About Jewishness

The Empire of David and Solomon, c. 1000 - 925 BCE

"My friend, take care. When you recognize the concept of 'Palestine', you demolish your right to live in Ein Hahoresh. If this is Palestine and not the Land Of Israel, then you are conquerors and not tillers of the land. You are invaders. If this is Palestine, then it belongs to a people who lived here before you came. Only if it is The Land Of Israel do you have a right to live in Ein Hahoresh and in Deganiyah B. If it is not your country, your fatherland, the countries of your ancestors and your sons, then what are you doing here? You came to another people's homeland, as they claim, you expelled them and you have taken their land."
Menachem Begin

Many Palestinian Arabs, including such prominent figures as Yasser Arafat and Faisal Husseini, have claimed that Palestinians descended from the Canaanites. This claim is supported by Jewish archaeologist Ilene Beatty. Also modern genetic studies show Palestinians are direct descendants of Canaanite people, so it has appeared in the Palestinian Encyclopedia and in Palestinian Authority school textbooks. The claim serves to create a connection between Palestinians and Jerusalem that predates the Israelite and Muslim conquests.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jebusites were a Canaanite tribe who inhabited and built prior to its conquest by King David; the Books of Kings state that Jerusalem was known as Jebus prior to this event. Between 3000 and 1100BC, Canaanite civilization covered what is today Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon and much of Syria and Jordan.

Jonathan Tubbs, a British archaeologist, argued that the Israelites were themselves Canaanites, and that "historical Israel", as distinct from "literary" or "Biblical Israel" was a subset of Canaanite culture. Canaan when used in this sense refers to the entire Ancient Near Eastern Levant down to about 100 AD, including the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. For example, Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (ca. 1200–1000 BC). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period."
Unlike Mesopotamia or Ancient Egypt, where documentation exists that is rich and varied, the documentation about Canaan is very sparse. The only sources that come from inside the region are from Syria – with Bronze Age cuneiform archives of Ebla, Mari, Alalakh and Ugarit. Iron Age materials are even more scarce, because writing then was mostly on papyrus, and unlike in Egypt, none of it has survived the humid climates of the most populous parts of the region.

The Amarna letters contain correspondence from Abdi-Heba, king of Urusalim (the name of Jerusalem in the Late Bronze Age). At this time his entire kingdom may have had a population of fifteen hundred people, and Urusalim would have been a 'small highlands stronghold' in the fourteenth century BCE with no fortifications or large buildings.

According to the Books of Samuel, the Jebusites managed to resist attempts by the Israelites to capture the city, and by the time of King David were mocking such attempts, claiming that even the blind and lame could defeat the Israelite army. Nevertheless, the masoretic text for the Books of Samuel states that David managed to capture the city by stealth, sending his forces through a "water shaft" and attacking the city from the inside. Archaeologists now view this as implausible as the Gihon spring — the only known location from which water shafts lead into the city — is now known to have been heavily defended (and hence an attack via this route would have been obvious rather than secretive).

It is believed by some authorities that the Israelites made their Exodus from Egypt about 1224 B.C. And that after wandering forty years in the desert, they, in the psychological moment when everything had gone to pieces, invaded Canaan about 1184 B.C. This was at exactly the same time Tory is believed to have fallen (and odd coincidence little noticed by historians). Of the two foreign invaders, the feather-crowned Philistines were the stronger, for they defeated the bearded Israelites and even put them in Bondage. The Philistines also left a lasting mark, their name, on the crossroads. It ceased to be called Canaan and came in time to be known as Palestine. However, neither the Philistines nor the Israelites were able to establish control over the native inhabitants in their walled cities. Most historians list Egypt as the ruler until the end of the reign of Ramses III, about 1154 B.C. , after which Egyptian rule seemed to become one in name only.
Canaan was in a state of tug-of-war between the two invaders from without, the Philistines and the Israelis until about 1000 B.C. That is the date given for the Israelite King David’s taking of Jerusalem. He defeated the Philistines, conquered Canaan, and went on eventually to conquer the row of small neighboring nations east of Palestine (Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Gilead). He set up an independent kingdom, and the crossroads ruler was now a cloaked and bearded warrior poet.
David ruled, in all, forty years (even as a city-king at Hebron and thirty-three years at Jerusalem after the establishment of the kingdom); and his son Solomon ruled for forty years, giving the Kingdom of David and Solomon a complete life span of seventy-three years. Then it ended. After the death of Solomon, about 927 B.C, the kingdom fell apart. The small neighbouring nations on the east got free, and Palestine itself was split into two countries hostile to each other. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed the kingdom of Israel on the north. Each one was too weak to stand alone. Egypt came up, invaded Judah, and sacked Solomon’s new temple at Jerusalem. Ben-Hadad of Syria on the north annexed part of Israel’s territory then formed an alliance with Israel against Judah. Desperately, Judah appeared to far-off Assyria. The black-bearded and brutal Assyrians needed no second invitation but came over from the distant north-east, devastated and conquered the whole of Israel in 722 B.C. and carried the Ten Tribes away into captivity. Thus the section of the Hebrews known as Israel disappeared.

But all these different peoples who had come into Canaan were additions, sprigs grafted onto the parent tree. And that parentry was Canaanite. The Arab invaders of the 7th century AD made Muslim converts of the natives, settled down as residents, and intermarried with them, with the result that all are now so completely Arabised that we cannot tell whether Canaanites leave off and the Arabs begin.

Before the 20th century, most Jews in Palestine belonged to the Old Yishuv, or community, that had lived there since centuries, more for religious than political reasons. A large part of the Old Yishuv concentrated their time in Torah studies and lived off Ma'amodot (stipends), received by donations from the Jews in the Diaspora. There was little if any conflict between them and the Arab population. Tensions began after the first Zionist settlers arrived in the 1880's when they purchased land from absentee Arab owners, leading to dispossession of the peasants who cultivated it.

"Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora."
(M.F. Hammer, Proc. National Academy of Science, May 9, 2000)
Ashkenazim (Eastern European Jews) have also genes that other Jews don't have, but non-Jewish Eastern Europeans do, while Sephardim (besides sharing genes with the other Jewish groups) have genes in common with non-Jewish people from Portugal and Spain, and Mizrahim (besides sharing genes with other Jewish groups) share genes with non-Jewish peoples from the Middle-East and North Africa.

As a result of the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1980-1982

State of Israel
The Israeli government is located in Jerusalem, Israel's officially designated capital. In 1988 the United States and most other countries continued to recognize Tel Aviv as capital and to maintain their chanceries there.
Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently, the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the deep tensions between the two sides. The territories Israel occupied since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country profile, unless otherwise noted. On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. In keeping with the framework established at the Madrid Conference in October 1991, bilateral negotiations were conducted between Israel and Palestinian representatives and Syria to achieve a permanent settlement. Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo Accords") guiding an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Outstanding territorial and other disputes with Jordan were resolved in the 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. In addition, on 25 May 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon, which it had occupied since 1982. In April 2003, US President George W. Bush, working in conjunction with the EU, UN, and Russia - the "Quartet" - took the lead in laying out a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005, based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic Palestine. However, progress toward a permanent status agreement was undermined by Israeli-Palestinian violence between September 2003 and February 2005. In the summer of 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza Strip, evacuating settlers and its military while retaining control over most points of entry into the Gaza Strip. The election of Hamas to head the Palestinian Legislative Council froze relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Ehud Olmert became prime minister in March 2006 and presided over a 34-day conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon in June-August 2006 and a 23-day conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip during December 2008 and January 2009. Olmert, who in June 2007 resumed talks with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, resigned in September 2008. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a coalition in March 2009 following a February 2009 general election. Peace talks are currently stalled.
Geography: the size of Israel is about 22,072 square kilometers. The occupied territories comprise additional 7,477 square kilometers: West Bank, 5,879; Gaza Strip, 378; East Jerusalem, annexed in July 1980, 70; and Golan Heights, annexed in December 1981, 1,150.
Topography: Four general areas: the coastal plain--fertile, humid, and thickly populated--stretches along the Mediterranean Sea; the central highlands including the Hills of Galilee in the north with the country's highest elevation at Mt. Meron (1,208 meters), and the arid Judean Hills in south; the Jordan Rift Valley with the lowest point (399 meters below sea level) at the Dead Sea; and the Negev Desert, which accounts for about half Israel's area.
Population: Officially estimated in October 1987 at 4,389,600, of whom about 82% Jews. Population increasing at annual rate of about 1.8%, although Arab segment of population increasing at annual rate of about 2.8% compared to Jewish population growth rate of 1.3%. Population 7,233,701 in 2009, includes about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, about 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and fewer than 177,000 in East Jerusalem (July 2009 est.); Jewish 76.4% (of which Israel-born 67.1%, Europe/America-born 22.6%, Africa-born 5.9%, Asia-born 4.2%), non-Jewish 23.6% (mostly Arab) (2004). The growth rate of the Arab population in Israel is 2.6%, while the growth rate of the Jewish population in Israel is 1.7%. The growth rate of the both Jewish and Arab population has slowed from 3.8% in 1999 to 2.6% in 2008 for Arab and 2.7% to 1.7% for the Jewish population. The fastest growing segment of population remain to be Arab Muslim with the latest growth rate of 2.8% for 2008.
Education: High level of education, literacy rate of Jewish population about 97.1%. State education either secular or religious, with independent (but substantially state-supported) religious schools in addition; ratio of secular to religious enrollments approximately 70 to 30. Schools are free and compulsory for students through age fifteen, and are supplemented by scouting, youth movements, and vocational training. Seven universities.
Health: High level of health and medical care, with one of highest physician-patient ratios in world. Average life expectancy of 73.9 for Jewish males and 77.3 for females; 72.0 for non-Jewish males and 75.8 for females. Steadily declining infant mortality rates. Widespread system of public health and broad insurance coverage contribute to eradication and prevention of disease. Many voluntary and charitable organizations, some funded substantially from abroad, involved in health care.
Languages: Hebrew major official language and most widely used in daily life. Arabic, chief language of Arab minority, also official language and may be used in Knesset (parliament) and courts; also spoken by older Sephardim. English widely spoken and taught in state schools. Yiddish spoken by older Ashkenazim and by ultra-Orthodox. Numerous other languages and dialects spoken by smaller segments of population, reflecting diversity of cultural origins.
Religion: Judaism dominant faith. Substantial Sunni Muslim (about 77% of non-Jewish population) and smaller Christian and Druze communities also present.
Economy overview: Israel has a technologically advanced market economy. It depends on imports of crude oil, grains, raw materials, and military equipment. Despite limited natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural and industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) are the leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable trade deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments from abroad and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the government's external debt is owed to the US, its major source of economic and military aid. Israel's GDP, after contracting slightly in 2001 and 2002 due to the Palestinian conflict and troubles in the high-technology sector, grew about 5% per year from 2004-07. The global financial crisis of 2008-09 spurred a brief recession in Israel, but the country entered the crisis with solid fundamentals - following years of prudent fiscal policy and a series of liberalizing reforms - and a resilient banking sector, and the economy has shown signs of an early recovery. Following GDP growth of 4% in 2008, Israel's GDP grew by 0.5% in 2009 but is expected to expand in 2010. The global economic downturn affected Israel's economy primarily through reduced demand for Israel's exports - which account for about 45% of the country's GDP - in the United States and EU, Israel's top trading partners. The Israeli Government responded to the recession by implementing a modest fiscal stimulus package and an aggressive expansionary monetary policy - including cutting interest rates to record lows, purchasing government bonds, and intervening in the foreign currency market. The Bank of Israel began raising interest rates in the summer of 2009 when inflation rose above the upper end of the Bank's target and the economy began to show signs of recovery.
National currency: Israeli New Sheqel. (ILS) 1 ILS = 0.2705 USD, 1 USD = 3.93 ILS 1 ILS = 0.2005 EUR, 1 EUR = 4.9872 ILS.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Approximately US$195 billion (US$31,767 per capita) in 2006. Between 1973 and 1983 real GDP growth rate was approximately 2.0% per year. Real GDP increased 2.4% in 1984, increased 3.7% in 1985, increased 3.3% in 1986, and increased 5.2 % in 1987. In the last quarter of 2006 the economy grew by 8%, faster than any of Israel's Western counterparts.
Agriculture: Efficient and modern. Irrigation extensive, but all available water resources currently being used. Main products included cereals, fruits, vegetables, poultry, and dairy products. Specialization in high-value produce, partly for export. Imports of grains and meat. Agriculture's share of GDP 5% 1986; 2.6% of GDP and 2% of labour force in 2009.
Industry: Contributed 23% of GDP and employed 23% of labour force in 1986, 32% of GDP and employed 16% of labour force in 2009. Major industries included electronics, biotechnology, diamond cutting and polishing, energy, chemicals, rubber, plastics, clothing and textiles, and defense.
Services: Contributed 65% of GDP and employed 82% of labour force in 2009.
Imports: US$9.2 billion in 1986, excluding US$1.1 billion of direct defense imports. Materials for processsing accounted for more than 75% of nondefense imports. Bulk of imports from industrialized countries. $47 billion in 2009; $67 billion in 2008.
Exports: US$6.9 billion in 1986. Metals, machinery, and electronics represented main exports (US$2.2 billion in 1986). Diamonds were second largest export (US$1.9 billion). Main markets in industrial countries. For 2006, Israeli exports grew to just over $29 billion; the hi-tech sector accounted for $14 billion, a 20% increase from the previous year. In 2009 exports were $44 billion. ($60 billion in 2008).
Unemployment rate: 7.4% in 2009.
Population below poverty line: 23.6%. (Israel's poverty line was $7.30 per person per day in 2007.)
Roads: 13,410 kilometers of roads in 1985, providing relatively dense network. 18,096 kilometers of roads in 2009.
Railroads: 528 kilometers of state-owned railroads in 1988 linking major centers of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, and Ashdod. 949 kilometers in 2009.
Ports: Haifa most important, handling about 55% of foreign trade in 1985, excluding bulk oil transport. Ashdod and Elat (Red Sea) other major cargo ports. Oil terminals at Elat and near Ashqelon; coal terminal at Hadera.
Airports: International airport at Lod (Tel Aviv); smaller airport at Elat. Total of 47 airports in 2009.
Pipelines: Elat to near Ashqelon for crude oil for ongoing shipment; branch leads to Ashdod and Haifa refineries and to consumption centers, including Elat, for petroleum products. Total: gas 176 km; oil 442 km; refined products 261 km (2009).
Communications: Modern, developed system with good connections via cable and three ground satellite stations to rest of world. In FY 1986 about 1.9 million telephones. In late 1980s, Israel a demand for more telecommunications services than it was able to provide.
Government: Republic and parliamentary democracy headed by president, titular head of state. Executive power wielded by prime minister and cabinet ministers representing dominant political blocs in Knesset, to which they are collectively responsible. Knesset is unicameral parliament of 120 members elected at-large every four years as a rule by direct secret ballot and under system of proportional representation; voting for party lists rather than individual candidates. Electoral system remains object of political reform. Government system based on no comprehensive written constitution but nine Basic Laws enacted by Knesset. Efforts to introduce constitution delineating principle of separation of powers and establishing supremacy of civil law and secular bill of rights have so far met resistance. Judiciary independent and comprises secular, religious, and military courts. Integrity and performance of governmental system checked by independent and influential ombudsman, Office of the State Comptroller.
Politics: Multiparty system divided into four main categories: left-of-center parties, right-of-center parties, rightwing religious parties, and Arab parties. Inconclusive twelfth Knesset election held in November 1988 repeated pattern of 1984 Knesset elections with neither major party able to form cohesive coalition government without other's equal participation. This resulted in formation of National Unity Government. Long-term electoral trends, however, indicated upswing in support for rightof -center parties.
Administrative Divisions: Divided into six administrative districts and fourteen subdistricts under ultimate jurisdiction of Ministry of Interior. Occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza Strip and annexed Golan Heights administered by Israel Defense Forces.
Foreign Affairs: Foreign policy chiefly influenced by Israel's strategic situation, Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and rejection of Israel by most Arab states. Diplomatic relations established with Egypt following 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, and Israel maintained de facto peaceful relationship with Jordan. General consensus in Israel over terms of 1978 Camp David Accords, but disagreement over principle of exchanging land for peace, particularly over West Bank, and direct negotiations with Palestine Liberation Organization.
Armed Forces: As of 1987, army 104,000 on active duty, including 88,000 conscripts; navy 8,000, including 3,200 conscripts; air force 39,000, including 7,000 conscripts. Reservists: army 494,000, navy 1,000, air force 50,000. Male conscripts served three years active duty and female conscripts twenty months; annual reserve duty for males thirty to sixty days following active service. Paramilitary groups included Nahal, combining military service with work in agricultural settlements, and Gadna, providing military training at high school level.
Combat Units and Major Equipment: As of 1987, on mobilization, army had eleven divisions composed of thirty-three armored brigades; also nine independent mechanized brigades, three infantry brigades, five paratroop brigades, fifteen artillery brigades. Equipped with 3,900 tanks and 8,000 other armored vehicles. Navy had 100 combat vessels, including 3 submarines, 19 missile attack craft, 40 coastal patrol boats. Three missile corvettes and two submarines on order. Air force had 655 combat aircraft organized into twelve fighter-interceptor squadrons, six fighter squadrons, one reconnaissance squadron. First-line fighters were F-15s, F-16s, and Kfirs.
Equipment Sources: Large domestic defense industry of state-owned and privately owned firms produced aircraft, missiles, small arms, munitions, electronics, and communications gear. Export sales of US$1.2 billion annually exceeded production for domestic use. United States military aid running at US$1.8 billion annually, including fighter aircraft, helicopters, missile boats, and funding for Israeli-manufactured weapons.
Military Budget: US$5.6 billion in Israeli fiscal year 1987; approximately 14% of GDP and 25 percent of total government budget in 1987; 7.3% of GDP in 2006.
Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for compulsory (Jews, Druzes) and voluntary (Christians, Muslims, Circassians) military service; both sexes are obligated to military service; conscript service obligation - 36 months for enlisted men, 21 months for enlisted women, 48 months for officers; reserve obligation to age 41-51 (men), 24 (women) (2008).
Police and Intelligence Agencies: As of 1986, Israel Police--20,874, including Border Police of approximately 5,000 and Palestinian Police (1,000). Auxiliary forces included Civil Defense Corps of army reservists (strength unknown) and Civil Guard (approximately 100,000 volunteers). Separate intelligence organizations included Mossad (external), Shin Bet (domestic), and Aman (military).
Disputes - international: West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be determined through further negotiation; Israel continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier along parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel withdrew its settlers and military from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the West Bank in August 2005; Golan Heights is Israeli-occupied (Lebanon claims the Shab'a Farms area of Golan Heights); since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) headquartered in Jerusalem monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the region.
Refugees and internally displaced persons: IDPs: 150,000-420,000 (Arab villagers displaced from homes in northern Israel) (2007).
Illicit drugs: increasingly concerned about ecstasy, cocaine, and heroin abuse; drugs arrive in country from Lebanon and, increasingly, from Jordan; money-laundering center.