432-0020-9
- Ivory Tower Publishing Company. Achievements of the Clinton Administration: the Complete Legislative and Executive. (1995) ISBN 0-88032-748-0
Academic studies[link]
- Cohen; Jeffrey E. "The Polls: Change and Stability in Public Assessments of Personal Traits, Bill Clinton, 1993–99" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, 2001
- Cronin, Thomas E. and Michael A. Genovese; "President Clinton and Character Questions" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, 1998
- Davis; John. "The Evolution of American Grand Strategy and the War on Terrorism: Clinton and Bush Perspectives" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003
- Edwards; George C. "Bill Clinton and His Crisis of Governance" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
- Fisher; Patrick. "Clinton's Greatest Legislative Achievement? the Success of the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Bill" White House Studies, Vol. 1, 2001
- Glad; Betty. "Evaluating Presidential Character" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
- William G. Hyland. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (1999) ISBN 0-275-96396-9
- Jewett, Aubrey W. and Marc D. Turetzky; "Stability and Change in President Clinton's Foreign Policy Beliefs, 1993–96" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
- Johnson, Fard. "Politics, Propaganda and Public Opinion: The Influence of Race and Class on the 1993–1994 Health Care Reform Debate", 2004. ISBN 1-4116-6345-4
- Laham, Nicholas, A Lost Cause: Bill Clinton's Campaign for National Health Insurance (1996)
- Lanoue, David J. and Craig F. Emmert; "Voting in the Glare of the Spotlight: Representatives' Votes on the Impeachment of President Clinton" Polity, Vol. 32, 1999
- Maurer; Paul J. "Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior during Two Clinton Scandals" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
- Nie; Martin A. "'It's the Environment, Stupid!': Clinton and the Environment" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997
- O'Connor; Brendon. "Policies, Principles, and Polls: Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics 1992–1996" The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 48, 2002
- Poveda; Tony G. "Clinton, Crime, and the Justice Department" Social Justice, Vol. 21, 1994
- Renshon; Stanley A. The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership Westview Press, 1995
- Renshon; Stanley A. "The Polls: The Public's Response to the Clinton Scandals, Part 1: Inconsistent Theories, Contradictory Evidence" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, 2002
- Rushefsky, Mark E. and Kant Patel. Politics, Power & Policy Making: The Case of Health Care Reform in the 1990s (1998) ISBN 1-56324-956-1
- Schantz, Harvey L. Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (2001) ISBN 0-8153-3583-0
- Wattenberg; Martin P. "The Democrats' Decline in the House during the Clinton Presidency: An Analysis of Partisan Swings" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
- Wattier; Mark J. "The Clinton Factor: The Effects of Clinton's Personal Image in 2000 Presidential Primaries and in the General Election" White House Studies, Vol. 4, 2004
- Smithers, Luken J. "The Miracle Whip"
External links[link]
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- Official
- White House biography
- Clinton Presidential Materials Project Press releases and speech transcripts from the administration.
- Clinton School of Public Service
- Organizations
- William J. Clinton Foundation official website
- Books and movies
- Bill Clinton at the Internet Movie Database
- Works by Bill Clinton on Open Library at the Internet Archive
- Works by Bill Clinton at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Bill Clinton in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Interviews, speeches and statements
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose
- Bill Clinton at the Internet Movie Database
- Bill Clinton at TED Conferences
- Oral History Interview with Bill Clinton from Oral Histories of the American South
- President Clinton: The Youtube Interview
- Full audio of a number of Clinton speeches via the Miller Center of Public Affairs (UVa)
- The Wanderer Profile in The New Yorker, September 2006, the most extensive interview post-presidency
- Media coverage
- Bill Clinton collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English
- Bill Clinton collected news and commentary at The Christian Science Monitor
- Bill Clinton collected news and commentary at The Guardian
- Bill Clinton collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Bill Clinton collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
- Bill Clinton at WhoRunsGov at The Washington Post
- Other
- Extensive essays on Bill Clinton and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
- Armigerous American Presidents Series article from the American Heraldry Society.
- Bill Clinton at C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Clinton, Bill |
| Alternative names | Clinton, William Jefferson (full name) |
| Short description | 42nd President of the United States (1993–2001) |
| Date of birth | August 19, 1946 |
| Place of birth | Hope, Arkansas |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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