Israel

Although the state of Israel (Medinat Israel) declared its independence on May 14, 1948, its modern history begins with the Zionist movement founded 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 Jewish support 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 organizations whose leaders emigrated from Europe and after 1948 became political leaders and officials in the new Jewish state. The Yishuv expanded 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, working 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 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 the genocide being committed, their demands for self-government greatly intensified, as did their efforts to facilitate immigration and settlement in Palestine. 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 decided in 1947 to leave Palestine and called on the United Nations (UN) to make recommendations. In response, the UN convened its first special session, and on November 29, 1947, it adopted a plan 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. 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 were intent on leaving the country no later than August 1, 1948, the date in the partition plan for termination of the mandate, and generally refused to intervene. When it became clear that the British intended to leave by May 15, leaders of the Yishuv decided to implement the 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 the 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 6000 to 8000 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. 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 of its existence. 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 Jewish 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 arrived from the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa. By the late 1960s Jews from Asia and Africa began to outnumber Europeans. In three decades Israel's population increased fivefold, and about two-thirds of that increase was the result of Jewish immigration. Because many new immigrants came to Israel without the skills or occupations needed to develop the country's industries and agricultural base and because of the heavy burdens of defense, 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 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 1949 Arab-Israeli 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 would enter into peace talks. Israel refused, charging that these demands would undermine its security. 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 Strait of Tiran (Israel's access to the Red Sea), which was perceived 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 Aswan High Dam. Israel scored a quick victory in the war, 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 began 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 the Gaza Strip. By the end of the year their forces withdrew from Egypt, but Israel refused to leave the Gaza Strip until early 1957, and only after the United States had promised to help resolve the conflict and keep the Strait 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 level it had maintained 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. Israel's major political groupings 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, the Liberal and Herut parties, also merged during 1965 to form the Gahal bloc led by Menachem Begin. The Six-Day War and After After the Suez-Sinai war Arab nationalism increased dramatically, as did Egypt's demands for revenge led by 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 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 was the chief instrument in the destruction of the Arab armies. The Six-Day War left Israel in control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, which it took from Egypt; 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 political right and leaders of the country's orthodox religious parties opposed withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 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. This move met with opposition from the UN, which did not recognize Israel's claim to East Jerusalem. 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 negotiations with and recognition of 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, West Germany, Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes. The Yom Kippur War and Its Aftermath In October 1973 Egypt joined Syria in a war on Israel to regain the territories lost in 1967. The two Arab states struck unexpectedly 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, faced a serious financial setback. Massive U.S. economic and military assistance enabled it to redress the balance, but even this aid was unable to prevent a downward economic spiral in Israel. 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. During 1974 Kissinger managed to work out military disengagements between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula and between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights. The Yom Kippur War was followed by increased unrest in Israel and growing criticism of the country's 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 public 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 became the new prime minister, heading 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 further deterioration of the economy and increased inflation 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 those surrounding Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 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 the international community. Despite these developments and the complications caused by the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat in October 1981, Israel's final withdrawal from the Sinai was completed in April 1982. In June Israel launched an invasion of Lebanon aimed at wiping out the PLO presence there. By mid-August, after intensive fighting in and around Beirut, 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 country's already troubled 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. Recent Developments 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 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-strained the nation's economy. In the Persian Gulf War (1991), in which many Palestinians openly favored Iraq, Scud missiles 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 United States sent antimissile missiles to aid in Israel's defense. 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 a 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. 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, which came under the administration of a new Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Arafat. 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 the full peace treaty signed by Rabin and Jordanian Prime Minister Abdul-Salam al-Majali in October 1994. Under the terms of treaty, the two countries resolved their long-standing dispute over land and water rights; Israel agreed to return about 350 sq km (about 135 sq mi) of disputed territory and to avail Jordan of an annual supply of water. The two governments also agreed to cooperate in areas including trade, tourism, transportation, environmental protection, and economic development. Jordan pledged that it would not allow its land to be used for anti-Israel purposes, and Israel recognized Jordan's claims to Islamic shrines in Jerusalem. The latter angered Palestinians, many of whom denounced the treaty as an infringement on the PLO's agreement with Israel, which called for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the final status of Jerusalem. Also in 1994, Israel established diplomatic relations with the Vatican and announced an exchange of liaison offices with Morocco and Tunisia. The country's economy received a significant boost when the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) announced they would relax their role in the wider Arab economic boycott of Israel. Israel and the PLO were slow to implement their 1993 peace agreement, due to violence by extremists on both sides, conflicts over new Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and other issues. However, in September 1995 Israel and the PLO signed a second peace agreement that led to Israel's withdrawal in late 1995 and early 1996 from all Palestinian towns in the West Bank except Hebron; these towns then came under the rule of the Palestinian Authority. Hebron was partially controlled by the PA. Israel kept control of West Bank settlements populated by Israelis, as well as the areas between Palestinian towns and the strategic Jordan Valley. Israel also maintained the right to send armed forces into the Palestinian areas. The agreement also provided for the election of an 88-member Palestinian Council and a president of the Palestinian Authority. On November 4, 1995, Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a right-wing Israeli opposed to the peace process. Rabin was succeeded by his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, who continued to negotiate with the Palestinians. As of June 1996 Israel and the Palestinian Authority had yet to resolve who would control Palestinian-populated East Jerusalem, whether the areas under the Palestinian Authority would become a sovereign state or some other entity, and what would happen to Israeli settlers living in the West Bank. As of mid-1996 Israel had also made little progress in its intermittent peace talks with Syria, which had begun in 1991. These talks have focused largely on the status of the Golan Heights. Jews from the republics of the former Soviet Union continued to immigrate to Israel in 1995 and 1996, bringing their total number to more than 500,000. In early 1996 Hezbollah, a fundamentalist Islamic group, shelled Israeli villages with rockets from Lebanon. Israel's counterattack, which included the April bombing of a United Nations refugee center in which almost 100 civilians were killed, was harshly criticized by many countries. Israel maintained the bombing was an error. In May 1996 Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the conservative Likud Party, narrowly defeated Peres in elections for prime minister. In his campaign, Netanyahu had advocated fewer Israeli compromises in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Following an amendment to one of Israel's basic laws, the May elections were the first in which the prime minister was elected directly, by popular vote. In parliamentary elections held at the same time, the Labor Party maintained its hold on the greatest number of seats, but Netanyahu's Likud joined with several other conservative groups to form a majority coalition. In September 1996 Netanyahu's government opened an exit to a tourist tunnel near Muslim shrines in Jerusalem. Three days of fighting between Palestinians and Israelis in the Occupied Territories followed, leaving more than 70 people dead. In January 1997, Israel withdrew its troops from the Arab parts of the West Bank town of Hebron, and these areas came under full Palestinian administration. In March Israel angered Palestinians by constructing a controversial housing project for Jews in mostly Arab East Jerusalem. The start of construction was marked by scattered violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.