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World news about Israel, including breaking news and archival articles published in The New York Times.Official Name: State of Israel
Capital: Jerusalem (Current local time)
Government Type: Parliamentary democracy
Chief of State: Ehud Olmert, prime minister
Population: 6.Year of Independence: 1948
Web site: Info.Segregated Road in an Already Divided LandBy STEVEN ERLANGERThe Israeli side of a divided road being built through the West Bank has various exits; the Palestinian side bypasses Jerusalem.Bush May End Term With Iran Issue UnsettledBy HELENE COOPERBarring a move by Israel, the Bush administration would not be likely to pursue military strikes against Iranian nuclear targets, according to administration officials.Says Israeli Exercise Seemed Directed at IranBy MICHAEL R.Thursday between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.June 20, 2008
Israel Offers Lebanon Talks on Peace, and LandBy ETHAN BRONNER and ROBERT F.WORTHAfter a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel said all issues would be negotiable, including the status of a contested piece of land on the Lebanon border.June 19, 2008
Israel Open to Deal With Lebanon on LandBy ETHAN BRONNER and ROBERT F.WORTHAfter a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel said all issues would be negotiable, including the status of a contested piece of land on the Lebanon border.Hamas for the Gaza area starting Thursday, Israel Radio reported.Date Seed of Masada Is Oldest Ever to SproutBy HENRY FOUNTAINAn ancient date palm seed retrieved from the rubble of Masada is the oldest seed ever to sprout, scientists reported.June 17, 2008
Israel Seems to Make Progress in TalksBy ISABEL KERSHNERIsrael appeared to be making headway on a possible prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, a second round of indirect talks with Syrian representatives in Turkey and a possible truce with Hamas.June 17, 2008
Rice Says Houses Hurt Mideast TalksBy ETHAN BRONNERSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the thousands of housing units Israel is building on captured land were harming peace talks with the Palestinians.Year Reshapes Hamas and GazaBy ETHAN BRONNERHamas has spread its authority across all aspects of life, and Gazans have not, as Israel and the United States hoped, risen up.Gaza, killing five Palestinians, including a baby and four men known as Hamas militants.Attitudes Toward Politics Finds Disgust and a Growing ApathyBy ISABEL KERSHNERIn Israel, a country that was intensely politicized and that still faces acute questions of war and peace each day, the survey results are arousing special concern.Israeli news media as saying that the letter contained details that suggested that it had been written recently.Israel Navigator
A list of resources about Israel as selected by researchers and editors of The New York Times.Articles are available as PDFs.Israel Would Talk to Lebanon on Land
A spokesman for Israel's prime minister says the Jewish state is prepared to hold talks with Lebanon over the occupied Shebaa farms.Rice Criticizes Israel on Settlement
The U.Secretary of State has warned that Israel's continued settlement building could harm peace negotiations.Slide Show
Pictures of the Day, June 5
United Nations representatives announce a visit to Darfur refugees at camps in Chad, and Israel and Hamas trade missile attacks.Obama Addresses Jewish Americans
In a speech before A.Barack Obama made it clear that he would continue the policy of a strong U.Peace Talks in the Middle East
Israel and Syria have said they are holding peace talks in Turkey, and Lebanonese factions have reached a deal, ending a political crisis.Peace Talks in the Middle East
Israel and Syria have said they are holding peace talks in Turkey, and factions in Lebanon have reached a deal, ending a political crisis.Timeline: Israel and Syria Conflict and Negotiation
Timeline of significant events since 1967.You built an electric car...Rss Feeds On IsraelSubscribe to an RSS feed on this topic.Capital and largest city (2003 est.Jerusalem, 695,500 Note: Israel proclaimed
Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but the U.Belgium, Hong Kong, Germany, Switzerland, UK, China
(2006).Israel, slightly larger than Massachusetts, lies at the eastern end of
the Mediterranean Sea.It is bordered by Egypt on the west, Syria and
Jordan on the east, and Lebanon on the north.Its maritime plain is
extremely fertile.Israel, was known as Canaan to the ancient
Hebrews.Palestine after the Babylonian exile.Zionist movement, Jews had begun settling
in Palestine as early as 1820.This effort to establish a Jewish homeland
received British approval in the Balfour Declaration of 1917.Jews persecuted by the Hitler regime poured into Palestine.Palestine into Arab and Jewish sectors.Palestine ended after the war, and, in 1947, the UN voted to partition
Palestine.When the British officially withdrew on May 14, 1948, the
Jewish National Council proclaimed the State of Israel.Galilee, a broad corridor through central Palestine to
Jerusalem, and part of modern Jerusalem.Gurion became Israel's first president and prime minister.The next clash with Arab neighbors came when Egypt nationalized the
Suez Canal in 1956 and barred Israeli shipping.French force, Israeli troops seized the Gaza Strip and drove through
the Sinai to the east bank of the Suez Canal, but withdrew under U.Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian air bases, totally
defeating the Arabs.Israeli War erupted on Oct.Egyptian and Syrian assault on the Jewish high holy day of
Yom Kippur.Israeli assault on southern Lebanon, where the Palestinian
Liberation Organization was entrenched.The PLO had long plagued Israelis
with terrorist actions.Israel destroyed PLO strongholds in Tyre and Sidon
and reached the suburbs of Beirut on June 10.Lebanon and Israel, signed on May 17, 1983, provided for Israeli
withdrawal from Lebanon.Lebanon, under pressure from Syria, canceled the accord in
March 1984.Jews and the Palestinians living within Israeli territories.Violence heightened as Israeli police
cracked down and Palestinians retaliated.Continuing Jewish settlement of
lands designated for Palestinians has added to the unrest.In 1988, the leader of the PLO, Yasir Arafat, reversed decades of PLO
polemic by acknowledging Israel's right to exist.In 1991, Israel was struck by Iraqi missiles during the Persian Gulf
War.The Israelis did not retaliate in order to preserve the international
coalition against Iraq.In 1992, Yitzhak Rabin became prime minister.Israeli settlement of the occupied territories.Highly secretive talks in Norway resulted in the landmark Oslo Accord
between the PLO and the Israeli government in 1993.Arafat became president of the new
Palestinian Authority.Israel still has no formal agreement with Syria or Lebanon.Prime Minister Rabin was slain by a Jewish extremist,
jeopardizing the tenuous progress toward peace.Oslo Accord, contending that it offered too many
concessions too fast and jeopardized Israelis' safety.Palestinian peace negotiations in 1997 were repeatedly
undermined by both sides.Terrorism erupted again in 1997 when radical Hamas suicide bombers
claimed the lives of more than 20 Israeli civilians.Israelis to build new settlements in mostly Arab East Jerusalem.Netanyahu and Arafat settling several important interim issues called for
by the 1993 Oslo Accord.The peace agreement, however, began unraveling
almost immediately.By the end of April 1999, Israel had made 41 air raids
on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.Israeli troops and their allies, the South Lebanon Army militia, who
occupied a security zone set up in 1985 to guard Israel's borders.Israel to withdraw the troops grew.Hezbollah attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon led to Israel's
retaliatory bombing as well as Barak's decision to pull out of Lebanon.Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon on May 24, 2000, after 18 consecutive
years of occupation.Sharif by Muslims, a fiercely contested site that is sacred
to both faiths.The visit set off the worst violence in years, killing
around 400 people, mostly Palestinians.Israel unleashed bombing raids on Palestinian territory and
sent troops and tanks to occupy West Bank and Gaza cities.Sharon also persisted in building the highly controversial
security barrier dividing Israeli and Palestinian areas.Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the largest Israeli military
operation in Gaza in decades.West Bank barrier, Israel
revised the route so that it did not cut into Palestinian land.Yasir Arafat's death in Nov.Mahmoud Abbas was easily elected the Palestinian president in
Jan.Palestinian militant groups, over whom Abbas had little control.Gaza settlements as well as 4 of the more isolated
of the West Bank's 120 settlements.Palestinians as well as a significant step
toward real security for Israelis.Sharon, an architect of the settlement movement, had become
the agent of Gaza's dismantlement.Israel's hold on the West
Bank.Israel's political parties underwent a seismic shift in late Nov.Benjamin Netanyahu became Likud's new leader.Hamas Party won a stunning and unexpected landslide victory in
the January Palestinian parliamentary elections.Israel for more than a year, it continued to
call for Israel's destruction and refused to renounce violence.Fighting continued over the summer, with Hamas firing
rockets into Israel, and Israeli troops reoccupying Gaza.Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.Israel launched a major military attack, bombing the Lebanese airport and
other major infrastructures, as well as parts of southern Lebanon.Hezbollah, led by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, retaliated by launching
hundreds of rockets and missiles into Israel.Israel made it clear that its offensive in Lebanon would continue until
Hezbollah was routed.United States supported Israel's plan to
continue the fighting until Hezbollah was drained of its military power.Iran, and proved a much more formidable foe than Israel
anticipated.Israelis, the majority of them soldiers, died in
the 34 days of fighting.He was accused of raping and sexually assaulting
several female coworkers.He defeated Parliament member Ami
Ayalon.In addition, Shimon Peres, of the Kadima Party, was elected
president in June by Parliament.Israeli jets fired on targets deep inside Syria in September 2007.American and Israeli intelligence analysts later said that Israel had
attacked a partially built nuclear reactor.North Korea had played a role in the development of the nuclear
plant.Syria denied that any such facilities exist and protested to the
United Nations, calling the attack a "violation of sovereignty."At a Middle East peace conference in November hosted by the United
States in Annapolis, Md.Officials from 49 countries
attended the conference.In January 2008, the Winograd Commission released its final report on
Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.For the first time in eight years, Israel and Syria returned to the
bargaining table in May 2008.Syria wants to regain control over the Golan Heights, which was taken by
Israel in 1967.Lost Tribes Scientists discover Jewish chromosome in Zimbabwe by David Johnson ...Israel Profile: People, History, Government, Political Conditions, Economy, Foreign Relations, Defense, U.Israel and nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.Sheinbein Israeli extradition law: has it solved the extradition problems between Israel and the United States or as it merely......Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ))
The Israel lobby and U.Special Issue: Israel) (Middle Eastern Studies)
The legality of the West Bank Wall: Israel's High Court of Justice v.African Studies Review)
Israel's uncertain strategic future.Report) (Parameters)
Israel's nuclear strategy ambiguity: disclosure doctrine.New Wine into Old Bottles': Literature on Israel In 2000.Career Center
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Continuing Ed.Library of Congress Call Number DS126.The State of Israel was formed on May 15 1948 as a Jewish state and a democratic republic.Israel holds territories that it captured in 1967 from Syria (the Golan Heights), Jordan (the West Bank) and Egypt (Gaza).In certain sections of the West Bank, an autonomous Palestinian Authority was established.The state of Israel is republic, defined as a parliamentary democracy with proportional representation.The legislative authority is the Knesset and the executive authority is the government.Since the country's inception, no political party has achieved an absolute majority, thus making all of Israel's governments coalition governments.The Israeli president is chosen by the Knesset once every seven years.The President is the one who delegates the job of establishing that government on one of the members of Knesset after an election; Presidential consent is required for the dissolution of the Knesset, should it be required.The President authority also extends to granting presidential pardons, appointing secular court judges, rabbinical judges to religious courts, and Kadis to the courts of Muslim law; appointing members to the Council on Higher Education, the National Academy of Science, the Broadcasting Authority, the Authority to Rehabilitate Prisoners, the Chief Rabbinical Council and the Governor of the Bank of Israel; The President also confirms and endorses the credentials of the Israeli ambassadors leaving for posts abroad and receives the credentials of the foreign diplomats posted in Israel.Israel is administratively divided into 6 districts and 14 provinces.Judea, Samaria and Gaza have a separate administration.The country has a mandatory education law, which states that all Israeli children are entitled to eleven years of State funded, free education, ranging from kindergarten to the 10th grade.Israel's higher education system includes universities, colleges and institutions of religious instruction (yeshivot, midrashot).Israel provides general health care, making an array of medical services available for every citizen.Israeli citizens are required to pay a health tax to the National Insurance Institute to ensure their social rights.In the wake of the Holocaust, the Jewish community in the Land of Israel, as well as the worldwide Zionist Movement, became increasingly cognizant of the fact that an independent and sovereign Jewish state was necessary to provide a safe haven for the decimated Jewish nation.Jewish immigration to Israel, which was, in effect, against British Mandatory policies.Once the British Raj ended in India, the Land of Israel lost much of its strategic importance, as the British no longer required a foothold adjacent to the Suez Canal.In 1947, Britain requested that the UN retract its Mandate on Israel.The UN appointed a special committee (UNESCOP), which recommended the land west of the Jordan River be partitioned into two states: one Jewish and one Arab.Am Yisrael (the nation of Israel) and its land, but flailing to specify its borders.Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called Israel.The name was derived from the Land of Israel, the historic name of the Jewish national homeland.Both the US and the USSR immediately recognized Israel, and additional countries followed suit.Jordanian), Syrian, Iraqi and Lebanese armies, together with irregular forces from other Arab nations, invaded Israel.Following a year and a half of fighting, an Armistice Agreement was reached between Israel and most of the Arab countries.Iraq, which continued to maintain a state of war with Israel, remained the lone exception.British left without orderly transferring powers, the process was complex and difficult.Meanwhile, large immigration waves reached Israeli shores: Between 1948 and 1951, some 700,000 Jews arrived, entire communities from Libya, Yemen, Bulgaria, and Iraq.In 1950, the Law of Return, which granted full Israeli citizenship to every Jewish immigrant, was enacted.Israel responded with reprisal attacks.Gurion insisted that Israel not go to war without the support of at least one major power.Nasser for much of its Algerian troubles, France was amenable to Israeli overtures.After Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, Britain joined the conflict.Israel to relinquish all its territorial achievements and the IDF pulled back from the Sinai and the Gaza Strip in March 1957, when a UN Emergency Force was mobilized along the border.Israel strengthened its economy and developed the national infrastructure during the interlude.Gurion resigned and left the Mapai party and Levi Eshkol became the next prime minister; and Israel sent out diplomatic feelers to a number of newly independent Asian and African nations, as well as to several South American countries.In 1964, neighboring Arabs began infiltrating the borders again.In addition, the Palestinians formed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and terrorists entered Israeli territory.The southern border saw trouble of its own: Egypt expressed concern over Israel's alleged Dimona nuclear reactor and after a dogfight over the Golan Heights on April 7, 1967, during which six Syrian aircraft were downed, Egypt allied itself with Syria.Egypt further closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships and ordered UN forces to withdraw from their positions along the border.War was imminent The IDF called in its reserves, and Prime Minister Eshkol transferred the defense portfolio to Moshe Dayan.Herut party joined the newly formed national unity government.On June 6, the Six Day War broke out, as the IDF went to war against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.Unbridled euphoria swept through Israel in wake of its stunning victory in the Six Day War.Jerusalem had been reunified, and for the first time since 1948, Jews were able to pray at the Western Wall.Israel immediately annexed the eastern portion of Jerusalem, declaring other territories were being held in the hope of a peace treaty.Official policy was more ambiguous in Judea and Samaria, where the government preferred Jews not move into areas heavily populated by Arabs.Nevertheless, many such settlements were established, supported by numerous government ministers and Knesset members.The PLO built bases in the eastern Jordan Valley and sent terrorists into Israel.Al airplane to Algeria on July 23, 1968, which was the first of its kind; the massacre at the Lod Airport on May 30, 1972, which was committed by Japanese terrorists masquerading as passengers; and the abduction and subsequent murder of 11 Israeli Olympians in Munich on September 5, 1972.In March 1969, Egyptian President Nasser instructed his army on the Suez Canal front to open fire on all exposed targets, setting off the War of Attrition, which comprised of heavy fire exchanged across the canal, several raids behind enemy lines (on both sides) and Israeli air attacks deep into Egyptian territory.In August 1970, the US imposed a ceasefire, the war ended and Nasser died a few weeks later.It was the first time since the Israel was formed that the public believed its existence was guaranteed.Israel, hoping to retrieve the territories they lost during the Six Day War.The assumption was that even if they were unable to regain the land themselves, Israel would be forced to give up the territories, due to the international pressure which would surely result from the war.The IDF was caught off guard, but soon recovered: The territory lost on the Golan Heights was regained within three days, and ten days after the fighting began, IDF forces penetrated Egyptian territory; but the sense of defeat, which had characterized the first few days of fighting, did not abate even once the war had ended.Arab nations, collectively known as OAPEC, announced they were placing an oil embargo on the US and Holland, due to their support of Israel.OPEC members, many of whom blamed Israel.Israel lost much of its international standing as a result of the war, and it economy, largely dependent on oil imports, suffered.Since 1974, American foreign aid to Israel, comprised of both military and economic aid, has equaled several billion dollars a year.The settlement enterprise continued and so did terror.The subsequent IDF rescue mission on July 4, 1976, resonated throughout the world.Prime Minister Meir and Defense Minister Dayan were forced to resign.Although the upset can be attributed to the aftershocks of the Yom Kippur War, other factors also contributed to the political turnaround, as a great rift began tearing through Israeli society.Arab relations occurred near the end of 1977: Clandestine talks between Israeli and Egyptian officials resulted in Egyptian President Anwar Sadat publicly announcing his intention visit Jerusalem, address the Knesset, and discuss peace.Sadat arrived in Israel on November 19, as Egypt and Israel launched peace talks, under American auspices.Virulent public storms arose in the wake of the subsequent Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai and the evacuation of Yamit in 1982.Jerusalem Law of 1980 and the declaration of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 1981.Begin invited Agudat Yisrael, a haredi party, to join his coalition.The northern border new some unrest again, as the Lebanese civil war, which had begun in 1975, grew steadily worse.March 14, 1978, the IDF entered Lebanese territory as part of Operation Litani.The arrangement soon proved ineffective, and on June 6, 1982, following an assassination attempt on the Israeli ambassador to Britain, the Lebanon War began.Israeli wars, the Lebanon War did not end with either a ceasefire or an armistice agreement.Lebanese Phalangist leader Bashir Gamayel was assassinated on September 14 and in the aftermath Christian Lebanese forces massacred Palestinian residents of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, igniting a storm of protests in Israel and throughout the world.The Israeli government and the IDF were accused of ignoring the massacre, and the Kahan Commission, appointed to investigate the killings, recommended that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon be dismissed.Yitzchak Shamir became the next prime minister.Shimon Peres was the prime minister for the first two years, and then Shamir, maintaining the same coalition, replaced him in October 1986.In order to stabilize the economy, the national unity government took a number of drastic steps, including the implementation of a comprehensive price freeze, and managed to curb the inflation.Although some Palestinian Arabs had become members of terror organizations and a small number had committed terror attacks, most refrained from protesting Israeli rule.Intifada, broke out in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.Israel proved unable to quell the riots.In early 1991, Israel became an unwilling participant in the First Gulf War.Coalition attacks by launching Scud missiles at Israel.Although there were few causalities and property damage was relatively minimal, the constant fear of unconventional weapons led to widespread panic.Rabin replaced Peres as Labor party chairman and garnered a majority in the 1992 elections, largely as a result of the optimism generated by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing large immigration wave which began in late 1989.Clandestine talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials in Oslo, Norway, climaxed in the Oslo Accords.As part of the controversial agreement, Israel accepted the PLO as the official representative of the Palestinians and granted it autonomy over a large portion of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.The Oslo Accords significantly impacted Israel.Shortly thereafter, in October 1994, Israel signed an historic peace treaty with Jordan, and tentative peace talks were initiated with Syria.In the period between 1990 and 1995, over 500,000 immigrants arrived from Eastern Europe and other nations, and the economy boomed.The peace process advanced sporadically at best, and many Israelis began vociferously opposing the Oslo Accords.Barak was unable to get the peace process back on track, but was able to keep his election promise of an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.In May 2000, the last IDF tank retreated to the Israeli border; the SLA collapsed and an uneasy calm reigned along the northern border.Disappointingly, the talks failed and in the following September, the Intifada resumed with a vengeance.Temple Mount enraged the Arab sector, triggered a raging Palestinian uprising: thousands of Israeli Arabs participated in violent disturbances; efforts were made to attack Jewish communities; major highways were closed to Jewish traffic; numerous structures were destroyed; and a Jew was killed when a rock was thrown at his vehicle.Arabs evidenced unprecedented levels of cooperation and identification with their brethren on the other side of the Green Line, dramatically increasing the sense of hostility between Israeli Jews and Arabs dramatically increased."Refraining from such an effort, or only partially attempting it, creates a sense of neglect and a reality of neglect among the minority, which are likely to become more severe with the passage of time.These phenomena also characterize the Arab minority in the State of Israel, which, in many respects, is the victim of discrimination.The end of 2000 saw Barak resign from office, as new elections were held in early 2001.The direct election law was meanwhile revoked and the Likud, headed by Ariel Sharon, returned to power.The renewed Intifada hit Israel hard: Seemingly overnight, the economy plummeted into a recession, immigration decreased and Israeli society became more fractured.Israeli efforts to decrease the terror had little to no effect.Palestinians were once again committing terror attacks, and the Israelis were forced to respond.In mid 2003 Abbas resigned his position as Palestinian prime minister but in late 2004, faced with Arafat's deteriorating health he returned to office.Israel was optimistic regarding the chances of peace with the PA once more.The disengagement from the Gaza Strip
In 2004 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon started pushing the idea of a unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip.The move called for the removal of 21 Israeli settlements in the Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank.The idea sparked controversy from the moment of its inception, provoking political outbursts and mass public objection, especially from the political right, which tried rallying up the Israeli public against the move through mass protest rallies and the blocking of major highways.Likud members demanded their leader hold a referendum on the plan, prior to an Israeli cabinet vote.Held on May 2, 2004, the referendum ended with 59.Nur in the West Bank, with their 9,400 residents were evacuated.The West Bank settlements of Gamin and Kadim, which were also included in the disengagement evacuated voluntarily, prior to the pullout's onset.MK Effie Eitam (National Union).The disengagement was seen by the Palestinians as evidence to Israel's defeat and Hamas' true power.Soon, any hope of a normalization of relations between the neighboring Jewish and Palestinian communities faded, as Hamas upped the attacks on Israel, barraging the city of Sderot, Gaza vicinity communities, western Negev with Qassam rockets and mortar shells.On November 21 2005, Sharon announced he was leaving the Likud and forming a new party which would allow him the freedom to carry out his new political vision, and so came Kadima.In January 2006, Ariel Sharon suffered a mass stroke which left him comatose.The party won 29 sits in the Knesset and Ehud Olmert became the prime minister of Israel.
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