Location: Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Lebanon.
Land Area: 20,770 sq km (8,019.3 sq. miles)
Coastline: 273 km (169 miles)
Highest Point: Har Meron 1,208 m (3,962 ft)
Lowest Point: Dead Sea -408 m (-1,338 ft)
Notable Landmarks: Take a peek...

Israel has a technologically advanced market economy with substantial government participation. 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. Israel imports substantial quantities of grain, but is largely self-sufficient in other agricultural products. Cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and fruits and vegetables are the leading exports. Roughly half of the government's external debt is owed to the U.S., which is its major source of economic and military aid. The bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict; difficulties in the high-technology, construction, and tourist sectors; and fiscal austerity in the face of growing inflation led to small declines in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2001 and 2002. The economy grew at 1 percent in 2003, with improvements in tourism and foreign direct investment. In 2004, rising business and consumer confidence, as well as higher demand for Israeli exports, boosted the GDP by 3.9 percent.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): $129 Billion (2004 est.)
GDP Per Capita: $20,800 (2004 est.)
Number of Workers: 2.68 million (2004 est.)
Unemployment Rate: 10.7% (2004 est.)
Industries: High-technology projects (including aviation, communications, computer-aided design and manufacturing, medical electronics, fiber optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, metal products, chemical products, plastics, diamond cutting, and textiles and footwear.
Currency: new Israeli shekel What does it look like?

Type of Government: Parliamentary democracy
Chief of State: President Moshe Katzav (since 31 July 2000)
Head of Government: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (since 7 March 2001)
Capital City: Jerusalem. (The U.S. maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv.)
Legal Age to Vote: 18 years of age; universal and compulsory for persons up to age 75.
Flag Design: White with a blue hexagram (six-pointed linear star) known as the Magen David (Shield of David) centered between two equal horizontal blue bands near the top and bottom edges of the flag.
Official Language: Hebrew (official), Arabic used officially for Arab minority, English most commonly used foreign language.
Religions: Jewish, 76.5 percent; Muslim, 15.9 percent; Arab Christians, 1.7 percent; other Christian .4 percent; Druze 1.6 percent; unspecified 3.9 percent. (2003 data)

Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the United Nations divided 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 occupied by Israel 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. 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 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. On 24 June 2002, U.S. President Bush laid out a "road map" for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which envisions a two-state solution. However, progress toward a permanent status agreement has been undermined by Palestinian-Israeli violence ongoing since September 2000. The conflict may have reached a turning point with the election in January 2005 of Mahmud ABBAS as the new Palestinian leader, following the November 2004 death of Yasir ARAFAT.