Wayzata World Factbook 1995/World Factbook - 1995 Edition - Wayzata Technology (1995).iso/mac/text/Build/orig BACKGR/BNOT0054.TXT

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National Trade Data Bank
ITEM ID     : ST BNOTES ISRAEL
DATE        : Oct 28, 1994

AGENCY      : U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
PROGRAM     : BACKGROUND NOTES
TITLE       : Background Notes - ISRAEL

Source key      : ST
Program key     : ST BNOTES
Update sched.   : Occasionally
Data type       : TEXT
End year        : 1994
Date of record  : 19941018
Keywords 3      :
Keywords 3      : | ISRAEL

BACKGROUND NOTES:  ISRAEL
PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE

FEBRUARY 1994
Official Name: State of Israel

PROFILE

Geography
Area (Including Jerusalem):  20,325 sq. km.  (7,850 sq. mi);
about the size of New Jersey.  Cities:  Capital--Jerusalem
(Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950.  The United
States, like nearly all other countries, maintains its embassy in
Tel Aviv.).  Other cities--Tel Aviv, Haifa.  Terrain:  Plains,
mountains, desert, and coast.
Climate:  Temperate, except in desert areas.


People
Population (1992):  5.2 million.  Annual Growth Rate:  4.7%.
Ethnic groups:  Jewish 4.2 million; non-Jewish 950,000.
Religions:  Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Druze.  Languages:
Hebrew, Arabic, English.  Education:  Years compulsory--12;
Literacy--Jewish 95%, Arab 87%.  Health:  Infant mortality rate
(1992)--8.9/1000.  Life expectancy--76 years.  Work Force:  1.9
million:  Public and community services--30%.  Industry--22%.
Commerce, restaurants, hotels--14%.  Finance and business--10%.
Personal and other services--7%.  Transport, storage and
communications--6%.  Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries--3.5%.
Construction--6%.  Electricity and water--1%.


Government
Type:  Parliamentary democracy.

Independence:  May 14, 1948.

Constitution:  None.

Branches:  Executive--president (chief of state); prime minister
(head of government).  Legislative--unicameral, Knesset.
Judicial--Supreme Court.

Political parties:  Labor Party, Meretz (left-wing coalition
between Ratz, Mapam and Shinui), Likud (Herut-Liberal alliance),
and various other religious, right-wing and predominantly Arab
political movements.  A total of 10 parties represented in
current Knesset.
Suffrage:  Universal at 18.

Flag:  White field on which is centered a blue six-pointed Star
of David bordered above and below by blue horizontal stripes
(design based on Jewish prayer shawl).


Economy
GDP (1992): $65 billion.  Annual growth rate:  6.2%.  Per capita
GDP:  $10,600.

Natural Resources:  Copper, phosphate, bromide, potash, clay
sand, sulphur, bitumen, manganese.

Agriculture:  Products--citrus and other fruits, vegetables,
beef, dairy, poultry products.

Industry:  Types--food processing, diamond cutting and polishing,
textiles and clothing, chemicals, metal products, transport
equipment, electrical equipment, high technology electronics.

Trade (1992):  Exports--$12.4 billion:  polished diamonds, citrus
and other fruits, chemical and oil products, electrical and
electronic products, textiles and clothing, processed foods.
Tourism is also an important foreign exchange earner.  Imports:
$18.6 billion:  military equipment, rough diamonds, oil,
chemicals, machinery, iron and steel, textiles, vehicles, ships
and aircraft.  Major partners:  U.S., F.R.G., U.K., France,
Belgium, Luxembourg.

Official Exchange Rate:  On August 1, 1986, the Israeli shekel
became linked to a weighted basket of five currencies.  As of
February 1994, the exchange rate was 3 New Israeli
Shekels=U.S.$1.


PEOPLE
Of the approximately 5.2 million Israelis in 1992, about 4.2
million were Jewish.  While the non-Jewish minority grows at an
average rate of 4% per year, the Jewish population has increased
by 10% over the last three years as a result of massive
immigration to Israel, primarily from the republics of the former
Soviet Union.  In the past three years, nearly 400,000 such
immigrants arrived in Israel, making this the largest wave of
immigration since independence.  In addition, almost 20,000
members of the Ethiopian Jewish community have immigrated to
Israel, 14,000 of them during the dramatic May 1991 Operation
Solomon airlift.

The three broad Jewish groupings are:  the Ashkenazim, or Jews
who came to Israel mainly from Europe, North and South America,
South Africa, and Australia; the Sephardim, who trace their
origin to Spain, Portugal, and North Africa; and Eastern or
Oriental Jews, who descend from ancient communities in Islamic
lands.  Of the non-Jewish population, about 77% are Muslims, 13%
are Christian, and about 10% are Druze and others.

Education between ages 5 and 16 is free and compulsory.  The
school system is organized into kindergartens, six-year primary
schools, three-year junior secondary schools, and three-year
senior secondary schools, after which a comprehensive examination
is offered for university admissions.  There are seven
university-level institutions in Israel.

With a population drawn from more than 100 countries on 5
continents, Israeli society is rich in cultural diversity and
artistic creativity.  The arts are actively encouraged and
supported by the government.  The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra
performs throughout the country and frequently tours abroad.  The
Jerusalem Symphony, the orchestra of the Israeli Broadcasting
Authority, also tours frequently as do other musical ensembles.
Almost every municipality has a chamber orchestra or ensemble,
many boasting the talents of gifted performers recently arrived
from the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Folk dancing, which draws upon the cultural heritage of many
immigrant groups, is very popular.  Israel also has several
professional ballet and modern dance companies.  There is great
public interest in the theater; the repertoire covers the entire
range of classical and contemporary drama in translation, as well
as plays by Israeli authors.  Of the three major repertory
companies, the most famous, Habimah, was founded in 1917.

Active artist colonies thrive in Safed, Jaffa, and Ein Hod, and
Israeli painters and sculptors exhibit and sell their works
worldwide.  Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem have excellent art
museums, and many towns and kibbutzim have smaller high-quality
museums.  The Israel Museum in Jerusalem houses the Dead Sea
Scrolls along with an extensive collection of Jewish religious
and folk art.  The Museum of the Diaspora is located on the
campus of Tel Aviv University.  Israelis are avid newspaper
readers.  Israeli papers have an average daily circulation of
600,000 copies.  Major daily papers are in Hebrew; others are in
Arabic, English, French, Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Hungarian, and
German.


HISTORY
The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was preceded by more
than 50 years of efforts by Zionist leaders to establish a
sovereign nation as a homeland for Jews.  The desire of Jews to
return to what they consider their rightful homeland was first
expressed during the Babylonian exile and became a universal
Jewish theme after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in
70 A.D. and the dispersal that followed.

It was not until the founding of the Zionist movement by Theodore
Herzl at the end of the 19th century that practical steps were
taken toward securing international sanction for large-scale
Jewish settlement in Palestine--then a part of the Ottoman
Empire.

The Balfour declaration in 1917 asserted the British Government's
support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.  This
declaration was supported by a number of other countries,
including the United States, and became more important following
World War I, when the United Kingdom was assigned the Palestine
mandate by the League of Nations.

Jewish immigration grew slowly in the 1920s; it increased
substantially in the 1930s, due to political turmoil in Europe
and Nazi persecution, until restrictions were imposed by the
United Kingdom in 1939.  After the end of World War II, and the
near-extermination of European Jewry by the Nazis, international
support for Jews seeking to settle in Palestine overcame British
efforts to restrict immigration.

International support for establishing a Jewish state led to the
adoption in November 1947 of the UN partition plan, which called
for dividing the Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab
state and for establishing Jerusalem separately as an
international city under UN administration.

Violence between Arab and Jewish communities erupted almost
immediately.  Toward the end of the British mandate, the Jews
planned to declare a separate state, a development the Arabs were
determined to prevent.  On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was
proclaimed.  The following day, armies from neighboring Arab
nations entered the former Mandate of Palestine to engage Israeli
military forces.

In 1949, under UN auspices, four armistice agreements were
negotiated and signed at Rhodes, Greece, between Israel and its
neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.  The 1948-49 war of
independence resulted in a 50% increase in Israeli territory,
including western Jerusalem.  No general peace settlement was
achieved at Rhodes, however, and violence along the borders
continued for many years.

In October 1956, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and the Sinai
Peninsula at the same time that operations by French and British
forces against Egypt were taking place in the Suez Canal area.
Israeli forces withdrew in March 1957, after the United Nations
established the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Gaza Strip and
Sinai.  In 1966-67, terrorist incidents and retaliatory acts
across the armistice demarcation lines increased.

In May 1967, after tension had developed between Syria and
Israel, Egyptian President Nasser moved armaments and about
80,000 troops into the Sinai and ordered a withdrawal of UNEF
troops from the armistice line and Sharm El Sheikh.  Nasser then
closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships, blockading the
Israeli port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba.
On May 30, Jordan and Egypt signed a mutual defense treaty.

In response to these events, Israeli forces struck targets in
Egypt, Jordan, and Syria on June 5.  After six days of fighting,
by the time all parties had accepted the cease-fire called for by
UN Security Council Resolutions 235 and 236, Israel controlled
the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the
formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River,
including East Jerusalem. On November 22, 1967, the Security
Council adopted Resolution 242, the "land for peace" formula,
which called for the establishment of a just and lasting peace
based on Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in
return for the end of all states of belligerency, respect for the
sovereignty of all states in the area, and the right to live in
peace within secure, recognized boundaries.

In the 1969-70 war of attrition, Israeli planes made deep strikes
into Egypt in retaliation for repeated Egyptian shelling of
Israeli positions along the Suez Canal.  In early 1969, fighting
broke out between Egypt and Israel along the Suez Canal.  The
United States helped end these hostilities in August 1970, but
subsequent U.S. efforts to negotiate an interim agreement to open
the Suez Canal and achieve disengagement of forces were
unsuccessful.

On October 6, 1973--Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of
Atonement)--Syrian and Egyptian forces attacked Israeli positions
in Golan and along the Suez Canal.  Initially, Syria and Egypt
made significant advances against Israeli forces. However, Israel
recovered on both fronts, pushed the Syrians back beyond the 1967
cease-fire lines, and recrossed the Suez Canal to take a salient
on its west bank, isolating Egyptian troops, who eventually
surrendered.

The United States and the Soviet Union helped bring about a
cease-fire between the combatants.  In the UN Security Council,
the United States supported Resolution 338, which reaffirmed
Resolution 242 as the framework for peace and called for peace
negotiations between the parties.

The cease-fire did not end the sporadic clashes along the
cease-fire lines nor did it dissipate military tensions.  The
United States tried to help the parties reach agreement on
cease-fire stabilization and military disengagement.  On March 5,
1974, Israeli forces withdrew from the canal, and Egypt assumed
control.  Syria and Israel signed a disengagement agreement on
May 31, 1974, and the UN Disengagement and Observer Force (UNDOF)
was established as a peacekeeping force in the Golan.

Further U.S. efforts resulted in an interim agreement between
Egypt and Israel in September 1975, which provided for another
Israeli withdrawal in the Sinai, a limitation of forces, and
three observation stations staffed by U.S. civilians in a
UN-maintained buffer zone between Egyptian and Israeli forces.

In November 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke 30 years
of hostility with Israel by visiting Jerusalem at the invitation
of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.  During a two-day
visit, which included a speech before the Knesset, the Egyptian
leader created a new psychological climate in the Middle East in
which peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors seemed a
realistic possibility.  Sadat recognized Israel's right to exist
and established the basis for direct negotiations between Egypt
and Israel.

In September 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter invited President
Sadat and Prime Minister Begin to meet with him at Camp David,
where they agreed on a framework for peace between Israel and
Egypt and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.  It set out
broad principles to guide negotiations between Israel and the
Arab states.  It also established guidelines for a West Bank-Gaza
transitional regime of full autonomy for the Palestinians
residing in the occupied territories and for a peace treaty
between Egypt and Israel.

The treaty was signed on March 26, 1979, by Begin and Sadat, with
President Carter signing as witness.  Under the treaty, Israel
returned the Sinai to Egypt in April 1982.  In 1989, the
Governments of Israel and Egypt concluded an agreement that
resolved the status of Taba, a resort area on the Gulf of Aqaba.

In the years following the 1948 war, Israel's border with Lebanon
was quiet, compared to its borders with other neighbors.  After
the expulsion of the Palestinian fedayeen (fighters) from Jordan
in 1970--and their influx into southern Lebanon, however,
hostilities on Israel's northern border increased.

In March 1978, after a series of clashes between Israeli forces
and Palestinian guerillas in Lebanon, Israeli forces crossed into
Lebanon.  After passage of Security Council Resolution 425,
calling for Israeli withdrawal and the creation of the UN Interim
Force in Lebanon peace-keeping force (UNIFIL), Israel withdrew
its troops.

In July 1981, after additional fighting between Israel and the
Palestinians in Lebanon, President Reagan's special envoy, Philip
C. Habib, helped secure a cease-fire between the parties.
However, in June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to fight the forces
of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

In August 1982, the PLO withdrew its forces from Lebanon.  With
U.S. assistance, Israel and Lebanon reached an accord in May 1983
that set the stage to withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon.  The
instruments of ratification were never exchanged, however, and in
March 1984, under pressure from Syria, Lebanon canceled the
agreement.  In June 1985, Israel withdrew most of its troops from
Lebanon, leaving a small residual Israeli force and an
Israeli-supported militia in southern Lebanon in a "security
zone," which Israel considers a necessary buffer against attacks
on its northern territory.

By the late 1980s, the spread of non-conventional
weaponry--including missile technology--in the Middle East began
to pose security problems for Israel from further afield.  This
was evident during the Gulf crisis that began with Iraq's August
1990 invasion of Kuwait.

When allied coalition forces moved to expel Iraqi forces from
Kuwait in January 1991, Iraq launched a series of missile attacks
against Israel.  Despite the provocation, Israel refrained from
entering the Gulf war directly, accepting U.S. assistance to
deflect continued Iraqi missile attacks.

The coalition's victory in the Gulf war opened new possibilities
for regional peace, and in October 1991, the Presidents of the
United States and the Soviet Union jointly convened an historic
meeting in Madrid of Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and
Palestinian leaders which became the foundation for ongoing
bilateral and multilateral negotiations designed to bring lasting
peace and economic development to the region.

On September 13, 1993, Israel and the PLO signed a Declaration of
Principles on the South Lawn of the White House.  The declaration
was a major conceptual breakthrough achieved under the Madrid
framework.  It established an ambitious set of objectives
relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an interim
Palestinian authority.  Final status talks are to begin by the
third year of the interim regime.  Implementation is contingent
upon the details of the declaration.  These negotiations were
continuing in early 1994.  Additionally, on September 14, Israel
and Jordan signed a substantive common agenda to guide their
bilateral negotiations.


GOVERNMENT
Israel is a parliamentary democracy.  Its governmental system is
based on several basic laws enacted by its unicameral parliament,
the Knesset.  The president (chief of state) is elected by the
Knesset for a five-year term.

The prime minister (head of government) exercises executive power
and has in the past been selected by the president as the party
leader most able to form a government.  The prime minister and
other members of the cabinet must be approved by the Knesset, to
which they are responsible.  Recent legislation calls for the
direct election of the prime minister as of the next elections
(currently scheduled for 1996).

The Knesset's 120 members are elected by secret ballot to
four-year terms, although the prime minister may decide to call
for new elections before the end of its term.  Voting is for
party lists rather than for individual candidates, and the total
number of seats assigned each party reflects that party's
percentage of the vote.   Successful Knesset candidates are drawn
from the lists in order of party-assigned rank.  Under the
present electoral system, all members of the Knesset are elected
at large.

The independent judicial system includes secular and religious
courts.  The courts' right of judicial review of the Knesset's
legislation is limited.  Judicial interpretation is restricted to
problems of execution of laws and validity of subsidiary
legislation.  The highest court in Israel is the Supreme Court,
whose judges are approved by the president.

Israel is divided into six districts, administration of which is
coordinated by the Ministry of Interior.  The Ministry of Defense
is responsible for the administration of the occupied
territories.


Principal Government Officials
President--Ezer Weizman
Prime Minister--Yitzhak Rabin
Labor Foreign Minister--Shimon Peres
Labor Ambassador to the United States--Dr. Itamar Rabinovich
Ambassador to the United Nations--Gad Yaacobi

Israel maintains an embassy in the United States at 3514
International Drive NW, Washington DC, 20008 (tel. [phone]).
There are also consulates general in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, and San
Francisco.


POLITICAL CONDITIONS
From the founding of Israel in 1948 until the election of May
1977, Israel was ruled by a coalition government led by the Labor
alignment or its constituent parties.  From 1967-70, the
coalition government included all of Israel's parties except the
communist party.  After the 1977 election, the Likud bloc, then
composed of Herut, the Liberals, and the smaller La'am Party,
came to power, forming a coalition with the National Religious
Party, Agudat Israel, and others.

As head of Likud, Menachem Begin became Prime Minister.  The
Likud retained power in the succeeding election in June 1981, and
Begin remained Prime Minister.  In the summer of 1983, Begin
resigned and was succeeded by his Foreign Minister, Yitzhak
Shamir.  After losing a Knesset vote of confidence early in 1984,
Shamir was forced to call for new elections, held in July of that
year.

The vote was split among numerous parties and provided no clear
winner leaving both Labor and Likud considerably short of a
Knesset majority.  Neither Labor nor Likud was able to gain
enough support from the small parties to form even a narrow
coalition.  After several weeks of difficult negotiations, they
agreed on a broadly based government of national unity.  The
agreement provided for the rotation of the office of prime
minister and the combined office of vice prime minister and
foreign minister midway through the government's 50-month term.

During the first 25 months of unity government rule, Labor's
Shimon Peres served as prime minister, while Likud's Yitzhak
Shamir held the posts of vice prime minister and foreign
minister.  Peres and Shamir switched positions in October 1986.
The November 1988 elections resulted in a similar coalition
government.  Likud edged Labor out by one seat but was unable to
form a coalition with the religious and right-wing parties.
Likud and Labor formed another national unity government in
January 1989 without providing for rotation.  Yitzhak Shamir
became Prime Minister, and Shimon Peres became Vice Prime
Minister and Finance Minister.

The national unity government fell in March 1990, in a vote of
no-confidence precipitated by disagreement over the government's
response to U.S. Secretary of State Baker's initiative in the
peace process.

Labor Party leader Peres was unable to attract sufficient support
among the religious parties to form a government.  Yitzhak Shamir
then formed a Likud-led coalition government including members
from religious and right-wing parties.

This government took office in June 1990, and held power for 2
years.  In the June 1992 national elections, the Labor Party
reversed its electoral fortunes, taking 44 seats.  Labor Party
leader Yitzhak Rabin formed a coalition with Meretz (a group of
three leftist parties) and Shas (a religious party); the
coalition included the support of two Arab-majority parties.
Rabin became Prime Minister in July 1992.


ECONOMY
Israel has a mixed economy with substantial government
participation.  It depends on imports of oil, food, grain, raw
material, and military equipment.  It is poor in natural
resources but well endowed with skilled labor.

Israel's strong commitment to economic development and its
talented work force led to economic growth rates during the
nation's first two decades that frequently exceeded 10% annually.
This growth transformed the Israeli economy into a modern
industrial and service economy with a per-capita income roughly
comparable to that of Ireland, Spain, and Greece.

In 1992, GDP was an estimated $65 billion.  The major industrial
sectors are metal products, electronic equipment, food
processing, chemical and oil products, transport equipment, and
rubber and plastic products.  Israel's growth rate began to slow
in the mid-1970s, primarily due to high inflation that peaked in
the first half of the 1980s.

In July 1985, the government began a comprehensive economic
stabilization program to attack inflation and the
balance-of-payments deficit.  The United States helped finance
the program by providing $1.5 billion in emergency economic aid.
This program reduced inflation to about 20% in 1986; in 1992,
inflation fell to 9.6%, a single-digit figure for the first time
in 23 years.

Despite a slowdown in growth toward the end of 1992, the annual
GDP growth rate was a strong 6.4%, with growth balanced among
various economic sectors in contrast to the high growth rate in
the construction sector that had characterized the last few
years.

Unemployment has become one of the government's chief concerns,
reaching a historically high 11% in 1992, in part because of high
immigration level. Although the government has removed many
restrictions on capital, labor, and, currency markets in recent
years, heavy government involvement continues to characterize the
Israeli economy.

Many economic policy makers recognize that structural reform is
needed, but the implementation of reforms has been slow.  Prime
Minister Rabin continues to stress that economic reform will be a
priority of his administration.  Israel's balance-of-payments
problems have been offset by capital inflows.

Israel's trade deficit rose slightly in 1992, with exports
totaling $12.4 billion  and imports reaching $18.6 billion.
Overall trade with the rest of the world rose 11% in 1992.  The
United States remains Israel's principal trading partner,
although trade with European Union countries is larger.
Excluding U.S. military exports, bilateral trade with Israel
exceeded $7 billion in 1992, with Israel accruing a $718 million
trade surplus.

U.S. non-military exports totaled $3.2 billion in 1992, down from
$3.3 billion in 1991.  Israel continues to be an attractive
market for U.S. products.  The U.S.-Israel free-trade-area
agreement has eliminated duties on most American manufactured
items, and, beginning in 1991, the Israeli Government embarked on
a program to dismantle non-tariff barriers.  Israel also has
industrial free-trade-area agreements with the European Union and
the European Free Trade Association.  Effective January 1986,
Israel established the city of Eilat as a duty-free zone.


FOREIGN RELATIONS
In addition to seeking an end to hostilities with Arab forces,
against which it has fought 5 wars in its 45-year history, Israel
has given high priority to gaining wide acceptance as a sovereign
state with an important international role.  Before 1967, it had
established diplomatic relations with a majority of the world's
nations, except for the Arab states and most other Muslim
countries.

While the Soviet Union and the communist states of Eastern Europe
(except Romania) broke diplomatic relations with Israel in the
1967 war, those relations had been restored by 1991.  Israel has
also successfully established relations with most of the
republics of the former Soviet Union except Turkmenistan.
Currently, 125 countries--nearly 70% of all UN members--have
established formal diplomatic relations with Israel.  Since 1987,
42 countries have formalized ties with Israel--31 of these since
the beginning of 1991.  Both China and India established
relations with Israel in early 1992.


DEFENSE
Israel's ground, air, and naval forces, known as the Israel
Defense Force (IDF), fall under the command of a single general
staff.  Conscription is universal for Jewish men and women over
the age of 18, although exemptions may be made on religious
grounds.  Druze, members of a small Islamic sect living in
Israel's mountains, also serve in the IDF.  Arab-Israelis, with
very few exceptions, do not serve.  During 1950-66, Israel spent
an average of 9% of GDP on defense.  Real defense expenditures
increased dramatically after both the 1967 and 1973 wars.  In
1992, the military budget reached 9.9% of GDP and represented
about 16% of the total 1992 budget.

In 1983, the United States and Israel established the Joint
Political Military Group, which includes joint military planning
and combined exercises.  The United States and Israel have
collaborated on military research and weapons development and
have signed an agreement allowing Israel to participate in
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) research.


U.S.-ISRAELI RELATIONS
Commitment to Israel's security and well-being has been a
cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East since Israel's
creation in 1948, in which the United States played a key
supporting role.  Israel and the United States are bound closely
by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests.
Continuing U.S. economic and security assistance to Israel
acknowledges these ties and signals U.S. commitment.  The broad
issues of Arab-Israeli peace have been a major focus in the
U.S.-Israeli relationship.  U.S. efforts to reach a Middle East
peace settlement are based on UN Security Council Resolutions 242
and 338.

These resolutions provided the basis for cease-fire and
disengagement agreements concerning the Sinai and the Golan
Heights between Israel, Egypt, and Syria and in promoting the
Camp David accords and the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty.  They
were also the foundation for President Reagan's September 1982
peace initiative and Secretary Shultz's January 1988 initiative
that aimed at stimulating conditions to bring Jordan and
representative Palestinians into the Middle East peace process.

The October 1991 Madrid conference also recognized the importance
of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 in resolving regional
disputes and launched a series of direct bilateral and
multilateral negotiations between Israel and the neighboring Arab
countries.  These talks were designed to finally resolve
outstanding security, border, and other issues between the
nations of the region while providing a basis for mutual
cooperation on issues of general concern, including the status of
refugees, disarmament and security, water and environmental
concerns, and economic development.

On a bilateral level, relations between the United States and
Israel have been strengthened in recent years by the
establishment of cooperative institutions in many fields.
Bilateral foundations in the fields of science and technology
include the Binational Science Foundation and the Binational
Agricultural Research and Development Foundation.  The
U.S.-Israeli Education Foundation sponsors educational and
cultural programs.

In addition, the Joint Economic Development Group maintains a
high-level dialogue on economic issues.  In early 1993, the
United States and Israel agreed to establish a joint Science and
Technology Commission.  In 1983, the United States and Israel
established the Joint Political Military Group, which includes
joint military planning and combined exercises.

The United States and Israel have collaborated on military
research and weapons development and have signed an agreement
allowing Israel to participate in Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI) research.


Principal U.S. Officials
U.S. Embassy
Charge d'affaires ad interim--William A. Brown
Deputy Chief of Mission--James A. Larocco
Political Affairs--Bruce Burton
Economic Affairs--Alan Parker
Administration--Wayne K. Logsdon
Consular Affairs--Robert E. Tynes
Public Affairs (USIS)--David P. Good
Commercial Affairs--Judith A. Henderson Science Attache--
David W. Mulenex
Defense Attache--Col. John V. Siebert

The U.S. embassy in Israel is located at 71 Hayarkon Street, Tel
Aviv (tel. [phone]).

U.S. Consulate General
Consul General--Edward G. Abington, Jr.
Deputy Principal Officer--John H. Bargeron, Jr.
Chief, Consular Section--Kathleen Riley

The Consulate General in Jerusalem has offices at 18 Agron Road
(tel. [phone]) and on Nablus Road (tel. [phone]).


Travel Notes
Clothing:  Clothing needs are about the same as for the American
southwest.  Low-heeled, thick-soled walking shoes are best suited
for most tourist sites.  Dress at most religious sites should be
appropriately modest.  Most of Israel is quite warm and humid,
except for December through March.  Rainfall occurs regularly
during winter months; occasionally it snows in Jerusalem and in
the mountains.

Health:  Israel requires that at least one pharmacy in a
neighborhood be open or on call at all times; a list is published
at least weekly in the English-language Jerusalem Post.  Israel
and U.S. public health standards are about equal. Adequate
medical and dental care is available, and tapwater is potable.

Telecommunications:  Telephone and telegraph services, domestic
and international, are efficient.  Rates are higher than in the
U.S.  Israel is 7 standard time zones ahead of eastern standard
time.


Published by the U.S. Department of State  Bureau of Public
Affairs, Office of Public Communication.  Managing Editor:  Peter
A. Knecht  Editor:  Peter Freeman

Department of State Publication 7752.   February 1994 .
Background Notes Series

Contents of this publication are not copyrighted unless
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