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The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and its continued existence has been a source of repeated wars and other conflicts with Arab countries, such as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The state of war between Egypt and Israel ended with the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty on March 26, 1979. The state of war with Jordan officially ended with the signing of the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace on October 26, 1994. Sporadic negotiations with Lebanon and Syria, Israel's remaining belligerent neighbours, have not as yet resulted in peace treaties. Israel is currently also embroiled in an ongoing conflict with Palestinians in the territories controlled since the Six Day War in 1967, despite the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993, and the ongoing efforts of Israeli, Palestinian and global peacemakers.
See also:
Main article Politics of Israel
Israel is a parliamentary republic based on universal suffrage and proportional representation. Israel's legislative branch is a 120-member parliament known as the Knesset. Membership in the Knesset is allocated to parties based on their proportion of the vote. Elections to the Knesset are normally held every four years, but the Knesset can decide to dissolve itself ahead of time by a simple majority.
The President of Israel is head of state, serving as a largely powerless figurehead. The President selects the leader of the majority party or ruling coalition in the Knesset as the Prime Minister, who serves as head of government. 2
The Judiciary branch of Israel is made of a three-tier system of courts: at the lowest level are the Magistrate Courts. Above them, serving both as an appelate court and as a court of first instance are the District Courts. At the top of the judicial pyramid is the Supreme Court. Judges in Israel retire at the age of 70 and are appointed by a committee made up of representatives of the Knesset, Supreme Court justices and the Israeli Bar. The Israeli Supreme Court is regarded by many as Israel's guardian of civil rights.
Israel has not completed a written constitution. Its government is based on the laws of the Knesset, especially by " Basic Laws of Israel", which are special laws (currently there are 15 of them), by the Knesset legislature which will become the future official constitution. The declaration of the State of Israel has a significance in this matter as well. Israel's legal system is a western legal system best classified as "mixed": it has a strong Anglo-American influence, but in some parts has borrowed heavely from civil law tradition. Marital issues are governed by religious law.
Because of its Proportional representation electoral system, coalitions in the Knesset can often be unstable and are usually made up of at least two parties. Coalitions can be difficult to form and hard to keep together because of the large number of political parties, many of whom run on very specialized platforms, often advocating the tenets of particular interest groups such as religious sects.
In the past thirty years, the largest parties have been the conservative Likud Party and the Social-democrat Labour Party. However, they do not attract sufficient support to govern without the help of smaller parties such as Shas, a Mizrahi Haredi party which represents the Mizrahi Jews, has a network of religious schools, and supports social spending; Shinui, a secularist party that sees itself representing Israel's middle class and a foe of religious (particularly Haredi) parties, and works to reduce social spending; the National Union Party, a far-right party advocating "transfer" of Palestinian refugees to resettle in Arab countries; the Mafdal - the national religious party, affiliated with religious Zionists (kipot srugot); and Yachad (former Meretz), a social-democratic party which is supportive of the Palestinian cause. All governments have so far avoided forming a coalition with parties representative of the Palestinian minority, such as the Arab-Jewish communist Hadash party, the Arab-nationalist Balad party or the conservative-Islamic bloc United Arab List party Raam .
Parties of the left dominated Israel's elections until 1974, when following the 1973 War the ruling Labour party began to lose popularity. On the right, the Likud party was formed by a union of the Liberals and the nationalistic Herut party. The beginning of right-wing dominance in Israeli politics began in 1977 with the ascendance of Likud's Menachem Begin as prime minister. With the exception of the Labour-Meretz coalitions between 1992-1996 and 1999-2001, the Likud continued to form most Israeli governments since 1977, sometimes in coalition with the Labour Party. In 2003, left-wing parties fared poorly in elections won by Likud government of prime minister Ariel Sharon.
The premiership of Ariel Sharon is one of the most controversial since Israel's founding, with hostility emanating from both Left and Right. In 1983, the Israeli Kahan Commission found Ariel Sharon indirectly responsible for the 1982 Phalangist-led Sabra and Shatila Massacre, leading to his dismissal as Defence Minister by Menachem Begin. Some of his military tactics, such as repeated assassinations of Palestinian leaders and incursions into Palestinian territories, have come under fire from the Israeli peace movement (see Peace Now and Jews For Peace ) and sections of the international community, such as the European Union. On the Right, his acceptance in principle of a state of Palestine and his call for the evacuation of all settlements in the Gaza Strip and some in the West Bank is opposed by settler organisations, the Orthodox religious parties and many in his own Likud party. Sharon's supporters see his strategy as having reduced the threat of Palestinian terrorism, and as laying the basis for a lasting peace in the Middle East by resolving the "Palestinian problem" with finality.
See also: List of political parties in Israel
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