1993: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat join President Clinton at the White House to approve the Oslo Accords, an outline for limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1996: Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Israel’s prime minister.
2000: Clinton is unable to bring Arafat and the new Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, to agreement on a final accord.
2003: A “road map” for peace is forged by the Middle East Quartet (the United States, Russia, European Union, and United Nations). It requires Israel to halt settlement building on occupied lands, and calls on both sides to curtail violence.
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2005: After Arafat’s death in 2004, Mahmoud Abbas is elected the Palestinian president. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel pulls settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip.
2006: Hamas wins Palestinian parliamentary election and forms a government not recognized by Israel and the West.
2007: Islamists take control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s forces. President Bush brings Abbas and Sharon’s successor, Ehud Olmert, to Annapolis, Md., in a new peace effort.
2008: Abbas pulls out of the talks when Olmert launches an offensive on Hamas-run Gaza.
2009: President Obama names George Mitchell, the former Northern Ireland peace mediator, as the new Mideast envoy. Netanyahu returns to office as prime minister, and says he accepts the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, with conditions to protect Israel’s security. He also declares a partial halt to building in West Bank settlements.
2010: Direct peace talks resume but end after a few weeks when Israel refuses to extend its partial settlement freeze.
2011: Abbas’s government reaches a reconciliation deal with Hamas. Obama calls on Israel to give Palestinians territory it has occupied since 1967. Netanyahu says he is prepared to give up land for peace, but Palestinians call his conditions unacceptable. Abbas asks the UN to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
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July 19: Secretary of State John Kerry announces a tentative agreement to resume peace talks.
July 29: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators gather in Washington for meetings to lay the groundwork for the new talks.