| Levant Confederation קוֹנְפֵדֵרַצְיָה הֲלֵבַנְט (Hebrew) Timeline: Double Collapse: The Entire Collapse of Communismكونفدرالية بلاد الشام (Arabic) | ||||||
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| Anthem: Israel: Hatikvah (English: "The Hope") Palestine: "Fida'i" (English: "Fedayeen Warrior") |
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 Location of Levant (green)
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| Capital | Jerusalem (de-facto) | |||||
| Official languages | Hebrew • Arabic | |||||
| Demonym | Levant • Levantine | |||||
| Government | Federal assembly-independent republic with elements of a semi-direct democracy | |||||
| - | Federal Chairmen | Benny Gantz (Israel) Ismail Haniyeh (Palestine) |
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| - | Prime Minister | Yair Lapid | ||||
| Legislature | Federal Congress | |||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | Foundation | 18 May 2013 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2022 estimate | 16,577,043 | ||||
| Currency | Levantine new shekel (LVS) |
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| Drives on the | right | |||||
Levant, officially the Levant Confederation, and sometimes called Israel-Palestine is a country located in Western Asia in the Arabian peninsula. It borders Egypt to the west; Lebanon and Syria to the north; and Jordan to the east. It was formed on May 18th, 2013, after the formal unification of the Palestinian territories and the State of Israel. The Levant is an ethnically and religiously diverse state, made up primarily of Jews and Palestinian-Arabs but also containing the semi-nomadic Bedouin Arabs, Christians and Druze. It also contains the largest Jewish population in the world.
The Confederation is primarily made up of two federal subjects, the State of Israel and the State of Palestine, with each having their own separate parliaments (Knesset & the Legislative Council respectively) which elect a regional prime minister called the Federal Chairmen/Chairperson. There is also the Federal Congress which elects the Prime Minister. State power is split amongst the two subjects and it has incorporated many elements of direct-democracy seen in countries such as Switzerland.
The Levant is a developed country with a high-income economy, with a high HDI and a mixed economic system, being one of the largest economies in the Middle East despite its small size. Although the economic development is lopsided, with the Israeli section of the Levant having a much higher standard of development in comparison to the Palestinian subject. Since its creation it has experienced an economic boom through investment from Europe and the Arab world. The Levant has one of the largest active militaries in the world, armed with an unknown amount of nuclear weapons and every Levantine citizen is obligated to join the Levantine Defence Forces. The LDF is currently participating in the 2022-23 Middle East War and is currently occupying Lebanon as part of this conflict, following an invasion from Lebanon.
Etymology[]
The term Levant appears in English in 1497, and originally meant 'the East' or 'Mediterranean lands east of Italy'. It is borrowed from the French levant 'rising', referring to the rising of the sun in the east, or the point where the sun rises. The phrase is ultimately from the Latin word levare, meaning 'lift, raise'. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolē (cf. Anatolia 'the direction of sunrise'), in Germanic Morgenland (lit. 'morning land'), in Italian (as in Riviera di Levante, the portion of the Liguria coast east of Genoa), in Hungarian Kelet ('east'), in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant, ('the place of rising'), and in Hebrew מִזְרָח mizraḥ ('east'). Most notably, "Orient" and its Latin source oriens meaning 'east', is literally "rising", deriving from Latin orior 'rise'.
The notion of the Levant has undergone a dynamic process of historical evolution in usage, meaning, and understanding. While the term "Levantine" originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it later came to refer to regional "native" and "minority" groups.
The term became current in English in the 16th century, along with the first English merchant adventurers in the region; English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s, and the English merchant company signed its agreement ("capitulations") with the Ottoman Sultan in 1579. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire, and in 1670 the French Compagnie du Levant was founded for the same purpose. At this time, the Far East was known as the "Upper Levant".
In early 19th-century travel writing, the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman empire, as well as independent Greece (and especially the Greek islands). In 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon (1920–1946) was called the Levant states.
History[]
TBA
Climate[]
Politics[]
Government[]
The Levantine Confederation is a federal assembly-independent republic with elements of a semi-direct democracy. The federal government is elected by the Federal Congress, a unicameral body elected through a proportional representative party list system. The state is divided into two main federal subjects and one condominium
State of Israel[]
Flag of the State of Israel
Israel is the larger of the two federal subjects and is also the larger by population (10,885,440) and in terms of economy. Although it is predominantly Jewish, 20% of its population is non-Jewish, including Christians, Arabs and Druze. Israel is the older of the two subjects and encompasses the territory of the historical Israel, excluding Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Its regional capital is Tel Aviv and its legislature is the Knesset. The Israeli economy is considered highly developed and focuses on the service sector and the development of new technology and bio-medical research. Religious studies were previously subsidised by the Israeli state, with exemptions from the military draft increasing the number of Ultra-Orthodox adherents to Judaism. However, religious exemptions and studies were stopped in the mid 2000s as secular Jews came to prominence and as the Israel-Palestinian peace process continued. Now, the Ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox population in Israel only comprises less then 10% of the Jewish population, with the majority being Moderate, Reformist or Secular Jews.
The Israeli Knesset is currently split into three major coalition.
The New Alliance, a liberal coalition led primarily by the Israeli Resilience Party. This faction is currently in power in Israel and draws its support from social liberals, conservative liberals, urban voters, Christians and young voters. Its supportive or the Confederation and believes in centralising authority into the Federal Congress. It is a secularist party, backs LGBT+ rights and belives in an interventionist foreign policy against the various authoritarian regimes internationally. The current Prime Minister of the Confederation, Yair Lapid is from the Alliance and is backed by the coalition. Its leader is Benny Gantz.
The Labour-Socialist Union is a social democratic and democratic socialist political grouping led by the Israeli Labour Party. They are backed by the those living in rural areas, especially in the Kibbutzim, Labour Union supporters, Arab-Israelis, Druze and environmentalists. It believes that the current structure of the federation is fine and is against decentralisation or centralisation. It is secularist like the New Alliance, except it believes in a form of secularism much like the Indian National Congress, where the government helps support minority religions from domination by larger groups. They are strongly pro-environmental, pacificist, supports Israeli-Arab interests and LGBT+ rights. Its leader is Merav Michaeli since 2022.
The National Camp is the right wing bloc in the Knesset, being led by the Likud. It is a conservative political alliance made up mainly by religious and conservative Jews. Due to the lower numbers of conservative Jews it has been the smallest of the three factions and since its turn to the further right in 2021 it has fallen even further, with polling indicating that it would be only the fourth or fifth largest alliance in the Knesset if an election as held. It has attempted at various points since 2011 to incorporate religious Muslims and Christians into its ranks but this has been resisted by far-right members of the coalition. In 2021 the far right gained power after Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted by Itamar Ben-Gvir, who still runs the party. It is opposed to the federation and backs either further devolution or outright independence.