Israel Education

Education
The educational tradition of Israel reaches back to biblical times, although the country did not become a modern independent state until 1948. 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 the various ruling factions.
The Compulsory Education Law of 1949 provides for free and compulsory elementary education for all children 5 to 15 years of age. Reform continued with the State Education Law of 1953, which established a national system of public secondary schools. Higher education is governed by a law enacted in 1958, which set up a council to control universities and other higher educational institutions, such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1918); the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology (1912), in Haifa; Haifa University, also in Haifa; Bar-Ilan University (1953), in Ramat Gan; Tel Aviv University (1953); Ben Gurion University of the Negev (1965), in Beersheba; and the Weizmann Institute of Science (1949), in Rehovot. Students in secondary schools receive aid from state and local authorities in amounts up to 100 percent of costs, depending on parents' incomes.
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 the late 1980s about 761,400 Israeli children attended elementary schools, and about 236,400 students were enrolled in general secondary schools. In addition, about 105,300 students attended vocational schools, and 98,800 persons were enrolled in institutions of higher education.

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 in 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 the dance. The Israel National Theater, in Tel Aviv, is notable.
Israel has more than 130 museums, two of the most prominent being the Tel Aviv Museum and the Israel Museum, in Jerusalem, which houses a large collection of Jewish folk art, a collection of modern sculpture, and biblical and archaeological artifacts. The Shrine of the Book, a 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, republic in the Middle East, established in 1948, located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is bounded on the north by Lebanon, on the northeast by Syria, on the east by Jordan, and on the southwest by Egypt. Its southernmost tip extends to the Gulf of Aqaba, an arm of the Red Sea. Israel covers 21,946 sq km (8473 sq mi). This figure includes East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the Six-Day War in 1967 and annexed shortly afterward. However, most countries do not recognize the annexation. Israel also seized other areas during the war, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank region, and the Golan Heights area of southwestern Syria. However, Palestinian self-rule took effect in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho in May 1994, following an historic peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in September 1993. Jerusalem is Israel's capital and largest city.

Land and Resources
Israel has an extreme length of about 420 km (about 260 mi) and a width that varies from about 16 to 115 km (about 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 Judean and Samarian hills, the coastal plains, and the Negev.
The hills of Galilee dominate the northern section of Israel, extending east about 40 km (about 25 mi) from a narrow coastal plain across to Lake Tiberias (also called Sea of Galilee). Israel's highest point, Mount Meron (1208 m/3963 ft), is in this area. To the south of the highlands of Galilee lies the Plain of Esdraelon, about 55 km (about 35 mi) long and about 25 km (about 15 mi) wide, running across Israel from the vicinity of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast to the Jordan River. Formerly a malarial swampland, the valley has been drained and is now a densely populated and productive agricultural region.
Extending about 195 km (about 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 (about 20 mi). They consist of the Plain of Zevulun, extending about 16 km (about 10 mi) north of Haifa along the Bay of Haifa; the Plain of Sharon, extending south from the vicinity of Haifa to Tel Aviv-Jaffa; and the Plain of Judea, from Tel Aviv-Jaffa to the city of Gaza. The coastal plains contain most of Israel's large cities, industry, and commerce. The Judean 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.
The chief river of Israel is the Jordan. It descends from Mount Hermon on the Lebanon-Syrian border to Lake Tiberias, some 209 m (some 686 ft) below sea level, and ultimately into the Dead Sea, approximately 395 m (approximately 1296 ft) below sea level, the lowest point in Israel.
The coastline of Israel has few indentations. The only natural harbor on the Mediterranean is Haifa, on the Bay of Haifa. A new port, Ashdod, has been created in the south.

Climate
The climate of Israel is generally subtropical, 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-Jaffa. In July, the average temperature is 23° C (73° F) in Jerusalem and 27° C (81° F) in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Rainfall is poorly distributed, varying from about 1015 mm (about 40 in) annually in Galilee to about 541 mm (21.3 in) in Tel Aviv-Jaffa and approximately 25 mm (approximately 1 in) at the southern port of Elat.

Natural Resources
Known in biblical times as a land of milk and honey, the area that is now Israel has more recently been regarded as barren and infertile. Israel has both mineral and agricultural resources, however. Geological surveys have indicated that minerals in the Negev include the following: 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.

Plants and Animals
The plant life of Israel is different in three distinct regions: the Mediterranean coast, the Asian steppe, and the desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula. The country has about 2500 species of plants, most of them xerophytic—that is, able to survive prolonged dry spells. Economically valuable products include citrus fruit, bananas, cotton, tobacco, grapes, dates, figs, olives, plums, and almonds. Dwarf oak and various other deciduous and coniferous trees have increased in number in recent years. Over 200 million trees have been planted in Israel since 1948, and today reforested areas cover about 6 percent 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.

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

Population
The population of Israel is predominantly urban and, although about 83 percent 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. About 17 percent of Israel's population is Arab.

Population Characteristics
The population of Israel was estimated at about 5.3 million in 1994. The overall population density was about 242 people per sq km (about 626 per sq mi). Non-Jews amounted to about 17 percent of the total population. Muslims formed a majority among the non-Jewish population; Christians and Druses composed most of the remaining population. The country is overwhelmingly urban, with nearly 92 percent of the population living in communities of 2000 or more inhabitants.

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 the central government is directly evident in every part of the country. Local government is carried out through municipal, local, and regional councils.

Principal Cities
The capital and largest city of Israel is Jerusalem (population, 1990 estimate, 524,500, including the Old City). Other major cities include Tel Aviv-Jaffa (339,400), an industrial center; Haifa (245,900), the country's busiest seaport; and Holon (156,700) and Ramat Gan (119,500), both manufacturing centers.

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 percent of Israel's Arabs are Muslim, and most of the rest are Christian.

Languages
Hebrew and Arabic are the official languages. The most widely spoken language is Hebrew, but Arabic is also used in schools, in legal affairs, and in the legislature. Many people speak English, Yiddish, Russian, or any of a number of other European languages.

Economy
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Israeli economy was beset by a very high annual rate of inflation and by a chronic foreign trade imbalance. High expenditures were devoted to arms and to the task of absorbing large numbers of immigrants. Living standards are generally high in Israel. In the early 1990s, the annual national budget included revenue of about $33.9 billion and expenditure of about $36.8 billion.

Agriculture
Israeli agriculture meets some three-fourths of the national food needs, and certain items, chiefly citrus fruit and eggs, are exported. Agricultural production in the early 1990s included about 887,000 metric tons of oranges, 523,000 metric tons of tomatoes, 213,000 metric tons of potatoes, 291,000 metric tons of wheat, 104,000 metric tons of apples, 66,300 metric tons of melons, 48,000 metric tons of avocados, and 98,000 metric tons of grapes. The livestock population included 331,000 cattle, 375,000 sheep, 115,000 goats, and 27 million chickens.
The success of Israeli agriculture has been made possible by reliance on scientific research and advanced technology, particularly in land reclamation and irrigation programs. 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.

Forestry and Fishing
A major portion of the land reclamation and conservation program in Israel is afforestation, or the establishment of forest cover, mainly in the hilly areas; by the early 1990s about 6 percent of Israel was forested. During the same period the annual fish catch was about 26,100 metric tons. More than half of this quantity consisted of freshwater fish raised mainly in artificial fishponds.

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 the early 1990s amounted to about 2.1 million metric tons annually; some 2.5 million tons of phosphate rock were produced yearly. Extensive quarrying of marble and granite meets domestic construction needs. The output of crude petroleum supplies less than 1 percent of Israel's consumption.

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

Energy
All of Israel's electricity is generated in thermal facilities. In the late 1980s the country had an installed electricity generating capacity of about 4.1 million kilowatts and annual output was some 17.5 billion kilowatt-hours. All new homes in Israel are required to install solar panels for heating water.

Currency and Banking
Israel has a flourishing banking industry. The official bank, the Bank of Israel, issues currency and is the sole bank of the government. The unit of currency is the new shekel, consisting of 100 agorot (2.54 shekel equal U.S.$1; 1994).

Foreign Trade
Each year Israel usually spends much more on imports than it earns from exports; in the early 1990s annual imports cost about $19.6 billion, and exports earned about $11.8 billion. The principal imports are rough diamonds, military equipment, crude petroleum and petroleum products, machinery and machine parts, chemicals, iron and steel, transportation equipment, and foodstuffs. The leading exports are processed diamonds, chemicals, citrus fruit, textiles and clothing, fabricated metal, and machinery and machine parts. Israel's main trade partners are the United States, countries of the European Union (formerly the European Community), Japan, Canada, Switzerland, and Hong Kong. Much foreign exchange is derived from expenditures by foreign tourists in Israel as well as from the donations of Jews living in other countries, especially the United States. During the late 1980s, Israel was the principal beneficiary of U.S. foreign aid, receiving about $3 billion annually.

Transportation
Haifa and the artificial harbor at Ashdod are the chief Israeli ports. A third port is Elat, on the Gulf of Aqaba. Railroads are state-owned and operate on about 530 km (about 330 mi) of main-line track. There are some 13,351 km (some 8296 mi) of roads. Most passenger and freight transportation within Israel is by truck and automobile. In addition to its own airline El Al, Israel is served by several other international airlines. Internal service is supplied by Arkia airlines. The principal airport is at Ben Gurion, outside Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

Communications
The Israel Broadcasting Authority provides domestic and international radio services and domestic television service. The country also has a separate national educational television network. Postal, telephone, and telegraph services are operated by the government.
Israel has more than 25 daily newspapers, the most influential being Ha'aretz, Davar, Ma'ariv, Yedioth Aharonoth, and the Jerusalem Post. Many other periodicals also are issued. Tel Aviv is the leading publishing center.

Labor
The total number of persons employed in the early 1990s was about 1.7 million, of whom roughly one-third were women. The most distinctive feature of Israeli labor is the Histadrut, the General Federation of Labor. In the late 1980s it had an estimated 1.6 million members, of whom 11 percent were Arabs. The Histadrut not only functions as a labor union but is also one of the largest employers in the country, with a variety of commercial and industrial enterprises.

Government
Israel is a parliamentary republic with supreme authority vested in the legislature. The nation has no written constitution, but a number of laws passed by the parliament regulate how the government operates.

Executive
Israel's head of state, the president, is elected by the legislature for a five-year term. The president has little power. The country's 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. However, beginning in 1996, when the next national elections are scheduled, the prime minister will be chosen by popular vote.

Legislature
The Israeli legislature, or Knesset, is a unicameral body of 120 members elected for four years under a system of proportional representation. All citizens 18 years of age and over are entitled to vote.

Political Parties
Two major political alignments were dominant as Israel entered the 1990s. These were the Likud, a conservative group formed in 1973 by the merger of several organizations, including the Gahal and Free Center parties; and the Israel Labor Party, a social-democratic grouping established in 1968 with the merger of the Mapai, Rafi, and Achdut Ha'avoda parties. The third largest 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. Other parties represented in the legislature included the National Religious party (NRP), formed in 1956 to advocate strict adherence to the Jewish religion and tradition; Agudat Israel, a party of Orthodox Jews founded in 1912; and about two dozen other groups ranging from the extreme right to the extreme left.

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.

Defense
In the early 1990s Israel maintained a standing army of 176,000 members and an additional 430,000 in army reserve forces. Men and women are inducted into the army at age 18. Men serve for a period of three years; women serve for two. Annual reserve duty for men continues until age 55, and averages between 1 and 2 months a year. Most Arab citizens are exempt from military service, as are some religious Jews. An air force of about 32,000 persons equipped with some 575 first-line jet planes (many Israeli-made) and a 10,000-member navy augment the land forces.

Health and Welfare
The overall administrative and coordinating authority is the ministry of health. Medical insurance funds are largely private or cooperative, the largest, covering two of every three Israelis, being run by the Histadrut, the Israeli labor federation. The government provides insurance, pensions, maternity benefits, and aid to dependent children. Average life expectancy at birth was 77 years in the early 1990s.

History
Although the state of Israel (Medinat Israel) declared its independence on May 14, 1948, its modern history begins with the Zionist movement started by Theodor Herzl at Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. Israel's basic ideology, many of its contemporary political institutions and parties, and the individuals who established it came from the Zionist movement, which adopted as its goal the creation “for the Jewish people [of] a home in Palestine secured by public law.” For more details on the Zionist movement, see ZIONISM. For previous history of the territory that is now Israel, see PALESTINE.

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 came largely from Jews in Europe and North America.
By World War I (1914-1918) the Zionist movement had won backing from Great Britain, 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 a British Zionist leader 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 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 Great Britain 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 persecution by the Nazis. 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 cooperatives were established.
Many Jewish political parties founded in Eastern Europe as part of the world Zionist movement developed bases in mandatory Palestine. They included labor, 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.

Arab and Jewish Revolts
British officials, under the high commissioner for Palestine appointed by the government in London, were responsible for defense and security, immigration, postal service, transportation, and port facilities. They were the highest authorities, ultimately responsible for governing the country.
The British attempted to maintain a delicate balance between the interests and demands of the Yishuv and those of the country's predominantly Arab population. As Jewish immigration to Palestine increased and as Jewish settlement spread, Arab opposition to British rule and to Zionism grew. During the mandate several nationalist uprisings culminated in a general Arab revolt (1936-39) that was finally suppressed by British troops on the eve of World War II.
More than 5 million Jews were killed by German Nazis during World War II (see HOLOCAUST). When Zionist leaders realized the extent of persecution and liquidation 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 in opposition to the British mandatory authorities to support illegal immigration of refugees from war-torn Europe. By the end of the war most of the Yishuv was in revolt against Great Britain.

The Attainment of Independence
Exhausted by seven years of war and eager to withdraw from overseas colonial commitments, Great Britain in 1947 decided to leave Palestine and called on the United Nations (UN) to make recommendations. In response, the UN convened its first special session in 1947, and on November 29, 1947, it adopted a plan calling for 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.
In Palestine, Arab protests against partition erupted in violence, with attacks on Jewish settlements that soon led to 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 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.”
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 establishment of a Jewish state, and the war ended with four UN-arranged armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The frontiers defined in the armistice agreements remained until they were altered by Israel's conquests during the Six-Day War in 1967.

The Early Years of the Jewish State
The population balance in the new state of Israel was drastically altered during the 1948 war. The armistice agreements extended the territory under Israel's control beyond the UN partition boundaries from approximately 15,500 to 20,700 sq km (about 6,000 to 8,000 sq mi). The small Gaza Strip on the Egypt-Israel border was left under Egyptian occupation, and the West Bank was annexed by Jordan. Of the more than 800,000 Arabs who lived in Israeli-held territory before 1948, only about 170,000 remained. The rest became refugees in the surrounding Arab countries, ending the threat of an Arab majority in the Jewish state.
Israel's Provisional State Council organized elections for the first Knesset (parliament) in 1949. Chaim Weizmann, the most prominent Zionist leader of the prewar period, became the country's first president.

Ben-Gurion's Premiership
The first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Mapai (largest labor party), who had led the Yishuv during the last days of the mandate, exercised the strongest influence on Israel's history during the first decade. He placed great emphasis on national security and development of modern armed forces. Both men and women were conscripted, and the army became a center 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.

Immigration
Immediately after gaining independence Israel was opened to Jewish immigrants from all over the world; by 1952 the population had doubled. Most of the new citizens were survivors of Adolf Hitler's concentration camps. During the 1950s, however, a shift occurred in immigration patterns, as increasing numbers of Jews came from the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa. By the late 1960s Jews from Asia and Africa began to outnumber the Europeans. 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 skills or occupations required for development of the country and because of the heavy burdens of defense 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 U.S. government provided extensive economic aid, and Ben-Gurion also negotiated agreements with West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany), providing reparation payments to individual Jewish victims of the Nazis and to the Jewish state.

The Suez-Sinai War
Attempts to convert the Israeli-Arab armistice agreements into peace treaties were unsuccessful. The Arabs insisted that the 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 and blockaded the Straits 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 of 1956.
Great Britain and France ostensibly joined the attack because of their dispute with Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had just nationalized the Suez Canal. Nasser took over the canal after Great Britain and France withdrew offers to finance the construction of the Aswân High Dam. 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 cease-fire 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 withdrew 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 Straits of Tiran open.

Ben-Gurion's Last Years
Israel continued to modernize its army, placing special emphasis on the air force, which received the latest French planes. 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 during the first four years, it increased substantially by the 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 social and economic gap between them and the earlier settlers from Europe 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. In 1965 the former prime minister left the Mapai party to help form an opposition group called Rafi. In the same year Mapai and other labor groups united to form the Labor Alignment, which controlled the government until 1977. The two largest opposition parties, Liberals and Herut, also merged during 1965 in the Gahal bloc led by Menachem Begin.

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 Straits of Tiran and Nasser's insistence in 1967 that the UNEF 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 took from Egypt; Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which it took from Jordan; and the Golan Heights, taken 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 included an Arab population of about 1.5 million.

The Occupied Territories and Arab Resistance
The occupied territories became a major political issue in Israel after 1967. The 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 Labor Alignment, opinion was divided; some Laborites favored outright annexation of the occupied territories, others favored 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 Labor-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) carried out terrorist attacks on Israeli schools, marketplaces, 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, 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.

The Yom Kippur War and Its Aftermath
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 fell on Yom Kippur, Israel's holiest fast day. Israeli forces managed to defeat the attackers after a three-week struggle, but at the cost of many casualties, and the Arabs' strong showing won them support from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and most of the world's developing countries. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait financed the Arab forces, making it possible for Egypt and Syria to receive the most sophisticated Soviet weapons, and the Arab oil-producing states cut off petroleum exports to the United States and other Western nations in retaliation for their aid to Israel.
Israel, forced to compete with the nearly unlimited Arab resources, was faced with a serious financial setback. Only massive U.S. economic and military assistance enabled it to redress the balance, but even American aid was unable to prevent a downward spiral of the economy.
In an effort to encourage a peace settlement, U.S. President Richard M. 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.
The Yom Kippur War was followed by increased unrest in Israel and growing criticism of its leaders. 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 (who had succeeded Eshkol in 1969) 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 Labor members had been involved in illicit financial dealings. As a result, the Labor Alignment lost the Knesset elections of 1977. Menachem Begin, the new prime minister, headed the Likud movement, a Knesset bloc formed in 1973 by nationalist groups opposed to any territorial concessions.

The Begin Government
Begin's conservative, free-enterprise economic program failed to prevent an even greater increase in inflation and further deterioration of the economy caused largely by escalating defense outlays. 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, who in November 1977 flew to Jerusalem, where he addressed the Knesset and called on Begin to begin peace talks. After protracted negotiations sponsored by U.S. President Jimmy Carter at Camp David, Maryland, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on March 26, 1979. 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.

Israel in the 1980s
Begin's Likud bloc won a narrow reelection in June 1981. Shortly before, Israel startled the world by sending bombers to destroy a nuclear reactor under construction near Baghdad, Iraq, claiming that it was intended to produce nuclear weapons for use against Israel. The annexation of the Syrian 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. Two months later Israel launched an invasion of Lebanon aimed at wiping out the PLO presence there. By mid-August, after intensive fighting in and around Bayrut, the PLO agreed to withdraw its guerrillas from the city. Israeli troops remained in southern Lebanon, however, and the cost of the war and subsequent occupation drained the already troubled Israeli economy.
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 Labor winning 44 seats and Likud 41 in the 120-member Knesset. When neither major party was able to forge a governing coalition on its own, Labor and Likud formed a government of national unity. Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor party, served as prime minister until October 1986, when Shamir resumed office.

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 rock-throwing attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. The harsh response by the Israeli government drew criticism from both the United States and the UN.
The Likud-Labor 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—severely strained the nation's economy. During the Persian Gulf War, in which many Palestinians openly favored Iraq, Scud missiles repeatedly struck Israel, wounding more than 200 people and damaging nearly 9000 homes in the Tel Aviv area. Contrary to its usual policy, Israel did not retaliate, in part because the U.S. sent antimissile missiles to aid in Israel's defense.

Strides Toward Peace
The first comprehensive peace talks between Israel and delegations representing the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states began in October 1991. After Likud lost the parliamentary election of June 1992, Labor 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, D.C., and agreed to the signing of an historic peace agreement. Israel agreed to allow for Palestinian self-rule, first in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, and later in other areas of the West Bank that are not settled by Jews. In early 1994, negotiations for self-rule were temporarily derailed after a Jewish settler massacred 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. In July 1994 Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan signed a peace agreement ending 46 years of war and strained relations. The agreement, which was signed at the White House in the presence of U.S. President Bill Clinton, laid the groundwork for a full peace treaty.