We chose Benjamin Netanyahu's election as the top story of the year because it changed the outlook for peace between Israelis and Arabs, which has repercussions far beyond the Middle East. Since 1993, Israel and its Arab neighbors had been moving slowly toward peaceful compromise. Israel had signed agreements with the Palestinians and Jordan and begun talks with Syria. Troops were withdrawing from the West Bank, allowing Palestinians self-rule The elections in May were, in a sense, the first public referendum on the PLO peace agreement. One of the architects, Prime Minister Shimon Peres, seemed certain to win another term over the hard-line Netanyahu, who wanted to reverse the land-for-peace process. The story of what happened in Israel in 1996 is the story of elections, suicide bombings, a deadline not met, and an archeological tunnel.