In Retrospect: Some Past April Events for Israel, Jews and the US in the World

Public domain – This from British Pathe Video

A retrospective selection – but not a comprehensive compendium – of some  significant past April events with respect to Israel, Jews, the Middle East and the United States

Israel and Anti-Israel

In April 1961, almost a year after Adolf Eichmann’s capture in Argentina;  the Eichmann Trial began in Jerusalem (concluding in December 1961 with guilty verdicts and a sentence of death). Trial Video ..In 1967, arguably the countdown to the start of the “Six Day War” began when Israel shot down six Syrian MIGs.
…1974: Golda Meir resigns as Prime Minister, bringing down the government. In party elections, later that month, Yitzhak Rabin narrowly defeats Shimon Peres to replace Golda Meir as party leader and become the next Prime Minister – and marking the start of 20+ years of Peres-Rabin rivalry!)

In 1982: In compliance with the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty; Israel completed its withdrawal from Sinai. 
…1984: The “Bus 300 Affair.” Israeli troops stormed a bus that had been hijacked by four Arab terrorists, rescuing the passengers, but executing  two of the captured hijackers….1990: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened to incinerate half of  Israel

In the world of Israel’s “Detractors” 1978: Actress Vanessa Redgrave proved herself somewhat ahead of her time.  As she received her “best Actress” Oscar she denounced what she termed   threats from “Zionist Hoodlums” (albeit to some boos from the audience). In today’s Hollywood, such comments would be more widely-celebrated.

Elsewhere in the Middle East in events which had an impact upon Israel: 1915:  Ottoman Turkish Empire began the mass deportation of Armenians…. 1946: The last French troops left Syria…1984: Shots from the Libyan embassy in London kills a policewoman, Yvonne Fletcher …2004: President Bush lifts sanctions on Libya after they gave up the WMD program.…2005: Syrian Troops leave Lebanon

Jews made the World news for very-different reasons: 1951 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg found guilty and Sentenced to death for Espionage: Selling secrets to the Russians. And in 1955: The Death of Albert Einstein 

Terrorism  against Americans

1980: In the aftermath of the Iran hostage crisis; the US broke diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed economic sanctions…Followed by the failed Iran hostage rescue mission – “Operation Eagle Claw” in which 8 US Servicemen were killed….1983: The US Embassy in Beirut was blown up by a suicide car-bomber. 63 people were killed including 17 Americans….1986: The La Belle Berlin disco bombed – killing two American Servicemen.  The Reagan Administration responded with US Air strikes on Libya.  Also in 1986: Bomb tears hole in TWA  airliner over Greece Killing four Americans…and  in 1995: Domestic terrorism in the United States: The Oklahoma Bombing  – 168 Dead including 19 Children (2 years after “Wacco.”)…And in 1999: Perhaps not exactly “Terrorism” but Columbine

Hitler and Nazi Germany

1889: Adolf Hitler Born…1924: Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years prison after his failed “Beer Hall Putsch.” (Serving only 8 months)…1932: Paul von Hindenburg elected president of Germany with 19 million votes. Adolf Hitler came in second with 13 million votes…1933: Nazi Germany began the  boycotting Jewish businesses...  1937: Guernica.… 1943: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising…1945: US and British forces liberated Dachau, Buchenwald and Bergen Belsen concentration camps …A post-liberation recording of Bergen Belsen survivors singing Hatikvah. and Edward R. Murrow reporting from Buchenwald.  1945: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide…1952: The Diary of Anne Frank published in English
 …1993: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, DC

Events at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

In the World of my organizational “Alma Mater” the  American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC): In 1975: AIPAC founder, I.L. “Si” Kenen retired as Chairman of the Organization (having stepped down the previous year as AIPAC’s executive director, having been succeeded by Morrie Amitay.) There were numerous AIPAC Policy Conferences held in April over the decades. (More about those past AIPAC Conferences, another time)

More generally: US and the World

1865: Abraham Lincoln assassinated...1912: The Titanic….1917: US entered World War I ….1919: The League of Nations was founded...1945: President  Roosevelt (FDR) dies and is succeeded as Harry Truman ….1948: The Marshall Plan…1949: The formation of NATO….1951: General Douglas MacArthur fired by Truman….1954: Army-McCarthy televised Senate hearings began…1961: The Bay of Pigs disaster and a prestige blow to the United States as Soviet Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to Orbit the Earth… 1968: Martin Luther King’s final speech “To the Mountaintop” and then the next day, his assassination…1970: Apollo 13 returned to Earth after the near-disaster led to the termination of the flight….1975:  The Fall of Saigon …1978: The Panama Canal Treaty was approved by the U.S. Senate authorizing the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama to take place on December 31, 1999.

And from “across the Pond” as some people term the United Kingdom as viewed from the United States: 1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister….1968: UK Politician, Enoch Powell’s famed/infamous  “Rivers of Blood” Speech re UK Immigration (which led to Powell being fired from the Conservative Party “Shadow Cabinet.”

Happy Passover