Israel: Middle East powerhouse

JERUSALEM: Israel, which goes to the polls on Tuesday, has become the Middle East’s military powerhouse and a major player in the high-tech sector since its creation seven decades ago.

It has fought multiple wars with its Arab neighbours and continues to occupy the West Bank, where the peace process with the Palestinians has been moribund since 2016.

Here are some facts about the country. Military power Israel is considered the leading military power in the Middle East and is widely believed to possess its sole, if undeclared, nuclear arsenal.

It receives nearly US$4 billion a year in military aid from the United States. The first ArabIsraeli war broke out on May 15, 1948, a day after Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the country’s creation.

Officially Israel has been through eight conflicts, including the Six-Day War of June 1967 in which it seized the West Bank – including east Jerusalem – from Jordan, and the strategic Golan Heights from Syria.

It has signed peace treaties with just two Arab g overnments – Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Settlements, intifadas Israel’s population has increased tenfold since 1948, reaching 8.8 million in 2018, according to official statistics.

In recent decades, Israel has massively intensified its settlement of the occupied West Bank, building homes for some 650,000 people, including in annexed east Jerusalem.

The international community regards the settlements as illegal and the United Nations says their persistent expansion is the biggest obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

There have been two Palestinian uprisings or intifadas – 1987-1993 and 2000-2005.

The first ended with the signing in Washington of the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

They granted the Palestinians limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an interim step towards a comprehensive peace deal, which has never been agreed.

In 2002 during the second intifada, Israel began building a security barrier that it said was intended to keep out attackers but which snakes across swathes of Palestinian territory. Trump support Israel has sought to avoid direct involvement in the Syrian civil war that began in 2011.

But it has publicly acknowledged to carrying out a bombing campaign inside Syria, targeting archfoe Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

Israel has vowed to prevent either of them entrenching themselves in its northeastern neighbour.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been in power since 2009, formed the a new government in 2015 that is widely regarded as the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

He is seeking re-election under the shadow of looming graft charges, which he has repeatedly denied.

Netanyahu has won the staunch support of US President Donald Trump.

Breaking with decades of international consensus, the US leader recognised the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and its annexation of the Golan from Syria in March 2019. High-tech and natural gas Israel’s high-tech sector represents 43 percent of its exports, according to the economy ministry, giving the country the nickname the “startup nation”.

Dozens of foreign companies have opened research and development centres.

Israel has limited natural resources but in recent years has discovered major offshore gas reserves and is building the infrastructure to exploit them.

Israel has low unemployment, and growth of nearly three percent, but the cost of living remains stubbornly high and more than 20 percent of the population live below the poverty line. — AFP