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Travel to Israel — Unbiased reviews and
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| State of Israel National
name: Medinat Yisra'el President:
Shimon Peres (2007) Prime
Minister: Ehud Olmert (2006)
Current government officials
Land area: 7,849 sq mi (20,329 sq km);
total area: 8,019 sq mi (20,770 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 6,500,389 (growth
rate: 1.1%); birth rate: 17.4/1000; infant mortality rate: 6.6/1000;
life expectancy: 79.7; density per sq mi: 319
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Jerusalem, 695,500 Note: Israel proclaimed
Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but the U.S., like nearly all other
countries, maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv. Other large cities: Tel Aviv, 365,300;
Haifa, 280,200 Monetary unit:
Shekel
Languages:
Hebrew (official), Arabic, English
Ethnicity/race:
Jewish 80.1% (Europe/Americas/Oceania-born
32.1%, Israel-born 20.8%, Africa-born 14.6%, Asia-born 12.6%),
non-Jewish 19.9% (mostly Arab) (1996 est.)
Religions:
Judaism 77%, Islam 16%, Christian 2%, Druze 2%
(2003)
National Holiday:
Independence Day, April or May 14 Literacy rate: 97% (2004 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$185.9 billion; per capita $25,800. Real growth rate: 5.3%.
Inflation: 0.5%. Unemployment: 7.3%. Arable land:
16%. Agriculture: citrus, vegetables, cotton; beef, poultry,
dairy products. Labor force: 2.88 million; agriculture 18.5%;
industry 23.7%; services 50%; other 7.8% (2002). Industries:
high-technology projects (including aviation, communications,
computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber
optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food,
beverages, and tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, metals
products, chemical products, plastics, diamond cutting, textiles,
footwear. Natural resources: timber, potash, copper ore,
natural gas, phosphate rock, magnesium bromide, clays, sand.
Exports: $48.6 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and
equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals,
textiles and apparel. Imports: $52.8 billion f.o.b. (2007
est.): raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough
diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods. Major trading partners:
U.S., Belgium, Hong Kong, Germany, Switzerland, UK, China
(2006). Communications: Telephones:
main lines in use: 3.006 million (2006); mobile cellular: 8.404
million (2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 23, FM 15,
shortwave 2 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 17 (plus 36
low-power repeaters) (1995). Internet hosts: 671,030 (2007).
Internet users: 1.899 million (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 853 km
(2006). Highways: total: 17,446 km; paved: 17,446 km (including
56 km of expressways); unpaved: 0 km (2004). Ports and harbors:
Ashdod, Elat (Eilat), Hadera, Haifa. Airports: 53 (2007). International disputes: West Bank and Gaza
Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the
Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be
determined through further negotiation; Israel continues construction
of a "seam line" separation barrier along parts of the Green Line and
within the West Bank; Israel announced its intention to pull out
Israeli settlers and withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four settlements
in the northern West Bank in 2005; Golan Heights is Israeli-occupied
(Lebanon claims the Shab'a Farms area of Golan Heights); since 1948,
about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce Supervision Organization
(UNTSO) headquartered in Jerusalem monitor ceasefires, supervise
armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating, and
assist other UN personnel in the region.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Israel, slightly larger than Massachusetts, lies
at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Egypt on
the west, Syria and Jordan on the east, and Lebanon on the north. Its
maritime plain is extremely fertile. The southern Negev region, which
comprises almost half the total area, is largely a desert. The Jordan, the
only important river, flows from the north through Lake Hule (Waters of
Merom) and Lake Kinneret (also called Sea of Galilee or Sea of Tiberias),
finally entering the Dead Sea, 1,349 ft (411 m) below sea level—the
world's lowest land elevation.
Government
Parliamentary democracy.
History
Palestine, considered a holy land by Jews,
Muslims, and Christians, and homeland of the modern state of Israel, was
known as Canaan to the ancient Hebrews. Palestine's name derives from the
Philistines, a people who occupied the southern coastal part of the
country in the 12th century B.C.
A Hebrew kingdom established in 1000 B.C. was later split into the kingdoms of Judah and
Israel; they were subsequently invaded by Assyrians, Babylonians,
Egyptians, Persians, Romans, and Alexander the Great of Macedonia. By
A.D. 135, few Jews were left in Palestine; most
lived in the scattered and tenacious communities of the Diaspora,
communities formed outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. Palestine
became a center of Christian pilgrimage after the emperor Constantine
converted to that faith. The Arabs took Palestine from the Byzantine
empire in 634–640. Interrupted only by Christian Crusaders, Muslims
ruled Palestine until the 20th century. During World War I, British forces
defeated the Turks in Palestine and governed the area under a League of
Nations mandate from 1923.
As part of the 19th-century Zionist movement,
Jews had begun settling in Palestine as early as 1820. This effort to
establish a Jewish homeland received British approval in the Balfour
Declaration of 1917. During the 1930s, Jews persecuted by the Hitler
regime poured into Palestine. The postwar acknowledgment of the
Holocaust—Hitler's genocide of 6 million Jews—increased
international interest in and sympathy for the cause of Zionism. However,
Arabs in Palestine and surrounding countries bitterly opposed prewar and
postwar proposals to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish sectors. The
British mandate to govern Palestine ended after the war, and, in 1947, the
UN voted to partition Palestine. When the British officially withdrew on
May 14, 1948, the Jewish National Council proclaimed the State of
Israel.
U.S. recognition came within hours. The next
day, Arab forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded the
new nation. By the cease-fire on Jan. 7, 1949, Israel had increased its
original territory by 50%, taking western Galilee, a broad corridor
through central Palestine to Jerusalem, and part of modern Jerusalem.
Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion became Israel's first president and
prime minister. The new government was admitted to the UN on May 11,
1949.
The next clash with Arab neighbors came when
Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 and barred Israeli shipping.
Coordinating with an Anglo-French force, Israeli troops seized the Gaza
Strip and drove through the Sinai to the east bank of the Suez Canal, but
withdrew under U.S. and UN pressure. In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel
made simultaneous air attacks against Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian air
bases, totally defeating the Arabs. Expanding its territory by 200%,
Israel at the cease-fire held the Golan Heights, the West Bank of the
Jordan River, Jerusalem's Old City, and all of the Sinai and the east bank
of the Suez Canal.
In the face of Israeli reluctance even to
discuss the return of occupied territories, the fourth Arab-Israeli War
erupted on Oct. 6, 1973, with a surprise Egyptian and Syrian assault on
the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur. Initial Arab gains were reversed
when a cease-fire took effect two weeks later, but Israel suffered heavy
losses.
A dramatic breakthrough in the tortuous history
of Mideast peace efforts occurred on Nov. 9, 1977, when Egypt's president
Anwar Sadat declared his willingness to talk about reconciliation. Prime
Minister Menachem Begin, on Nov. 15, extended an invitation to the
Egyptian leader to address the Knesset in Jerusalem. Sadat's arrival in
Israel four days later raised worldwide hopes, but an agreement between
Egypt and Israel was long in coming. On March 14, 1979, the Knesset
approved a final peace treaty, and 12 days later, Begin and Sadat signed
the document, together with President Jimmy Carter, in a White House
ceremony. Israel began its withdrawal from the Sinai, which it had annexed
from Egypt, on May 25.
Although Israel withdrew its last settlers from
the Sinai in April 1982, the fragile Mideast peace was shattered on June
9, 1982, by a massive Israeli assault on southern Lebanon, where the
Palestinian Liberation Organization was entrenched. The PLO had long
plagued Israelis with terrorist actions. Israel destroyed PLO strongholds
in Tyre and Sidon and reached the suburbs of Beirut on June 10. A
U.S.-mediated accord between Lebanon and Israel, signed on May 17, 1983,
provided for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Israel eventually withdrew
its troops from the Beirut area but kept them in southern Lebanon, where
occasional skirmishes would continue. Lebanon, under pressure from Syria,
canceled the accord in March 1984.
A continual source of tension has been the
relationship between the Jews and the Palestinians living within Israeli
territories. Most Arabs fled the region when the state of Israel was
declared, but those who remain now make up almost one-fifth of the
population of Israel. They are about two-thirds Muslim, as well as
Christian and Druze. Palestinians living on the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip fomented the riots begun in 1987, known as the intifada.
Violence heightened as Israeli police cracked down and Palestinians
retaliated. Continuing Jewish settlement of lands designated for
Palestinians has added to the unrest.
In 1988, the leader of the PLO, Yasir Arafat,
reversed decades of PLO polemic by acknowledging Israel's right to exist.
He stated his willingness to enter negotiations to create a Palestinian
political entity that would coexist with the Israeli state.
In 1991, Israel was struck by Iraqi missiles
during the Persian Gulf War. The Israelis did not retaliate in order to
preserve the international coalition against Iraq. In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin
became prime minister. He halted the disputed Israeli settlement of the
occupied territories.
Highly secretive talks in Norway resulted in the
landmark Oslo Accord between the PLO and the Israeli government in 1993.
The accord stipulated a five-year plan in which Palestinians of the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip would gradually become self-governing. Arafat
became president of the new Palestinian Authority. In 1994, Israel signed
a peace treaty with Jordan; Israel still has no formal agreement with
Syria or Lebanon.
On Nov. 4, 1995, Prime Minister Rabin was slain
by a Jewish extremist, jeopardizing the tenuous progress toward peace.
Shimon Peres succeeded him until May 1996 elections for the Knesset gave
Israel a new hard-line prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by a razor-thin
margin. Netanyahu reversed or stymied much of the Oslo Accord, contending
that it offered too many concessions too fast and jeopardized Israelis'
safety.
Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in 1997
were repeatedly undermined by both sides. Although the Hebron Accord was
signed in January, calling for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from
Hebron, the construction of new Jewish settlements on the West Bank in
March profoundly upset progress toward peace.
Terrorism erupted again in 1997 when radical
Hamas suicide bombers claimed the lives of more than 20 Israeli civilians.
Netanyahu, accusing Palestinian Authority president Arafat of lax
security, retaliated with draconian sanctions against Palestinians working
in Israel, including the withholding of millions of dollars in tax
revenue, a blatant violation of the Oslo Accord. Netanyahu also persisted
in authorizing right-wing Israelis to build new settlements in mostly Arab
East Jerusalem. Arafat, meanwhile, seemed unwilling or unable to curb the
violence of extremist Arabs.
An Oct. 1998 summit at Wye Mills, Md., generated
the first real progress in the stymied Middle East peace talks in 19
months, with Netanyahu and Arafat settling several important interim
issues called for by the 1993 Oslo Accord. The peace agreement, however,
began unraveling almost immediately. By the end of April 1999, Israel had
made 41 air raids on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. The guerrillas were
fighting against Israeli troops and their allies, the South Lebanon Army
militia, who occupied a security zone set up in 1985 to guard Israel's
borders. Public pressure in Israel to withdraw the troops grew.
Labor Party leader Ehud Barak won the 1999
election and announced that he planned not only to pursue peace with the
Palestinians, but to establish relations with Syria and end the low-grade
war in southern Lebanon with the Iranian-armed Hezbollah guerrillas. In
Dec. 1999, Israeli-Syrian talks resumed after a nearly four-year hiatus.
By Jan. 2000, however, talks had broken down when Syria demanded a
detailed discussion of the return of all of the Golan Heights. In Feb.,
new Hezbollah attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon led to
Israel's retaliatory bombing as well as Barak's decision to pull out of
Lebanon. Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon on May 24, 2000, after 18
consecutive years of occupation.
Peace talks in July 2000 at Camp David between
Barak and Arafat ended unsuccessfully, despite President Clinton's
strongest efforts—the status of Jerusalem was the primary sticking
point. In September, Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon visited the compound
called Temple Mount by Jews and Haram al-Sharif by Muslims, a fiercely
contested site that is sacred to both faiths. The visit set off the worst
violence in years, killing around 400 people, mostly Palestinians. The
violence (dubbed the Al-Aksa intifada) and the stalled peace process
fueled growing concerns about Israeli security, paving the way for
hard-liner Sharon's stunning landslide victory over Barak in Feb. 2001.
Violence on both sides continued at an alarming rate. Palestinians carried
out some of the most horrific suicide bombings and terrorist attacks in
years (Hamas and the Al-Aksa Martyr Brigade claimed responsibility for the
majority of them), killing Israeli civilians at cafés, bus stops,
and supermarkets. In retaliation, Israel unleashed bombing raids on
Palestinian territory and sent troops and tanks to occupy West Bank and
Gaza cities.
In 2003, in an attempt to restart the stalled
Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Israel and the United States resolved
to circumvent Arafat, whom Sharon called “irrelevant” and an
obstacle. Under U.S. pressure, Arafat reluctantly appointed a prime
minister in April, who was to replace him in negotiating the peace
process, Mahmoud Abbas, formerly Arafat's second-in-command. On May 1, the
“Quartet” (the U.S., UN, EU, and Russia) unfurled the
“road map” for peace, which envisioned the creation of a
Palestinian state by 2005. Although Sharon publicly acknowledged the need
for a Palestinian state and Abbas committed himself to ending Palestinian
violence, the road map quickly led nowhere by fall 2003, as Palestinian
attacks on Israeli civilians continued, and Israel stepped up its
“targeted killings” of Palestinian militants. Sharon also
persisted in building the highly controversial security barrier dividing
Israeli and Palestinian areas.
In May 2004, the UN Security Council condemned
Israel's attack on the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the largest
Israeli military operation in Gaza in decades. In July, in response to a
ruling by Israel's supreme court about the construction of the West Bank
barrier, Israel revised the route so that it did not cut into Palestinian
land. The UN estimated that the original route would have taken almost 15%
of West Bank territory for Israel.
Yasir Arafat's death in Nov. 2004 significantly
altered the political landscape. Mahmoud Abbas was easily elected the
Palestinian president in Jan. 2005, and at a summit in February, Abbas and
Sharon agreed to an unequivocal cease-fire. A continued danger to this
cease-fire were Palestinian militant groups, over whom Abbas had little
control.
On Aug. 15, the withdrawal of some 8,000 Israeli
settlers began. The evacuation involved 21 Gaza settlements as well as 4
of the more isolated of the West Bank's 120 settlements. The majority of
Israelis supported Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral
plan—which he pushed through the Knesset in Oct. 2004—viewing
it as Israel's just and humane response toward the Palestinians as well as
a significant step toward real security for Israelis. But tens of
thousands on the right protested that Sharon, an architect of the
settlement movement, had become the agent of Gaza's dismantlement.
While Sharon was lauded for what has arguably
been the most significant step in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process
since the Oslo peace accord, the prime minister’s unstated motives
in conceding Gaza were generally assumed to be the strengthening of
Israel's hold on the West Bank.
Israel's political parties underwent a seismic
shift in late Nov. 2005. The Labor Party elected left-leaning Amir Peretz
as their new leader, a defeat for long-time leader Shimon Peres. Shortly
thereafter Prime Minister Sharon quit the Likud Party—a party he
helped found—and formed the new, more centrist Kadima
(“Forward”) Party. The Likud Party had largely disapproved of
the Gaza withdrawal Sharon sponsored, and he faced increasing discontent
from the more right-wing members of the Likud Party. Former prime minister
and hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu became Likud's new leader.
In Jan. 2006, Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke
that left him critically ill and unable to govern. Deputy Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert became acting prime minister, and in general elections on
March 28, Olmert's Kadima Party won the largest number of seats. In May he
formed a coalition between the Kadima, Labor, ultra-orthodox Shas, and
Pensioners parties.
Israeli-Palestinian relations were thrown into
further turmoil when the militant Hamas Party won a stunning and
unexpected landslide victory in the January Palestinian parliamentary
elections. Although Hamas had been engaged in a cease-fire with Israel for
more than a year, it continued to call for Israel's destruction and
refused to renounce violence.
In April 2006, Hamas fired rockets into Israeli
territory, effectively ending the cease-fire between them. After Hamas
militants killed two Israeli soldiers and kidnapped another on June 25,
Israel launched air strikes and sent ground troops into Gaza, destroying
its only power plant and three bridges. Fighting continued over the
summer, with Hamas firing rockets into Israel, and Israeli troops
reoccupying Gaza.
In early July, Israel was involved in war on a
second front—which was soon to overshadow the fighting in
Gaza—after Hezbollah fighters entered Israel and captured two
Israeli soldiers on July 12. In response, Israel launched a major military
attack, bombing the Lebanese airport and other major infrastructures, as
well as parts of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah, led by Sheikh Hassan
Nasrallah, retaliated by launching hundreds of rockets and missiles into
Israel. After a week of fighting, Israel made it clear that its offensive
in Lebanon would continue until Hezbollah was routed. Although much of the
international community demanded a cease-fire, the United States supported
Israel's plan to continue the fighting until Hezbollah was drained of its
military power. Hezbollah was thought to have at least 12,000 rockets and
missiles, most supplied by Iran, and proved a much more formidable foe
than Israel anticipated. An Israeli opinion poll after the first two weeks
of fighting indicated that 81% of Israelis supported the continued attack
on Lebanon, and 58% wanted the offensive to continue until Hezbollah was
destroyed. The UN brokered a tenuous cease-fire on August 14. About 1,150
Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 150 Israelis, the majority of them
soldiers, died in the 34 days of fighting.
A commission that investigated 2006's war
between Israel and Lebanon released a scathing report in April 2007,
saying Prime Minister Olmert was responsible for "a severe failure in
exercising judgment, responsibility, and prudence." It also said that
Olmert rushed to war without an adequate plan. Defense Minister Amir
Peretz and former army chief Dan Halutz were also rebuked in the report.
Olmert resisted calls for his resignation and survived a no-confidence
vote in parliament.
In June 2007, President Moshe Katsav reached a
plea deal with the government, agreeing to resign and plead guilty to
committing indecent acts without consent, sexual harassment, and harassing
a witness. In exchange, the government dropped rape charges against
Katsav, who maintained his innocence and said he plead guilty to avoid a
long and embarrassing trial. He was accused of raping and sexually
assaulting several female coworkers.
Former prime minister Ehud Barak returned to
politics in June, having been elected head of the Labor Party. He defeated
Parliament member Ami Ayalon. In addition, Shimon Peres, of the Kadima
Party, was elected president in June by Parliament. The presidency is a
mostly ceremonial post.
Israeli jets fired on targets deep inside Syria
in September 2007. American and Israeli intelligence analysts later said
that Israel had attacked a partially built nuclear reactor. Several
officials wondered aloud if North Korea had played a role in the
development of the nuclear plant. Syria denied that any such facilities
exist and protested to the United Nations, calling the attack a "violation
of sovereignty."
At a Middle East peace conference in November
hosted by the United States in Annapolis, Md., Olmert and Palestinian
president Mahmoud Abbas agreed to work together to broker a peace treaty
by the end of 2008. "We agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral
negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty, resolving all
outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception, as
specified in previous agreements,” a joint statement said. “We
agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations, and
shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of
2008.” Officials from 49 countries attended the conference.
In January 2008, the Winograd Commission
released its final report on Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah in
Lebanon. It called the operation a "large and serious" failure and
criticized the country's leadership for failing to have an exit strategy
in place before the invasion began. Prime Minister Olmert was spared
somewhat, as the commission said that in ordering the invasion, he was
acting in "the interest of the state of Israel."
In April 2008, President Katsav withdrew his
plea deal with the government in which he agreed to plead guilty to
committing indecent acts without consent and sexual harassment and said he
would go to trial. "I wish to fight for my innocence," he said.
Prime Minister Olmert faced legal difficulties of his
own—again— beginning in May 2008, when he faced accusations
that he accepted hundreds of thousands dollars in bribes from a New York
businessman. Olmert said the funds were campaign contributions. The
businessman, Morris Talansky, testified in May that he gave Olmert about
$150,000, mostly in cash, over 13 years. Talansky said the money was for
election campaigns and personal expenses and did not expect Olmert to
reciprocate in any way. Olmert has faced similar investigations in the
past but deftly survived the scandals.
For the first time in eight years, Israel and
Syria returned to the bargaining table in May 2008. Israel hopes an
agreement will distance Iran from Syria and diminish some sway Iran holds
over the Middle East, and Syria wants to regain control over the Golan
Heights, which was taken by Israel in 1967.
Lebanon and Israel took part in a prisoner
exchange in July. Israel released five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir
Kuntar, who killed an Israeli policeman, a man, and his young daughter in
1979. Lebanon, in turn, returned to Israel the bodies of two soldiers who
were captured in the 2006 cross-border raid into Israel.
Olmert resigned in September, as expected, after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was elected head of Olmert's party, Kadima. She is expected to succeed Olmert as prime minister if she can maintain the fragile governing coalition.
See also Encyclopedia: Israel.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Israel
Central Bureau of Statistics www.cbs.gov.il/engindex.htm and Israel's 60th
Anniversary.
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