Israel
State of Israel
Capital: Jerusalem
The Israel Bulletin
Weekly Brief: October 12, 2015
Top Story Russia announced on Monday that its “volunteer” ground forces would join the fighting in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he will not send Russian soldiers to Syria, but the plan to deploy irregulars parallels Russian operations in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. The news comes as Russia intensified airstrikes it began last […]
Weekly Brief: September 28, 2015
Top Story Russia is escalating its military presence in Syria. American officials report (though Russia denies) that Russia has at least 28 warplanes deployed at an airbase near Latakia, on the Syrian coast. Russia also began flying surveillance missions in Syria with drones, a week after sending artillery and tanks to an airbase controlled by the Syrian government at […]
Weekly Brief: April 20, 2015
Africa Al-Shabab militants drove a car loaded with explosives into a government compound in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Tuesday. After the explosion, gunmen stormed the government offices and killed at least 17 people, including eight civilians and two soldiers. Security guards and Somali special forces soldiers eventually managed to secure the building, killing five attackers.
Weekly Brief: April 13, 2015
Africa One of the gunmen responsible for the attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College last week, which killed 148 people, was the son of a Kenyan district official. He had been missing for over a year, since dropping out of law school. His father has been cooperating with authorities since reporting his son missing last […]
Weekly Brief: March 30, 2015
Middle East Fighting in Yemen continued to escalate this week. On Wednesday, the Houthi rebels seized an airbase as they moved closer to the city of Aden, where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was sheltered. By Thursday, Mr. Hadi had briefly sought shelter in Oman before moving on to Riyadh. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia led airstrikes against the Houthis in […]
Weekly Brief: March 23, 2015
Africa On Wednesday, gunmen stormed a museum in Tunis, Tunisia, killing 22 people and injuring at least 22 more. Tunisian security forces killed two attackers in the ensuing firefight, but three remained at large. No organization immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but local groups affiliated with al Qaeda are active in the country, and the […]
History
Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently, the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the deep tensions between the two sides. (The territories Israel occupied since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country profile, unless otherwise noted.) On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. In keeping with the framework established at the Madrid Conference in October 1991, bilateral negotiations were conducted between Israel and Palestinian representatives and Syria to achieve a permanent settlement. Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo Accords") guiding an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Outstanding territorial and other disputes with Jordan were resolved in the 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. Progress toward a permanent status agreement was undermined by Israeli-Palestinian violence between September 2003 and February 2005. Israel in 2005 unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza Strip, evacuating settlers and its military while retaining control over most points of entry into the Gaza Strip. The election of HAMAS to head the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006 froze relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). In 2006 Israel engaged in a 34-day conflict with Hizballah in Lebanon in June-August 2006 and a 23-day conflict with HAMAS in the Gaza Strip during December 2008 and January 2009. Prime Minister Binyamin NETANYAHU formed a coalition in March 2009 following a February 2009 general election. Direct talks with the PA launched in September 2010 collapsed following the expiration of Israel's 10-month partial settlement construction moratorium in the West Bank.
Geography
Metric Units
| Total Area | 20,770 sq km |
| Land Boundaries | 1,017 km |
| Border Countries | Egypt 266 km, Gaza Strip 51 km, Jordan 238 km, Lebanon 79 km, Syria 76 km, West Bank 307 km |
| Coastline | 273 km |
| Terrain | Negev desert in the south; low coastal plain; central mountains; Jordan Rift Valley |
| Minimum Elevation | -408 m |
| Maximum Elevation | 1,208 m |
| Climate | temperate; hot and dry in southern and eastern desert areas |
| Natural Resources | timber, potash, copper ore, natural gas, phosphate rock, magnesium bromide, clays, sand |
| Arable Land | 13.68% |
| Permanent Crops | 3.69% |
Economy
| Gross Domestic Product | $247.9 billion |
| GDP (per capita) | $32,200 |
| GDP Growth | 2.9% |
| Unemployment Rate | 6.3% |
| Population in Poverty | 23.6% |
| GINI Index | 39.2 |
Budget & Debt
| Expenditures | $72 billion |
| Revenue | $62.64 billion |
| Current Account Balance | $-2.58 billion |
| External Debt | $104.2 billion |
Trade
| Exports | $64.74 billion |
| Export Items | machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles and apparel |
| Export Partners | US 28.8%, Hong Kong 7.9%, Belgium 5.6%, UK 5%, India 4.5%, China 4% (2011) |
| Imports | $77.59 billion |
| Import Items | raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods |
| Import Partners | US 11.8%, China 7.4%, Germany 6.2%, Belgium 6.1%, Switzerland 5.4%, Italy 4.2% (2011) |
People
| Population | 7,707,042 |
| Population Growth | 1.5% |
| Ethnic Groups | Jewish 76.4% (of which Israel-born 67.1%, Europe/America-born 22.6%, Africa-born 5.9%, Asia-born 4.2%), non-Jewish 23.6% (mostly Arab) (2004) |
| Religion | Jewish 75.6%, Muslim 16.9%, Christian 2%, Druze 1.7%, other 3.8% (2008) |
| Life Expectancy | 81.17 years |
| Infant Mortality | 1.01 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Maternal Mortality | 1.5 deaths/100,000 live births |
Energy
| Electricity Production | 53.55 billion kWh |
| Electricity Consumption | 45.59 billion kWh |
| From Fossil Fuels | 99.7% |
| From Nuclear | 0% |
| From Hydroelectric | 0.1% |
| From Renewable Sources | 0.3% |
