State of Israel

The State of Israel is the modern government of a geographic area of Biblical origins, declaring independence on 14 May 1948, after warfare ensuing after United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1981 of 29 November 1947, which partitioned the 1922 British Mandate of Palestine. It obtained disputed territorial gains in several wars, especially the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It is a Western-oriented parliamentary democracy, identified as a Jewish state under the political philosophy of Zionism.

Its current government is headed by Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu; President of Israel Shimon Peres is head of state. Netanyahu's coalition is centered on his Likud party; its major coalition partner is Yisrael Beiteinu led by Avigdor Lieberman. While Likud is usually called right-wing, Yisrael Beiteineu is much farther in the nationalist direction, although both do not rule out a two-state solution. Centrist Kadima, headed by Tzipi Livni, now leads the Opposition in the Knesset; it drew the highest number of votes in the 2009 election but could not form a coalition.

Government

Political parties

Name	Alternate name	Leader
Balad Party		Azmi Bishara
HADASH	Democratic Front for Peace and Equality	Muhammad Barakeh
Kadima		Tzipi Livni
Labor Party (Israel)		Ehud Barak
Likud		Benjamin Netanyahu
National Union (Israel)	NU	Yaakov Katz
The Jewish Home	HaBayit HaYehudi	Daniel Herschkowitz
SHAS		Eliyahu Yishai
The New Movement-Meretz		Haim Oron
United Arab List	Ta'al	Ibrahim Sarsur
United Torah Judaism	UTJ	Yaakov Litzman
Yisrael Beiteinu	YB	Avigdor Lieberman

Parliament

The unicameral legislature is the Knesset, with 120 members elected by public popular vote; the last general election was on 10 February 2009 and thenext scheduled one is in 2013.

Party	Percent of vote	Seats
Kadima	23.2%	28
Likud	22.3%	27
Yisrael Beiteinu	12.1%	15
Labor Party (Israel)	10.2%	13
SHAS	8.8%	11
United Torah Judaism	4.5%	5
United Arab List	3.5%	4
National Union (Israel)	3.4%	4
HADASH	3.4%	4
The Jewish Home	3.0%	3
The New Movement-Meretz	3.0%	3
Balad	2.6%	3

Security

Israel contends with terrorism inside the country and unstable violence in the Occupied Territories. It has engaged in several major conventional wars beginning with its war of independence in 1948, and the Israeli Defense Forces are rated as among the most potent militaries in the world. The Israeli Security Forces also include police and highly regarded intelligence and covert operations organizations.

Economics

Roughly half of the government's external debt is owed to the US, its major source of economic and military aid. Israel was also the largest recipient of U.S. aid before the Iraq War, and remains second overall and highest in military aid. The military financial relationship is complex; during the Cold War, the U.S. obtained significant intelligence benefits from Israel's wars, in which it captured Soviet equipment that it provided to the U.S. After the Cold War, there are some mutual development programs, such as the Arrow anti-ballistic missile, but more controversy about the strategic relationship.

Israel's GDP, after contracting slightly in 2001 and 2002 due to the Palestinian conflict and troubles in the high-technology sector, has grown by about 5% per year since 2003. The economy grew an estimated 3.9% in 2008, slowed by the global financial crisis.

While there are excellent agricultural products, the core of the economy is high technology. Israel is a major arms manufacturer, and there have been a number of issues involving industrial espionage and export of U.S. controlled technology.