Source: MAPS IN MINUTES™ © RH Publications (1997)

A country of south-west Asia at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded on the north by Lebanon, on the east by Syria and Jordan, and on the south by Egypt.

Physical

The coastal plain is very warm in summer and suited particularly to the growth of citrus fruits. The north includes the Sea of Galilee and part of the River Jordan, while the east extends to the Dead Sea with its deposits of potash and reserves of natural gas. Southward is a hot and arid rift valley (part of the Great Rift Valley system) running down the eastern side of the rocky Negev Desert. Massive irrigation programmes have brought large areas of former desert under cultivation.

Economy

The Israeli economy has a well-developed manufacturing base, the main products being aviation, communications, and other high-technology products. Other exports include cut diamonds, pharmaceuticals, and computer software. However, high military expenditure and reliance on imported raw materials result in a large trade deficit; this is met by tourism, service exports, and foreign aid (principally from the USA). Agriculture has been successfully developed by irrigation and produces citrus fruits, vegetables, and cotton.

History

The modern state of Israel has developed from the Zionist campaign for a Jewish state in Palestine and the Balfour Declaration (1917) in which the Jewish demand for a national home was supported by Britain. Under the British mandate (from 1922) in Palestine the Jewish community increased from about 10% of the population in 1918 to about 30% in 1936. In 1937 the Peel Commission recommended the partition of Palestine and the formation of Jewish and Arab states. Subsequently Britain abandoned the partition solution, but, after its referral of the Palestine problem to the United Nations in 1947, a United Nations Special Commission recommended partition and a resolution to that effect was passed by the General Assembly. The British mandate ended on 14 May 1948 and the independent Jewish state of Israel in Palestine was established. The creation of the state was opposed by the Palestinian Arabs supported by Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, but after a violent conflict Israel survived and considerably enlarged its territory at the expense of the proposed Arab state. A substantial Palestinian refugee problem was created as many Arabs fled from Israel-controlled territory. Further Israeli-Arab wars took place in 1956 (Suez War), 1967 (Six-Day War), 1973 (Yom Kippur War), and 1982 (Lebanon War). As a result of these wars Israel extended its occupation to include all the territory of the former British mandate. After 1948 immigration into Israel took place from over 100 different nations, especially Jews from former communist and Arab countries, as well as from Europe, raising the population from about 700,000 in 1948 to 5.3 million by 1994. Despite a high inflation rate, the development of the economy has made Israel the most industrialized country in the region, greatly aided by funding from the USA and European powers. The right-wing leader of the Likud Party, Yitzhak Shamir, led a government (1986–92) firmly opposed to any concessions over the Palestine problem. Under his successor as Prime Minister, the Labour leader Yitzhak Rabin, progress towards an eventual settlement began. Intense diplomatic efforts, led by the USA, during 1991–92 resulted in several sessions of Middle East peace talks. They were disrupted in late 1992 by violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the occupied territories and by the deportation of over 400 Palestinians, which caused the PLO to halt negotiations. Despite escalating violence, peace talks resumed in 1993 but remained deadlocked. An unexpected breakthrough in negotiations between Israel and the PLO, led by Yasser Arafat, resulted in a declaration of principles on Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories. Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994 and had withdrawn its forces from all Jordanian territories by early 1995. The issue of Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, a long-standing source of dispute, sparked a crisis in the peace process in 1995; the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November by a Jewish extremist cast further doubt over the future. Shimon Peres succeeded Rabin and in 1996 Hamas began a series of suicide bomb attacks on Israeli cities. In the elections of 1996 Peres lost to the hawkish Binyamin Netanyahu and the peace process stalled. However, a further agreement was reached in 1998 and in 1999 elections were won by the Labour Party under Ehud Barak. He attempted to reach a final peace agreement with Arafat in 2000, but the collapse of negotiations, together with the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, led to Barak’s defeat in the 2001 elections by Ariel Sharon of Likud. Israel responded to the renewed Palestinian unrest and suicide bombings by reoccupying large parts of the West Bank (2001–02) and began to build a ‘security fence’, generally along its frontier with the West Bank but incorporating parts of the West Bank on the Israeli side. Sharon was re-elected in 2003 and in 2004 announced a unilateral withdrawal of all Israelis, including settlers, from Gaza. This was carried out against some opposition in 2005, and led Sharon to split with Likud and form a new party, Kadima, to fight the 2006 elections. These resulted in a Kadima–Labour coalition with Ehud Olmert as Prime Minister, Sharon having suffered a serious stroke during the campaign. Later that year a month-long war in Lebanon against the Hezbollah paramilitary group ended in stalemate; and in 2008–09 Israel conducted a short campaign against the Hamas government of the Gaza Strip to stop rockets being fired into Israel. Corruption allegations obliged Olmert to resign the Kadima leadership in 2008, but he remained Prime Minister until the 2009 elections. These resulted in a Likud-led coalition under Netanyahu, who remained in power after the 2013 elections. In 2014 continuing Hamas rocket attacks led Israel to launch a fierce air and ground attack on the Gaza strip, resulting in some 2000 civilian deaths, as well as the destruction of many homes and much infrastructure. At the end of 2014, Netanyahu dismissed the leaders of two coalition parties from government, thus prompting a general election in March 2015; this resulted in another Likud-led coalition.