...
AJANUARY
After five
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
nnounces she is resigning
from Congress.
years as a
Names captiv
IDF soldier
Gilad Shalit is
-re ease
DECEMBER •
Na'ama Margolis,
8, with her mother,
says she is afraid
to walk to her
Modern Orthodo
girls' school for
fear that the haredi
Orthodox men who
protest outside of
the school will hurt
her.
IA
A JULY
MAY
Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
-President Obama speaking at a
Shamir dies at 96.
_White House reception honoring
, Jewish American Heritage Month
on May 31, 2012. (White House
photo) -
at the highlights of 5772.
JTA Staff
T
he following is a review of the
news highlights of the Jewish
year 5772.
September 2011
An Egyptian mob breaks into the Israeli
Embassy in Cairo and Israeli personnel
are stuck inside for hours until Egyptian
commandos arrive at the scene. Israeli
Air Force jets evacuate the Israelis from
the country. The attack exacerbates fears
in Israel that it is losing a once-reliable
ally to the south.
The Palestinians submit their bid
for statehood recognition to the U.N.
Security Council. In speeches at the U.N.
General Assembly, President Obama
rejects the Palestinians' unilateral
approach, saying that Israel's security
concerns are legitimate and must be
addressed. In dueling speeches in the
same forum, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
18 September 13 2012
trade charges of ethnic cleansing.
Lauren Bush, granddaughter of the
first President Bush and niece of the
second, marries Ralph Lauren's son in a
ceremony presided over by an ordained
rabbi.
Turkey expels Israel's ambassador to
the country and downgrades diplomatic
and military ties.
A California court finds 10 students
affiliated with the Muslim Student Union
at the University of California, Irvine,
guilty of two misdemeanor counts for
disrupting a speech in February 2010 by
Israel's ambassador to the United States,
Michael Oren.
Some 15 countries announce before
the Durban Review Conference known as
Durban III that they will boycott the pro-
ceedings. The one-day session receives
little attention amid all the goings-on at
the United Nations.
October
Turkey agrees to accept Israel's help after
initially rejecting assistance during an
earthquake there that kills 430 people
and injures 1,000.
The terrorist organization Hamas
releases Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit after
the Israeli Cabinet approves a deal in
exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian
prisoners. Cheering crowds greet Shalit
when he finally returns to his family
home in Mitzpe Hila after five years
in captivity. Less than a week after the
Shalit deal, Egypt agrees to release dual
American-Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel
in exchange for 25 Egyptians, and he
reunites with his mother.
The United States stops paying its dues
to UNESCO following the U.N. cultural
and scientific agency's vote to grant
full membership to the Palestinians. A
month later, UNESCO calls for emergen-
cy donations because of the loss of U.S.
funding. Israel also cuts tax payments to
the Palestinian Authority.
The New York Times reports that
President Obama is considering grant-
ing clemency to convicted Israeli spy
Jonathan Pollard, but Vice President Joe
Biden objects, telling the president that
Pollard would be released "over my dead
body." Biden subsequently agrees to meet
with Jewish leaders to press the case for
Pollard, a U.S. Navy civilian analyst who
was convicted in 1987 and has been serv-
ing life sentence in a federal prison.
Five Jewish scientists win 2011
Nobel Prizes: Israeli professor Daniel
Shechtman, chemistry; University of
California physicist Saul Perlmutter,
physics, with Johns Hopkins astronomer
Adam Riess; and immunologists Ralph
Steinman and Bruce Beutler, medicine.
American Jewish clergy and orga-
nizational leaders condemn an arson
attack on a mosque in northern Israel by
extremist West Bank Jewish settlers.
A protest encampment in Lower
Manhattan takes on an increasingly
Jewish flavor as services are organized
for Yom Kippur and a sukkah is installed
for the holiday of Sukkot. Critics charge
that the so-called Occupy movement,
Year In Review on page 20