Israel
Of the approximately 6.43 million Israelis in 2007, about 76% were
counted as Jewish, though some of those are not considered Jewish
under Orthodox Jewish law. Since 1989, nearly a million immigrants
from the former Soviet Union have arrived in Israel, making this the
largest wave of immigration since independence. In addition, an
estimated 105,000 members of the Ethiopian Jewish community have
immigrated to Israel, 14,000 of them during the dramatic May 1991
Operation Solomon airlift. 32.9% of Israelis were born outside of
Israel.
The three broad Jewish groupings are the Ashkenazim, or Jews who
trace their ancestry to western, central, and eastern Europe; the
Sephardim, who trace their origin to Spain, Portugal, southern
Europe, and North Africa; and Eastern or Oriental Jews, who descend
from ancient communities in Islamic lands. Of the non-Jewish
population, about 68% are Muslims, about 9% are Christian, and about
7% are Druze.
Education is compulsory from age 6 to 16 and is free up to age 18.
The school system is organized into kindergartens, 6-year primary
schools, 3-year junior secondary schools, and 3-year senior
secondary schools, after which a comprehensive examination is
offered for university admissions. There are seven university-level
institutions in Israel, a number of regional colleges, and an Open
University program.
With a population drawn from more than 100 countries on 5
continents, Israeli society is rich in cultural diversity and
artistic creativity. The arts are actively encouraged and supported
by the government. The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra performs
throughout the country and frequently tours abroad. The Jerusalem
Symphony and the New Israel Opera also tour frequently, as do other
musical ensembles. Almost every municipality has a chamber orchestra
or ensemble, many boasting the talents of gifted performers from the
countries of the former Soviet Union.
Israel has several professional ballet and modern dance companies,
and folk dancing, which draws upon the cultural heritage of many
immigrant groups, continues to be very popular. There is great
public interest in the theater; the repertoire covers the entire
range of classical and contemporary drama in translation as well as
plays by Israeli authors. Of the three major repertory companies,
the most famous, Habimah, was founded in 1917.
Active artist colonies thrive in Safed, Jaffa, and Ein Hod, and
Israeli painters and sculptors exhibit works worldwide. Israel
boasts more than 120 museums, including the Israel Museum in
Jerusalem, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls along with an extensive
collection of regional archaeological artifacts, art, and Jewish
religious and folk exhibits. Israelis are avid newspaper readers,
with more than 90% of Israeli adults reading a newspaper at least
once a week. Major daily papers are in Hebrew; others are in Arabic,
English, French, Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Hungarian, and German. |
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The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was preceded by more
than 50 years of efforts to establish a sovereign nation as a
homeland for Jews. These efforts were initiated by Theodore Herzl,
founder of the Zionist movement, and were given added impetus by the
Balfour Declaration of 1917, which asserted the British Government's
support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
In the years following World War I, Palestine became a British
Mandate and Jewish immigration steadily increased, as did violence
between Palestine's Jewish and Arab communities. Mounting British
efforts to restrict this immigration were countered by international
support for Jewish national aspirations following the
near-extermination of European Jewry by the Nazis during World War
II. This support led to the 1947 UN partition plan, which would have
divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with
Jerusalem under UN administration.
On May 14, 1948, soon after the British quit Palestine, the State of
Israel was proclaimed and was immediately invaded by armies from
neighboring Arab states, which rejected the UN partition plan. This
conflict, Israel's War of Independence, was concluded by armistice
agreements between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria in 1949
and resulted in a 50% increase in Israeli territory.
In 1956, French, British, and Israeli forces engaged Egypt in
response to its nationalization of the Suez Canal and blockade of
the Straits of Tiran. Israeli forces withdrew in March 1957, after
the United Nations established the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in the
Gaza Strip and Sinai. This war resulted in no territorial shifts and
was followed by several years of terrorist incidents and retaliatory
acts across Israel's borders.
In June 1967, Israeli forces struck targets in Egypt, Jordan, and
Syria in response to Egyptian President Nasser's ordered withdrawal
of UN peacekeepers from the Sinai Peninsula and the buildup of Arab
armies along Israel's borders. After 6 days, all parties agreed to a
cease-fire, under which Israel retained control of the Sinai
Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the formerly
Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River, and East
Jerusalem. On November 22, 1967, the Security Council adopted
Resolution 242, the "land for peace" formula, which called for the
establishment of a just and lasting peace based on Israeli
withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in return for the end
of all states of belligerency, respect for the sovereignty of all
states in the area, and the right to live in peace within secure,
recognized boundaries.
The following years were marked by continuing violence across the
Suez Canal, punctuated by the 1969-70 war of attrition. On October
6, 1973--Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement), the armies of
Syria and Egypt launched an attack against Israel. Although the
Egyptians and Syrians initially made significant advances, Israel
was able to push the invading armies back beyond the 1967 cease-fire
lines by the time the United States and the Soviet Union helped
bring an end to the fighting. In the UN Security Council, the United
States supported Resolution 338, which reaffirmed Resolution 242 as
the framework for peace and called for peace negotiations between
the parties.
In the years that followed, sporadic clashes continued along the
cease-fire lines but guided by the U.S., Egypt, and Israel continued
negotiations. In November 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made
a historic visit to Jerusalem, which opened the door for the 1978
Israeli-Egyptian peace summit convened at Camp David by President
Carter. These negotiations led to a 1979 peace treaty between Israel
and Egypt, pursuant to which Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982,
signed by President Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menahem Begin
of Israel.
In the years following the 1948 war, Israel's border with Lebanon
was quiet relative to its borders with other neighbors. After the
expulsion of Palestinian fighters from Jordan in 1970 and their
influx into southern Lebanon, however, hostilities along Israel's
northern border increased and Israeli forces crossed into Lebanon.
After passage of Security Council Resolution 425, calling for
Israeli withdrawal and the creation of the UN Interim Force in
Lebanon peacekeeping force (UNIFIL), Israel withdrew its troops.
In June 1982, following a series of cross-border terrorist attacks
and the attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador to the
U.K., Israel invaded Lebanon to fight the forces of Yasser Arafat's
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO withdrew its forces
from Lebanon in August 1982. Israel, having failed to finalize an
agreement with Lebanon, withdrew most of its troops in June 1985
save for a residual force which remained in southern Lebanon to act
as a buffer against attacks on northern Israel. These remaining
forces were completely withdrawn in May 2000 behind a UN-brokered
delineation of the Israel-Lebanon border (the Blue Line). Hezbollah
forces in Southern Lebanon continued to attack Israeli positions
south of the Blue Line in the Sheba Farms/Har Dov area of the Golan
Heights.
The victory of the U.S.-led coalition in the Persian Gulf War of
1991 opened new possibilities for regional peace. In October 1991,
the United States and the Soviet Union convened the Madrid
Conference, in which Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and
Palestinian leaders laid the foundations for ongoing negotiations
designed to bring peace and economic development to the region.
Within this framework, Israel and the PLO signed a Declaration of
Principles on September 13, 1993, which established an ambitious set
of objectives relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an
interim Palestinian authority. Israel and the PLO subsequently
signed the Gaza-Jericho Agreement on May 4, 1994, and the Agreement
on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities on August 29,
1994, which began the process of transferring authority from Israel
to the Palestinians.
On October 26, 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a historic peace
treaty, witnessed by President Clinton. This was followed by Israeli
Prime Minister Rabin and PLO Chairman Arafat's signing of the
historic Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on September 28,
1995. This accord, which incorporated and superseded previous
agreements, broadened Palestinian self-government and provided for
cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians in several areas.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4,
1995, by a right-wing Jewish radical, bringing the increasingly
bitter national debate over the peace process to a climax.
Subsequent Israeli governments continued to negotiate with the PLO
resulting in additional agreements, including the Wye River and the
Sharm el-Sheikh memoranda. However, a summit hosted by President
Clinton at Camp David in July 2000 to address permanent status
issues--including the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees,
Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, final security
arrangements, borders, and relations and cooperation with
neighboring states--failed to produce an agreement.
Following the failed talks, widespread violence broke out in Israel,
the West Bank, and Gaza in September 2000. In April 2001 the Sharm
el-Sheikh Fact Finding Committee, commissioned by the October 2000
Middle East Peace Summit and chaired by former U.S. Senator George
Mitchell, submitted its report, which recommended an immediate end
to the violence followed by confidence-building measures and a
resumption of security cooperation and peace negotiations. Building
on the Mitchell report, In April 2003, the Quartet (the U.S., UN,
European Union (EU), and the Russian Federation) announced the
"roadmap," a performance-based plan to bring about two states,
Israel and a democratic, viable Palestine, living side by side in
peace and security.
Despite the promising developments of spring 2003, violence
continued and in September 2003 the first Palestinian Prime
Minister, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), resigned after failing to win
true authority to restore law and order, fight terror, and reform
Palestinian institutions. In response to the deadlock, in the winter
of 2003-2004 Prime Minister Sharon put forward his Gaza
disengagement initiative, proposing the withdrawal of Israeli
settlements from Gaza as well as parts of the northern West Bank.
President Bush endorsed this initiative in an exchange of letters
with Prime Minister Sharon on April 14, 2004, viewing Gaza
disengagement as an opportunity to move towards implementation of
the two-state vision and begin the development of Palestinian
institutions. In a meeting in May 2004 the Quartet endorsed the
initiative, which was approved by the Knesset in October 2004.
The run-up to disengagement saw a flurry of diplomatic activity,
including the February 2005 announcement of Lieutenant General
William Ward as U.S. Security Coordinator; the March 2005
Sharon-Abbas summit in Sharm el-Sheikh; the return of Egyptian and
Jordanian ambassadors to Israel; and the May 2005 appointment of
former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn as Special Envoy for
Gaza Disengagement to work for a revitalization of the Palestinian
economy after disengagement. Wolfensohn's direct involvement spurred
Israeli-Palestinian agreement on the Gaza ‘crossings" at Karni and
Erez, on the demolition of settler homes, water, electricity, and
communications infrastructure issues, as well as other issues
related to the Palestinian economy.
On August 15, 2005, Israel began implementing its disengagement from
the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli Defense Forces completed their
withdrawal, including the dismantling of 17 settlements, on
September 12. After broad recognition for Prime Minister Sharon's
accomplishment at that fall's UN General Assembly, international
attention quickly turned to efforts to strengthen Palestinian
governance and the economy in Gaza. The United States brokered a
landmark Agreement on Movement and Access between the parties in
November 2005 to facilitate further progress on Palestinian economic
issues. However, the terrorist organization Hamas--building on
popular support for its "resistance" to Israeli occupation and a
commitment to clean up the notorious corruption of the Palestinian
Authority (PA)--took a majority in the January 2006 Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC) elections, with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya
as Prime Minister. The Israeli leadership pledged not to work with a
Palestinian government in which Hamas had a role.
Shortly following Hamas' PLC victory, the Quartet--comprised of the
United States, European Union, United Nations. and Russia--outlined
three basic principles the Hamas-led PA must meet in order for the
U.S. and the international community to reengage with the PA:
renounce violence and terror, recognize Israel, and respect previous
agreements, including the roadmap. The Hamas-led PA government
rejected these principles, resulting in a Quartet statement of
"grave concern" on March 30, 2006 and the suspension of U.S.
assistance to the PA, complete prohibition on U.S. Government
contacts with the PA, and prohibition of unlicensed transactions
with the PA government. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
under the leadership of PLO Chairman and PA President Mahmud Abbas
(Abu Mazen), by contrast, remained consistently committed to the
Quartet principles.
Despite several negotiated cease-fires between Hamas and Fatah,
violent clashes in the Gaza Strip--and to a lesser extent in the
West Bank--were commonplace between December 2006 and February 2007
and resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries. In an attempt to end
the intra-Palestinian violence, the King of Saudi Arabia invited
Palestinian rivals to Mecca, and on February 9, 2007, Abbas and
Hamas leader Haniya agreed to the formation of a Palestinian
national unity government and a cessation of violence. Hamas'
rejectionist policies and violent behavior continued despite the
formation of the national unity government.
In June 2007, Hamas effectively orchestrated a violent coup in Gaza.
Hamas also launched scores of Qassam rockets into southern Israel in
an attempt to involve Israel in the Hamas-Fatah conflict. On June
14, Palestinian Authority President Mahoud Abbas exercised his
lawful authority by declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the
national unity government, and replacing it with a new government
with Salam Fayyad as Prime Minister.
The new Palestinian Authority government under President Abbas and
Prime Minister Fayyad has no elements controlled by Hamas or any
other terrorist group. The new government is dedicated to peace and
the Quartet principles and has been embraced politically and
financially by the international community, including Israel. |
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