Near Eastern countries: Iran, Georgia, Lebanon, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Israel, Jordan, Armenia, Syria, Turkey, Iraq

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 129. Chapters: Iran, Georgia, Lebanon, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Israel, Jordan, Armenia, Syria, Turkey, Iraq. Excerpt: The State of Israel (Hebrew: ·), Medinat Yisra'el; Arabic: ¿, ), is a parliamentary republic in Western Asia, located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is the world's only Jewish-majority state, and is defined as a Jewish and democratic state in its Basic Laws. Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948 and neighboring Arab states invaded the next day. Since then, Israel has fought a series of wars with neighboring Arab states, and has occupied territories, including the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, beyond those delineated in the 1949 Armistice Agreements. The border between Israel and the neighboring West Bank is not formally defined by the Israeli government, as a result of a complex and unresolved political situation. Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts by elements on both sides to solve the problem diplomatically have so far met with only limited success. The population, defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics to include all citizens and permanent residents within Israel and in Israeli settlements, was estimated in February 2011 to be 7,718,600 people, of whom 5,818,200 are Jewish. Arab citizens of Israel form the country's second-largest ethnic group, which includes Muslims and Christians. Other minorities are Druze, Circassians and Samaritans. According to the May 2010 population estimate, including 300,000 non-citizen Arabs living in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, these non-Jewish minorities number 1,579,700. Israel is a developed country and a representative democracy with a parliamentary system and universal suffrage. The Prime Minister serves as head of government and the Knesset serves as Israel's unicameral legislative body. The economy, b