September 28-Arabs in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza went on strike to protest a controversial report that recommended reducing the Arab population in Israel.

September 28-In a report released by Senate Armed Services Committee member Senator Culver, Secretary Kissinger stated he believed it was "politically infeasible" to persuade the international community to agree to universal restrictions on arms exports, and that there was "no universal, common political interest among the large producers. . . . One is led to the conclusion that regional or subregional approaches to the control of arms transfers are likely to be more promising that the development of broad controls on a world-wide basis."

September 29-Senator Tower announced that he would object to the formal appointment of Senate conferees to work out compromise legislation on the Export Administration Act which would strengthen current measures to counter the Arab boycott of firms dealing with Israel. September 29-Israel devalued its pound by a further 1.8 percent-the fifteenth in a series of devaluations since November 1974.

September 29-Egyptian Foreign Minister Fahmi called for the holding of a limited Arab summit conference, consisting of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, the PLO, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, within 48 hours to deal with the new fighting in Lebanon.

September 29-Syrian forces continued their Lebanese offensive and a Palestinian military spokesman conceded that the towns of Aintoura and Mtein, in the central mountains, had fallen to Syrian troops and tanks. September 30-In a major address before the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary Kissinger called for an early resumption of the Geneva Conference on the Middle East, stating that the "step-by-step negotiations of the past 3 years have now brought us to a point where comprehensive solutions seem possible."

September 30-In an interview published in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, President Ford said he intended to visit the Middle East "right after the election" in order to do "some serious talking about a broader settlement-and that means peace and recognition of Israel.” October 1-Vladimir Salkan, the Soviet Chargé d'Affaires in Beirut, announced that the Soviet Union would launch a diplomatic effort to end the fighting in Lebanon. The announcement appeared to be a criticism of the Syrian military intervention in Lebanon, since the Soviet plan reportedly called for the withdrawal of the Syrian troops and their replacement by French and Egyptian troops.

October 3-Lebanese leader Kamal Jumblatt met with French officials in Paris in an attempt to arrange a cease-fire.

October 3-The Israeli army imposed a curfew on the occupied West Bank town of Hebron following several incidents in which Jewish and Muslim religious objects were desecrated.

October 5-French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing arrived in Tehran for a 4-day visit, during which France and Iran signed agreements for the construction of two nuclear powerplants, a housing project, highways, and other development programs.

October 7-In an address to the U.N. General Assembly, Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon stated that Israel was ready to participate in a Geneva peace conference. The day before, Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat stated that 1977 would be the year for "an overall settlement." October 8-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin suggested that Defense Minister Shimon Peres should resign, as the power struggle between the two Israeli leaders continued.

October 9-The United States informed Israel that "fuel air explosive" devices and an infrared detection system sought by Israel would be supplied. The State Department later said that the transfer of the controversial weapons would be subject to congressional approval when the 95th Congress convenes in January 1977.

October 11-The Arab League announced a new cease-fire in the Lebanese civil war, but within 24 hours, fighting broke out near the port city of Sidon.

October 11-Three men attacked the Syrian Embassy in Rome, wounded one consular official and held two others hostage for an hour before surrending to the Italian police. In Islamabad, Pakistan, three men attacked the Syrian Embassy with hand grenades but were rebuffed by police.

October 17-PLO Chairman Arafat, Syrian President Assad, Egyptian President al-Sadat, Saudi King Khalid, Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sabah al-Salam, and Lebanese President Sarkis signed an agreement in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, calling for an end to the Lebanese war and the emplacement of a 30,000 man Arab League force to monitor the peace. October 18-When asked by an interviewer if Israel was a blessing or a burden in military terms, General George Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs, replied that Israel was a burden to the United States. The interview was made in April 1976, but was not released until October 18.

October 18-Asher Yadlin, the Government's nominee to be the Governor of the Bank of Israel, was arrested on a charge of accepting bribes, evading taxes, and fraud in connection with mishandling the Histadrut's health funds.

October 20-Reports from Israel indicated that four prominent Israeli "leftists" had been meeting with representatives of the PLO to discuss possible peace terms. The four were Meir Pail, member of the Knesset and reserve army colonel, Matti Peled, Tel Aviv University lecturer and reserve army general, Uri Avneri, publisher and former Knesset member, and Yacov Arnon, former finance ministry official.

October 20-Palestinians charged that Israeli forces were assisting rightistChristian factions in the south of Lebanon and that Israeli equipment and uniforms were being supplied to the anti-Palestinian forces. October 22-The United Nations Security Council approved the extension of the UNEF peacekeeping force in the Sinai.

October 27-Except for sporadic sniper fire, the week-old cease-fire in Lebanon appeared to be holding.

October 28-Egyptians went to the polls to elect 346 representatives from among the over 1,600 candidates for seats in the national Parliament.

October 28-Israel devalued its currency again to a level of $1 to 8.61 Israeli pounds.

November 1-The leaders of the two major Lebanese Christian militias, Pierre Gemayal and Camille Chamoun, announced that they had agreed to allow an Arab peace-keeping force to patrol Christian areas following President Sarkis' reported decision to use force if necessary to implement the latest cease-fire arrangement which called for the Arab force to monitor the truce.

November 1-Egyptian Ambassador to the United Nations, Ismat Abel Meguid, issued a warning before the U.N. Security Council of the possibility of "an overall liberation war" unless Israel ended its alleged mistreatment of Arabs in occupied territories. (The Council had met at Egypt's request to consider the situation in Israeli-held territories, and had voted 11-1, with the United States objecting, to give the PLO a nonvoting role in the discussion.)

November 2-In Lebanon, U.S. Chargé d'Affaires George Lane met with Druze leader Jumblatt in an effort to open contact with factions involved in the Lebanese civil war. (Lane subsequently met with Christian leader Chamoun on November 5.)

November 2-The Egyptian news agency MENA reported that the estimated 30,000 Egyptian troops stationed along the Libyan border have been withdrawn to new locations in the Suez Canal and Sinai Peninsula areas. November 2-The Syrian Government announced that Iraq had closed the frontier between the two countries and had stepped up military patrols along the borders.

November 4-Egyptian Foreign Minister Fahmi and Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko issued a joint communique following 2 days of talks in Sofia, Bulgaria, calling for an urgent resumption of the Geneva Conference on the Middle East. (The talks were the first such Egyptian-Soviet discussions in a year and a half.)

November 5—Syrian Foreign Minister Khaddam announced that his country's 22,000-man army in Lebanon would be placed at the disposal of Lebanese President Sarkis to be used as the main contingent of the Arab League peace-keeping force.

November 5-Israeli Defense Minister Peres said that President-elect Carter had taken a positive stand on some aspects of the Arab-Israel conflict, including the problem of the Arab boycott of Israel, but he stated that "we have to tell the United States that as in the past, so in the future we cannot give up defensible borders and that Jerusalem and its environs, now united under Israeli administration, will never be divided again."

November 7-As fighting escalated in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon, despite the 19-day old cease-fire, President Sarkis appealed to his countrymen to lay down their arms and "restore life to Lebanon," stating that the pan-Arab peace-keeping force would remain in the country "until we succeed in rebuilding our army and our internal security force."

November 8-About 70,000 Israeli workers-one-fourth of the country's work force-went on strike, joined in slowdowns or threatened work sanctions in a wave of labor unrest.

November 8-Syrian troops, serving as the vanguard of the Arab League peace-keeping force in Lebanon, moved without resistance into rightist and leftist areas in the central mountains and headed toward Beirut. (Lebanese Druze leader Jumblatt announced his support for the Arab force and called on his followers to assist the troops.)

November 9-Lebanese Christian leaders Gemayel and Chamoun met with President Sarkis and subsequently issued a statement calling on their followers to support the latest cease-fire agreement. (Christian troops and militiamen, however, rejected their leaders' pleas, promising that they would be "forced to open fire" if Arab peace-keeping forces attempted to enter Christian-held territories.)

November 9-Egyptian President al-Sadat said in a meeting in Cairo with a 12-member delegation from the House Committee on the Judiciary that he would sign a peace agreement with Israel when the Israelis relinquish Arab territories occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, but that he would negotiate with Israel only within the context of the Geneva Conference on the Middle East.

November 9-PLO Chairman Arafat announced that he had arranged a meeting between Egyptian President al-Sadat and Libyan leader Qaddafi in his efforts to reconcile differences between the two leaders.

November 10-Israeli Government sources said in Tel Aviv that Israel had requested from the United States $2.3 billion in military and economic assistance for fiscal 1978-a $500 increase over fiscal 1977.

November 10-Syrian forces, acting as part of the Arab League peacekeeping force, moved into Beirut without meeting resistance. November 10-State Department spokesman Robert Funseth said that after a 2-week investigation of the diplomatic activities of the Iranian Government in the United States, "we found no evidence of illegal or improper activities"; and that Iranian Embassy officials had been informed "we do not accept any police function by foreign officials in this country and in order to insure that there will be no misunderstanding, we explained the American law to them."

November 10-Senator Ribicoff proposed in Jerusalem that President-elect Carter name Secretary Kissinger a special envoy to seek peace in the Middle East.

November 10-The Christian Science Monitor reported that the official Syrian newspaper Al Thawra and government television broadcasts had expressed the fear of Syrians and other Arabs that President-elect Carter's administration may move with less deliberate speed toward an Arab-Israeli peace settlement after it takes office in January. November 11-The United States joined other members of the U.N. Security Council in a consensus statement deploring the establishment of Israeli settlements in occupied Arab territories, terming them an obstacle to peace, and calling upon Israel to comply strictly with the Geneva convention governing the administration of occupied lands.

November 11-Four unidentified gunmen fired on and wounded Lebanese Christian leader Raymond Edde in the Muslim-held western section of Beirut.

November 11-Egyptian President al-Sadat announced that the three wings of the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) would be transformed into independent political parties. (The ASU had been the only legal political party in Egypt since 1953.)

November 11-Thirteen U.S. Senators left Israel for Amman, Jordan, without having obtained permission to visit the Israeli nuclear reactor in the Negev. (The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Prime Minister Rabin had given Senator Ribicoff a verbal message for Egyptian President al-Sadat to be conveyed when the delegation visited Cairo.)

November 13-Addressing a 13-member Senate delegation in Cairo, Egyptian President al-Sadat urged that President-elect Carter help promote movement toward an overall Arab-Israeli peace settlement in 1977, stating that the Geneva Conference on the Middle East remained the proper vehicle for negotiations, and that Carter, before making his decisions, "should seek our viewpoint just as he seeks Israel's," adding: “I am not asking him to take our side."

November 14-Syrian troops and tanks positioned themselves for a push into the heart of Beirut as Syrian Prime Minister Abd al-Rahman Khulaifawi asserted that the Arab League peacekeeping force would use "all means" to impose the new cease-fire agreement.

November 14-Israeli Prime Minister Rabin said that his government was more than ready for peace talks with Egypt, but that Israel desired a peace settlement that included “defendable boundaries" and a solution of "the Palestinian issue in a way that will not be a seed that will arouse a lot of trouble and will serve as a time bomb for the future." November 14-Following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, Representative Flowers, whose congressional delegation had met with Egyptian Prime Minister al-Sadat on November 9, stated that Israel and Egypt were prepared to reopen the Geneva Conference on the Middle East without prior conditions, but there existed some outstanding problems of protocol, timing and language which must be resolved before resumption of the conference.

November 15-Three columns of Syrian troops and tanks, augmented by Saudi Arabians and Sudanese and acting as part of the Arab League peace-keeping force, moved into Beirut, seizing control of the entire city and halting fighting between Lebanese factions.

November 15—A report by the Special U.N. General Assembly Committee on Palestine, chaired by Senegalese Ambassador Medoune Fall, urged that Israel withdraw from occupied Arab territories by June 1977 and called for a phased return of the Palestinians.

November 16-In Beirut, Syrian peace-keeping forces took over radio and television stations, occupied Lebanese Government ministries and utility offices, set up 52 checkpoints around the city, and formed an antikidnaping squad in an effort to curb terrorism.

November 17-During an interview at the United Nations, PLO foreign affairs spokesman Faruq Khaddoumi said that the Palestinians were willing to accept a homeland in the West Bank and Gaza.