Israel Overview
A densely-populated country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is the only majority-Jewish state in the world.
It has been locked in conflict with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours over ownership of land considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims since its creation in 1948.
The division of the former British mandate of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in the years after the end of World War II was the culmination of the Zionist movement, whose aim was a homeland for Jews scattered all over the world. After the Nazi Holocaust pressure grew for the international recognition of a Jewish state, and in 1948 Israel declared its independence following a UN vote to partition Palestine.
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At a glance
- Politics: Palestinian resistance to Israeli control has been a key feature since Israel's establishment in 1948
- Economy: Israel has a diverse and sophisticated economy
- Foreign relations: Israel faces hostility from much of the Arab world. The US provides crucial diplomatic and military support. Some borders are in dispute.
Much of the history of the area since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and Palestinians - represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation - and Israel's Arab neighbours, on the other. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced in the fighting in 1948, during which Israel's Arab neighbours came to the aid of the Palestinian Higher Council. Israel lost one percent of its population in the fighting, which ended in a series of uneasy armistices.
Israel has developed from an agrarian state run along collectivist lines into a hi-tech economy in the past 60 years. It has absorbed Jewish immigrants from Europe, the rest of the Middle East, North America and, most recently, the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia along the way.
Its political life has nonetheless been dominated by the conflict with its Arab neighbours, including full-scale regional wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973, and many smaller-scale conflicts including the 1956 invasion of Egypt and the Lebanon wars of 1982 and 2006.
Relations with the Palestinians have been the key factor in foreign and security policy. The Palestinians in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. The settlements that Israel has built in the West Bank are home to nearly 500,000 people and are deemed to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
Gaza conflict
Israel evacuated its settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and withdrew its forces, ending almost four decades of military occupation. However, after the militant Islamic group Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Israel intensified its economic blockade of the Strip. At the end of 2008 it launched a major military assault on Gaza to halt cross-border rocket attacks.
In 1979 Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement, but it wasn't until the early 1990s, after years of an uprising known as the intifada, that a peace process began with the Palestinians. Despite the handover of Gaza and parts of the West Bank to Palestinian control, a final agreement has yet to be reached.
The main stumbling blocks include the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements.
Source: BBC News, 31 August 2011 Last updated at 09:57 GMT
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Israel Facts
Israelis and Palestinians have been at loggerheads for decades - Full name: State of Israel
- Population: 7.3 million (UN, 2010)
- Seat of government: Jerusalem, though most foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv
- Area: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics cites 22,072 sq km (8,522 sq miles), including Jerusalem and Golan
- Major languages: Hebrew, Arabic
- Major religions: Judaism, Islam, Christianity
- Life expectancy: 80 years (men), 84 years (women) (UN)
- Monetary unit: 1 new Israeli shekel (NIS) = 100 new agorot
- Main exports: Computer software, military equipment, chemicals, agricultural products
- GNI per capita: US $27,170 (World Bank, 2010)
- Internet domain: .il
- International dialling code: +972
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Israel Leaders
Prime minister: Binyamin Netanyahu
Mr Netanyahu campaigned on a policy of toughness towards Palestinian militancy Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud party, became prime minister after an inconclusive early election in February 2009, a decade after holding the office once before.
The vote was called when his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, of the centrist Kadima party, resigned amid corruption allegations, and Mr Olmert's designated successor, Tzipi Livni, failed to put together a new centre-left coalition.
Mrs Livni and Kadima actually won one more seat in the Knesset (parliament) than Likud, but right-wing parties emerged stronger than the left overall.
Mr Netanyahu, widely seen as one of Likud's most right-wing leaders, formed a coalition with the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, various religious parties, as well as the centre-left Labour party.
Despite Labour's inclusion, the coalition's composition sparked fears that it would be too hard-line on the peace process with the Palestinians.
During the election campaign, Mr Netanyahu stressed his longstanding opposition to handing back land occupied by Israel in return for peace.
But several months after coming to power, Mr Netanyahu said he would accept the creation of Palestinian state, but only on the condition that it is completely demilitarised. Palestinian leaders said the conditions were unjust and the policy change insincere.
The prime minister continued to resist pressure from US President Barack Obama's administration for a complete suspension of Israeli settlement activity - a key Palestinian condition for a return to stalled peace talks.
However, the PM in December 2009 announced a 10-month lull in permits for new settlements, sparking angry protests by settlers.
Mr Netanyahu promised to make the perceived threat of Iran's nuclear programme a priority in security policy.
During his previous term as prime minister, from 1996, Mr Netanyahu was hostile towards the Palestinian Authority created by the peace process, but also showed flexibility: In 1997, he agreed to cede most of the West Bank town of Hebron.
Defeated by Labour leader Ehud Barak in 1999, he later served as finance minister under Likud PM Ariel Sharon, pushing through a series of market-oriented reforms before resigning in 2005 in protest at Mr Sharon's decision to pull out from Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv, spending part of his childhood in the United States. During his five years in Israel's army, he served as captain of an elite commando unit.
A fluent English-speaker, Mr Netanyahu has been a prominent advocate for Israel in the international media.
President: Shimon Peres
Israel's elder statesman, Shimon Peres The Israeli president has a mainly ceremonial role; executive power is vested in the cabinet, headed by the prime minister.
On 13 June 2007, the Israeli parliament chose the veteran politician Shimon Peres to succeed Moshe Katsav, who had taken leave of absence from the presidency earlier in the year after being accused of various sexual offences.
Though the post is largely ceremonial, the president has in the past been seen by many Israelis as the nation's moral compass, and many hoped that Mr Peres would restore dignity to what they saw as a tarnished office.
Mr Peres was a leading member of the Labour party for decades, but left in 2005 and later joined the centrist Kadima party.
He has twice been prime minister, and in 1994 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his role in bringing about the signing of Israel's first interim peace accord with the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Oslo the previous year.
Source: BBC News, 31 August 2011 Last updated at 09:58 GMT
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Israel Media
Israel has a variety of newspapers, many of which are available on the internet Israel's press and broadcasters are many and varied, and account for differences in language, political viewpoint and religious outlook.
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), set up along the lines of the BBC, operates public radio and TV services and is funded mainly by licence fees on TV sets.
Channel 2 and Israel 10 are the main commercial TV networks. Most Israeli households subscribe to cable or satellite packages. HOT cable and YES satellite TV are the main multichannel providers.
Commercial radio arrived in 1995, but faces competition from unlicensed radio stations, some of which carry ultra-Orthodox programming.
Israel has 13 daily newspapers and at least 90 weeklies. All titles are privately-owned; many are available on the internet.
In the view of watchdog Reporters Without Borders, "the Israeli authorities are capable of both best and worst practice when it comes to respect for press freedom. Despite military censorship, its press still enjoys latitude that is unequalled in the region."
Israel has a large IT industry and one of the world's most technologically-literate populations. Around 5.3 million people - around 71% of the population - had internet access by May 2008 (InternetWorldStats).
The press
Yediot Aharonot - Tel Aviv-based, most widely-read daily
Ha'aretz - Tel Aviv-based daily
Jerusalem Post - English-language daily
Ma'ariv - Tel Aviv-based daily
Globes - business daily
Television
Israel Broadcasting Authority - public TV, operates Channel 1
Channel 2 - national, commercial
Israel 10 - national, commercial
Radio
Israel Broadcasting Authority - operates public radios, including speech-based Reshet Aleph, news-based Reshet Bet, music-based Reshet Gimmel, Arabic-language Reshet Dalet
Galei Zahal - Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Radio, broadcasts news and music to mostly-civilian audience; also operates music and traffic news network Galgalatz
Source: BBC News, 31 August 2011 Last updated at 10:00 GMT
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