Israel (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

State of Israel מדינת ישראל Timeline: Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum OTL equivalent: Jewish territories of 1947 Partition Plan
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem:  Hatikvah
Location of Israel (in green)
Capital		(de jure) Jerusalem (de facto) Tel Aviv
Other cities		Haifa; Rishon LeZion; Petah Tikva
Official languages		Hebrew
Ethnic groups		Jews; Arabs
Religion		Judaism; Christianity; Islam; Druze
Demonym		Israeli
Government		Unitary state; Semi-parliamentary republic
-	President
-	Prime Minister
Legislature		Knesset of Israel
Establishment
-	Israeli Declaration of Independence	May 14, 1948
-	Establishment of the Green Line	May 12, 1949
Population
-	estimate	7,400,000
Currency		New shekel (ILS)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
Internet TLD		.il
Calling code		+972

Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yisrā'el), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medīnat Yisrā'el) is a country in the Middle East, consisted of five geographic regions: Tiberias, Coastal Plain, the Golan Heights, West Jerusalem and the Negev. Israel is bordered by Palestine to the east, by Mediterranean Sea and the Palestinian enclave of Gaza to the west, by the United Arab Republic to the southwest and by Jordan to the southeast. The Israeli enclaves of Tiberias and the Golan is bordered by Lebanon to the north, by the Palestinian enclave of Galilee to the west, by the United Arab Republic to the east and by Jordan to the south.

History

Zionist Movement (1870–1917)

Second Aliyah workers eating lunch in the fields of Migdal

Since the Jewish Diaspora, some Jews have aspired to return to "Zion" and the "Land of Israel", though the amount of effort that should be spent towards such an aim was a matter of dispute. With the increasing persecution and pogroms in Eastern Europe, a small wave of Jewish immigrants fled to Ottoman-ruled Palestine in the late 19th century. The new migration was accompanied by a revival of the Hebrew language with the creation of the first modern Hebrew dictionary by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda.

Many early migrants left due to difficulty finding work and the early settlements often remained dependent on foreign donations. Despite the difficulties, new settlements arose and the community grew. By 1890, Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, was inhabited by about half a million people, mostly Muslim and Christian Arabs, with Jews as a majority in Jerusalem.

Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), the father of modern Zionism

Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl is credited for founding Zionism, a movement which sought to establish a Jewish state either in Palestine or in other places as a refuge from rising antisemitism in Europe. The Zionist Organization was formally founded in 1897. After the controversial plan by the British government in 1903 to establish a Jewish state at modern-day Kenya, the Zionist Organization was split between the ones who still preferred Palestine as the sole focus of Zionist aspirations and the Jewish Territorialist Organization who willing to establish a Jewish homeland elsewhere.

During World War I, most Jews supported the Germans because they were fighting the Russians who were regarded as the Jews' main enemy. In Britain, the government formed the Jewish Legion as a means of recruiting Russian Jewish immigrants to the British war effort. The most prominent Russian Jewish migrant in Britain was chemist Chaim Weizmann who developed a new process to produce Acetone, a critical ingredient in manufacturing explosives that Britain was unable to manufacture in sufficient quantity. With different national sections of the movement supporting different sides in the war, Zionist policy, however, was to maintain strict neutrality and "to demonstrate complete loyalty to Turkey", the ally of Germany.

Mandatory Palestine (1916–1948)

Arthur Balfour (1848–1930), the Prime Minister (1902–05) and Foreign Secretary (1916–19) of the United Kingdom.

Under the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916, the British and the French divided each others' spheres of influences at the Middle East into several League of Nations mandates, which became the real cornerstone of the geopolitics structuring the entire region. The agreement gave Britain control over what parties would begin to call "Palestine". On November 2, 1917, the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, expressing the government's view in favour of "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" that known as the Balfour Declaration.

The British-led Egyptian Expeditionary Force, commanded by Edmund Allenby, captured Jerusalem on December 9, 1917 and occupied the whole of the Levant following the defeat of Ottoman forces in Palestine at the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918 and the capitulation of Ottoman Empire on October 31. The British Mandate for Palestine (המנדט הבריטי על ארץ ישראל haManḏaṭ haBriṭi ʿel Ereṣ Yišrael) was confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922 and came into effect in 1923. The boundaries of Palestine initially included modern Jordan, which was removed from the territory a few years later. Britain signed a treaty with the United States (which did not join the League of Nations) in which the United States endorsed the terms of the Mandate.

Early Zionist pioneers on the Degania Kibbutz in the Galilee, 1921.

Between 1919 and 1923, another 40,000 Russian Jews arrived in Palestine, escaping the revolutionary chaos in Russia and the Ukraine. Many of these immigrants became known as "pioneers" (halutzim), experienced or trained in agriculture and capable of establishing self-sustaining economies. The Jezreel Valley and the Hefer Plain marshes were drained and converted to agricultural use. Land was bought by the Jewish National Fund, a Zionist charity which collected money abroad for that purpose. A mainly underground Hebrew militia, Haganah (ההגנה, "The Defense"), was established to defend outlying Hebrew settlements.

During the whole interwar period, the British, appealing to the terms of the Mandate, rejected the principle of majority rule or any other measure that would give the Arab population, who formed the majority of the population, control over Palestinian territory. From 1928, the democratically elected Jewish National Council ("Va'ad Leumi") became the main institution of the Palestine Hebrew community ("Yishuv") and included non-Zionist Jews. As the Yishuv grew, the Va'ad Leumi adopted more government-type functions, such as education, health care and security. With British permission, the Va'ad raised its own taxes and ran independent services for the Hebrew population. From 1929 its leadership was elected by Jews from 26 countries.

In 1933, the Jewish Agency and the Nazis negotiated the Ha'avara Agreement, under which 50,000 Jews would be transferred to Palestine and in return the Nazis allowed the Ha'avara organization to purchase 14 million pounds worth of German goods for export to Palestine. The agreement was controversial and the Labour Zionist leader who negotiated the agreement, Haim Arlosoroff, was assassinated in Tel Aviv in 1933. Between 1929 and 1938, 250,000 Jews arrived in Palestine.

The Hebrew delegates in London Conference, St. James' Palace, on February 1939

The death of Palestinian Arab nationalist leader, Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, and an increasing Jewish immigration contributed to the large-scale 1936–1939 Arab uprising in Palestine, a largely nationalist revolt directed at ending British rule. Attacks were mainly directed at British strategic installations such as the Trans Arabian Pipeline (TAP) and railways, and to a lesser extent against Hebrew settlements, secluded Hebrew neighborhoods in the mixed cities, and Jews, both individually and in groups. The violence abated for about a year while the British sent the Peel Commission to investigate.

The Peel Commission then recommended that an exclusively Hebrew territory be created in the Galilee and western coast (including the population transfer of 225,000 Arabs); the rest becoming an exclusively Arab area. With the Arab rejection of this proposal, the revolt resumed during the autumn of 1937. Violence continued throughout 1938 and eventually petered out in 1939. By the time the revolt concluded in March 1939, more than 5,000 Arabs, 400 Jews, and 200 British had been killed and at least 15,000 Arabs were wounded.

World War II (1939–1945)

Jewish Brigade headquarters under the Union Flag and Jewish flag

On June 10, 1940, Italy declared war on the United Kingdom and sided with Germany. Within a month, the Italians attacked Palestine from the air, bombing Tel Aviv and Haifa, inflicting multiple casualties. In May 1941, the Palmach was established to defend the Yishuv when the forces of German General Erwin Rommel advanced east in North Africa towards the Suez Canal and there was fear that they would conquer Palestine. In June 1944 the British agreed to create a Jewish Brigade that would fight in Italy. Approximately 1.5 million Jews around the world also served in every branch of the allied armies, mainly in the Soviet and U.S. armies. 200,000 Jews died serving in the Soviet army alone.

Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis led systematic efforts to kill every person of Jewish extraction in Europe called the Holocaust), causing the deaths of approximately 6 million Jews. During the Holocaust Europe's Jews were cut off from and disowned by the outside world. Jews were systematically impoverished, starved and murdered. The 1942 Zionist conference could not be held because of the war. Instead 600 Jewish leaders met at the Biltmore Hotel in New York and adopted a statement known as the Biltmore Program. They agreed that the Zionist movement would seek the creation of a Jewish state after the war and that all Jewish organizations would fight to ensure free Jewish migration into Palestine.

Zionist insurgency (1945–1947)

The King David Hotel after the bombing by the Irgun, 1946.

The British Empire was severely weakened at the end of war. In the Middle East, the war had made Britain conscious of its dependence on Arab oil and were concerned about maintaining Arab support. Even after the Labour Party won the general election in Britain in 1945, the British Government decided to maintain the 1939 White Paper policies that reduced the number of immigrants allowed into Palestine, restricted Jewish land purchases, and recommended that an independent Palestine, governed jointly by Arabs and Hebrews, be established within 10 years.

In an effort to win independence, the Zionists now waged a guerrilla war against the British. The main underground Hebrew militia, the Haganah, formed an alliance called the Jewish Resistance Movement with the Etzel and the Lehi to fight the British. In June 1946, following instances of Hebrew sabotage, the British launched Operation Agatha, arresting 2700 Jews, including the leadership of the Jewish Agency, whose headquarters were raided. In July 1946, the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the British administration, killing 92 people. The situation in Palestine caused the Mandate to become widely unpopular in Britain, and caused the United States Congress to delay the loans that vital for British reconstruction. By 1947 the Labour-led British Government was ready to refer the Palestine problem to the newly created United Nations.

Partition of Palestine (1947–1948)

The members of Haganah received military training in preparation against Arab violence following the partition of Palestine in 1947.

On April 1947, the United Nations created the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to find a quick solution to the Palestine question. The majority of the members of UNSCOP proposed a partition with Economic Union of Mandatory Palestine to follow the termination of the British Mandate. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Hebrew state (with Jerusalem becoming an international enclave). The General Assembly's vote caused joy in the Jewish community and discontent among the Arab community. Large-scale fighting soon broke out between two sides.

From January 1948, the fighting became increasingly militarized, with Arab volunteers of the Arab Liberation Army (Arabic: جيش الإنقاذ العربي‎ Jaysh al-Inqadh al-Arabi, "Inqadh") entered Palestine to fight with the Palestinians. They consolidated their presence in Galilee and Samaria. Meanwhile, a veteran of 1936–39 Arab uprising and 1941 Mesopotamian Revolution, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, arrived in the Jerusalem sector from Egypt with several hundred men of the Army of the Holy War (Arabic: جيش الجهاد المقدس Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas, "Muqaddas") in December 1947. He was joined by a hundred or so young villagers and Arab veterans of the British Army. His army soon had several thousand men, and it moved its training quarters to Bir Zeit, a town near Ramallah.

On the other side, the Haganah was reorganized by the Jewish leadership and every Hebrew man and woman in Mandatory Palestine had to receive military training. Thanks to funds raised by Golda Meir from sympathizers in the United States, and Sergei Kirov's decision to support the Zionist cause, the Hebrew representatives of Palestine were able to purchase important arms in Eastern Europe. Under Yigael Yadin, the Haganah passed from the defensive posture to the offensive one. Its principal objective was to secure Yishuv's uninterrupted territorial connections.

State of Israel (1948–present)

1948 Arab–Israeli War (1948–1949)

David Ben-Gurion declaring the independence of Israel at the Tel Aviv Museum in Tel Aviv

On May 14, 1948, on the day the last British forces left from Haifa, the Jewish People's Council, led by David Ben-Gurion, gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and proclaimed "the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, to be known as the State of Israel". Following independence, the Haganah became the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Other Hebrew militants were required to cease independent operations and join the IDF.

The neighboring Arab states refused to accept the UN partition plan and had declared they would intervene to prevent its implementation and support the Palestinian Arab population. On May 15, Hejaz, Iraq, Egypt, Transjordan and Syria, invaded the former territory of British Mandate for Palestine, thus marking the beginning of 1948 Arab–Israeli War. On June 11, 1948, a month-long UN truce was put into effect. Neither side respected the truce. Both sides used this time to improve their positions, a direct violation of the terms of the ceasefire. The fighting then continued on July 8, 1948 for ten days until the UN Security Council issued the second truce on July 18.

David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973), the Prime Minister of Israel (1948–54; 1955–56).

On September 16, UN mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, proposed a new partition for Palestine in which Jordan would annex Lydda and Ramla, the Negev would be divided between Jordan and Egypt and there would be a Jewish state in the whole of Galilee. The plan was also rejected by both sides and on September 17, Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by the militant Zionist group Lehi. On September 20, 1948, the All-Palestine Government was formed in Gaza with Ahmed Hilmi Abd al-Baqi as its Prime Minister and on October 1, 1948, it declared the independence over the whole of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital. The fighting between the Israelis and the Palestinians then resumed on October 15, 1948.

On October 24, the Israeli forces captured the entire upper Galilee, driving the Inqadh and Lebanese Army out, and successfully ambushing and destroying an entire Syrian battalion. An estimated 50,000 Arab inhabitants fled into Lebanon, some of them fleeing ahead of the advancing forces, and some expelled from villages which had resisted. The third truce was issued on November 7, 1948. Both sides used this opportunity to consolidate their territorial gains. By November 1948, the Israeli forces effectively controlled Galilee and northern Negev, while the Palestinian and Arab forces controlled Gaza, Jerusalem and most of West Bank. After the fighting resumed on December 5, 1948, Israel focused its operations to secure the northern and southern borders. Israel secured western Negev from Egypt on December 27, 1948.

The raising of the Ink Flag at Umm Rashrash which marking the end of the war, 1949.

The first legislative election was held in the middle of war on January 25, 1949. The Mapai Party (מפלגת פועלי ארץ ישראל Mifléget Po'aléi Ereṣ Yišrael, lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") won large support during the election. On February 16, 1949, Chaim Weizmann was elected as the first President of Israel. The first government of Israel was formed on March 8, 1949 with David Ben-Gurion as the Prime Minister. Under Ben-Gurion's first government, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt on February 24, Lebanon on March 23, Jordan on April 3, Hejaz on April 24 and Syria on July 20.

On March 10, 1949, the Israeli forces had reached the shores of the Red Sea at Umm Rashrash, securing the Southern Negev from Jordan. After took it without a battle, the Israeli soldiers raised a hand-made Israeli flag ("The Ink Flag"). The raising of the Ink Flag is considered to be the end of the war. Following the armistices with the Arab countries, Israel was admitted to the United Nations on May 11, 1949. On May 12, 1949, Israel and Palestine concluded the armistice agreement and a demarcation line was set out, known as the Green Line, establishing de facto borders between two countries, in which the State of Israel had control over the Northeast Coastal Plain, Galilee, the Negev and West Jerusalem.

Nation-building efforts (1949–1956)

Yemenite Jews on the way to Israel from Aden, South Arabia.

Ben-Gurion presided various national projects aimed at the rapid development of the country. Under his government, education for all children between the ages of 5 to 14 became compulsory starting from 1949. In September 1949, it became mandatory for citizens to serve for a period of time in the military. Arabic names of places were also Hebraized by the government, first in the Negev in 1949 and then in all of Israel in 1951. During the 1949 Lausanne Conference, Israel and Palestine had agreed for the repatriation of ethnic Arab refugees to Cisjordan and Gaza.

Israel has refused the return of Arab refugees to its territories, while at the same time promoted Jewish mass immigration. Immigration doubled the Jewish population between 1949 and 1951 which increased by nearly 700,000 Jewish immigrants from the Middle East and Europe. In June 1949, Operation Magic Carpet (כנפי נשרים Kanfei Nesharim, lit. "Operation On Wings of Eagles") was launched by the government to airlift the Jews from Hejaz, Yemen, Aden, Nejd as well as from Djibouti and Eritrea in secret. In 1950, the Law of Return was passed, which granted to all Jews and those of Jewish ancestry, and their spouses, the right to settle in Israel and gain citizenship.

Residents of Tel Aviv standing in line to buy food rations, 1954.

The influx of immigrants, however, resulted to the shortage of food and money, leading to supply rationing by the state. On April 26, 1949, the Ministry of Rationing and Supply was created to supervise distribution of necessary resources to ensure equal and ample rations for all citizens. The ministry, however, was closed down in 1950. In 1952, Israel received compensations from West Germany for confiscation of Jewish property during the Holocaust, boosting the new nation's economy significantly. Rationing was mostly reduced in 1953 and eventually abolished at all in 1959.

In 1954, Ben-Gurion unexpectedly resigned and was replaced by Moshe Sharett. During Sharett's tenure, Arab-Israeli conflicts increased albeit his pacifist stance. As Israeli covert operation to sabotage Egyptian public facilities was uncovered, Sharett found out it was commenced without his knowledge. It led to a political crisis within ruling Mapai party as Sharett went into clash with Ben-Gurion who pushed for Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon, the former's ally, to resign. When Sharett went to the United States in 1955, Ben-Gurion became acting prime minister and ordered a reprisal operation against Syria, a move that strongly detested by Sharett. Sharett eventually resigned in November 1955 and Ben-Gurion returned as head of government.

An Israeli soldier guards Syrian prisoners captured in an Israeli reprisal operation against Syria in December 1955.

As Ben-Gurion returned, tensions between Israel and neighboring countries, especially Egypt and Lebanon, increased dramatically. Ben-Gurion accused both Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Lebanese leader, Antoun Saadeh had supported and supplied Palestinian guerrilla (fedayeen) activities from their countries. Israel had been in hostilities with Lebanon since 1953 following the latter's plan to divert the flow of Hasbani river for agriculture which was believed will reduce the water supply in the Jordan river. On other hand, Egypt had nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, closing the canal to Israeli shipping. The canal nationalization provided Ben-Gurion a casus belli against the Egyptian government.

Wars in Suez and Galilee (1956)

Damaged Egyptian military vehicles in aftermath of Israeli invasion of Sinai, 1956.

The need to reopen the Straits of Tiran leading to the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping as well as to strengthen its southern border from an increasingly hostile Egypt led Israel to join the United Kingdom and France in a military alliance. Israel, the United Kingdom, and France eventually invaded Egypt on October 29, 1956. Israeli forces swiftly attacked Egyptian positions in the Sinai Peninsula, to push the Egyptians into the Egypt proper.

On the day of invasion, the western Sinai was easily controlled by the Israeli forces following the confusion among the Egyptian command. Egypt retaliated by dispatching Ibrahim el Awal destroyer to shell Haifa on October 31, but the ship was eventually caught by the Israeli navy in the pursuit. Abu Uwayulah was captured by the Israelis on November 1, 1956, securing control of northern Sinai. By November 3, Israel has achieved most of its military objectives in the peninsula, leaving only Sharm el-Sheikh in the southern Sinai. Sharm el-Sheikh was eventually captured on November 5, 1956, completing Israeli military objectives in the Sinai.

Conducts of 1956 war deepened political strife between Moshe Sharett (L) and David Ben-Gurion (R).

Israel has also expected Palestine and Jordan to enter the conflict on Egypt's side. Israeli soldiers were stationed along the Green Line borders with Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan and border police were militarized during the first few hours of the war. Israeli-Arab villages along the borders were placed under curfew. This resulted in the killings of civilians in the Arab village of Kafr Qasim, much to protests of Israeli leftist and Arab politicians. Few skirmishes with fedayeen guerillas also occurred near Lebanon's borders between October 30 and November 1.

Hostilities at Israel-Lebanon's borders were close to the point of provocation. Sharett criticized Ben-Gurion for the situation in the north as he believed Israel should not enter a two-front war with Lebanon at the same time. As feared, Lebanon joined the conflict on November 2 by invading Upper Galilee. With most of forces were focused in the Sinai, the Israelis retreated from the Green Line with Lebanon up to the 33rd parallel north by November 3, 1956. When Lebanese forces rapidly advanced into Acre on November 5, the Israeli Air Force was diverted immediately from the Sinai following the capture of Sharm el-Sheikh. Southern Lebanon was bombarded by the Israelis between November 6-8, 1956, followed by Beirut on November 9.

Piles of rubble in Zuqaq al-Blat, Beirut, after the Israeli air raids on the city during the Galilee War, 1956.

Israel had received significant pressure both from the United States and the Soviet Union as well as from the United Nations to withdraw from the Sinai. It invoked internal fighting between hawkish Ben-Gurion and pragmatic Sharett within the ruling Mapai party. Sharett denounced Ben-Gurion's speech on November 7 which openly intended to annex the Sinai and scrap the armistice agreement, in effect renouncing the established Green Line borders and making Lebanon's claim on Galilee will be a rightful one. Sharett wanted Israel to return to status quo which can pressure the international community to support Israeli control in Galilee.

After a long cabinet meeting on November 8, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion noticed U.S. president, Joseph P. Kennedy, the willingness of Israel to withdraw from the Sinai. Most of troops were immediately deflected to the north on November 9, 1956 in a military operation to push the Lebanese out of the 1949 armistice line. By November 11, after two more air raids on Beirut, Israel has achieved air control over Lebanon. Lebanese forces was evacuated from Galilee on November 13, except in the little strip 5 km south of the 1949 armistice line. Beirut announced ceasefire on November 15, 1956, effectively ending hostilities in the north. Israel also withdrew from Gaza and the Sinai in March 1957.

Pursuit of pragmatic defense (1957–1967)

Moshe Sharett (1894–1965), the Prime Minister of Israel (1954–55; 1956–65).

Despite military victory in the 1956 war, the overall war conduct of Ben-Gurion's government gained criticisms both from the opposition parties as well as within the Mapai itself. Power struggle occurred within the Mapai shortly afterward and Sharett returned as the party's leader on December 1, 1956. Ben-Gurion resigned from the premiership on December 2, 1956, returning Sharett as the head of government. The new cabinet was composed of Mapai, Mapam, General Zionists, Ahdut HaAvoda, Mafdal and Progressives.

Sharett pursued more pragmatic approach on the country's foreign and defense policies by pursuing closer relations with countries in Asia and the Pacific. The prime minister visited Turkey, India, the Deccan, Ceylon, Eelam, Japan, Australia, and Aotearoa from January to March 1957. To balance Ben-Gurion's influence within the Mapai, Sharett strengthened his contacts with the leaders of the Progressives, especially Minister of Justice Pinchas Rosen. He appointed Rosen as the acting head of government during his trips overseas to make sure the cabinet was not run by the pro-Ben-Gurion elements.

During the early 1960s, Israel had developed close ties with Ghana. While Ghana was a founding member of Non-Aligned Movement that condemned Israel as an "imperialist power", both nations continued to trade. Sharett had attended the independence ceremony of Ghana in March 1957 and established a strong economic partnership with Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister of Ghana. Nkrumah returned the favor by visiting Tel Aviv in 1962 and secured Israeli assistance to provide experts for education and industrial sectors of Ghana. This cooperation created a minor rift within the Non-Aligned Movement between Nkrumah and Nasser.

Mapai MKs voted for a new government in the wake of revelation of the Lavon Affair, 1961

It was revealed in 1960 that the false-flag operation at Egypt in 1954 was commenced by proteges of Ben-Gurion, which were Benjamin Gibli, Moshe Dayan, and Shimon Peres, without Lavon's knowledge. The revelation prompted Sharett to form a new government to purge Ben-Gurion's political influences and supporters. Furiously, Ben-Gurion left Mapai and founded Rafal (רשימת פועלי לאומית Reshimat Poalei Leumit, "National Workers' List"). In 1963, Herut and General Zionists merged to form largely right-wing National Freedom Bloc (גוש חרות הלאומית Gush Herut Leumit, "Gahal"). In response, Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and the Progressives merged to form the Social Democratic Party (מפלגה סוציאל דמוקרטית Mifléget Sotsial Demokratit, "Masad").

Pinchas Sapir (1906–1975), the Prime Minister of Israel (1965–1970).

In 1964, Sharett's health became exacerbated by cancer and he resigned as party leader on November 29, 1964 but kept his premiership; Sharett died shortly thereafter on July 7, 1965. Before his death, Sharett prepared Minister of Finance Pinchas Sapir to succeed him. Sapir was elected Masad leader with a broad consensus on November 30, 1964 and was subsequently appointed Prime Minister on July 8. As prime minister, Sapir worked to improve Israel's foreign relations by establishing diplomatic relations with West Germany in 1965, as well as cultural ties with the Soviet Union, which also allowed some Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel. Sapir government also strengthened Israeli army by purchasing a large numbers of arms and fighting vehicles from the United States.

Further readings

• Sheffer, G. (1996). Moshe Sharett: Biography of a political moderate. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.,. ISBN 0-19-827994-9.