Middle East-Israeli Tensions

1996 has been a very turbulent year for Israel. This lies in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995. Rabin's great work in the peace process with it's Arab neighbors has been nearly reversed by Israel's newly elected Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who actively opposed the peace process in the election. Netanyahu's term of service has not only affected Israel politically but also socially, intellectually, religiously, and economically.
In dealing with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians Netanyahu was originally quoted saying that he would only meet with Arafat under special circumstances and that, 'the era of one-sided giving was over.' Warren Christopher, Secretary of State for the U.S., was able to arrange a peace conference with Arafat on the Gaza border. One article called it a , 'Psychological breakthrough' (Netanyahu meets with Clinton). The issues at hand were Israel fulfilling it's pledge to the Palestinians to redeploy it's troops stationed in the West Bank town of Hebron so that they will only guard the 440 Jews who live there, from the tens of thousands of Palestinians. Also at issue were the exit permits given to Palestinians allowing them to go from there jobs in Israel to there homes in Gaza and the and the West Bank. …