October 30, 1991: President George Bush opens the Madrid Conference with an initiative for a Middle East peace plan involving Israel’s land.
On the same day, an extremely rare storm forms off the coast of Nova Scotia. (It was eventually tagged “The Perfect Storm,” and a book and movie were made about it.)
Record-setting 100-foot waves form at sea and pound the New England Coast, even causing heavy damage to President Bush’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
August 23, 1992: The Madrid Conference moves to Washington D.C. and the peace talks resume, lasting four days. On that same day, Hurricane Andrew — the worst natural disaster ever to hit America — produces an estimated $30 billion in damage and leaves 180,000 homeless in Florida.
January 16, 1994: President Clinton meets with Syria’s President Hafez el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement with Israel that includes giving up the Golan Heights.
Less than 24 hours later, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks Southern California.
This quake, centered in Northridge, is the second most destructive natural disaster to hit the United States, behind Hurricane Andrew.
March 1 to April 1997: The combination of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat touring America, and Clinton rebuking Israel for not giving away her land for peace, coincide with some of the worst tornadoes and flooding in US history.
On the very day Arafat lands in America, powerful tornadoes devastate huge sections of the nation, ripping across Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Arafat’s American tour also coincides with the storms in the Dakotas, which result in the worst flooding of this century, in addition to weeks of major storms throughout the Midwest.
Arafat finishes his tour and leaves the US and the storms stop.
January 21, 1998: Netanyahu meets with President Clinton at the White House and is coldly received.
Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refuse to have lunch with him.
Shortly afterwards that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks into the mass media and begins to occupy a major portion of Clinton’s time.
September 27-28, 1998: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright works on the final details of an agreement in which Israel will give up 13 percent of Yesha.
The same day Hurricane Georges slams into the Gulf Coast with 110 mph winds and gusts up to 175. The hurricane hits the coast and stalls.
On September 28, Clinton meets with Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize the land deal. Later, Arafat addresses the United Nations about declaring an independent Palestinian state by May 1999, while Hurricane Georges pounds the Gulf Coast causing $1 billion in damage.
At the exact time Arafat departs the US the storm begins to dissipate.
October 15-22, 1998: On October 15, 1998, Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland, to continue the talks which ended on September 28.
The talks are scheduled to last five days with the focus on Israel giving up 13 percent of Yesha. The talks are extended and conclude on October 23.
On October 17, awesome rains and tornadoes hit southern Texas. The San Antonio area is deluged with 20 inches of rain in one day.
The rains and floods in Texas continue until October 22 and then subside.
The floods ravage 25 percent of Texas and leave over one billion dollars in damage. On October 21, Clinton declares this section of Texas a major disaster area.
May 3, 1999: This is the same day in Israel that Yasser Arafat is scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital.
The declaration is postponed to December 1999 at the request of President Clinton, whose letter to Arafat encourages him for his “aspirations for his own land.” He also writes that the Palestinians have a right to “determine their own future on their own land,” and that they deserve to “live free, today, tomorrow and forever.”
That same day, starting at 4:47 pm CDT, the most powerful tornado storm system ever to hit the United States sweeps across Oklahoma and Kansas. The winds are clocked at 316 mph the fastest wind speed ever recorded.
August 29, 2005: Exactly one week after Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon completed the forcible eviction of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip hurricane Katrina struck the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with a destructive and catastrophic force.
80% of the entire city of New Orleans was left under water. Many weather experts called this the worse hurricane and natural disaster that has ever hit the country.
President Bush supported Sharon’s evacuation from Gaza.
May 19, 2011: President Obama made the statement that Israel should withdraw to the pre Six Day War borders.
At 5:41pm on Sunday, May 22, 2011, an EF5 tornado(winds greater than 200mph) tore a path through the heart of Joplin, MO. A large swath of the city of 49,000 residents was flattened by the destructive storm, causing an estimated $1-3 billion in damages and claiming 161 lives.
