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January 11: The annual State Comptroller's report severely criticizes the Labor Party in the realm of party financing, accusing it of "purchasing control of the government."
January 14: Ezer Weizman is put forward as the Labor candidate for president of the state.
January 14: The "sizzling cassette" affair emerges. Likud MK Benjamin Netanyahu announces on TV that he is being blackmailed as a consequence of an affair. He implies that David Levy's camp is responsible for the blackmail.
January 17: Controversial Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz is designated a recipient of the Israel Prize, eliciting public criticism over granting the prize to an advocate of conscientious objection to military service in the occupied territories. Ultimately, Leibowitz relinquishes the prize.
January 19: The Knesset annuls the law prohibiting meetings with the PLO.
January 20 - 22: The first round of talks with the Palestinians takes place in Scarpsborg, near Oslo. There are five participants: Yair Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak on the Israeli side, and Abu Ala'a, Maher el-Kurd and Hassan Asfour representing the Palestinians. A three-point proposal is outlined whose basic approach is "Gaza first".
January 21: MK Yair Levy is sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment for fraud, forgery and theft.
January 23: A road mine explosion in Lebanon causes the death of two IDF soldiers.
January 28: The Supreme Court rules that the deportation of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists in December 1992 was illegal, yet the deportees are not allowed to return.
January 30: Two IDF soldiers are killed in an ambush set by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
February 1: As a result of an agreement with the US, Israel will accept back 100 of the Islamist deportees in Lebanon immediately and the rest in a year.
February 9: A comment by the governor of the Bank of Israel that "the Israeli stock market is a bubble ready to burst" plunges the market into a free fall.
February 11 - 12: The Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meet again in Scarpsborg. They draft a declaration of principles together with a paper setting out "Guidelines for a Regional Marshall Plan" and an Israeli-Palestinian "Cooperation and Working Program". The talks on the declaration run into trouble on four issues.
February 17: France beats Israel in a soccer match in the Ramat Gan Stadium, 4:0.
February 21: Two new chief rabbis are elected: Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron (Sephardi) and Israel Meir Lau (Ashkenazi).
February 26: During a NATO-meeting in Brussels Norwegian foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg informs US secretary of state Warren Christopher about the Oslo back-channel.
March: A spate of terrorist acts throughout the country including stabbings in the Aliyah Market in Tel Aviv, stabbings and stonings of Jews in the Gaza Strip, the stabbing of pupils by a terrorist who bursts into a school in Jerusalem, and the murder of two policemen outside Hadera. The public is tense. Critics call upon Yitzhak Rabin, functioning both as prime minister and defense minister, to resign.
March 16: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin cuts short a visit to the US and returns home in light of the proliferation of terrorist incidents.
March 20 - 22: The third Scarpsborg meeting takes place. The two sides reach solutions for some of the "thorny" issues.
March 24: The Knesset elects Ezer Weizman president of the state by a vote of 66 vs. 53 for the Likud's Dov Shilansky.
March 31: A total closure is imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the wake of the proliferation of the terrorist acts.
March 31: A new police inspector general is appointed: Rafi Peled.
April 13: Three IDF soldiers are killed in southern Lebanon by a road mine explosion.
April 19: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin addresses a national memorial ceremony in Poland commemorating the 50th anniversay of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
April 21: Katyusha barrages land in the Galilee.
April 27: The country's teachers call a strike which continues until May 10.
April: The Palestinian delegation at the Washington talks proclaims a boycott in response to Israel's expulsion of over 450 Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists from the West Bank and Gaza. Yasser Arafat insists that the talks are resumed.
May 2: A government crisis erupts over remarks attributed to Meretz Minister Shulamit Aloni that are viewed by Shas as insulting. Shas threatens to leave the coalition.
May 11: The country's nurses declare a strike which lasts a week.
May 14: In a private talk with Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin agrees to give the Oslo negotiations a chance.
May 14: Uri Savir, Director-General of the Foreign Ministry, is appointed chief negotiator in Oslo. The "Gaza first" approach begins to evolve into "Gaza and Jericho first."
May 16: Fatah and Hamas terrorists kill two Israeli fruit-and-vegetable wholesalers in Gaza.
May 19: The Meretz-Shas crisis continues. Rabin temporarily takes over the interior (Deri's) and education and culture (Aloni's) portfolios.
May 22: The Guns 'n Roses rock group draws an audience of 50,000 at a performance in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park.
May 24: In a tragedy in Lebanon, two IDF paratrooper units fire at each other, resulting in 4 fatalities and 3 wounded.
May 28: A Yeshiva student is murdered in Hebron on his way to his prayers in the Makhpelah Cave.
May 30: The government crisis is resolved by means of a rotation of portfolios. Shulamit Aloni becomes minister of communications, science and technology; Shimon Shetreet - economy and planning; Amnon Rubinstein - education and culture; and Moshe Shahal - energy, in addition to police which he already holds.
June 2: Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, aged 82, announces that he will run for another term despite a previous commitment to retire.
June: Abu Ala'a proposes the subject that Jericho will become the administrative center of the autonomous Palestinian territory. He suggests "a symbolic withdrawal from Jericho or another place in the West Bank." The PLO's point is that the first phase of the agreement must signal that the self-government will be taking effect on the West Bank and not only in Gaza.
June: Attorney Yoel Singer joins the peace team in Oslo.
June 10: Meeting between Prime Minister Rabin, Foreign Minister Peres and Oslo negotiators Yossi Beilin and Yoel Singer. It emphasizes the need to ensure that the IDF's redeployment, first in Gaza and Jericho and then in the whole West Bank, be clearly defined in the Declaration of Principles as a matter for Israel's sole discretion.
June 14: The Oslo team meets again in Scarpsborg.
June 15 - 16: Pop star Elton John arrives in Israel and performs for an audience of tens of thousands in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park.
June 20: Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri is charged with breach of trust and fraud.
June 28: Katyusha missiles land in Kiyat Shmonah, wounding 6 persons.
June 28: In an attempt to halt the free fall of the stock market, Finance Minister Avraham Shohat announces stock market profits will not be taxed. The market revives.
June: Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky visits Israel. In a speech at the Knesset he admits Austria’s "moral responsibility, because many Austrians welcomed the "Anschluss", supported the Nazi-regime and helped it to function" and asking "for forgiveness of those who survived and forgiveness of the relatives of the victims"
July 1: Hamas terrorists kill two women in Jerusalem and wound one man.
July 7 - 21: The public sector strikes over a demand to raise salaries.
July 8 - 10: The security situation in the north deteriorates. Five IDF soldiers are killed and 8 are wounded in two attacks from Lebanon.
July 20 - 25: Tension continues in the north. Katyushas barrages target the Galilee, resulting in fatalities and injuries, while the IDF is attacked unremittingly in southern Lebanon.
July 25 - 30: Operation Accountability is launched by the IDF in southern Lebanon. Hesbollah concentrations are bombed intensively. More than 55 villages are severely damaged and 300,000 civilians are displaced. Many residents of Kiryat Shmonah leave for the south. The operation evokes criticism from some quarters, including US President Bill Clinton. The Americans mediate a cease-fire on July 30.
July 29: The Supreme Court acquits John Demjanjuk of crimes against the Jews during World War II on the basis of plausible doubt, and rules that he be deported.
July: Norwegian Foreign Minister Johan Jorgen Holst meets Yasser Arafat in Tunis. Arafat observes that Gaza has no religious significance for the Israelis. To withdraw solely from Gaza would be construed as signifying that Israel intends to hold on to all the areas that do have religious significance for Judaism - the entire West Bank. Arafat would find it impossible to convince his people of "Gaza first" without Jericho.
July: Throughout the Oslo process, Israel is determined not to make any political concessions on Jerusalem. During a meeting with Norwegian mediators Terje Larson and Mona Juul, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres warns that if the Palestinians insisted on dealing with Jerusalem in the Declaration of Principles, they would destroy the negotiations.
August: Terrorist incidents targeting both soldiers and civilians continue.
August 12: The Israeli government declares its willingness to negotiate publicly with the PLO.
August 15: 400 of the deported Hamas activists agree to Israel's proposal to return in groups until December.
August 18: In a telephone marathon Norwegain Foreign Minister Johan Jorgen Holst explains Israel's position to the PLO headquarter in Tunis. The main points of the declaration are accepted.
August 17: The new central bus station in Tel Aviv is inaugurated.
August 19: The IDF suffers a heavy loss of 9 fatalities in a series of incidents in southern Lebanon.
August 20: The "Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements" is signed in Oslo by the Israeli negotiators, the PLO and the Norwegian mediators. Most Israelis welcome the agreement, with the exception of the rightist camp and the settlers of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Within the Palestinian population, more people approve it than oppose it.
August 30: The government approves the "Declarations of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements" (later known as the Oslo Accords). The Right demonstrates against the agreement.
September 1: Foreign Minister Shimon Peres confirms the reports about secret negotiations with the PLO.
September 2: An IDF intelligence colonel, Shimon Levinson, is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and is sentenced to 12 years in prison.
September 4: The central committee of the Fatah approves the Declaration of Principles. Jordan and the Gulf States declare their readiness to support the Oslo process.
September 8: Minister of Interior, Aryeh Deri, resigns.
September 9: A group of 181 of the Islamist deportees in Lebanon are permitted to return to their homes in the West Bank and in Gaza.
September 10: Israel and the PLO exchange mutual recognition letters.
September 12: A wave of terrorism deluges Israel, obviously timed to precede the signing of the Declaration of Principles with the PLO.
September 13: The "Declarations of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements" is signed in Washington, DC. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres signs in behalf of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in behalf of the PLO. Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton shake hands.
September 14: The Common Agenda signed in Washington constitutes the blueprint for a peace treaty with Jordan, comprising the following components: security, water, refugees and displaced persons, borders and territorial matters.
September 19: American pop star Michael Jackson perfoms in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park for an enthusiastic audience of 70,000.
September 21: John Demjanjuk is deported from Israel after a series of petitions to the court to prevent his release is rejected.
September 24: Yasser Arafat orders the end of the military actions of the PLO against Israel.
October 1: Peace activist Abie Nathan closes his "Voice of Peace" radio station, declaring: "The goal has been achieved."
October 4: A booby-trapped car rams a bus carrying IDF soldiers near Bet El, wounding 29.
October 5: Rock star Madonna performs in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park for an audience of 50,000.
October 6: Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat meet in Cairo.
October 10: Two hikers are murdered in Wadi Kelt east of Jerusalem.
October 12: The central committee of the Fatah approves the Declaration of Principles in Tunis.
October 13: The Declaration of Principles is implemented. Negotiations on the self-government in the Gaza Strip and in Jericho begin in Taba.
October 14: Another trial launching of the Israeli-made Arrow missile results in what experts call "80% - 90% success".
October 23: Dr. David Alexander is appointed director general of the Habimah theater, and Gari Bilu artistic director.
October 24: Two reserve soldiers are kidnapped and murdered in the Gaza Strip.
October 29: A resident of Bet El is murdered.
November 2: Local elections are held throughout the country. Ehud Olmert defeats veteran Mayor Teddy Kollek in Jerusalem; Roni Milo beats Avigdor Kahalani in Tel Aviv; Amram Mitzna is Haifa's new mayor.
November 4: Israeli television's commercial Second Channel begins operations.
November 7: Yeshiva head Rabbi Chaim Druckman is wounded and his driver is killed by shots fired by terrorists near Hebron. The settlers riot in the wake of the incident.
November 8: King Juan Carlos of Spain visits Israel.
November 15: The US Senat approves the annulment of sanctions against the PLO.
November 28: Abie Nathan scuttles his "Voice of Peace" ship for lack of funds to maintain it.
December 2: Yitzhak Rabin visits Germany.
December 7: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat visits Germany.
December 5 : Terrorist attacks continue. President Ezer Weizman for the formation of a national unity government in the wake of the critical situation.
December 13: The withdrawal of the Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and from Jericho is postponed after disagreements about the extent of the self-government in Jericho, the responsibility for the controls at the borders to Egypt and Jordan and the security of the Jewish settlers.
December 15: Israel permits approximately 200 of the Islamist deportees to return from southern Lebanon to the West Bank and Gaza.
December 30: Israel and the Vatican agree to establish diplomatic relations.
December: Rabbi Shlomo Goren, former Chief Rabbi of Israel and Chief Rabbi of the IDF, publishes a ruling forbidding Jews to evacuate any settlement in the biblical Land of Israel, which includes Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and declares that Israeli soldiers should disobey any such evacuation orders.
December: Inflation in 1993 is 11.2%.
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