mic front, the years 1948-65 were the formative years for the new nation. A major problem was appropriately accommodating the 685,000 immigrants. Despite the constraints Israel managed to have a growth rate in average GNP by 11% and per capita GNP by 6% per annum. Real per capita national income grew @ 20% per annum during 1969-72 and @ 5% during 1973-80. It ranged from 9.7% to 10.2% during 1980-2005.

Geographically, Israel is bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan towards its east, and Egypt on the south-west. The coastline of Israel stretches along the Mediterranean seas in the west and Gulf of Eilat also kno

The modern state of Israel came up as the as the national homeland for the Zionist community in the year 1948. Jews had been on the look out to return to their favourite and historical homeland since the Babylonian captivity after 597 BC. The Jewish-Roman wars and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 BC only added fuel to the fire. Gradually, this started emerging as the holy land for the Jews. The general decline in the status of Jews throughout the European continent and their consequential expulsion from many countries spurred Jews immigration to the new land during the period 13th to 19th centuries.

By the mid 19th Century, Israel had become a part of the Ottoman Empire populated with Muslim and Christian Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Druze, Bedouins and other minorities. But by 1890s the Jews became an absolute majority. Some major agricultural communities like the Mikveh Israel, Alliance Israelite Universelle, Petah Tikva, and Rishon LeZion were formed during 1870-90. However the decision to establish a home for Jewish people in Eretz-Israel was first proclaimed by the First Zionist Congress in 1897.

Landmarks in the history of Israel were the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and assignment by the League of Nations in favour of UK after the First World War, the Palestine Mandate. Immigration continued and number of Jews in Palestine multiplied. Following the World War II, when the British announced their intention to withdraw from the British mandate of Palestine, the United Nations General Assembly proposed and implemented the partition of Palestine state into an Arab State and a Jewish State. While Jews accepted the partition, the Arabs rejected it. In consequence to that,, in 1948, under David Ben Gurion, Jews started their war of Independence with the declaration of the State of Israel. The war was between Arab states on one side and Israel on the other. The tiny state vanquished all and occupied most part of Palestine and finally the peace treaty resulted in 50% increase in Israeli territory.

Political conflict between Israel and Arab countries led to the first Suez War in 1956. The combined forces of the United Kingdom, France, and Israel were winners, but they had to withdraw in face of pressure from the United States. Subsequent wars took place in 1967 when once again Israel came out to be the winner. After the 1973 war the position of Israel was further consolidated though the Arabs retaliated with an oil embargo on all countries having relationship with Israel.

On the economic front, the years 1948-65 were the formative years for the new nation. A major problem was appropriately accommodating the 685,000 immigrants. Despite the constraints Israel managed to have a growth rate in average GNP by 11% and per capita GNP by 6% per annum. Real per capita national income grew @ 20% per annum during 1969-72 and @ 5% during 1973-80. It ranged from 9.7% to 10.2% during 1980-2005.

Geographically, Israel is bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan towards its east, and Egypt on the south-west. The coastline of Israel stretches along the Mediterranean seas in the west and Gulf of Eilat also kno

19th Century, Israel had become a part of the Ottoman Empire populated with Muslim and Christian Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Druze, Bedouins and other minorities. But by 1890s the Jews became an absolute majority. Some major agricultural communities like the Mikveh Israel, Alliance Israelite Universelle, Petah Tikva, and Rishon LeZion were formed during 1870-90. However the decision to establish a home for Jewish people in Eretz-Israel was first proclaimed by the First Zionist Congress in 1897.

Landmarks in the history of Israel were the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and assignment by the League of Nations in favour of UK after the First World War, the Palestine Mandate. Immigration continued and number of Jews in Palestine multiplied. Following the World War II, when the British announced their intention to withdraw from the British mandate of Palestine, the United Nations General Assembly proposed and implemented the partition of Palestine state into an Arab State and a Jewish State. While Jews accepted the partition, the Arabs rejected it. In consequence to that,, in 1948, under David Ben Gurion, Jews started their war of Independence with the declaration of the State of Israel. The war was between Arab states on one side and Israel on the other. The tiny state vanquished all and occupied most part of Palestine and finally the peace treaty resulted in 50% increase in Israeli territory.

Political conflict between Israel and Arab countries led to the first Suez War in 1956. The combined forces of the United Kingdom, France, and Israel were winners, but they had to withdraw in face of pressure from the United States. Subsequent wars took place in 1967 when once again Israel came out to be the winner. After the 1973 war the position of Israel was further consolidated though the Arabs retaliated with an oil embargo on all countries having relationship with Israel.

On the economic front, the years 1948-65 were the formative years for the new nation. A major problem was appropriately accommodating the 685,000 immigrants. Despite the constraints Israel managed to have a growth rate in average GNP by 11% and per capita GNP by 6% per annum. Real per capita national income grew @ 20% per annum during 1969-72 and @ 5% during 1973-80. It ranged from 9.7% to 10.2% during 1980-2005.

Geographically, Israel is bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan towards its east, and Egypt on the south-west. The coastline of Israel stretches along the Mediterranean seas in the west and Gulf of Eilat also kno

irst World War, the Palestine Mandate. Immigration continued and number of Jews in Palestine multiplied. Following the World War II, when the British announced their intention to withdraw from the British mandate of Palestine, the United Nations General Assembly proposed and implemented the partition of Palestine state into an Arab State and a Jewish State. While Jews accepted the partition, the Arabs rejected it. In consequence to that,, in 1948, under David Ben Gurion, Jews started their war of Independence with the declaration of the State of Israel. The war was between Arab states on one side and Israel on the other. The tiny state vanquished all and occupied most part of Palestine and finally the peace treaty resulted in 50% increase in Israeli territory.

Political conflict between Israel and Arab countries led to the first Suez War in 1956. The combined forces of the United Kingdom, France, and Israel were winners, but they had to withdraw in face of pressure from the United States. Subsequent wars took place in 1967 when once again Israel came out to be the winner. After the 1973 war the position of Israel was further consolidated though the Arabs retaliated with an oil embargo on all countries having relationship with Israel.

On the economic front, the years 1948-65 were the formative years for the new nation. A major problem was appropriately accommodating the 685,000 immigrants. Despite the constraints Israel managed to have a growth rate in average GNP by 11% and per capita GNP by 6% per annum. Real per capita national income grew @ 20% per annum during 1969-72 and @ 5% during 1973-80. It ranged from 9.7% to 10.2% during 1980-2005.

Geographically, Israel is bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan towards its east, and Egypt on the south-west. The coastline of Israel stretches along the Mediterranean seas in the west and Gulf of Eilat also kno

state vanquished all and occupied most part of Palestine and finally the peace treaty resulted in 50% increase in Israeli territory.

Political conflict between Israel and Arab countries led to the first Suez War in 1956. The combined forces of the United Kingdom, France, and Israel were winners, but they had to withdraw in face of pressure from the United States. Subsequent wars took place in 1967 when once again Israel came out to be the winner. After the 1973 war the position of Israel was further consolidated though the Arabs retaliated with an oil embargo on all countries having relationship with Israel.

On the economic front, the years 1948-65 were the formative years for the new nation. A major problem was appropriately accommodating the 685,000 immigrants. Despite the constraints Israel managed to have a growth rate in average GNP by 11% and per capita GNP by 6% per annum. Real per capita national income grew @ 20% per annum during 1969-72 and @ 5% during 1973-80. It ranged from 9.7% to 10.2% during 1980-2005.

Geographically, Israel is bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan towards its east, and Egypt on the south-west. The coastline of Israel stretches along the Mediterranean seas in the west and Gulf of Eilat also kno

mic front, the years 1948-65 were the formative years for the new nation. A major problem was appropriately accommodating the 685,000 immigrants. Despite the constraints Israel managed to have a growth rate in average GNP by 11% and per capita GNP by 6% per annum. Real per capita national income grew @ 20% per annum during 1969-72 and @ 5% during 1973-80. It ranged from 9.7% to 10.2% during 1980-2005.

Geographically, Israel is bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan towards its east, and Egypt on the south-west. The coastline of Israel stretches along the Mediterranean seas in the west and Gulf of Eilat also known as the Gulf of Aquaba in the south. Later they annexed the Golan Heights. Today it has an area of about 14,000 square miles as against the original 12,900 in 1967. The area under its control is 17,400 square miles. The climate varies from cold and snowy in Golan Heights to typical Mediterranean in the coastal areas.

The population of Israel as on September 2006 was 7.1 million. Among them 2.6 millions are employed. The monthly wage per employee was approximates 1749 US Dollars. The Private consumption expenditure per capita was around 1839 US Dollars. The percentage of unemployed persons was 8.7%. The population comprises of 76% Jews, 19.7% Arabs and 4.3% others. Israel has a plethora of tourist attractions including the holy places for Zionists and Christians, while it has a number of attractive sea beaches and mountain tracking spots for normal tourists.

There are excellent art museums in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Herzliya. Israel Museum in Jerusalem houses the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are also three artist colonies in Safed, Jaffa, and Ein Hod. The two official languages spoken in Israel are Hebrew and Arabic. However other minority languages include Russian, Ladino, Polish, Italian, German, Persian, Yiddish, French, Romanian, Dutch, and Amharic. Newspapers in all languages are available too. In terms of ranking in school life expectancy, Israel now ranks at the 22nd place among 111 nations. Seven out of the top ten universities in Middle East are in Israel. Hebrew University of Jerusalem is among the top 200 universities in the World. The three-tier education system is that of primary (1-6), secondary (7-9), and higher education (10-12).

Games and sports form an important part of Israeli culture. Football and Basketball happens to be the two most popular games of sports in Israel. Two other games namely, handball and athletics are gaining popularity. Other games are hockey, rugby, athletics, and chess. Israel till date has won six Olympic gold medals.

Israeli literature is mostly written in Hebrew and every year thousands of new books are published. Israeli music is a combination of east and west. Diaspora, Hassidic songs, hip hop and heavy metal are all part of its musical scene. Popular music styles include pop, rock, heavy metal, hiphops and rap, trance, oriental and ethnic music of different types. Israel has won the Eurovision Song contest three times. Israel is also known for its famous classical orchestra. In Israel, there are 76% of Israelis are Jews by religion foll