Israel

History

The people of Israel are deeply rooted to their origins, which can be traced back to Abraham (1813 BCE - c. 1638 BCE), a Biblical character who, together with his son Yitshak (Isaac) and grandson Jacob (Israel), are widely-regarded as the founding patriarchs of the Israelites. Abraham believed that there was only one God - the creator of the universe. The name ‘Israel’ was derived by Jacob, who had 12 sons, all of whom were central people of the 12 tribes that later developed into one and the same Jewish nation. Thus, the names Israel, Israeli or Jewish essentially refer to the same people.

Israel has been through tumultuous times for over thousands of years since its Biblical origins. Since 587 BCE, it was barged into, destroyed and taken over by superpower empires of the time, including Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Islamic and Christian crusaders, as well as the Ottoman and the British. During these struggles for power, the Jewish people were forced into exile and later settled in parts of Europe and North Africa. However, they never gave up hope of returning to their homeland one day.

However, the journey home took centuries. During British control of Palestine from 1917 to 1948, Jews were massacred by Arab civilians and the Nazis in what is now known as the infamous Holocaust. In 1948, when the British finally withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, the United Nations stepped in and partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish (Israel) states, thereby marking the birth of Israel as a sovereign state, Despite vehement protests from the Arabs to the formation of a full-fledged Jewish state, Israel declared independence on May 14th, 1948, when British forces left the territory.

Arab - Israeli Wars
Soon after independence, Israel was invaded by its Arab neighbours in a series of invasions which became known as the War of Independence. The Arab countries, namely Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq, were all wary of the newly-formed Jewish state and wanted to defend Arab domination in the region. However, in spite of the repeated attacks, Israel was able to defend itself each time, even claiming new territories in the process. However, as a signal of its keen intent for fostering peace and harmony, it subsequently withdrew from the lands which it had captured.

Religion
Religion plays a central role in shaping Israel's culture and lifestyle and today, close to 80% of the population is Jewish, 16% Muslim and 2% Christian.
Most Israeli Jews practice Judaism and over the years, a number of Jewish denominations have developed, with Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism being the more influential ones.

Economy

Israel has an economic system somewhat similar to Singapore's. In light of its limited natural resources, Israel has focused much of its efforts in building up its industrial and agricultural sectors over the past 20 years. Similiarly, it is also an avid importer of crude oil, grains, raw materials and military equipment. Nevertheless, the Israeli people embrace an advanced and diversified market economy with little but substantial government support. With that, Israel is able to enjoy the highest average living standards in the Middle East. Costs of living in Israel is considerably higher than its Middle East counterparts.

But even as it bears uncanny resemblances to Singapore, Israel has its differentiating factors. For one, given its limited land available to harvest, Israel is still able to independently account for 75% of its domestic needs.

Yet, it is important to know that given the upswing of technological advancements, agriculture only contributes a mere 3% to Israel’s GNP (Gross National Product). A large part of income comes primarily from the booming tourism prevalent in Israel. But however the good light being shed on its markets, Israel had incurred high deficits on state budgets and foreign trade balance due to politics which had been the main driver of the bad conditions. In fact, Israel is still running on heavy deficits today. Expectedly, it had been the superpower US that had been aiding the Israeli economy which over the course of those years, Israeli can no longer do without this help.

Did You Know?

• Many Palestinian children have been the beneficiaries of organ transplants from Israelis killed in terrorist attacks, in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
  
• An Israeli company has developed a device which could enable millions of American diabetics to painlessly inject themselves with insulin.
  
• In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists have developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops. This technology is currently being used by many sub-Saharan African countries to feed their large populations.
  
• The first cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development centre in Israel.
  
• ICQ, the online chat program which was all the rage years ago, and which subsequently formed the technological basis for the hugely-popular AOL Instant Messenger, was developed by four young Israelis in 1996.