Bookstore Glossary Library Links News Publications Timeline Virtual Israel Experience
Anti-Semitism Biography History Holocaust Israel Israel Education Myths & Facts Politics Religion Travel US & Israel Vital Stats Women
donate subscribe Contact About Home

Timeline of Jewish History: Modern Israel & the Diaspora

(2010 - Present)

Click on a Year: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015
Other Periods: 1940's | 1950's | 1960's | 1970's | 1980's | 1990's | 2000's

2010
January 11
IAF airstrike killed four Islamic Jihad operatives, including Awad Abu Nasir, one of the terror organization's senior field commanders known to be behind dozens of IED and gunfire attacks.
February 1
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip with close ties to Hamas, tries to carry out an attack on Israel by placing bombs in barrels and sending them into the Mediterranean Sea from the Gaza coast.
February 10

NCO Sgt 1st Class Ihab Khatib, 28, of the Arab-Druze village of Kfar Maghar, is knifed to death at the Tapuach junction in the West Bank by a senior Palestinian police officer.

March 18

A Thai greenhouse worker is killed when a Kassam rocket fired by Gaza terrorists explodes in the Netiv Ha’asara area. Ansar al-Sunna and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade both claim responsibility for the attack.

March 26
A team of IDF soldiers from the Golani Brigade is ambushed and attacked with mortar shells and gunfire after crossing the border into the Gaza Strip when several people are seen placing explosive devices near the Israeli security fence. Two soldiers are killed and three are injured. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claim responsibility for the attack.
May 27
May 31
Israeli naval forces intercepted six ships attempting to break the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. During the boarding of the Mavi Marmara, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF naval personnel. As a result of the violence, seven soldiers were wounded and there were nine activist casualties.
June 11
A Palestinian militant attempts to run over two Israeli border policemen in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz. Other members of the border police force at the scene shoot and critically injure the driver as he tries to escape. The two policemen are lightly injured and receive medical treatment on the spot
June 14
One Israeli policeman is killed and three policemen are injured when Palestinian militants open fire on a their vehicle on Highway 60, south of Hebron.
June 20
The Israeli Security Cabinet votes to further ease the land blockade on the Gaza Strip to allow in all food items and additional humanitarian aid.
July 7
The IDF releases images of declassified intelligence maps that show how Hizballah, in the four years following the Second Lebanon War, has turned over 100 villages in South Lebanon into military bases.
July 26
Six Israeli soldiers and one Romanian soldier die in an Israel Air Force helicopter crash, during a joint Israeli-Romanian aviation exercise in northern Romania.
July 30

A series of Israeli airstrikes killed a senior commander of the Hamas military wing, Issa Batran.

August 5

Elena Kagan is sworn as a Supreme Court Justice.

September 1
Direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, hosted by the U.S., resume.
November 4
The Shin Bet and the Israeli Air Force successfully carried out an operation to kill Mohammed Namnam, a senior al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist, by a car bomb in Gaza City. Namnam was a top operative with the Army of Islam, a radical Palestinian terror group affiliated with al-Qaida and involved in the 2006 abduction of Gilad Shalit.

2011
January
Meir Dagan replaced by Tamir Pardo as Director of the Mossad.
January 11
Islamic Jihad operative Mohammed Najar, who was involved in the planning of a terror attack in Israel, was killed in an IAF targeted airstrike while riding a motorcycle in the Gaza Strip.
January 17
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announces he will leave the Labor Party to establish a new faction with other legislators called Atzmaut (Independence).
January 23

Al Jazeera releases The Palestine Papers, revealing a trove of documents, e-mails and minutes of meetings, shedding light on 10 years of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

March 11
Udi Fogel, 36, and Ruth Fogel, 35, along with three of their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and 3-month-old Hadas were stabbed to death by terrorists in their home in Itamar, in northern Samaria, on Friday night.
March 15
IDF Navy fighters intercepted the cargo vessel "Victoria" loaded with various weaponry. The vessel, flying under a Liberian flag, was intercepted some 200 miles west of Israel's coast. The Victoria carried as much as 50 tons of weapons along with a large amount of 60 and 120 mm mortar shells.
March 23
One woman, identified by the police as a 56-year-old British tourist, was killed and about 50 wounded when a bomb exploded across from the Jerusalem Convention Center, near the Central Bus Station. The bomb had been placed near a telephone booth at a crowded bus stop next to Egged city bus #74.
March 27
Israel and Russia signed a framework agreement for cooperation between the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Israel space agency. The agreement, which was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, enhances cooperation between the Israeli and Russian space agencies in the fields of space research, observation, navigation, medicine and biology in space, research in advanced materials and launchings.
March 28
IDF Home Front Command and Medical Corps aid delegation to Japan arrived at Minami Sanriku in the Miyagi prefecture, a city handling many displaced persons. The following day, they opened an advanced medical clinic featuring pediatrics, surgical, maternity and gynecological, and otolaryngology wards, an optometry department, a laboratory, a pharmacy and an intensive care unit.
March 30
IAF aircraft struck a terrorist cell in the southern Gaza Strip, killing member of Islamic Jihad. According to the IDF the cell was responsible for firing rockets into Israel.
April 1
Justice Richard Goldstone published an article in the Washington Post refuting his "Goldstone Report" issued in the aftemath of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza during the winter of 2008-9. The report had originally claimed that Israel intentionally attacked civilian targets among other war crimes; Justice Goldstone said that after more evidence came to light he now understands that Israel did not knowingly attack Palestinian civilians.
April 2

IAF aircraft killed three Palestinian terrorists and critically wounded one in the southern Gaza Strip in a strike aimed at the terrorist squad planning to kidnap Israelis in the Sinai Peninsula and Israel during the upcoming Passover holiday.

April 7
Daniel Viflic, 16, of Bet Shemesh, died (April 17) of mortal wounds suffered when an anti-tank missile was fired at a school bus in the Negev near Kibbutz Sa'ad just moments after it had dropped off the rest of the school children.
April 8
The Israeli developed Iron Dome anti-missile system successfully shoots down its first two rockets fired by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. The rockets, aimed towards Israeli communities in the south, were immediately destroyed on impact by Iron Dome missiles which were released mere seconds after the initial launches. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the incident a first in military history.
April 24
Ben-Yosef Livnat, 24, of Jerusalem was killed by a Palestinian policeman at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus.
April 27
Fatah, led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, rulers of the Gaza Strip, signed a reconciliation agreement in Cairo to reform a unity government that had been split since the two parties violently broke awat from the government in 2007.
April 29
Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh urged the PLO Friday to rescind its recognition of Israel in response to the Jewish state's objection to the Palestinian unity agreement. Haniyeh said that there was no justification for recognizing the ‘Israeli entity’ in wake of Israel's objection to Palestinian rights and unity.
May 12
John Demjanjuk was found guilty of being an accessory to the murders of tens of thousands of Jews while he served as Nazi guard at Sobibor death camp in Poland during World War II. The German court charged Demjanjuk for his involvement in 27,900 murders and sentenced the 91-year-old to five years in prison.
May 24
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in front of a joint session of the U.S. Congress to outline his desires for peace in the region and his calls to the Palestinian Authority to sit down for negotiations without preconditions. He also called on PA President Abbas to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. Netanyahu received a very warm welcome and the congressmen gave standing ovations throughout the speech.
June 3
For the fourth time during his presidency, U.S. President Barack Obama delayed for six months the moving of the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the capital, Jerusalem. Ever since 1995, when the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act was passed by Congress ordering the transfer of the U.S. embassy, every president has routinely delayed the move.
June 23
The IDF welcomed its ever female major general, as Orna Barbivai was promoted as commander of the Manpower Directorate. Her rank is the IDF’s second-highest, directly reporting to Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, IDF chief of staff. Barbivai has served in the IDF for 30 years, devoting her entire army career to the directorate.
July 19
Israeli naval forces intercepted the vessel Al-Karama which had attempted to break Israel's blockade and reach the Hamas-controlled territory of the Gaza Strip. Unlike the flotilla that attempted the same provocation in the summer of 2010, the passengers on the vessel did not attack IDF forces who boarded the ship and, without incident, they were transferred to the Israeli port of Ashdod for medical examinations and to be sent home. There were no humanitarian supplies on the boat.
August 6
Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians marched in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, among other places throughout the country, to demand government assistance in lowering the cost of living and to help subsidize housing. The cost to own or rent homes in these major cities has skyrocketed over the past few years to a level far above that seen almost anywhere in the world, including the United States, Germany and France. The demonstrations, led mainly by students and young professionals, were started days earlier when protesters began living in tents along major roadways to show their discontent with the policies of the government
August 18

Eight Israelis were killed and more than forty (40) wounded in coordinated terrorist attacks against multiple civilian and military targets on desert Highway 12, just north of the coastal city of Eilat. Terrorists killed six civilians after firing automatic weapons at a passenger bus headed from Be'er Sheva to Eilat and after attacking an empty bus with suicide bombs. One IDF soldier was killed when his jeep struck an IED on the same highway as his unit was responding to the attacks. The eighth victim, a veteran member of the Israeli police special SWAT unit, was killed during intense fighting with the retreating terrorists.

Hamas terrorists in Gaza launched mortar rounds and shot Qassam rockets towards Israel immediately after the terrorist attacks and continued firing rockets into the next day. At least two rockets were intercepted and destroyed by an Iron Dome battery stationed outside the Gaza Strip.

August 29
Eight people were wounded in south Tel Aviv when a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Nablus rammed a stolen car into a group of policemen and teenagers outside a popular night club and then proceeded to stab people before being apprehended. Tel Aviv District Police Commander Aharon Eksol said the attack was "definitely an act of terror".
September 23
Asher Palmer, 25, and his year old son Yonatan, of Kiryat Arba in the West Bank were killed when their car crashed on Route 60 near Hebron after being struck by stones thrown by Palestinians from a nearby village. Though the Israeli security services orignally said it was a routine car accident, they later changed the story when they concluded they were indeed killed in a terrorist attack.
September 23
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the opening plenary of the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly directly following a plea from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for the United Nations to recognize the State of Palestine. Netanyahu pledges that he will continue to work towards peace and two-state solution with the Palestinians but that unilateral actions such as Abbas' request from the UN are only detrimental to the peace process.
October 11
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announces that the Israeli Cabinet and Hamas have agreed in signing to a deal that will secure the release of captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for the freeing of more than 1,000 Palestinians prisoners in Israeli jails.
October 18
In the early afternoon hours, IDF Sergeant First-Class Gilad Shalit crosses the border into Israel and is officially free from his captivity of more than five years in the Gaza Strip. Simultaneously, Israel permits the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners in the first stage of an exchange that will eventually see 1,027 prisoners freed. The majority of those freed today are exiled out of the area, around 150 are sent to the Gaza Strip and less than 100 back to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
October 29
Moshe Ami, a 56 year old resident of Ashkelon, dies from shrapnel wounds incurred after his car was struck by a GRAD rocket launched by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. He is survived by his mother Zvia and sister Zehava, four children, Nira, Shlomi, Rachel and Yossi, and five grandchildren.

2012
May 8
Israeli Prime Minister, and head of the Likud party,Benjamin Netanyahu forms a coalition government with Shaul Mofaz, head of Kadima opposition party.  With 94 Knesset members supporting the merger, the coalition becomes Israel's largest sinec 1984.
May 8
Jewish American author Maurice Sendak, most famous for his book Where the Wild Things Are, dies at the age of 83.
May 22
Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli named Maxim Magazine's "Most Beautiful Woman on Earth" for 2012.
May 23
A 2,700-year-old clay shard with an ancient Hebrew inscription mentioning the city of Bethlehem was found in an archaeological dig in Jerusalem, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. The shard, measuring less than one inch across, was found by crews sifting through debris removed from the excavation site known as the City of David, just outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.  Head archaeologist Eli Shukron said the inscriptions on the shard are significant because they are the first archaeological evidence that Bethlehem existed as a city during the period generally referred to by biblical archaeologists as the First Temple era.
May 30
Israeli chess Grandmaster Boris Gelfand places second in 2012 Chess World Championsip after falling short in the rapid playoff rounds.
June 1
IDF Staff Sergeant Netanal Moshiashvili, a 20 year old resident of Ashkelon who served as a paramedic in the Golani Infantry Brigade, was killed in an exchanged of gunfire between IDF soldiers and Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip.  During the fight, the attacking terrorist, from the Hamas organization, was killed.

2013
February 1
Ed Koch dies at age 88.The former army sergeant, lawyer, political commentator, and congressmen served as mayor of New York City from 1978 until 1979.  He was the first New York mayor to win both the Republican and Democratic tickets.
February 27
Jack Lew, 57, is confirmed as the 76th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
February 28
Yitiyish Aynaw, 22, becomes the first black and first Ethiopian-Israeli Miss Israel. She was invited to attend Shimon Peres gala as a guest of President Obama.
February 28
Dr. Alasdair Conn, Chief of Emergency Services at Massachusetts General Hospital, says in a report that it was Israeli expertise and techniques that helped set up triage in the hours after the bombings at the Boston marathon finish line.
June 28
Andrew Driscoll Pochter, a 21-year old student at Kenyon College, from Chevy Chase, Maryland was fatally stabbed in Alexandria, Egypt during clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood and ant-President Morsi protestors.
July 28 Ester Levanon resigns as CEO of the Tel Aviv stock exchange. She was the first woman appointed to the position..
October 28 Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Shas party founder and spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef dies at age 93.
November 6 Former Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman is acquitted of fraud.
December 4 Israeli actress Gal Gadot is announced as Wonder Woman in Warner Brother’s “Batman vs. Superman” starring Ben Affleck. The film is set to be released summer 2016.
December 10
The Knesset passes the “Law to Advance Competition and Limit Monopolization” in response to anti-trust fervor among Israelis.

2014
January 7
Elan Carr, district attorney prosecutor in Los Angeles, announces his candidacy for Congress in California's 33rd district.
January 30
Henry Waxman, Congressman from California's 33rd district, announces he will not seek reelection to a twenty-first term in 2014.
March 2
Between 300,000 and 500,000 people gather in Jerusalem to protest proposed legislation requiring orthodox Yeshiva students to serve in the IDF for the first time since 1977. Adjunct protests were held around the world, including 50,000 protestors in New York City on March 9.
June 10
Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor loses Republican primary election in the seventh district.  Cantor announced his resignation as House Majority leader, effective July 31. He is the only currently-serving Jewish Republican member of Congress.
June 12
Three Israeli teenagers (Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer, Eyal Yifrah) are kidnapped from Gush Etzion, later to be found dead.
July 28 In response to a surge in rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, the IDF announces Operation Protective Edge to eliminate rocket fire from Gaza.
August 5 After 50 days, the IDF announces the end of the ground offensive portion of Operation Protective Edge.
December 2 Netanyahu fires Tzipi Livni and Yair Lapid after disagreements over new settlements and a controversial Israeli Jewish nationalism bill. 
December 8 The Knesset voted to disolve itself following problems within Netanyahu's cabinet.  Netanyahu called for new elections, which will be held on March 17 2015. 

2015
January
Israel sends a relief team to provide aid and assistance to the Philipino victims of Typhoon Hagupit (Ruby), which devastated the islands during December 2014.
January
The IDF launched 14 new programs during 2014.
January
The Fouad Debbas photo collection is added to the Jewish Virtual Library.
January
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and and Canadian Department of Trade, Foreign Affairs, and Development, sign a Memorandum of Understanding.
January 28
The oldest human remains ever found outside of Africa are unearthed in the Cave of Manot in Northern Israel.
January 31
The OPCW announces that the destruction of the first of Syria's chemical weapons facilities has been completed.
February
Israel is ranked fourth in the world on Bloomberg Business' Global Innovation Index.
February
Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon made the first official visit of an Israeli Defense Minister to India.
March
Ben-Gurion University and the University of Arizona sign a collaborative research agreement.
March
Israel suspends plans to construct approximately 1,000 settlements in Har Homa.
March 18
Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party are victorious during the election, winning 30 seats in the Knesset.
April 20
The British Royal Society and the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities sign a major joint research agreement.
April 20
The organization Women of the Wall read a full-sized torah at the Western Wall for the first time ever. Women are not allowed to pray with Torahs at the Wall, and Orthodox men attacked the women.
April 30
Director Steve Tisch (Forest Gump, The Equalizer), an alumnus of Tel Aviv University, donated $10 million to the university's film program.
April-May
The IDF sent relief and assistance to Nepal, after the country was rocked by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake. Magen David Adom participated in the efforts.
May Israel sent an observer representative to the UN month-long nuclear non-proliferation conference for the first time in 20 years.
May 14 The Knesset approves Netanyahu's cabinet list.
July Israel provides Jordan with a fleet of Cobra helicopters to improve border security.
August 5 An ancient Mikveh, or ritual bathhouse, was uncovered while constructing a pre-school in Jerusalem.
August 17 100 year anniversary of the lynching of Leo Frank.
August The Eye From Zion organization travelled to Kyrgyzstan and performed restorative optical procedures on 90 individuals.
September 9 Zambia opens their embassy in Israel.
September 9 The Israeli embassy in Egypt opens for the first time in four years, following closure due to instability during the Arab Spring.