Israel: Country Profile

Palestinian statehood through the United Nations is overdue in light of American inaction and the continued intransigence of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Palestinians are seeking full-state status at the United Nations in a move the United States will block, and that Israel opposes. Do Palestinians deserve their own state? You decide.

Rick Perry's facts on Israel, Palestinians, statehood and the Palestinian-Israeli peace process leave a lot to be desired. Here's a line-item corrective.

Israel's relationship with Egypt has always rested on a cold peace since the Camp David Agreements of 1979. That peace is in danger as the Arab Spring raises tensions.

Brief history and explanation of Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

Isn't It Time for the US to Declare the Israeli Settlements Illegal and support a UN resolution declaring them such?

The results are a necessary corrective to the impression, created by Aipac, that American Jews are anywhere near the right-wing positions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not budging from a course that can only end in disaster for all sides in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

FAQ on Rachel Corrie, peace activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer as she was protesting the demolition of a Palestinian house in Gaza.

What is the Electronic Intifada? Brief history and purpose of the Web-based news and opinion site on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Is it terrorism when soldiers are the victims? Michael Waltzer says mostly no.

Brief description of the United Jewish Communities-Jewish Federations of North America, which represents hundreds of Jewish communities across the United States that raise money for Israel.

Brief description and history of Israel's Peres Center for Peace, established in 1996 by former prime minister and Nobel laureate Shimon Peres.

Full Text of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 Ending Israel-Hezbollah War (2006)

Brief definition and history of Operation cast Lead, Israel's assault on Gaza (Dec. 27, 2008-Jan. 18, 2009)

Description and brief history of J Street, the Jewish-American lobbying organization and liberal counterpoint to AIPAC.

How Walter Cronkite in 1977 scooped Jimmy Carter and mediated Egyptian Israeli negotiations before the Camp David accords.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) believes that torture and ill treatment of any kind and under all circumstances is incompatible with the moral values of democracy and the rule of law.

Do the West or Israel have any standing to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons? Is a nuclear Iran more dangerous than a pre-emptive war on Iran?

Your turn to suggest what steps Benjamin Netanyahu should take to advance the peace process.

Background, details and consequences of the Mossad's assassination of the PLO's Abu Jihad, or Khalil al-Wazir, in Tunis on April 16, 1988

Description and brief history of Peace Now, one of Israel's largest non-governmental and human rights organizations working for a two-state solution and a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In March 1978, in the wake of Israel's invasion of Lebanon, 348 Israeli soldiers and reservists urged Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin to choose peace with Arabs over "Greater Israel." The letter was at the origin of the Peace Now movement.

In Jenin, in the Palestinian Territories of the Occupied West Bank, a Palestinian youth string orchestra led by Wafa Younis and called Strings for Freedom is disbanded when Palestinian politicos object to a Holocaust concert the group participated in.

A profile of Benjaim Netanyahu, Israel's former Prime Minister and Likud Party chief.

Who's Who in Israel's 2009 Election for Prime Minister, from Benjamin Netanyahu to Tzipi Livni to Ehud Barak to Avigdor Lieberman.

Following the 2009 Gaza war, Qatar shut down its trade mission with Israel. In retaliation, Israel vowed to restrict al Jazeera , the Qatar-based satellite news channel, in Israel.

Beginning in the 1970s, Israel helped to spawn Hamas in Gaza in an attempt to counterbalance the influence of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The gamble failed.

A profile of Ehud Barak, Israel's Defense Minister and Former Prime Minister and Labor Party chief.

In a November 1967 news conference, French President Charles de Gaulle condemned Israel's expansionist wars and occupation of Arab territories and predicted an unsustainable occupation.

It isn't a secret that Saudi Arabia has long discriminated against Jews, forbidding them to enter the country. Bot for years, the U.S. government complied and enabled Saudi bigotry.

The full text of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic address to the Israeli Knesset on Nov. 20, 1977, the first time an Arab leadder addressed the Israeli parliament.

Written by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, also known as the Algiers Declaration of 1988, defined the Palestinian state, rejected violence and terrorism, and implicitly recognized Israel's right to exist.

An earnestly shaken President Clinton delivered these words at Mt. Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem at Yitzhak Rabin's funeral on Nov. 6, 1995, following Rabin's assassination two days earlier.

On Nov. 4, 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin attended a mass rally in Israel held under the slogan, "Yes to Peace, No to Violence," and delivered these words, which proved his last, before he was assassinated by Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student and right-wing extremist who opposed Rabin's peace overtures to the Palestinians. Rabin was 73.

At a peace rally attended by some 100,000 people on Nov. 4, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, a revered leader of Israel, was assassinated by Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student upset that Rabin made peace with Palestinians.

Profile of Israel's Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995), who led Israel militarily and politically and brokered its first recognition of Palestinian autonomy in 1994.

Definition of Palmach, or "Strike Force," an elite group of the Haganah in British-Mandate Palestine that formed the core of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Origins and definition of Haganah, the paramilitary force at the origin of the Israeli Defense Forces, or Israeli military.

A profile of Saad Haddad and the South Lebanon Army, who operated in South Lebanon alongside Israeli forces between 1976 and 2000.

Text of United Nations Resolution 425 (1978) Calling for Israel's Withdrawal from Lebanon and the establishment of UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

A complete list of Israel's prime ministers from 1948 to the present.

President Ronald Reagan addressed the United States on radio and television briefly on Oct. 6, 1981, following the assassination of Egypt's Anwar Sadat. Here is what he said.

A Profile of Israel's Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel's Kadima Party, former foreign minister and current prime minister.

Your Guide to the 2008 Beijing Olympics for Israel: IsraelÂ’s Olympic history and country profile, and IsraelÂ’s athletes at the 2008 Olympics by name and by sport, or game.

Definition of Israel's Likud Party, established in 1973.

An analysis of the Winograd Commission report on Israel's 2006 war: context, contradictions and consequences

An explanation of Israel's Winograd Commission, appointed to study the cause and consequence of Israel's 2006 Lebanon War

Summary of the April 2007 interim report of the Winograd commission on the conduct of the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Israeli military regarding Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon.

Summary of the final report of the Winograd commission on the conduct of the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Israeli military regarding Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon.

The basics on Israel's government structure, its population, religious and ethnic breakdown, the military, the economy, and a summary of Israeli history going back to ancient times

An analysis of George W. Bush's 2002 proposal for peace between Israel and Palestine, five years later: How the Road Map was folded up and put away.

A primer on the separation barrier or security fence Israel is building in the West Bank: Does it reduce attacks? Does it im prove the prospects for peace? Is it a land-grab?

A 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah that failed to achieve Israel's objectives while feeding into Hezbollah's mythology as Lebanon's "liberator."

US-based organization dedicated to combating anti-semitism and other human rights abuses. The ADL site includes a special focus on conflicts in the Middle East.

How and why Lebanon's fate hangs on Hezbollah's reaction to the Hariri Tribunal, which may implicate Hezbollah in the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005.

Text of the letter to President Obama urging him to support a UN resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlements.