April 8, 1960 U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold for the first time publicly criticizes Egypt’s confiscation of Israeli cargo on ships going through the Suez Canal. The Egyptian closure of the Straits of Tiran and the…
March 10, 1960 Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower meet for more than two hours at the White House. “This was the first opportunity I have had of seeing President Eisenhower…
July 14, 1958 Iraqi army officers stage a coup and overthrow and kill King Faisal. Also killed is Iraq’s crown prince, whose body is left hanging outside the Defense Ministry. Iraqis celebrate, but Western powers…
May 26, 1958 Four Israeli police officers and the chairman of the United Nations’ Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission are fatally shot by Jordanian fire in the demilitarized zone on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. Both Israel…
January 30, 1958 At a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles tells Baghdad Pact states that the United States is committed to assisting their defense programs. This statement is seen…
September 30, 1957 French Prime Minister Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury backdates to today his signature on a letter granting Israel’s request for France’s cooperation in building a heavy-water nuclear reactor and reprocessing facility. He actually signs the…
In a nationally televised address to the American people, President Dwight Eisenhower discusses the tense situation in the Middle East in the aftermath of the October 1956 Suez War.
The Knesset debates Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s announcement that Israeli troops would withdraw from Sinai following the 1956 Suez War.
January 25, 1956 Abba Eban, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, and John Foster Dulles, the U.S. secretary of state, discuss a proposal for the United States to sell Israel $50 million worth of weapons…
September 27, 1955 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser uses a speech at a military exhibition to announce that Czechoslovakia will supply heavy Soviet weaponry to his nation. The deal is said to be worth more…
August 26, 1955 Secretary of State John Foster Dulles delivers a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations that points to the Eisenhower administration’s new plan to launch covert discussions between Israeli Prime Minister David…
Two Israeli paratrooper platoons made up of approximately fifty IDF soldiers storm an Egyptian army camp in Gaza. The raid is a reprisal for continued fedayeen (Palestinian militants) attacks against Israeli civilians.
Shortly after assuming the Presidency of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Selig Brodetsky suffered a major heart attack.
April 17, 1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser, 36, is appointed the prime minister of Egypt. Nasser’s interest in politics goes back to age 12 when he accidentally participated in an ultranationalist protest calling for the overthrow…
September 2, 1953 Israel starts work on a project to divert some of the water of the Jordan River at the B’not Yaakov (Daughters of Jacob) Bridge in the north of the state for use…
May 11, 1953 U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles arrives in Cairo at the start of a 2½-week fact-finding trip to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Turkey and Libya. Dulles emphasizes…
The Soviet Embassy in Tel Aviv is bombed, injuring one diplomat and the wives of two others, in an attack blamed on the Kingdom of Israel terrorist group. The Israeli government apologies, but the Soviets break off diplomatic relations.
At the end of the traditional thirty-day mourning period for Israel’s first President Chaim Weizmann, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi is inaugurated as Israel’s second President in a Knesset ceremony.
Eliahu Elath presents his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II and becomes Israel’s first Ambassador to the United Kingdom (officially called the Ambassador to the Court of St. James).
January 9, 1952 The Knesset ends three days of debate by voting 61-50 to accept more than $800 million in Holocaust reparations from the Western German government over 14 years. The decision sparks protests and…
Ben-Gurion’s trip, the first visit by an Israeli Prime Minister to the US, includes a tour of hydroelectric and water projects in Tennessee and Alabama.
Jordan formally annexes the West Bank and East Jerusalem, allowing the Palestinian inhabitants therein to obtain Jordanian citizenship.
Shaikh Yusuf Yassin, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, states that “Arab states would never agree to any working relationship with Israel.”
March 3, 1950 The Iraqi government retracts a policy banning emigration to move to Israel, on the condition that Jews give up their Iraqi citizenship when they leave the country. In addition, those who previously…
