israel

2005 Marked Another Turbulent Year for Israel

By Chris Mitchell
Middle East Bureau Chief

CBN.com – JERUSALEM, Israel - From Israel’s Gaza pullout, to the threat of a nuclear Iran, to the prospects of a papal visit, Israel and its neighbors kept drawing the world's spotlight.

Israel's most traumatic event in decades - the forced evacuation of thousands of Jews from the Gaza Strip - pitted Jew against Jew and tore at the fabric of Israeli society. Ariel Sharon’s controversial plan to prove to the world that Israel would make "painful concessions" for peace became the most reported story of the year, and may have set the stage for more evacuations of Jews from the West Bank.

After he changed the geographical map of Israel, Sharon then transformed Israel’s political map. He abandoned the Likud, a party he helped found more than 30 years ago - and started a new political party called Kadima.

Sharon’s move left the Likud and political rivals like Benjamin Netanyahu far back in the polls. Sharon is far and away the front-runner for prime minister when elections are held next spring.

Palestinians face crucial elections next year too. Those elections follow the first year in office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas presided over a growing lawlessness and anarchy in the Palestinian territories.

With Palestinians now completely controlling the Gaza Strip, some security analysts say it is a center for global terror. Terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and even young rebels in Abbas’ own Fatah party pose a threat to Yasser Arafat’s life-long aide, Abbas.

Heading into those January 2006 elections, Abbas and the Palestinian Authority face an uncertain future.

Political uncertainty also marked Israel’s northern neighbor, Lebanon in 2005. Syrian troops finally left Lebanon in April after years of occupation. But a string of political assassinations, including Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, left that country's political future in doubt.

But there was little doubt about who might be coming to the Middle East in 2006. This year, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority extended invitations to newly elected Pope Benedict the 16th.

The Pope accepted the invitations and his visit will be the first since his predecessor Pope John Paul II came to the Holy Land in 2000. Pope John Paul’s death in 2005 marked the passing of an era, and one time during the year when leaders from all over the world gathered to honor one of the most influential men of the past century.

The world knew Pope John Paul II as a man who prayed for peace. But with the prospects of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, along with its president's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map," peace seemed as elusive as ever in the Middle East in 2005.

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