Israel

Israel The idea of a return of Jews to Palestine, whence they had been scattered throughout Europe and Asia from 70 ad, had been current in some form or another throughout the centuries of their diaspora. It was revived in the late nineteenth century as modern Zionism, in response to a new wave of pogroms in Eastern Europe, and to anti-Semitism in Western Europe, most notably in France after Dreyfus, as well as in Germany and Austria-Hungary. The idea was propagated most successfully by Herzl, who argued that peaceful and harmonious coexistence between Jews and Gentiles had proved to be impossible, and that Jews could only be free from persecution and discrimination in their own state.

In response, a number of Jews began to emigrate to Palestine to press for Jewish claims there, while the World Zionist Organization (WZO) was set up in 1897 in order to convince world opinion and political leaders of the necessity of a Jewish state in Palestine. In 1917 the WZO persuaded the British government to set up a Jewish Legion which helped rid Palestine of Ottoman Turkish rule. In return, it scored a major diplomatic success under Weizmann with the Balfour Declaration, which for the first time accepted the legitimacy of a Jewish state in Palestine.

When this failed to materialize after World War I, the WZO encouraged further Jewish emigration into Palestine, and won from the local British authorities important concessions relative to self-rule through the Jewish Agency. Initially, the Jewish settlers coexisted peacefully and harmoniously with the indigenous, partly nomadic Arab population. However, as both Arabs and Jews saw their hopes for early independence dashed, an increasing sense of Arab nationalism emerged, particularly as the Jewish influx continued. Sporadic attacks against Jewish settlements occurred from 1920, in response to which the Jews created their own defence organizations, the Haganah and, later, Irgun Zvai Leumi. Meanwhile, the Jews created their own administrative and political structures, most notably through the Histadrut and Mapai movements. Tensions between Arabs, Jews, and the British authorities mounted in the period 1940–8, when almost 100,000 new settlers arrived (illegally) in Palestine.

Ultimately, Britain was unable to resolve its contradictory promise of independence for Jews and Arabs, and in 1947 returned its Mandate to the UN, which recommended a partition of the country between Jews and Arabs. On the basis of this plan, Ben-Gurion declared Israel's independence on 14 May 1948. The following day, the country was attacked by an Arab coalition consisting of the armies of Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. In its War of Independence, the young state managed to defend itself, and even to extend its borders.

Once established, the country faced the major challenge of creating a homogeneous society out of population groups which had come from different parts of the globe, many of whom did not even speak the new official language, Hebrew. The social and cultural elite consisted of the Ashkenazi Jews, who were of European origin, though this masked fundamental cultural and religious differences between, for example, an Eastern European Jewish proletariat and an assimilated bourgeoisie from the capitals of western Europe. A second group consisted of the much more traditional Sephardic Jews from northern Africa (particularly Morocco) and the eastern Near East (especially Iraq). Finally, a third group consisted of the non-Jewish Arab population who lived there. These made up a significant part of the rural population of Israel, and they were the least prosperous: their average income was 66 per cent of the average for Ashkenazis, and 80 per cent for the Sephardic Jews. The problems of integration continued because immigration reached new heights in the 1990s (over 6 per cent per annum, 1991–4).

The main economic challenge for the new state was to create an agriculture and economy that would feed the population and provide it with the wherewithal to defend the country against military attacks. Strong socialist convictions among Labour leaders such as Ben-Gurion and Meir, as well as the need to provide occupations and housing for immigrants, added to the strong role of the state in the economy. This was only relaxed from 1977. Together with a subsequent policy of economic liberalization, and a reduction of military spending from over 25 per cent of GDP in the 1970s to 16 per cent by 1986, this resulted in considerable economic growth in the decade 1984–94, when GDP rose by 59 per cent, exports by 88 per cent, and private consumption by 92 per cent. Economic prosperity, generational change, and the influence of Western values resulted in an increasingly secular culture. Its challenge to the overwhelming social and cultural power of the orthodox Jewish rabbis became one of the country's main controversial domestic issues of the 1990s.

Domestic developments, however, were only one part of Israel's development in the five decades since its foundation. Perhaps no other country in the world was faced with such sustained hostility from its neighbours. Therefore, its foreign policy was marked by its efforts to secure its territorial integrity against the surrounding countries of the Arab League, whose 22 members all refused to make peace with Israel. Israel participated in the Suez Crisis, though an even graver threat came in 1967, when in the Six Day War it freed itself from the tightening grip of the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. The war resulted in the occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Possession of these territories were crucial to its safety requirements, but heightened the problem of the Palestinian minority, which had grown by almost a million people as a result of the annexations. The country was caught unawares in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which, even though it repelled the Egyptian army, its reputation for military invincibility was shattered. Nevertheless, it convinced the pragmatic Sadat that his Egyptian territory could not be reclaimed militarily, and led to the Camp David Agreements of 1978.

Since the problem of Israel's Palestinian population had not been resolved, no other Arab country followed Egypt's peace treaty. In an attempt to stamp out the PLO, under Begin Israel attacked the Lebanon in 1982, and advanced to Beirut. It managed to expel the PLO to Tunisia, but its occupation of southern Lebanon created a new, more radical Arab force, the Hezbollah. Its attacks caused increasing losses in the army, whose occupation of enemy territory triggered widespread criticism, not only internationally but also, for the first time, at home. Under Peres, it withdrew from most of the Lebanon in 1985, but from 1987 Israel was challenged internally through violent Palestinian actions in the Intifadah.

Prime Minister Rabin eventually recognized that Israel's security could only be guaranteed in the long run through a recognition of the Palestinians' claims. On 4 May 1994, Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people, and agreed to the establishment of the first areas of Palestinian self-government in Gaza and Jericho in preparation for an eventual sovereign Palestinian state. Peace treaties with other Arab countries followed, while the murder of Rabin convinced the majority of Israelis that increased efforts should be made to make peace with Israel's last major enemy, Syria. However, just before Israel's parliamentary elections in 1996, a series of suicide bombs organized by Hamas caused renewed hostility towards the Palestinians, and led to the election of Netanyahu.

Netanyahu refused to comply with the Gaza–Jericho Agreement, and rather than continue the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank, he agreed to the construction of new settlements for Israeli immigrants there. In 1997 he ordered the construction of settlements for 30,000 new Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem. Some progress was made in 1998, when Arafat and Netanyahu signed the Wye Agreement. Opposition by Israeli settlers and immigrants' representatives to the Wye Agreement, however, weakened Netanyahu's position and caused a suspension of the agreement's implementation. New elections in 1999 produced a clear mandate for Barak, though he did not have a clear majority in the Knesset (parliament). Barak resumed negotiations with Arafat, but his readiness to make concessions to the Palestinians eroded his popular support, especially as this did not lead to a reduction in violence. His willingness to negotiate about the status of Jerusalem in late 2000 proved the final straw to many voters, who in 2001 elected the right-wing advocate of the settlers' interests, Ariel Sharon. Sharon formed a coalition of ‘national unity’, but proved unable to quell the new Intifadah, which he had done so much to bring about. Instead, the violence deteriorated, leading to the military re-occupation of all Palestinian territories from March 2002. Frequent military raids followed, including the bombing of Arafat's compound, and an incursion into a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. Following the election of Abu Mazen as Palestinian Prime Minister, and the US victory in the Iraq War, Sharon gave a cautious welcome to the ‘Road Map’ for peace. Proposed in May 2003, this provided for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state in return for an end to the Intifadah, Sharon Sharon found it hard to appease domestic opposition led by Netanyahu, which was incensed at the prospect of giving up Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Matters were even more difficult for Abu Mazen. He had a fragile political base, and found it difficult to establish his authority vis-á-vis the veteran Arafat on one hand, and the radical organizations like Hamas, which continued their bombing campaign against Israel. The resignation of Abu Mazen in September 2003 and his succession by Ahmad Qurei put the peace process in disarray yet again. Sharon pressed ahead with the construction of a dividing wall between Israelis and Palestinians. The wall, which was justified on grounds of security, included over 40% of Palestinian territory within the Israeli side of the wall. The wall's construction was criticized by the UN as an ‘unlawful act of annexation’, but the political right complained that it still ceded too many areas to Palestinian control.

Table 13. Prime Ministers in Israel

David Ben‐Gurion	1948–55
M. Sharett	1955
David Ben‐Gurion	1955–63
Levi Eshkol	1963–9
Golda Meir	1969–74
Yitzhak Rabin	1974–7
Menachem Begin	1977–83
Yitzhak Shamir	1983–4
Shimon Peres	1984–6
Yitzhak Shamir	1986–92
Yitzhak Rabin	1992–6
Shimon Peres	1996
Benjamin Netanyahu	1996–9
Ehud Barak	1999–2001
Ariel Sharon	2001–