Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0025/00253.txt

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$Title{Israel
Front Matter}
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$Author{Richard F. Nyrop}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{israel
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$Date{1979}
$Log{See Menorah, State Symbol*0025301.scf
See Global Map*0025302.scf
See Table A.*0025301.tab
See Table B.*0025302.tab
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Title:       Israel
Book:        Israel, A Country Study
Author:      Richard F. Nyrop
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1979

Front Matter

[See Menorah, State Symbol: Artist's Rendition.]

Foreword

     This volume is one in a continuing series of books now being prepared by
the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country
Studies-Area Handbook Program. This book, however, is a reprint of a book
written by members of the research staff of Foreign Area Studies, The American
University. The last page of this book lists the other published studies.

     Most books in the series deal with a particular foreign country,
describing and analyzing its political, economic, social, and national
security systems and institutions, and the interrelationships of those systems
and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors. Each study is written by a
multidisciplinary team of social scientists. The authors seek to provide a
basic understanding of the observed society, striving for a dynamic rather
than a static portrayal. Particular attention is devoted to the people who
make up the society, their origins, dominant beliefs and values, their common
interests and the issues on which they are divided, the nature and extent of
their involvement with national institutions, and their attitudes toward each
other and toward their social system and political order.

     The books represent the analysis of the authors and should not be
construed as an expression of an official United States government position,
policy, or decision. The authors have sought to adhere to accepted standards
of scholarly objectivity. Corrections, additions, and suggestions for changes
from readers will be welcomed for use in future editions.

Chief
Federal Research Division
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 20540

Acknowledgments

     The authors are grateful to individuals in various agencies of the United
States government and in private organizations in Washington, D.C. who gave of
their time, research materials, and special knowledge to provide data and
perspective. Among persons with a special competence in Israeli affairs who
also provided assistance in the preparation of this study are the Honorable
Elykim Gustav Badian, a member of the Knesset, and Professor Samih Farsoun,
of the Department of Sociology, The American University. The authors wish to
acknowledge their help with gratitude and without associating them in any way
with the contents of this edition.

     The authors also wish to express their gratitude to members of the
Foreign Area Studies staff who contributed directly to the preparation of the
manuscript. These persons include Frederica M. Bunge, who, in her capacity as
assistant director for research, reviewed all the textual material; Sheila
Ross, who edited the manuscript; and Harriett R. Blood, who prepared the
graphics. The team appreciates as well the assistance provided by Gilda V.
Nimer, librarian, and Ernest Will, publications manager.

     Special thanks are owed to Michael T. Graham of The American University
Department of Art who designed the cover for this particular volume as well as
the illustrations for chapters one and three and to Gloria Ercolani who
designed the remaining chapter illustrations.

     The inclusion of photographs in this study was made possible by the
generosity of various individuals and public and private agencies. Alexander
Diamond of B'Nai B'Rith was particularly helpful in aiding Foreign Area
Studies locate and acquire suitable material. We acknowledge our indebtedness
especially to those persons who contributed original work not previously
published.

Preface

     In November 1977 Egypt's President Anwar al Sadat journeyed to Jerusalem
to address Israel's Knesset (parliament) and to discuss his proposals for
resolving the Arab-Israeli dispute with Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin
and Begin's colleagues in the Israeli cabinet. Egypt thus became the first
Arab government to extend de facto recognition to Israel. Sadat's peace
initiative-as he described his dramatic act-raised hopes in Israel, Egypt, and
elsewhere that the pattern of recurring war between Israel and its Arab
neighbors might be broken. As of mid-1978, however, peace had not been
achieved, and discussions were stalled. The major impediments to a peace
settlement were the related issues of the demands by the Arabs and others for
a homeland for the Palestinian Arabs and Israel's seeming refusal to withdraw
from the occupied territories, i.e., the land seized by Israel during the
Six-Day War of June 1967, and to relinquish control over the several score
settlements established by Israeli Jews in those territories (see fig. 13;
fig. 14; fig. 15, ch. 5).

     Israel: A Country Study replaces the Area Handbook for Israel (1970),
large sections of which were seriously outdated. The 1970 book was prepared by
a research team composed of Frederica M. Bunge, William W. Cover, William
Giloane, Peyton Kerr, Aaron S. Klieman, Suzanne Teleki, and Nancy E. Walstrom,
under the chairmanship of Harvey H. Smith. Like its predecessor, it is an
attempt to treat in a compact and objective manner the dominant social,
political, economic, and military aspects of contemporary Israeli society.
Sources of information included scholarly journals and monographs, official
reports of governments and international organizations, foreign and domestic
newspapers, numerous periodicals, and interviews with individuals having
special competence on Israeli and Middle Eastern affairs. The Bibliography
appears at the end of the book; brief comments on some of the more valuable
sources as possible further reading appear at the end of each chapter.
Measurements are given in the metric system; a conversion table is provided to
assist those readers who are unfamiliar with metric measurements (see table 1,
Appendix A).

     An effort has been made to limit the use of foreign-Hebrew and
Arabic-words and phrases, but a fairly large number were deemed necessary to
an understanding of the society. These have been defined the first time they
appear in a chapter or reference has been made to the Glossary.

     The transliteration of those foreign words and phrases posed a particular
problem. The system of transliterating Hebrew adopted by the United States
Board on Geographic Names and the Permanent Committee on Geographic Names for
Official Use, known as the BGN/PCGN system, provides for two h's, one
underlined, and two z's, one underlined. Other transliteration systems use
a dot rather than underlining, and still otJer systems use ch and tz. This
study has in general used the ch and tz but with many exceptions. For example,
the reader will find Chaim Weizmann (a ch but not a tz) and Menachem (a ch)
Begin, but Haim (not ch) Herzog, and Eretz (a tz) Israel but Ezer Weizman.
Also, the indicator for the ayin-an inverted apostrophe-has not been used.
Furthermore the names of people and places of ancient Israel are generally
presented as they appear in the King James Version of the Bible.

     A modified version of the BGN/PCGN system for transliterating Arabic was
employed. The modification is a significant one, however, entailing as it does
the omission of diacritical marks and most hyphens.

     The Hebrew (or Jewish) calendar-used for secular as well as religious
purposes-is both lunar and solar, the months being lunar and the year solar.
Days begin and end with the sunset, and a full month is reckoned at thirty
"full" days balanced by a defective month of twenty-nine "defective" days.
To bring the lunar and solar years into agreement, a system evolved whereby
during a nineteen-year cycle a thirteenth month of thirty days is intercalated
in the third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth, and
nineteenth years. These years are know as leap years, but neither they nor the
other years are all of equal length. Some leap years are made up of 383 days,
others of 384 days, and others of 385 days; the nonleap years have 353, 354,
and 355 days. The intercalated month (Adar II, also known as Veadar) also has
thirty days.

     Furthermore the calendar must occasionally be adjusted to ensure that the
first day of the year (Tishri I) does not fall on a Sunday, Wednesday, or
Friday so that Tishri 10 (the Day of Atonement) does not occur on a Friday or
Sunday and therefore Tishri 21 (the seventh day of Tabernacles-Hashanah
Rabbath) does not fall on a Saturday.

     The year 5738, which began on September 13, 1977, and ended on October
1, 1978, is representative of a defective leap year of 383 days (see table A).
Some Jewish authors, particularly historians, and most of the literature
printed in European languages in Israel, use the abbreviation B.C.E. (Before
Common Era) rather than B.C. and C.E. (Common Era) rather than A.D.

Richard F. Nyrop

                                   * * *

     On March 26, 1979-nearly nine months after research and writing on this
book were completed and shortly before publication-Prime Minister Menachem
Begin, President Jimmy Carter, and President Anwar al Sadat signed a treaty of
peace between Egypt and Israel (see Appendix E). The treaty signing ceremony
climaxed several months of Carter's intense personal involvement in the
negotiations.

     During the summer of 1978 the Egyptian-Israeli negotiations that had
begun in the aftermath of Sadat's trip to Jerusalem reached a seeming impasse.
In an effort to resolve the differences between the two states Carter invited
Begin and Sadat to a private conference at Camp David, a presidential retreat
in the mountains near Washington, D.C. After several days of negotiations the
three men concluded a series of accords that became popularly known as the
Camp David Agreement, which they signed on September 17 (see Appendix D). As a
result of that agreement the Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded the 1978
peace prize jointly to Begin and Sadat. Begin accepted his award in Oslo on
December 10, but Sadat sent an aide to read his acceptance speech. In Israel
the nation paid its last respects to Golda Meir, one of the founders of the
State of Israel, who had died on December 8 at the age of eighty.

     By early 1979 the negotiations between Egypt and Israel had reached
another impasse and had been suspended. In early March President Carter
announced that he would visit Cairo and Jerusalem to present to the two
governments his proposals for drafting a peace treaty. His visit was widely
viewed as a final effort to break the deadlock between the two governments.

     Carter arrived in Cairo on March 8 and during the next two days engaged
in negotiations with Sadat and addressed the Egyptian parliament. Carter
arrived in Israel the evening of March 10 and remained there until March 13.
In addition to numerous meetings with Israeli officials he addressed the
Knesset. Until a few hours before his departure from Israel it appeared that
his mission had failed, but during the farewell ceremonies Begin suggested
that great progress had been made. Carter returned to Egypt, and after a
two-hour session with President Sadat met with the reporters and read a brief
statement:

I have a statement to make which I consider to be extremely important.

I have just given to President Sadat a full report of my discussions in
Israel.

During that visit, the United States made proposals for resolving a number of
outstanding issues-proposals which were accepted by Prime Minister Begin and
his cabinet.

President Sadat has now accepted these proposals.

Based on the discussions in Egypt and Israel, I have also presented United
States proposals to President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin for resolving the
few remaining issues.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Begin agreed to present these proposals to his
Cabinet for consideration. This will be done at the earliest opportunity.

President Sadat has carefully reviewed all the remaining issues and has
accepted these same proposals.

I have just informed Prime Minister Begin of President Sadat's acceptance.

I am convinced now that we have defined all of the main ingredients of a peace
treaty between Egypt and Israel and which will be the cornerstone of a
comprehensive settlement in the Middle East.

[See Table A.: Hebrew (Jewish) Year 5738 and Gregorian Year 1977-78]

[See Table B.: Chronology of Events: Prehistory to 1949]

Country Profile

[See Global Map: Map of Israel on the globe]

Country

     Formal: State of Israel.

     Short Form: Israel.

     Term for Citizens: Israeli (s).

     Capital: The government of Israel is located in the city of Jerusalem,
its officially designated capital. In 1978 the United States and several other
countries continued to recognize Tel Aviv as the capital and to maintain their
chanceries in that city.

Geography

     Size: About 20,701 square kilometers. The occupied territories (the Golan
Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and most of the Sinai Peninsula)
constitute an additional 53,560 square kilometers.

     Topography: Four general areas: the coastal plain-fertile, humid, and
thickly populated-stretches along the Mediterranean; the central hills include
the Hills of Galilee in the north, with the highest elevation in the country
(1,208 meters), and the Negev Hills in the south; the Jordan Rift Valley with
the lowest point (394 meters below sea level) at the Dead Sea; and the Negev
Desert, which accounts for about half the country's area.

Society

     Population: Officially estimated at 3.67 million in May 1978, increasing
at about 2.1 percent per annum, although Arab segment of the population (about
15 percent) believed to be increasing at an annual rate of about 3.9 percent.

     Education: High level of education with Jewish literacy rate of
approximately 90 percent. State education in either secular or religious
schools free and compulsory through age fifteen; supplemented by scouting and
youth movements and vocational training. Eight institutions of higher
learning.

     Health: High level of health and medical care, with highest
physician/patient ration in the world. Average life expectancy of 71.6 for
Jewish males, 75.4 for Jewish females, 68.8 for Arab males, and 72 for Arab
females. Steadily declining infant mortality rate. Widespread system of public
health contributes to eradication and prevention of disease. Many voluntary
and charitable organizations are involved in health care.

     Languages: Hebrew is the major official language and the one most widely
used in daily life. Arabic, the chief language of the Arab minority, is also
an official language and may be used in the Knesset (parliament) and the
courts. It is widely used by Sephardic Jews. English is widely spoken and is
taught in the national schools. Yiddish is the language used in daily
conversation by many Ashkenazim. Numerous other languages and dialects are
spoken by smaller segments of the population, reflecting their many countries
of origin.

     Religion: Judaism is the predominant faith. Substantial Muslim and
Christian communities are also present. There is also a small community of
Druzes.

Government and Politics

     Government: A republic and parliamentary democracy headed by the
president, the titular head of state. Executive power is wielded by the prime
minister and his cabinet ministers representing the dominant political bloc in
the Knesset to which they are collectively responsible. The 120 members of the
unicameral Knesset are elected at-large every four years as a rule by direct
secret ballot and under system of proportional representation; voting is for
party lists rather than for individual candidates. The electoral system
remains the object of political reform. The governmental system is based on no
single written constitution but several basic laws enacted by the Knesset. The
judiciary is independent and comprises secular, religious, and military
courts. The integrity and performance of the governmental system is checked by
an independent and influential ombudsman, the Office of the State
Comptroller.

     Politics: Multiparty system divided into four main categories: the
left-of-center parties, center-right parties, religious parties, and far-left
parties. In the ninth Knesset election held in May 1977 the center-right
alliance of Likud (Union) under Menachem Begin emerged as the single largest
parliamentary group, thereby breaking the continuity of dominance by the
left-of-center Israel Labor Party dating back to the 1930s.

     Administrative Divisions: Divided into six districts under the
jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior. Occupied territories are
administered by the Israel Defense Forces.

     Foreign Affairs: The main issue since the Six-Day War of June 1967
remains the Arab-Israeli conflict over the occupied territories. The pre-1977
Israeli policy of territorial concession for real peace has become complicated
by Prime Minister Begin's hardline position. Historic initiation of an
Arab-Israeli dialogue in November 1977 remained stalled in mid-1978 because of
fundamental disagreement over the terms of Arab-Israeli reconciliation,
including the question of self-determination of Palestinian Arabs.

Economy

     Gross National Product (GNP): US $12 billion (per capita US $3,400) in
1976. Growth rate of real GNP-9 percent a year from 1950 to 1976. Real GNP
increased 1 percent in 1976 and 1 percent in 1977.

     Industry: Contributed 33 percent of GNP and employed 25 percent of labor
force in 1976. Major industries included food processing, textiles, chemicals,
metal products, electronic equipment, machinery, diamond cutting and
polishing, and defense. Range of manufactures similar to European countries
although Israel had few natural resources.

     Agriculture: Efficient and modern. Irrigation extensive, but available
water resources currently being used. Main products included cereals, fruits,
vegetables, poultry, and dairy products. Specialization in high-value produce,
partly for export. Imports of grains and meat. Agriculture's share of GNP was
6 percent in 1976.

     Imports: US $4.1 billion in 1976 excluding US $1.6 billion of direct
defense imports. Materials for processing accounted for more than 75 percent
of nondefense imports. Bulk of imports from industrialized countries.

     Exports: US $2.4 billion in 1976. Polished gem diamonds were main export
(US $800 million in 1976), but only about one-fifth was exchange earnings after
paying for imports of rough stones. Wide range of other industrial exports
including sophisticated military equipment and exports of fruits and
vegetables. Main markets in industrialized countries.

     Balance of Payments: Large capital imports (US $3.3 billion in 1976)
needed to finance annual import surplus. Main source was American aid since
1973. Balancing of international payments was a serious problem.

Transportation and Communications

     Roads: More than 20,000 kilometers providing a relatively dense network.

     Railroads: 484 kilometers linking Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem and
northern Negev Desert with port of Ashdod.

     Ports: Haifa most important, handling about 60 percent of foreign trade
excluding bulk oil transport. Ashdod and Eilat (Red Sea) other major cargo
ports. Oil terminals at Eilat and near Ashqelon.

     Pipelines: Eilat to near Ashqelon for crude oil for ongoing shipment;
branch leads to Ashdod and Haifa refineries and to consumption centers
including Eilat for petroleum products.

     Communications: Modern, developed system with good connections via cable
and satellite to rest of the world.

National Security

     Armed Forces (December 1977): Army-138,000 (375,000 on mobilization of
reserves); Navy-5,000 (6,000 on mobilization); Air Force-21,000 (25,000 on
mobilization). Compulsory service for Jewish males and females although
liberal exemptions granted to religiously observant females. Total
reserves-406,000.

     Combat Units and Major Equipment (December 1977): Army-twenty armored
brigades, nine mechanized brigades, nine infantry brigades, five paratroop
brigades (on mobilization); 3,000 medium tanks, 3,600 armored fighting
vehicles. Navy-seventytwo combat ships including two submarines and eighteen
fast patrol boats with guided missiles. Air Force-twelve fighter ground
attack/interceptor squadrons, six fighter ground attack squadrons, one
reconnaissance squadron; 549 combat aircraft.

     Military Budget (Israeli Fiscal Year (FY) 1977-78): Estimated at 48.2
Israeli Pound billion (for value of the Israeli pound-see Glossary).
Approximately 32 percent of government expenditures; 17 percent of GNP plus
import surplus.

     Police Agencies and Paramilitary (December 1976): Israel Police-16,821
including 4,500 Border Guards. Civil Guard has over 100,000 civilian
volunteers.