I.

Introduction

Israel, republic in the Middle East, formally known as the State of Israel (in Hebrew, Medinat Yisra’el) and established in 1948. Israel is on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and bordered to the north by Lebanon, to the north-east by Syria, to the east by Jordan, and to the south-west by Egypt. Its southernmost tip extends to the Gulf of Aqaba, an arm of the Red Sea; Israel’s area is 21,946 sq km (8,473 sq mi).

This figure includes East Jerusalem and other territory that Israel captured in the Six-Day War in 1967 and annexed shortly afterwards; most countries do not recognize the annexation of East Jerusalem. The other areas seized during the war were the Gaza Strip, the West Bank region of Jordan, the Golan Heights area of south-western Syria, and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. However, the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt by 1982 under the 1979 Peace Agreement, and Palestinian self-rule took effect in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho in May 1994, following a historic peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in September 1993. In September 2005, following Prime Minister Sharon’s plans for disengagement from the region, Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip were removed and Israeli settlements destroyed. (See also Palestinian National Authority.)

Jerusalem is Israel’s largest city and has been designated the country’s capital. However, this is not recognized by the UN and many countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv-Yafo.

II.

Land and Resources

Israel has an extreme length of about 420 km (260 mi) and a width that varies from about 16 to 115 km (10 to 70 mi). It can be divided into five major topographical areas: the highlands of Galilee, the Plain of Esdraelon (also called the Plain of Jezreel), the Judaean and Samarian hills, the coastal plains, and the Negev.

The hills of Galilee dominate the northern section of Israel, extending east about 40 km (25 mi) from a narrow coastal plain across to Lake Tiberias (also called the Sea of Galilee). Israel’s highest point, Mount Meron (1,208 m/3,963 ft), is in this area. To the south of the highlands of Galilee lies the Plain of Esdraelon, about 55 km (35 mi) long and about 25 km (15 mi) wide, running across Israel from the vicinity of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast to the River Jordan. Formerly a malarial swampland, the valley has been drained and is now a densely populated and productive agricultural region.

Extending about 195 km (120 mi) along the Mediterranean, the coastal plains range from a width of less than 1 km (0.6 mi) to a maximum of about 32 km (20 mi). They consist of the Plain of Zevulun, extending about 16 km (10 mi) north of Haifa along the Bay of Haifa; the Plain of Sharon, extending south from the vicinity of Haifa to Tel Aviv-Yafo; and the Plain of Judaea, from Tel Aviv-Yafo to north of the city of Gaza. The coastal plains contain most of Israel’s large cities, industry, and commerce. The Judaean Hills, and north of them the Samarian Hills, form a barrier running north and south throughout most of Israel.

The Negev is a desert region to the south. The desert extends north from the Gulf of Aqaba to a line from the southern end of the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean, passing just south of Beersheba.

A.

Rivers and Lakes

The chief river of Israel is the Jordan. It descends from Mount Hermon on the Lebanon-Syrian border to Lake Tiberias, some 209 m (686 ft) below sea level, and ultimately into the Dead Sea, approximately 395 m (1,296 ft) below sea level, the lowest point in Israel.

The coastline of Israel has few indentations. The only natural harbour on the Mediterranean is Haifa, on the Bay of Haifa. A new port, Ashdod, has been created in the south.

B.

Climate

The climate of Israel is generally of the Mediterranean subtropical type, with rainfall generally limited to the winter months. In January temperatures average 9° C (48° F) in Jerusalem and 14° C (57° F) in Tel Aviv-Yafo. In July the average temperature is 23° C (73° F) in Jerusalem and 27° C (81° F) in Tel Aviv-Yafo. Rainfall is poorly distributed, varying from about 1,015 mm (40 in) annually in Galilee to about 541 mm (21‚ in) in Tel Aviv-Yafo and approximately 25 mm (1 in) at the southern port of Elat.

C.

Natural Resources

Described in the Bible as “a land of milk and honey”, the area that is now Israel was more recently discovered to be barren and infertile. Israel has both mineral and agricultural resources, however. Geological surveys have indicated that minerals in the Negev include copper, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, granite, marble, mica, feldspar, gypsum, glass, flint clay, and ball clay. Commercially exploitable deposits of petroleum and natural gas in the Negev have also been discovered. Vast quantities of bromine and potash are available in the waters of the Dead Sea, and some peat and iron ore are to be found in Galilee.

The soil of Israel is generally poor, but along the coastal plain are rich alluvial soils, and the lands reclaimed from the swamps of the Plain of Esdraelon are also extremely fertile.

The water supply in Israel is extremely limited and unevenly distributed. The exploitation and allocation of water resources are the responsibility of Mekorot, the national water-supply authority; its activities include the preservation of flood waters, the purification of sewage, the location and use of all natural deposits of sweet water, and the desalination of brackish and saline water. The National Water Carrier, which is made up of canals, pipelines, and tunnels, takes water to the Negev from Lake Tiberias.

More than one quarter of Israel’s water supplies have come from the West Bank; water courses from Lebanon have been diverted to augment supplies.

D.

Plants and Animals

The plant life of Israel varies from region to region. The country has about 2,500 species of plants, most of them xerophytic—that is, able to survive prolonged dry spells. Economically valuable products include citrus fruits, bananas, cotton, tobacco, grapes, dates, figs, avocados, potatoes, olives, plums, and almonds. Dwarf oak and various other deciduous and coniferous trees have increased in number in recent years. More than 200 million trees have been planted in Israel since 1948, and today reforested areas cover about 6 per cent of the land.

The wildlife of Israel includes about 100 species of mammals and about 400 species of birds. Chief among the beasts of prey are the otter, wolf, mongoose, jackal, and hyena. Gazelles, porcupines, and hedgehogs are plentiful. Locusts, although not native to the area, invade it periodically.

E.

Environmental Concerns

Israel is a well-developed country with complete access to potable water and sanitation. Water is by far the most limiting natural resource, and supplies located near national boundaries have been a source of conflict. Despite this, Israel has maintained agricultural growth, partly by water conservation measures such as drip irrigation. Marine pollution has decreased through legislation and enforcement. The air quality in urban centres is expected to improve as unleaded fuel and catalytic converters become more prevalent.

Israel is at the geographical junction of three major climatic and ecological zones and contains a rich biodiversity for its relatively small size. The Negev covers more than half the country, but expansive stretches of maquis and evergreen vegetation occur along the Mediterranean coast. Forests are found mostly in the higher elevations. About 6 per cent (1995) of the country is forested, and about 37 per cent of that is natural forest. Roughly 25 sq km (10 sq mi) are replanted with trees each year. Limited but important fringing coral reefs occur along the short Red Sea coast. Much of the arable land is intensively farmed and water run-off from irrigated plots is frequently contaminated with farm chemicals. Nearly all of the region’s wetlands had disappeared by the mid-20th century, leaving only one small parcel of any significance by 1980.

The ravages of modern warfare have made it difficult to establish and maintain protected land and to preserve habitats. Nevertheless, about 14.9 per cent (1997) of the land is protected as national parks, nature reserves, or forest reserves. The country is a participant of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) Man and the Environment Programme and contains one designated biosphere reserve. Israel has ratified a number of international environmental agreements, including those on biodiversity, endangered species, hazardous wastes, nuclear test ban, ozone layer, and ship pollution. It has also signed the World Heritage Convention and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Israel is a participant in several regional agreements focused on the protection of the Mediterranean coast.

III.

Population

The population of Israel is predominantly urban and, although about 81 per cent Jewish, contains a remarkable racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity. More than half of the Jews in Israel are Israeli-born (called Sabras), but their immediate forebears came from more than 100 different countries and spoke, among them, about 85 different languages or major dialects. Major groupings include the Ashkenazim, whose forebears lived in European countries in the Middle Ages; Sephardim, some of whose ancestors once lived in the Iberian Peninsula; and other people who moved to Israel from North Africa and the Middle East. There are significant cultural and political differences between the Sephardim and Ashkenazim communities. The remaining 19 per cent of Israel’s population is mainly Arab.

A.

Population Characteristics

Israel has a population of 7,233,701 (2009 estimate), including East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Israeli settlers in the West Bank. In 1996 there were around 200,000 Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem, 140,000 in Gaza and the West Bank, and 13,000 in the Golan Heights. The overall population density is about 356 people per sq km (922 per sq mi). Non-Jews amount to about 19 per cent of the total population, of which Muslims (14.5 per cent) form a majority; Christians (2.8 per cent) and Druze (1.7 per cent) compose most of the remaining population.

Nearly 92 per cent of the population lives in communities of 2,000 or more inhabitants. The crude birth rate per 1,000 people of the population (2009) is 20. Life expectancy in 2009 was 79 years for men, 83 years for women.

B.

Political Divisions

Israel is divided into six administrative districts: Central District, Haifa, Jerusalem, the Northern District, the Southern District, and Tel Aviv. Each is administered by a commissioner appointed by the minister of the interior. In practice the influence of central government is directly evident in every part of the country. Local government is carried out through municipal, local, and regional councils.

C.

Principal Cities

Jerusalem is the nation's largest city, with a population of 701,512 (2004 estimate), and is claimed by Israel as the capital. Its status as such, however, is not recognized by the United Nations and many nations maintain embassies at Tel Aviv-Yafo, population 368,635 (2004 estimate), an industrial centre on the Mediterranean coast. Other major cities include Haifa, 269,417 (2004 estimate), the country’s busiest seaport; Holon, 165,900 (2004 estimate), Ramat Gan, 127,000 (2004 estimate), a manufacturing centre; and Rishon LeZiyyon, 216,851 (2004 estimate).

D.

Religion

The affairs of the three major religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, are overseen by the ministry of religious affairs through councils established by the various religions. Jewish holy days and the sabbath are, by law, observed throughout the country, and only kosher food is served in the army, hospitals, and other official institutions. About 82 per cent of Israel’s Arabs are Muslim, and most of the rest are Christian and Druze.

E.

Language

Hebrew and Standard Arabic are the official languages. Standard Arabic is a second language learnt in schools and used for official purposes, while more popular forms of Arabic, including South Levantine Spoken and Judaeo-Moroccan Arabic, are used in daily interaction by some. The most widely spoken language is Hebrew, a mother tongue for about 80 per cent of the population and a second language for the remainder. English is a first language for around 100,000 Israelis, and many other languages, from the Indo-European, Altaic, and Afro-Asiatic families, are spoken by minorities including Russian, Eastern Yiddish, Romanian, Ladino, and Dzhidi.

F.

Education

The educational tradition of Israel can be traced back to biblical times. During the ancient period schools on all levels were organized, and through the centuries elementary and secondary education and, to a large extent, higher learning continued in Palestine under successive rulers. Today the literacy rate is 96 per cent.

The Compulsory Education Law of 1949 provides for free and compulsory elementary education for all children 5 to 16 years of age. The State Education Law of 1953 established a national system of public secondary schools. Higher education is governed by a 1958 law, which set up a council to control universities and other higher educational institutions, such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1925); the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology (1924), in Haifa; Haifa University (1963); the religious Bar-Ilan University (1955), in Ramat Gan; Tel Aviv University (1953); Ben Gurion University of the Negev (1964), in Beersheba; and the Weizmann Institute of Science (1934), in Rehovot. Students in secondary schools receive aid from state and local authorities in amounts up to 100 per cent of costs, depending on parents’ incomes. In 2005 6.9 per cent of gross national product (GNP) was spent on education.

In addition to the secular system of elementary, secondary, and higher education, a parallel system of Jewish religious schools exists, culminating in postgraduate schools of independent study and research. Mission schools conducted by various Christian groups are also widely attended. An educational problem peculiar to Israel is that of assisting immigrants of various backgrounds to adjust to Israeli society.

In 2006, 802,555 children attended primary schools. About 613,366 students were enrolled in general secondary schools; 310,014 students were enrolled in institutions of higher education. Israel has a world reputation in the sciences and medicine and is a member of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN).

G.

Culture

Israeli culture reflects the diverse background of the people. The most successful writers draw their inspiration from Jewish tradition. Such writers have included the novelist Shmuel Yosef Agnon, co-winner of the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature, and the philosopher Martin Buber. The impetus to create an indigenous Israeli literature is strong, but the cultural diversity of their compatriots is a problem for Israeli writers and artists. The foremost orchestra of the nation, the Israel Philharmonic, attracts each year a number of world-famous conductors and soloists. A vigorous tradition of folk song, in which the influence of Oriental Jewish music is strongly felt, thrives in Israel, as does dance. A prominent theatre is the Israel National Theatre in Tel Aviv-Yafo.

Israel has more than 130 museums, two of the most prominent being the Eretz-Israel Museum in Tel Aviv-Yafo and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, which houses a large collection of Jewish folk art, a collection of modern sculpture, and biblical and archaeological artefacts. Probably the most significant, however, is Yad Vashem, which is run by the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, the Jewish people’s national memorial to the Holocaust. The Shrine of the Book, part of the Israel Museum, houses a notable collection of Dead Sea Scrolls. Of the more than 500 public libraries in the country, the most important is the Jewish National and University Library on the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with some 3.5 million volumes.

Israel has three World Heritage Sites. In 2001 Masada, a palace fortress, was inscribed; also in the same year, the Old City of Acre (Akko)—a walled Crusader port city—was recognized. The most recent inscription was for the White City of Tel Aviv (2003), which was constructed in the period 1930-1950 based on a plan by Sir Patrick Geddes and involved architects from the Modern Movement.

IV.

Economy

Israel is heavily dependent on US aid and credits for military purchases. It is the biggest recipient of American economic and military aid in the world, amounting to around US$3,000 million a year. The economy is heavily dependent on defence and the service industries. In 2001, 17 per cent of government expenditure was spent on defence and 13 per cent on health. In 2006 military expenditure totalled US$9,820 million. Despite limited natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural and industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Diamonds, high-technology equipment, fruits, and vegetables are leading exports. To earn foreign exchange, Israel targets niches in international markets with high-technology products such as medical-scanning equipment.

Israel’s open immigration policy for all Jews creates a heavy burden on the state as various influxes of immigrants have to be absorbed. The most recent big wave of immigration took place when Soviet Communism collapsed in 1989, allowing free Jewish emigration. These new arrivals were in the main highly educated, following professions already well represented in Israel and, although bringing mainly scientific expertise, presented a considerable integration and retraining challenge. Later, many of the 525,000 arrivals chose to seek a future in the United States. More recent waves of immigration have included Jews from the United States, who now form a considerable proportion of the Jewish settler population.

In the 1970s and 1980s the Israeli economy was beset by a staggering annual rate of inflation of up to 260 per cent—and by a chronic foreign trade imbalance. In July 1984 the national unity government declared an economic emergency, the imposition of sweeping austerity measures, and currency devaluation of 18.8 per cent. Within two years Israel’s currency, the shekel, was revalued and stabilized, and inflation was down to less than 20 per cent.

Living standards are generally high in Israel. In 2007, Israel had one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The annual national budget included revenue of US$65,957 million and expenditure of US$68,992 million. The GNP in 2004 was US$118,040 million (World Bank figure), or US$22,170 per capita. In 1995 the growth rate of GDP was 7.1 per cent, but growth slowed by the end of the 1990s, being estimated at just over 2 per cent by 1999. Inflation in 1996 was 11 per cent but had been reduced to below 2 per cent by the end of the decade. Unemployment had fallen from 10 per cent in 1993 to 6.9 per cent in 1995, but had risen again to almost the 1993 level by 1999.

Israel’s economic future is especially hard to predict. It has been heavily dependent on the United States for economic and military aid. The fading of early hopes for peace following the Oslo Accords, the eruption of a new Palestinian Intifada in 2000, and the election of Ariel Sharon, who has emphasized Israel’s security as his prime concern, as prime minister (see below) has meant that cuts in Israel’s defence spending, reaching over 9 per cent of its GDP by the end of the 1990s, appear unlikely. The country is now no longer subject to an Arab League trade boycott, so its regional markets have opened up. Also, if it cooperates with the autonomous Palestinian regions, it will continue to have access to a source of labour, though recent troubles have resulted in the closure of borders with Palestinian-administered regions for considerable periods.

A.

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Only 17 per cent of Israel consists of arable land, yet the country meets almost all of its food needs, and certain items, chiefly citrus fruits, vegetables, and eggs, are exported. Agricultural production in 2007 included 1,309,720 tonnes of fruits and berries, 1,559,924 tonnes of vegetables and melons, 579,000 tonnes of potatoes, 162,000 tonnes of wheat, and 47,600 tonnes of cotton. The livestock population included 440,000 head of cattle, 455,000 sheep, 91,000 goats, and 42.7 million chickens.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing employed just 2.7 per cent of the labour force and contributed only 2.6 per cent of GDP in 1995, yet its structure and successes are an important aspect of national identity and pride. This success has been made possible by reliance on scientific research and advanced technology, particularly the implementation of land reclamation and irrigation programmes. Israeli farming settlements are organized into three principal types. In the collective settlement (kibbutz), people share equally in the work and its profits. In the cooperative settlement (moshav), individual farms are worked separately but the produce is pooled and marketed by the settlement. In the smallholders’ settlement (moshava), individual farms are worked as private enterprises. The first two types of settlement are established on land owned by one of the various colonizing organizations, principally the Jewish National Fund, and leased to the settlers.

A major portion of the land reclamation and conservation programme in Israel is afforestation, or the establishment of forest cover, mainly in the hilly areas. About 8 per cent of Israel is forested. In 2007 the fish catch was about 26,036 tonnes. More than half of this quantity consisted of freshwater fish raised mainly in artificial fishponds.

B.

Mining

The chief assets of the Israeli mining industry are the huge quantities of potash, bromine, magnesium, and other minerals extracted from the salt deposits of the Dead Sea. Potash production in 1994 amounted to about 1.3 million tonnes, while in 2007 some 0.84 million tonnes of phosphate rock were produced. Extensive quarrying of marble and granite meets domestic construction needs.

C.

Manufacturing

Factories are mainly concentrated in Haifa and Tel Aviv-Yafo, although an important industrial complex is developing around the new port of Ashdod. The principal industrial products are processed foods, beverages, and tobacco; chemical, petroleum, and coal products, metal products, textiles and clothing, construction materials, glass and ceramics, jewellery, precision instruments, and electronic equipment. Wines and olive oil are also produced, and the diamond-processing industry flourishes.

D.

Energy

Apart from a small hydroelectric generation capacity, all of Israel’s electricity is generated in thermal facilities. In 2006 the country’s output was some 49 billion kWh. All new homes in Israel are required to install solar panels for heating water.

E.

Currency and Banking

The monetary unit of Israel is the new shekel of 100 agorot (3.89 shekalim equalled US$1; early 2009). Israel has a flourishing banking industry. The central bank, the Bank of Israel (1954; Bank Yisrael), issues currency and is the sole bank of the government.

F.

Commerce and Trade

Israel normally spends much more on imports than it earns from exports. During the late 1980s and mid-1990s the trade deficit increased by about 90 per cent from US$3,220 million to US$6,200 million; in 2007 imports cost US$56,621 million and exports earned US$54,065 million.

The principal imports are rough diamonds, military equipment, petroleum and petroleum products, machinery and machine parts, chemicals, iron and steel, transport equipment, and foodstuffs. The leading exports are processed diamonds, chemicals, citrus fruits and by-products, textiles and clothing, flowers, electronic and transport equipment, fabricated metal, and machinery and machine parts. Israel’s main trade partners are the United States, countries of the EU, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, and Hong Kong S. A. R. Free-trade agreements with the United States and the EU, and increased trade with Asian countries, are contributing to economic growth. At the end of 1997 Israel had an external debt of US$18.7 billion.

G.

Labour

The total number of people employed in the mid-1990s was about 2.1 million, of whom 43 per cent were women. Almost 30 per cent were employed in public services. The most distinctive feature of Israeli labour is the Histadrut, the General Federation of Labour, founded in 1920. It has around 1.6 million members, of whom 11 per cent are Arabs. Including workers’ families, its membership represents more than 70 per cent of the population, and more than 85 per cent of wage earners. The Histadrut not only functions as a trade union but is also one of the largest employers in the country, with a variety of commercial and industrial enterprises. Unemployment in 2000 was 9 per cent.

H.

Transport

Haifa and the artificial harbour at Ashdod are the chief Israeli ports. A third port is Elat, on the Gulf of Aqaba. Railways are state-owned and operate on about 958 km (595 mi) of main-line track. There are some 17,446 km (10,840 mi) of highly developed roads. Most passenger and freight transport within Israel is by lorry, bus, and car. In 2004 there were 234 people per 1,000 passenger cars. In addition to the national carrier El Al, which has been in the forefront of worldwide measures to instigate improved security procedures at airports, Israel is served by numerous international airlines. Internal service is supplied by Arkia airlines. The principal airport is Ben Gurion, outside Tel Aviv-Yafo.

I.

Communications

The Israel Broadcasting Authority provides domestic and international radio services and domestic television services. The country also has a separate national educational television network (Israel Educational Television). Postal, telephone (the most advanced in the Middle East), and telegraph services are operated by the government. In 2000 Israel had some 446 telephones per 1,000 people, 3 million radios, and around 2 million television receivers.

Israel has 34 daily newspapers, the most influential being Ha’aretz, Davar, Ma’ariv, Yedioth Aharonoth, and the Jerusalem Post. The politics of much of the press is centrist or left-of-centre and many newspapers have supported the peace process. There is considerable security censorship. Many other periodicals are also in circulation. Tel Aviv is the leading publishing centre.

J.

Tourism

Much foreign exchange is also derived from expenditures by foreign tourists (US$1.6 million in 1994) in Israel as well as from the donations of Jews living in other countries, especially the United States.

Israel has long been a tourist destination for both Jews living outside Israel, non-Jewish pilgrims, and holidaymakers. It is the location of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic holy places, offers a high standard of facilities in an exotic location, and also has a well-developed beach resort at Elat on the Red Sea. In 2007 tourist arrivals brought in an income of US$3,059 million.

Apart from a brief drop in arrivals during the 1990-1991 Gulf War, tourism receipts had been on an upward curve, but following the intifada had dropped again significantly. The majority of tourists come by charter flights, landing at Tel Aviv-Yafo and Elat.

V.

Government

Israel is a parliamentary democracy with supreme authority vested in the legislature. There is no written constitution, but a number of laws passed by the parliament regulate how the government operates.

A.

Executive and Legislature

Israel’s head of state, the president, is elected by the legislature for a five-year term. The presidency is mainly a ceremonial office with little power. The main executive body is a Cabinet of about 25 ministers headed by a prime minister. The Cabinet remains in office as long as it retains the confidence of the legislature.

The Israeli legislature (Knesset) is a unicameral body of 120 members elected for four years under a system of proportional representation. Voters choose between party lists of candidates in multi-member constituencies. All citizens 18 years of age and over are entitled to vote.

B.

Political Parties

Two major political alignments have been dominant in Israel since the early 1990s. These are Likud, a conservative group formed in 1973 by the merger of several organizations, including the Gahal and Free Centre parties; and the Israel Labour Party, a social-democratic grouping established in 1968 with the merger of the Mapai, Rafi, and Achdut Ha’avoda parties. Another major party in the Knesset is Meretz, a coalition of leftist groups. Shas, a party of Orthodox Sephardic Jews, is currently the religious group with the largest representation in the Knesset. The other major party gaining support at the 2003 parliamentary elections was Shinui, a reformist/change party. About two dozen other groups range from the extreme right to the extreme left. In 2005 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon left Likud to form a new political party, Kadima, which won the most seats in the 2006 general election.

C.

Judiciary

Israel has two court systems, one civil and one religious. The civil court consists of a supreme court, the chief administrative and highest appellate court of the land. Beneath it are the district courts, which hear major civil and criminal cases and appeals from lower courts, and magistrates and municipal courts, which have limited jurisdiction. Religious courts have control of marriage, divorce, alimony, and confirmation of wills.

D.

Health and Welfare

The overall administrative and coordinating authority is the Ministry of Health. Medical insurance funds are largely private or cooperative. In January 1995 the National Health Insurance Law was instituted. It created a compulsory health care system with services provided by four agencies, the largest of which is Clalit, which serves around 60 per cent of the population. Participants in the scheme pay according to their means and each is entitled to the same quality and range of medical services.

Israel’s high average life expectancy reflects the fact that medical facilities are of a very high standard. Israeli medical researchers are leaders in several fields and the country has around one hospital bed for every 166 people, a provision unmatched elsewhere in the Middle East. The infant mortality rate is very low, at 4 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2006 there were 273 people per doctor and 13 per cent of government expenditure was spent on health care.

E.

Defence

Although small in number, Israel’s armed forces are among the world’s best-equipped and most highly trained personnel. In 2006 Israel maintained total armed forces of 168,000, including 138,500 conscripts, and an additional 430,000 in the reserve forces. The army had 125,000 troops, of whom 114,700 were conscripts.

Men and women are inducted into the armed forces at age 18. Men serve for a period of 36 months; women serve for 21 months. Annual reserve duty for men continues until age 42, and averages between one and two months a year. Military service is compulsory for Jews and Druze. Muslims and Christians are exempt from military service but are allowed to volunteer to serve. An air force of about 35,000 personnel equipped with some 578 first-line jet aircraft (many Israeli-made) and a navy of 8,000 augment the land forces.

Israel has the biggest indigenous defence industry in the Middle East and is known to have a nuclear capability of both atomic and hydrogen bombs, comprising some 100 warheads. Delivery systems include the Jericho 1 missile, with a range of 500 km (310 mi) and the Jericho 2, with an estimated range of 1,500 km (932 mi). Israel is developing, with American assistance, a defence system against incoming missiles, using the Arrow (Chetz) interceptor.

A system to defend the territory of Israel in the next century will involve deployment of about 1,200 Arrow missiles, plus radar and control systems, at a cost of more than US$2,000 million.

F.

International Organizations

Israel is a member of the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

VI.

History

For the history of the region before the 20th century and the formation of the State of Israel see Palestine.

Although the state of Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, its modern history begins with the Zionist movement started by Theodor Herzl at Basel in Switzerland in 1897. The prior history of Palestine contributed to its formation, but the state of Israel’s origins lie mainly in Europe.

Israel’s basic ideology, many of its contemporary political institutions and parties, and the individuals who established it came from Zionism. This movement adopted as its goal the creation “for the Jewish people [of] a home in Palestine secured by public law”. The development and growth of Zionism was in part due to the widespread insecurity felt by Jewish minorities in Europe where anti-Semitism had resulted in discrimination, persecution, massacres, and genocide.

A.

The Period Before Independence

The number of Jews in Palestine was small in the early 20th century; it increased from 12,000 in 1845 to nearly 85,000 by 1914. Most people in Palestine were Arabic-speaking Muslims and Christians. Support for the Zionist movement, whose leaders included Chaim Weizmann and Herzl, came largely from Diaspora Jews in Europe, North America, and elsewhere in the world.

A.1.

The Balfour Declaration

By World War I the extremely active Zionist movement had won backing from the government of the United Kingdom, which wanted support from world Jewry for its struggle against Germany. The British government therefore issued the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917, in the form of a letter to Edmund James Rothschild, one of the British Zionist leaders, from the Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” The document in effect violated promises made by the British government to the Arabs in return for their support in the Allied war effort, as it had undertaken to “recognize and support” Arab independence in the Arabian Peninsula, Palestine, Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq.

A.2.

The Jewish Community Under the Mandate

After World War I the terms of the Balfour Declaration were included in the mandate for Palestine approved by the League of Nations in 1922. The mandate entrusted the United Kingdom with administering Palestine and with assisting the Jewish people in “reconstituting their national home in that country”.

Large-scale Jewish settlement and development of extensive Zionist agricultural and industrial enterprises in Palestine began during the British mandatory period, which lasted until 1948. The Jewish community, or Yishuv, increased tenfold during this era, especially during the 1930s, when large numbers of Jews fled Europe to escape German National Socialist persecution. Tel Aviv became the country’s largest all-Jewish city, dozens of other towns and villages were founded, and hundreds of Jewish agricultural collectives (kibbutzim) and co-operatives were established.

A.3.

Growth of Zionism

Many Jewish political parties founded in Eastern Europe as part of the world Zionist movement developed bases in mandatory Palestine. They included labour, orthodox religious, and nationalist groups whose leaders emigrated from Europe and after 1948 became political leaders and officials in the new Jewish state.

The Yishuv extended its democratic, representative institutions after World War I. Among these institutions was an elected assembly with a National Council that managed the community’s day-to-day affairs in education, health, social welfare, and other services. Jewish religious life was supervised by a Rabbinical Council that controlled marriage, divorce, and other family matters.

Local government institutions were also developed to run the city of Tel Aviv and many smaller Jewish settlements. The educational system, cultivating Hebrew language and culture, expanded, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was founded. The World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Palestine assisted the Yishuv by raising funds abroad, recruiting Jewish immigrants, and seeking political support from Western governments.

A.4.

Arab and Jewish Revolts

British officials, under the High Commissioner for Palestine appointed by the government in London, were responsible for defence and security, immigration, postal services, transport, and port facilities, and for balancing Arab and Jewish interests. They were the highest authorities, ultimately responsible for governing the country.

The British attempted to maintain the delicate balance between the interests and demands of the Yishuv and those of the country’s predominantly Arab (70 per cent) population. As Jewish immigration to Palestine increased and as Jewish settlement spread, Arab opposition to British rule and to Zionism grew. Serious rioting by Arabs against Jewish settlement occurred in 1921 and 1929. British attempts to restrict Jewish immigration in response to this precipitated Jewish-sponsored riots in 1933.

The rise of Jewish immigration from the mid-1930s in response to the persecution in Germany intensified the unrest in Palestine. The British response was, in 1937, to propose the establishment of separate Jewish and Arab states within the mandate area. The proposal was accepted by most of the Zionists, but rejected by the Arabs. At the end of 1937 the conflict between the two communities had developed into open warfare, which continued through 1938. A British offer of eventual independence for a bi-communal Palestinian state, made in 1939, led to further violence. The scheme was shelved on the outbreak of World War II.

A.5.

World War II

An estimated 6 million Jews in central and eastern Europe were killed by German Nazis during World War II in the Holocaust—more than one third of the world’s Jewish population. When Zionist leaders realized the extent of persecution and massacre of Jews by Nazi Germany, their demands for self-government greatly intensified, as did their efforts to facilitate immigration to Palestine and land settlement there. In Palestine the Yishuv was galvanized into opposition to the British mandatory authorities, and supported illegal immigration of refugees from war-torn Europe. By the end of the war most of the Yishuv was in revolt against the British authorities.

A.6.

The Attainment of Independence

Exhausted by seven years of war, faced with numerous terrorist attacks by Jews on British targets in Palestine, and eager to withdraw from overseas colonial commitments, the British government in 1947 decided to leave Palestine and called on the League of Nations’ successor, the UN, to make recommendations. In response the UN convened its first special session in 1947; on November 29, 1947, it adopted a plan similar to the earlier British ones calling for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as an international zone under UN jurisdiction; the Jewish and Arab states would be joined in an economic union. The partition resolution was endorsed by a vote of 33 to 13, supported by the United States and the Soviet Union. The British abstained.

A.7.

Civil War

In Palestine, Arab protests against the partition plans, which envisaged the Jewish state receiving 56 per cent of the area of Palestine, erupted in violence. Attacks on Jewish settlements soon developed into a full-scale civil war. The British generally refused to intervene, intent on leaving the country no later than August 1, 1948, the date in the partition plan for termination of the mandate.

When it became clear that the British in fact intended to leave by May 15, leaders of the Yishuv decided to implement that part of the partition plan calling for establishment of a Jewish state. In Tel Aviv on May 14 the Provisional State Council, formerly the National Council, “representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the World Zionist Movement”, proclaimed the “establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called Medinat Israel (the State of Israel) ... open to the immigration of Jews from all the countries of their dispersion”. David Ben-Gurion became prime minister, and Israeli forces immediately moved to seize substantial parts of the land allocated to the proposed Arab state. Many Arabs were driven from their homes; others fled in panic.

A.8.

The 1948 War

The new state had no agreed frontiers, but quickly received wide international recognition. However, on May 15 the armies of Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq joined Palestinian and other Arab guerrillas who had been fighting Jewish forces since November 1947. The civil war now became an international conflict, the first Arab-Israeli War, called the war of independence by Israel.

The Arabs failed to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state, and the war ended with four UN-arranged armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. These agreements left Israel in control of 75 per cent of Palestine, including West Jerusalem, giving it a territory one third greater than the area assigned under the UN partition plan. Most of the remainder of Palestine was occupied by Jordanian forces. This area, known as the West Bank, was annexed by Jordan in December 1949 and fully incorporated in April 1950 after a referendum. The small Gaza Strip on the Egypt-Israel border was left under Egyptian occupation.

These frontiers remained unchanged until they were altered by Israel’s conquests during the Six-Day War in 1967, giving Israel an area of 20,700 sq km (8,000 sq mi); under the UN plan it would have been 15,500 sq km (6,000 sq mi).

B.

The Early Years of the Jewish State

The population balance in the new state of Israel was drastically altered during the 1948 war. Of the more than 800,000 Arabs who lived in Israeli-held territory before 1948, representing about 60 per cent of the population, only about 170,000 remained. The rest became refugees in the surrounding Arab countries.

Israel’s Provisional State Council organized elections for the first Knesset (parliament) in 1949. Weizmann, the most prominent Zionist leader of the pre-war period, became the country’s first president.

B.1.

Ben-Gurion’s Premiership

David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Mapai (largest labour party), who had led the Yishuv during the last days of the mandate, exercised the strongest influence on modern Israel during the first decade of its history as a state. As prime minister he placed great emphasis on national security and the development of modern armed forces. Both men and women were conscripted, and the army became a centre for educating hundreds of thousands of new immigrants in the country’s Hebrew culture. Private military forces associated with different political movements were disbanded or integrated into the Israeli army.

The new state encouraged further Jewish immigration. The July 1950 Law of Return established a right of immigration for all Jews. By 1952 the population had doubled. Most of the new citizens were survivors of Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps. During the 1950s a shift occurred in immigration patterns: an increasing number of Jews came both voluntarily and as a result of mass expulsions from the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa. By the late 1960s Jews from Asia and Africa had began to outnumber European immigrants. In three decades Israel’s population increased fivefold, and about two thirds of that increase came from Jewish immigration.

Because many new immigrants came to Israel without the skills or occupations required for the development of the country, and because of the heavy burdens of defence and the need to expand industry and agriculture more rapidly, the country was faced with serious economic problems. Recession and currency devaluations shook the economy in the early 1950s. World Jewry and the US government provided extensive economic aid, and Ben-Gurion also negotiated agreements with West Germany (now part of united Germany) providing reparation payments to individual Jewish victims of the Nazis and to the Jewish state.

Attempts to convert the Israeli-Arab armistice agreements into peace treaties were unsuccessful. The Arab states insisted that the Palestinian Arab refugees be permitted to return to their homes, that Jerusalem be internationalized, and that Israel make territorial concessions before they entered peace talks. Israel charged that these demands would undermine its security and refused them. Frequent incursions by refugee guerrilla bands and attacks by Arab military units were made, which Israel answered with forceful retaliation. Egypt refused to permit Israeli ships to use the Suez Canal after the July 1956 nationalization decree by president Gamal Abdel Nasser and blockaded the Strait of Tiran (Israel’s access to the Red Sea), which was seen as an act of war. Border incidents along the frontiers with Egypt escalated until they erupted in the second Arab-Israeli War in October and November 1956.

The United Kingdom and France ostensibly joined the attack because of their dispute with the Egyptian president over the nationalization of the Suez Canal, which developed into the Suez Crisis. Israel scored a quick victory, seizing the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula within a few days. As Israeli forces reached the banks of the Suez Canal, the British and French started their attack. The fighting was halted by the UN after a few days, and a UN Emergency Force (UNEF) was sent to supervise the ceasefire in the Canal zone.

In a rare instance of cooperation, the United States and the Soviet Union supported the UN resolution forcing the three invading countries to leave Egypt and Gaza. By the end of the year their forces had withdrawn from Egypt, but Israel refused to leave Gaza until early 1957, and only after the United States had promised to help resolve the conflict and keep the Strait of Tiran open.

Israel continued to modernize its army, placing special emphasis on the air force, which received modern French military aircraft. The economic situation improved, and a national water distribution system was created to facilitate development of new settlements in the southern part of the country. Although immigration declined from the heights it had reached during the first four years, it increased substantially in the early 1960s with a new wave of arrivals from Morocco. One of the major problems facing the country was the economic absorption and integration of newcomers from Muslim countries. The wide cultural and economic differences between these immigrants and the earlier settlers from Europe has remained one of the country’s greatest dilemmas.

The major political movements were transformed during this era by party splits and reunifications. Ben-Gurion resigned in 1963 and was succeeded by Levi Eshkol, the former Minister of Finance. In 1965 Ben-Gurion left the Mapai Party to help form an opposition group called Rafi. In 1968 Mapai and other labour groups united to form the Labour Party, which dominated the Labour Alignment coalition which governed until 1977 under the premiership, between 1969 and 1974, of Golda Meir, and from 1974 of army general Yitzhak Rabin. The two largest opposition parties, the Liberals and Herut, also merged during the 1960s to form the Gahal bloc led by Menachem Begin.

C.

The Six-Day War and After

After the Suez-Sinai war Arab nationalism increased dramatically, as did demands for revenge led by Egypt’s President Nasser. The formation of a united Arab military command that massed troops along the borders, together with Egypt’s closing of the Strait of Tiran and Nasser’s insistence in 1967 that the UN Emergency Force leave Egypt, led Israel to attack Egypt, Jordan, and Syria simultaneously on June 5 of that year.

The war ended six days later with a decisive Israeli victory. Israel’s French-equipped air force wiped out the air power of its antagonists and was the chief instrument in the destruction of the Arab armies.

The Six-Day War left Israel in possession of Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, which it annexed from Egypt; Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which it annexed from Jordan; and the Golan Heights, annexed from Syria. Land under Israel’s jurisdiction after the 1967 war was about four times the size of the area within its 1949 armistice frontiers. The occupied territories also included an Arab population of about 1.5 million.

C.1.

The Occupied Territories and Arab Resistance

The occupied territories became a major political issue in Israel after 1967. The political right and leaders of the country’s orthodox religious parties opposed withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, which they considered part of Israel. In the Labour Party, opinion was divided; some party members favoured outright annexation of the occupied territories, others favoured withdrawal, and some advocated retaining only those areas vital to Israel’s military security. Several smaller parties, including the Communists, also opposed annexation. The majority of Israelis, however, supported the annexation of East Jerusalem and its unification with the Jewish sectors of the city, and the Labour-led government formally united both parts of Jerusalem a few days after the 1967 war ended. In 1980 the Knesset passed another law, declaring Jerusalem “complete and united”, Israel’s eternal capital.

The 1967 war was followed by an upsurge of Palestinian Arab nationalism. Several guerrilla organizations within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which had been formed in 1964 by exiled Palestinian Arabs to overthrow Israel, carried out terrorist attacks on Israeli schools, market places, bus stations, and airports, with the stated objective of “redeeming Palestine”. Terrorist attacks on Israelis at home and abroad unified public opinion against recognition of and negotiation with the PLO, but the group nevertheless succeeded in gaining widespread international support, particularly from left-wing groups, including UN recognition as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians”. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes.

C.2.

The Yom Kippur War and Its Aftermath

In August 1970 Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Egypt ending a two-year war of attrition in the Suez Canal zone. However, in 1973 Egypt joined Syria in a war on Israel to regain the territories lost in 1967. The two Arab states struck unexpectedly on October 6, which that year happened to be Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Arab forces made considerable gains in the Sinai Peninsula before Israel rallied during the three-week struggle; ceasefire agreements with Egypt and Syria were signed on October 24.

Despite Israel's recovery and successful counterattack later in the conflict, there had been heavy casualties, and the Arabs’ strong showing won them support from the Soviet Union and most of the world’s developing countries. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait financed the Arab forces in the Yom Kippur War making it possible for Egypt and Syria to receive the most sophisticated Soviet weapons. Oil began to emerge as a decisive factor: the Arab oil-producing states cut off oil exports to the United States and other Western nations in retaliation for their aid to Israel.

Israel faced serious financial problems, which were redressed by massive US economic and military assistance. Even American aid was not, however, sufficient to prevent a downward spiral of the economy.

In an effort to encourage a peace settlement, US President Richard Nixon charged his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, with the task of negotiating agreements between Israel and Egypt and Syria. Kissinger managed to work out military disengagements between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai and between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights during 1974 and 1975. The disengagement agreement with Syria was signed in May 1974; that with Egypt in September 1975.

The Yom Kippur War was followed by increased unrest within Israel and growing criticism of the country’s leadership. In the aftermath of the “earthquake”, as the 1973 events were called, an investigation commission, headed by the President of Israel’s Supreme Court, was highly critical of the army command for its conduct of the war. General dissatisfaction led to the resignation of Prime Minister Golda Meir and her Cabinet in April 1974. Meir was replaced by Yitzhak Rabin.

Rabin was unable to arrest inflation or the deterioration of the economy, and his reputation was hurt by the revelation that he and other Labour members had been involved in illicit financial dealings. As a result, the Labour Party-dominated Labour Alignment coalition lost the Knesset elections of 1977. Menachem Begin, the new prime minister, headed the Likud (Consolidation) movement, a Knesset bloc which had been able to form a government with the support of various orthodox religious parties. Likud was formed in September 1973 by nationalist groups hostile to any territorial concessions.

C.3.

The Begin Government

Begin’s conservative, free-enterprise economic programme was unable to prevent an even greater increase in inflation and further deterioration of the economy largely because of escalating defence spending. Begin, however, was the first Israeli leader to achieve a peace settlement with an Arab state. It resulted from the surprise initiative of President Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt. In November 1977, in tacit recognition of the State of Israel, he flew to Jerusalem, where he addressed the Knesset and called on Begin to begin peace talks.

After protracted negotiations sponsored by US president Jimmy Carter at Camp David, in Maryland, United States, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on March 26, 1979. Ambassadors were exchanged in February 1980, confirming Egypt as the first Arab country to grant diplomatic recognition to Israel. Although the treaty ended the prospects for war between Israel and Egypt, many issues remained between the two countries, including the problem of arranging for Arab autonomy in the occupied West Bank and Gaza in line with a second agreement drawn up during the Camp David discussions.

D.

Israel in the 1980s

Begin’s Likud bloc narrowly won re-election in June 1981. Shortly before the elections Israel startled the world by sending bombers to destroy a nuclear reactor under construction at Osirak near Baghdad in Iraq, claiming that it was intended to produce the material for nuclear weapons to be used eventually against Israel. The annexation of the occupied Golan Heights the following December similarly strained Israel’s relations with friendly countries. Despite these developments and the complications caused by the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat in October 1981, the final Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai was completed on schedule in April 1982.

D.1.

Invasion of Lebanon

Two months later Israel precipitated a new crisis when it launched an invasion of Lebanon aimed at wiping out the PLO presence there. Israeli forces surrounded West Beirut, trapping 6,000 PLO fighters. In mid-August, after intense fighting in and around Beirut and diplomatic efforts led by US Special Envoy Philip Habib, the evacuation of 14,000 to 15,000 PLO and Syrian forces was arranged. Israeli troops remained in southern Lebanon.

The cost of the war and subsequent occupation drained the already troubled Israeli economy. The occupation also brought international criticism of Israel, notably after the massacres at Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in mid-September 1982, which left 700 to 800 people dead. Although denying ultimate responsibility, Israel instituted an independent enquiry into the massacres. The enquiry found Lebanese Phalangists to be responsible for the actual killings, but also accused Israel’s political and military leadership of indirect responsibility through negligence. The defence minister, General Ariel Sharon, was forced to resign, although he remained in the Cabinet as minister without portfolio.

Begin announced his resignation as prime minister and Likud leader in August 1983; he was succeeded in both positions by Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Elections in July 1984 proved inconclusive, with Labour winning 44 seats and Likud 41 in the 120-member Knesset. With the balance of power with the smaller parties and neither Labour nor Likud able to forge a governing coalition on its own, the two organizations formed a government of national unity. Shimon Peres, leader of the Labour Party, served as prime minister until October 1986, when Shamir resumed office.

One of the priorities of the unity government was the withdrawal of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) from Lebanon. Talks with Lebanon on the withdrawal of forces stalled over the issue of who would replace the IDF in southern Lebanon—the UN or the Lebanese army. The Israeli government then instituted a unilateral three-phase programme which was implemented between February and June 1983. Some 1,200 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners were transferred to Israeli jails during the withdrawal. The withdrawal established the IDF inside the Israeli border (apart from a token force left to assist the Lebanese authorities) and a 10-20 km (6-12 mi) buffer strip along the Lebanese side of the border. The Syrians in response withdrew some 10,000 to 12,000 troops from northern Lebanon.

D.2.

The Falashas

Between October 1984 and January 1985, a rescue operation codenamed Operation Moses was revealed, in which the Israeli government secretly airlifted around 12,000 Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) from camps in Sudan, where they had fled to escape persecution and famine in Ethiopia. The operation was suspended after it had been made public; another 1,000 Falashas stranded in Sudan were quietly airlifted from Sudan by US planes. Following the 1989 resumption of diplomatic relations between Israel and Ethiopia (severed in 1973) restrictions on the emigration of the Falashas were removed, and during May 1991 another 14,000 (the vast majority of Falashas still in Ethiopia) were evacuated to Israel.

D.3.

Palestinian Uprisings

Relations between Israel and the Palestinians entered a new phase in the late 1980s with the intifada, a series of uprisings in the occupied territories that included demonstrations, strikes, and stone-throwing attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. The generally harsh response by the Israeli government drew criticism from both the United States and the UN.

The Likud-Labour coalition collapsed in March 1989. Shamir then headed a caretaker Cabinet until June 1990, when he formed a new government. During 1989 and 1990 more than 200,000 Soviet Jews settled in Israel. This wave of immigration—encouraged by the Israeli government but resented by many Palestinians and Israeli Arabs—increased unemployment at the time but also added to the country’s skills base.

D.4.

Gulf War

During the Gulf War, in which many Palestinians openly favoured Iraq, Scud missiles struck Israel, wounding more than 200 people and damaging nearly 9,000 homes in the Tel Aviv-Yafo area. Contrary to its usual policy, Israel did not retaliate, in part because the United States sent anti-missile Patriot missiles to aid in Israel’s defence.

E.

Strides Towards Peace

The first comprehensive peace talks between Israel and delegations representing the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states began in October 1991. After Likud lost the parliamentary election of June 1992, Labour Party leader Yitzhak Rabin formed a new government.

Events in the Middle East took a surprising turn in 1993. After secret negotiations, Prime Minister Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat flew to Washington, DC, and agreed to the signing of a historic peace agreement. Israel agreed to allow Palestinian self-rule, first in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, and later in other areas of the West Bank not settled by Jews.

In early 1994 negotiations for self-rule were temporarily derailed after a Jewish settler killed at least 29 Palestinian Arabs at a mosque in Hebron, in the West Bank. In May 1994 Israeli troops withdrew from Jericho and the towns and refugee camps of the Gaza Strip, and the areas came under Palestinian control.

E.1.

Peace Agreement with Jordan

In July 1994 Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan signed a peace agreement ending 46 years of conflict and strained relations. The agreement, which was signed at the White House in the presence of US President Bill Clinton, laid the groundwork for a full peace treaty. On October 19, 1994, a suicide bomber from the radical rejectionist Palestinian group Hamas blew up a bus in central Tel Aviv-Yafo, killing 22 people and injuring 47.

A full peace treaty between Israel and Jordan was signed on October 26. On December 27 militant Jewish settlers began enlarging settlements near Bethlehem in the West Bank in defiance of Israeli promises to the Palestinians; a government compromise solution passed on January 2, 1995, permitted limited construction.

Negotiations between Israel and Syria towards a peace treaty during April 1995 stalled over the question of future ownership of the Golan Heights. On April 27 the government expropriation of Arab lands in East Jerusalem was announced.

E.2.

The Assassination of Rabin

On September 28, Rabin and Arafat signed the Taba Agreement on the lawns of the White House in Washington, heralding the handover of control of the West Bank’s towns to the Palestine National Authority (PNA).

On November 4, 1995, Rabin was assassinated as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv-Yafo by Yigal Amir, a Jewish student hostile to the peace process, and particularly to the handover of land to the Palestinians. He was succeeded by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Although Israelis were profoundly shocked that such an act had been perpetrated by a Jew, Rabin’s assassination highlighted the growing divisions among Israelis over the peace process: many Israelis, particularly those on the religious right, opposed any hand-over of land or the ending of the construction of settlements in the occupied areas; more general concerns were caused by a series of suicide bombings by Palestinian extremists which had killed 20 Israelis in the previous 20 months. His death, however, also underlined how far the peace process had come in normalizing relations within the Middle East. His funeral was attended by representatives of all but the most hard-line Arab states, including the Egyptian and Jordanian heads of state; Arafat was not, however, among the six representatives sent by the Palestine National Authority.

E.3.

Autonomous Palestinian Zone

January 1996 brought the first general elections to the Palestinians of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. The results were an overwhelming endorsement for Arafat, who was elected head of the executive authority of the new Palestinian Council that was to replace the Palestinian National Authority, and be responsible for most aspects of government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

At the beginning of January Israeli troops had entered the autonomous Palestinian zone and assassinated Yahya Ayyash, whom Israeli security had earmarked as the engineer behind the suicide bombings in 1994 and 1995. In retaliation, Hamas, the most extreme of the Palestinian organizations rejecting the peace process, carried out a new wave of suicide bombings in Jerusalem during February and March, which left more than 60 people dead and more than 100 wounded.

Peres responded to the attacks by closing Israel’s borders with the West Bank and Gaza Strip and demanding that Arafat’s PNA work to apprehend the organizers of the bombings. However, this was not enough to restore his popularity among large sectors of the Israeli electorate, or to overcome a general feeling that Israelis were paying too high a price for a peace that did not appear to guarantee Israel’s security as promised by Rabin and Peres. This point was played upon by Binyamin Netanyahu, Likud leader and Peres’ main rival in the forthcoming elections for prime minister.

In an effort to prove his commitment to security, Peres, in early April, ordered Israeli armed forces to strike back at Hezbollah guerrillas who had been launching rocket attacks against northern Israel from southern Lebanon. This response set off two weeks of fighting that killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians and drew international condemnation.

F.

The Netanyahu Government

The elections for an Israeli prime minister were held for the first time ever on May 29. Netanyahu, a vocal critic of the peace process, won by the narrowest of margins—less than 1 percentage point, or 29,500 votes. The parliamentary elections held simultaneously were less clear-cut. Many small parties on the religious right did well, but so did some natural allies of Labour. The two major bodies, Likud and the Labour Party, lost seats: the former was down 8 to 32 seats, the latter down 5 to 32.

Netanyahu had toned down slightly his stance on the peace process during the election campaign, saying he would honour the agreements on Palestinian autonomy in force. However, he maintained his rejection of any negotiations on the future of Jerusalem and also rejected any possibility of the creation of an independent Palestinian state. These two points were to have been discussed in negotiations between Israel and the PLO due to have been held in May, but postponed because of the elections.

Netanyahu, who had courted the religious right in his campaigning, also expressed support for ending the stop imposed by the Labour government on the establishment of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Initial reactions abroad to his election expressed pessimism for the future of the peace process, although Netanyahu committed himself in his victory speech to working with Israel’s neighbours to achieve “a stable peace, a real peace, peace with security”.

F.1.

Hebron Agreement

In January 1997, following months of negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, an agreement was reached for Israeli forces to withdraw from Hebron on the West Bank, which according to the earlier Oslo Agreement (1995) was meant to have been concluded by March 1996.

In February, Israel’s government approved the building of a new Jewish settlement at Har Homa on the outskirts of East Jerusalem. Palestinians were not appeased by the promise of permission to build in other parts of Jerusalem. Defying criticism, Israel began clearing land in occupied East Jerusalem for the new Israeli settlement, with Israeli troops deployed against anticipated Palestinian protests. In March 1997 a Jordanian soldier fired at Israeli schoolgirls on an outing at the Jordanian-Israeli border, killing seven of them; King Hussein of Jordan visited the bereaved families.

The Israeli government decided to withdraw from 2 per cent of the West Bank and transfer another 7 per cent to full Palestinian control. The Palestinians, rejecting this offer, invited the United States, the EU and Arab states to a meeting in Gaza. Also in March a Hamas terrorist blew up three Israeli women, and himself, in a Tel Aviv-Yafo café; Netanyahu claimed that Yasir Arafat had given terrorism a boost by releasing Islamist prisoners, but Arafat rejected Israeli demands that the Palestinian police crack down on militants.

F.2.

Protests Over New Jewish Settlements

Riots against Israel’s creation of the new East Jerusalem settlement continued, and the United States sent its chief Middle East negotiator back to the region to try to restart peace talks. Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers during mass protests; two others blew themselves up near Israeli settlements in Gaza. Arab foreign ministers, meeting in Cairo, called on member states to halt all dealings with Israel.

In April, Israeli police recommended the prosecution of Netanyahu on charges of breach of trust in connection with the aborted appointment in January of an attorney-general. However, they found insufficient admissible evidence to press charges. Netanyahu’s coalition survived but he came under pressure to sack the justice minister.

In May, Netanyahu said he had begun to ease the ban on Palestinian workers, and would look into the way East Jerusalem Arabs had been deprived of residency rights. While offering no concession on the Har Homa Jewish settlement, he announced that building for Arab residents would also begin. In the same month Yasir Arafat agreed to renew security cooperation with the Israelis, but the Palestinians were adamant that they would not negotiate unless Israel stopped the construction, which the Israeli government has so far refused to do.

F.3.

Slowing of the Peace Process

After a series of bomb attacks during the summer of 1997 the Cabinet decided in September to freeze any further territorial concessions under the 1993 Oslo accords because of the failure of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to control Islamic militants. In December 1997 ministers voted overwhelmingly to approve in principle the idea of carrying out a second stage of withdrawal from the West Bank.

Jewish settlers began to organize protests against the redeployment plan. Netanyahu intended offering the Palestinians between 6 and 8 per cent of Israeli-controlled territory, and to give them full authority over areas under joint control. Faced with a Cabinet revolt as he tried unsuccessfully to wrest a joint decision on the redeployment of Israeli forces from the West Bank, Netanyahu wanted to end the impasse before meeting the US negotiator, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in Paris—in the event, the meeting was inconclusive. Under Israeli pressure, the PA abandoned, at least temporarily, its attempt to hold a census of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

In January 1998 David Levy, Israel’s foreign minister, resigned and withdrew his party from the government coalition, leaving Netanyahu with a majority of one. Hopes that the United States would be able to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians receded further after the Israeli Cabinet laid claim to vast parts of the occupied West Bank.

Before a visit by Netanyahu to Washington D.C., 30,000 Jewish settlers protested in Tel Aviv-Yafo against further possible withdrawals from the West Bank and threatened to topple his government. Palestinian leaders attacked the Israeli prime minister for reasserting his claim to the disputed territory. Israel’s interior ministry approved plans for a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem that were criticized even by Netanyahu.

By February 1998 the United States was growing impatient with Israel’s hardening policy, which now included conditions set by the Cabinet for the Palestinians to fulfil before more land would be handed over to them, conditions which they rejected. In February and March the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians increasingly involved the United States. Having asked for a third of the West Bank, the Palestinians indicated that they would settle for the original American proposal of 13 per cent, against a subsequent Israeli offer of 10.5 to 12 per cent. At the end of March, pressure on Netanyahu by the United States increased after Dennis Ross, the American negotiator, failed to find a compromise over Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank. The United States blamed Netanyahu’s intransigence and implied that American diplomatic efforts would be withdrawn.

With the Palestinians demanding 30 per cent of the West Bank, the United States still pressed for an Israeli compromise of 13 per cent. Yasir Arafat, in trying to weaken the alliance between Israel and the United States, indicated that he would accept the American plan.

In March, 40 Palestinians were injured in riots against Israeli soldiers after three Arabs were killed at an army checkpoint. Sporadic clashes took place elsewhere in the West Bank, including a protest by hundreds of students in Rām Allāh. Israeli paratroopers had fired on a van filled with Palestinian workers returning from Israel, killing three and wounding four.

In April Hamas threatened to attack Israeli targets when an Islamist bomb-maker, Muhyiaddin Sharif, was killed in Rām Allāh. The Palestinians claimed that Sharif, who was wanted by the Israelis, was shot and his body put in a car that was then exploded by remote control; Israel denied the assassination. In April the PA arrested five Hamas activists. Hamas rejected the PA’s finding, claiming that confessions had been extracted by torture, and continued to threaten revenge against Israel.

F.4.

Iraqi Weapons Inspection Crisis

In December 1997 and January 1998 a major crisis erupted over UN weapons inspections in Iraq, which culminated in the UN apparently persuading Saddam Hussein to an agreement on February 18, brokered by the UN’s Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. Israel was cautious about the likely effectiveness of a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

During the crisis gas masks were distributed to the public as a basic measure against possible chemical warfare. This was regarded by Israelis as a very real threat following discoveries of chemical weapons in the Iraqi arsenal, Iraq’s previous genocidal actions against its Kurdish minority, and the events of the Gulf War, when Tel Aviv-Yafo was attacked by Iraqi Scud missiles. More than most other countries, Israel wanted assurance that Iraq would be stripped of its ability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Protests against American and British military intervention in Iraq were widespread despite an official ban by Yasir Arafat and the PA; the confrontation over Iraq did little to restore Palestinian faith in US diplomacy.

F.5.

Mossad Arrests

In February Danny Yatom, the head of Mossad, resigned after five Mossad agents were arrested in Switzerland following a bungled effort to install bugging devices in the cellar of a building in Bern. The Swiss government demanded an apology from Israel. The arrests followed six months of failures by Mossad agents, who in 1997 botched an attempt to assassinate a Hamas leader in Jordan.

F.6.

Relations with Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan

In March, Israel temporarily abandoned a peace agreement with Syria, saying it would be prepared to accept UN Resolution 425, which requires Israel to leave South Lebanon. Netanyahu said Israel would only accept the resolution in return for security guarantees from Lebanon and Syria that they would prevent border attacks on Israeli territory by radical groups, such as Hezbollah. In April, Israel’s conditional offer was rejected by Syria and Lebanon, with the Beirut government, controlled by Syria, stating that Resolution 425 demanded an unconditional withdrawal by Israel.

Following an inquiry in Israel in February 1998, which cleared Binyamin Netanyahu of responsibility for the Mossad assassination attempt on a Hamas official in Jordan in September 1997, Israel and Jordan resumed normal relations in March despite the disruption caused by the failed Mossad operation. Also in February, President Ezer Weizman was re-elected to a second five-year term, defeating Shaul Amor, a relatively unknown Likud candidate.

F.7.

Mordechai Vanunu

In March 1998 Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli technician who was imprisoned for disclosing Israel’s secret nuclear weapons programme, was allowed out of solitary confinement for the first time since being convicted of treason in Israel in 1986. Vanunu, a nuclear technician at the Dimona nuclear research installation in the Negev desert, was kidnapped by Mossad agents in Rome after he gave photographs and other details of the nuclear weapons programme to the UK press. Although he provided the first proof that Israel had developed nuclear weapons, Israel still refuses to acknowledge capability. Vanunu was released in April 2004 but continues to be subject to restrictions, such as being forbidden to hold a passport or to talk to foreigners without permission.

F.8.

Collapse of the Peace Talks

On May 4 a special Middle East peace summit was held in London enabling proximity talks between Netanyahu, Arafat, and the mediator, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in an attempt to restart the stalled negotiations. Arafat had tried to exert pressure on Israel by publicly accepting an informal American compromise proposal that Israel should hand over a further 13 per cent of the West Bank. The talks ended without agreement, and when Netanyahu refused to hand over the 13 per cent, proposals for a further summit in Washington collapsed. As much of the disputed land commands the approaches to Jerusalem, the Israeli government felt that it could not relinquish control over the Holy City’s defences until the final status of Palestinian lands is decided.

On May 14, eight Palestinians were shot dead and more than 100 were wounded when Israeli troops opened fire during protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Further rioting marked the 50th year of what the Palestinians call the Nakba (catastrophe)—the anniversary of the UN decision to divide British-mandated Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. In 1998, Israel celebrated its 50th year as a nation.

After heavy American lobbying, Israel signed a new peace accord with the Palestinians, the so-called Wye Accord, in October 1998. Under its terms, Israel began further troop withdrawals from the West Bank, and the first Palestinian airport was opened in the Gaza Strip in November. However, Netanyahu then suspended its terms, claiming Palestinian non-compliance. In December 1998 he asked the Knesset for endorsement of his handling of the peace process, but lost the vote, and called a general election. In February 1999 Israel's top commander in its self-declared southern Lebanese security zone, Brigadier-General Erez Gerstein, was killed by a Hezbollah bomb, the most serious in a series of Israeli losses in the region. After a highly divisive campaign, Netanyahu was roundly defeated in the May 1999 general elections by Ehud Barak and the Labour Party, amid voter swings against religious policies and in favour of a revitalized peace process. Netanyahu resigned as Likud’s leader and was succeeded, in September, by former defence minister and cabinet member Ariel Sharon.

G.

The Barak Government

Already a successful politician and renowned for his courage and bravery, Barak seemed the right man to boost the Arab-Israeli peace process. He immediately confirmed his commitment to implement the Wye Accord in a revised version.

G.1.

Sharm el-Sheikh Agreement

After several weeks of negotiations, the Israeli government and the Palestinian authorities signed a revised version of the Wye Accord, the so-called Sharm el-Sheikh Agreement, in Egypt, on September 4, 1999. The document was intended to project the way toward the final peace agreement, to be concluded by September 2000, and was accepted by the Israeli Cabinet.

In a matter of days Israel started the transfer of 7 per cent of the West Bank to Palestinian control. In October a safe passage zone between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was opened, and a group of Palestinian prisoners released.

G.2.

Peace Negotiations with Syria

Peace negotiations with Syria recommenced in December 1999, in the United States. The focal points of the talks were the issue of the Golan Heights and Syrian recognition of Israel. Despite high-level American mediation, involving the personal participation of President Clinton, no agreement was reached, and in March 2000 the talks were suspended.

G.3.

“Final Status” Talks

Intensive negotiations (the so-called “final status” or “permanent status” talks) were launched between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank town of Rām Allāh in November, but were soon suspended. Days after the talks broke down again in May 2000, Barak announced his cabinet’s approval to hand over three villages on the outskirts of East Jerusalem, among them Abū Dīs, a potential Palestinian capital in some Israelis’ eyes. The transfer was immediately postponed when the bloodiest violence for four years erupted in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

G.4.

Papal Visit

Pope John Paul II visited Israel in March 2000 in the course of his tour of the Middle East. The visit was significant politically as well as ideologically. The pope met with representatives of all three major world religions represented in Israel, and with the president and prime minister. During a ceremony at Yad Vashem, John Paul II reiterated the Church’s apology for past Christian anti-semitism, and visited the Western Wall.

G.5.

Weizman Resignation

Flamboyant president, Ezer Weizman, was forced to resign in May after a financial scandal. Veteran member of Likud, Moshe Katsav was elected his replacement in late July, defeating Peres and delivering a blow to Barak’s administration.

G.6.

Withdrawal from Lebanon

Ehud Barak announced in April that Israeli troops would be pulled out of southern Lebanon by July 2000. But as Hezbollah guerrillas made a rapid advance in the Israeli-occupied southern part of the country, the Israelis decided to pull out from the territory well ahead of this scheduled deadline. The withdrawal from the 'security zone', completed on May 24, 2000, effectively finished the 22-year occupation. Barak expressed his relief that it had been casualty-free.

G.7.

Camp David Summit

The announcement of a “make or break” summit meeting to be held in Camp David came on July 5 from President Clinton. After a meeting of the PLO central council ahead of the peace summit, the PLO executive was empowered to declare a Palestinian state on September 13, the date also chosen by Barak as the deadline for reaching an agreement with the Palestinians.

The negotiating teams of Barak and Arafat met at Camp David on July 11. Their progress was unclear, on account of a news blackout imposed by US officials, but sources from both sides revealed that the major stumbling block in the negotiations was the future state of Jerusalem: for Israelis their undivided capital, while for Arafat the future Palestinian state had its capital within East Jerusalem.

Negotiations continued until July 25, when the summit collapsed: Arafat and Barak left the United States the following day with no agreement in place. With the September 13 deadline looming, a further round of diplomatic efforts to restart negotiations was scheduled for September 11. These, too, broke down, and the peace process remained at an apparent impasse. In the full knowledge that the declaration of a Palestinian state would be recognized as unilateral and leave Palestinians diplomatically isolated, the Palestinian leadership agreed to delay their declaration of statehood.

G.8.

A New Palestinian Intifada

A controversial visit by Ariel Sharon in September 2000 to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound—sacred to both Muslims and Jews—in East Jerusalem, sparked off a second intifada among Palestinians. Months of violence—the worst for decades—ensued, in which a number of Palestinians as well as some Israeli soldiers died. This, together with the failure of peace talks to produce an agreement, caused a decline in support for Barak among both Israeli Jews and Arabs—he announced his resignation from the post on December 10.

H.

The Sharon Government

The prime-ministerial election in February 2001 produced the lowest turnout in the country’s history. Ariel Sharon won a landslide victory, making a remarkable political comeback after his forced resignation as defence minister in 1982. He came to power firmly declaring that the security of Israel was the first priority for his Likud party. His victory was greeted with hopes for strong, uncompromising leadership by his Israeli supporters; angry protests by many Palestinians, though the Palestinian leadership expressed its wish to continue peace negotiations; and caution and anxiety by the international community.

Sharon put together a broad and brittle coalition government, with the Labour Party given key portfolios—former prime minister Shimon Peres as foreign minister, and deputy prime minister, and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer as defence minister—and including the religious party Shas and ultra-nationalist parties Israel Beitenu and the National Union, who are in favour of the re-occupation of areas under Palestinian Authority control. Violence continued in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with the new prime minister’s determination to bring the uprising under control demonstrated by the use of heavy weapons, including tanks, in brief incursions, declared to be in retaliation for Palestinian mortar attacks on Israeli settlements, into Palestinian-administered territory—moves that left the 1993 Oslo Accord in tatters and brought international criticism, significantly from the new George W. Bush administration in the United States. At the same time, there were some conciliatory signals from Sharon’s government with regard to the easing of blockades preventing many Palestinians from travelling to Israel to work; and in indications of willingness to continue to negotiate with Yasir Arafat.

In a Palestinian terror attack on June 1, 2001, at a Tel Aviv disco 20 people were killed. Shortly afterwards a ceasefire was brokered between Israel and the Palestinian Authority by CIA director George Tenet. However, it proved to be a shaky ceasefire settlement and more deaths resulted from continuing military exchanges.

In August the military leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Abu Ali Mustafa, was killed by the Israelis. Also in August, Israel invaded the West Bank town of Beit Jala, a move that was severely criticized by both the US and Britain’s new foreign secretary Jack Straw.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and the focus of the coalition of nations on bringing to justice those responsible for such acts, in the US and elsewhere, new diplomatic moves were made to broker peace in the Middle East. Arafat distanced himself from the alleged perpetrator of the atrocity, the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda terrorist network, and the way was left open for a new ceasefire shortly afterwards.

H.1.

Assassination of Cabinet Minister

By the first week of October the Bush administration was openly talking of plans for a Palestinian state in the region, and even Sharon was in concurrence with the proposal. However, events took another turn on October 17 with the assassination of the Israeli tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi, at a hotel in East Jerusalem. The PFLP immediately claimed responsibility for the act, carried out in revenge for the murder of Abu Ali Mustafa in August. Zeevi, a right-wing hardliner, was an outspoken opponent of freedoms for Palestinians and had resigned from the Cabinet only days previously in opposition to Sharon’s decision to withdraw troops from the West Bank town of Hebron.

Sharon responded by giving an ultimatum to hand over those responsible. The Palestinian Authority arrested extremists supposed to have had involvement in the attack, but refused to hand them over to the Israelis. Again, Sharon ordered army incursions into towns on the West Bank, ostensibly to root out the terrorists. In clashes in Rām Allāh, Qalqilya, Tulkarm, Janīn, and Nābulus there were deaths on both sides in daily gun battles. Forces entered and then left Bethlehem and Beit Jala and at the end of the month Israel claimed that it had killed Hamas member Jamil Jadallah, the man thought responsible for organizing the June 1 attack in Tel Aviv (see above).

By the beginning of November, Sharon had announced his intention to try again for peace talks with the Palestinians and began the withdrawal of army units from Qalqilya. Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a hardliner, was elected leader of the Labour Party, replacing former prime minister Barak.

H.2.

Escalating Violence

A UN delegation, comprising assistant US Secretary of State William Burns and former general Anthony Zinni, arrived in the region for peace talks. However, in a series of coordinated attacks in early December on Jerusalem and Haifa, an estimated 26 Israelis were killed, with hundreds more injured. Israel responded by imposing a blockade on the Palestinian territories and by aiming attacks on Arafat’s headquarters. Thus the cycle of violence accelerated, with tit-for-tat attacks from both sides. Arafat was placed under virtual house arrest and significantly was refused leave to attend midnight mass in Bethlehem on December 24. The following month a leading Palestinian militant, Raed Karmi, was killed.

Palestinian suicide bomber attacks on civilian targets continued throughout January and into February 2002, with a new development being the introduction of female suicide terrorists. In February, in a new major offensive Israeli troops and tanks entered the town of Nābulus, with Sharon pledging to continue such incursions to root out terrorists and to destroy the “terrorist infrastructure” in the West Bank and Gaza. On February 21, Sharon announced a plan to set up a buffer zone to protect Israeli interests. On the diplomatic front, meanwhile, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia put forward a peace plan and on March 12 the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a Palestinian state. However, on the same day Israel launched its biggest armed offensive in over 20 years when it deployed an estimated 20,000 troops and 150 tanks into the Palestinian territories. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in the fighting. This development triggered almost daily suicide bombings by Palestinians in reprisal. In a move that disturbed international observers, Israeli forces besieged the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem that was sheltering civilians as well as militants. As tension and concern grew internationally, President Bush called for a pull out of Israeli troops “without delay” and sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region for talks. The repeated request from Bush and other leaders was rejected by Sharon. The siege was ended in May. In July 2002 Israeli air strikes on Gaza City killed the leader of Hamas, Sheikh Salah Shahada.

Israeli interests abroad were threatened in November 2002 when a suicide bomber killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. In a parallel incident on the same day there was a missile attack on an Israeli passenger airliner leaving the resort; the missiles failed to hit their target. The strikes were purportedly carried out by Al-Qaeda.

H.3.

Re-election of Sharon

Former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was sworn in as foreign minister in early November 2002 and later that month challenged Sharon for the leadership of Likud. In the primary, Sharon defeated Netanyahu by 56 per cent of the vote to 41. He confirmed the general election would take place in January 2003. Held amid tight security and with an extremely low turnout, Likud won the election easily and Sharon sought again to put together a broad-based coalition, influenced in part by the strong showing of the secular Shinui Party in the polls.

H.4.

The “Road Map” to Peace and the Withdrawal From Gaza

In April 2003 the highly publicized “Road Map” to peace was presented to both Sharon and the newly appointed Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas. It was drawn up by representatives of the US and Russia as well as the European Union and the UN. It created a timetable to end terrorism in the region, as well as making provisions for the establishment of a Palestinian state, an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian towns, and the dismantling of Jewish settlements. Despite being warmly received very little in the way of progress was made.

However, in a surprise move in February 2004, Sharon announced plans to withdraw from Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, amounting to the removal of around 7,000 people, in a “land for peace deal”. The move was welcomed by the new Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei (Abbas had been replaced after engaging in a power struggle with Arafat) but was rejected by Sharon’s Likud Party. At the same time Sharon continued with the construction of a “security fence” that delineated the territory, an attempt to create a unilateral solution to the continuing violence. His plans to withdraw all Israeli troops and settlements by the end of 2005 were endorsed by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in October, although his own party remained hostile. The process was completed in the Gaza Strip by September 2005. It was followed, however, by rocket attacks by Palestinian militants on southern Israel and counter-attacks by the Israeli army.

H.5.

Attacks on Hamas and the Death of Arafat

Meanwhile, Israel continued to counter terrorist attacks by taking equally aggressive action. In a move that was later criticized by the UN, Israeli warplanes attacked alleged Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon in January 2004. In March Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, was killed in an Israeli air strike. He had already survived several attempts on his life. He was succeeded as leader by Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, who was similarly killed in a missile attack in April. The organization appointed a new leader but kept his identity secret. Arafat remained confined to his presidential compound until October 2004, when he was allowed to seek medical treatment in France. He died in Paris on November 11, 2004, and his body was later interred at Râm Allâh. Elections were held in January 2005 and Mahmoud Abbas was appointed president of the PNA, with 62 per cent of the vote. In February, Abbas met with Sharon in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where the two agreed a ceasefire, bringing hope to the stagnant peace process.

H.6.

Political Change

In November 2005 the Labour Party elected Amir Peretz to replace Shimon Peres as its leader. Peretz immediately withdrew the party’s support for the ruling coalition. Sharon asked President Moshe Katsav to dissolve the Knesset, agreed to early elections for March 28, 2006, but also announced that he was leaving Likud with several other members to form a new centrist political party, named Kadima (meaning “Forward”), to fight the election. Several Labour Party members also defected to the new party, which also received the backing of former Labour leader Peres, although initially he signalled no plans to become a member. Sharon suffered a major stroke in January 2006 and was hospitalized; Ehud Olmert of Kadima became acting prime minister in his absence. As planned, the parliamentary elections were held in March 2006 and saw Kadima topping the polls, taking 29 seats in the Knesset though not reaching the necessary 61 needed to rule as a majority party. Coalition partners included Labour, with 19 seats, and Shas. In June 2007 Shimon Peres succeeded Katsav as president. Katsav had earlier resigned to fight accusations of sexual offences.

H.7.

Conflict in Lebanon

On July 12, 2006, two Israeli soldiers were abducted by Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah (Party of God) militia fighters from southern Lebanon in a cross-border raid. The action was described by Prime Minister Olmert as “an act of war” and Israeli forces launched a combined land-sea-air offensive on targets in Lebanon. Warplanes bombed Hezbollah strongholds in the south of the country, destroying the organization’s headquarters. Israeli air raids attacked Beirut’s airport and major routes while a naval blockade prevented shipping from entering or leaving the port. In Beirut there was heavy loss of life and widespread destruction of the city’s buildings and infrastructure. As an international crisis developed, thousands of foreign nationals were evacuated from the war zone.

The attacks soon spread to other Lebanese cities, including Tripoli, Baalbek, Şūr, and Sidon. Meanwhile, Hezbollah responded with its rocket attacks on northern Israeli cities, including attacks on Haifa. Israel called up reservists and a military incursion led to the taking of towns in southern Lebanon.

After four weeks of fighting and bombing more than 900 Lebanese and nearly 90 Israelis had been killed, with thousands more wounded and an estimated half a million Lebanese displaced. The UN's emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, commented on the large scale of the destruction, and its indiscriminate nature, calling it a violation of humanitarian law, while other international observers condemned the “disproportionate” use of force employed by the Israeli military as its attacks killed many civilians. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for a ceasefire and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the region for talks with both Olmert and Saniora to negotiate a settlement. A proposed UN resolution called for an immediate ceasefire and for a peacekeeping force to be installed in southern Lebanon. In 2008 an Israeli commission of inquiry criticized the conduct of the war.

H.8.

Conflict and Peace Talks With the Palestinians

In November 2007 peace talks between Israel and the PNA resumed at a summit held at Annapolis, Maryland, United States, but failed to make progress. Meanwhile, back at home, Olmert faced increasing pressure to resign over his alleged involvement in a corruption investigation. He stepped down as leader of Kadima in September 2008 and was replaced by the country’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni. She was invited to form a new government by the president.

After the breakdown of the fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas in December 2008, Israel began air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip later in the month, targeting Hamas government buildings, a prison, mosques, and the Islamic University of Gaza, a stronghold of Hamas support. As many as 300 air strikes were carried out in the first wave of attacks, which resulted in many civilian casualties. After a week of air strikes, Israel began a land invasion on January 3, 2009. Spokespersons for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said the purpose of the invasion was to destroy the infrastructure of Hamas and to end the rocket attacks into Israel and to prevent the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. After a few days of the land invasion the death toll had risen to more than 600 Palestinians and 11 Israelis. Three weeks after the start of the offensive Israel declared a ceasefire, followed by a similar announcement from Hamas; US envoy George Mitchell was sent to the region to broker a more permanent deal.

In parliamentary elections held in February Kadima won 28 seats and Likud 27. President Peres asked Likud’s Binyamin Netanyahu to form a new government.