ABSTRACT
The land of Israel goes back for millennia, yet modern Israel dates only to 1948. In the nineteenth century, a number of events in Europe rekindled the identification of European Jews with the ancient land of Israel, including separateness from Christian Europe and attacks against Jewish communities, particularly in Poland and Russia. The Labor Party's socialist roots also influenced Israeli policy through Histadrut, the labor federation created by the Zionists in 1920. Shimon Peres from the Labor Party served as prime minister for two years, and then rotated with Yitzhak Shamir of Likud, who served as foreign minister. The Israeli political system is similar to the European political systems that many of Israel's founders knew before they came to Israel. Both tradition and religious views affect the status of women in Israel. Traditional Jewish belief largely holds that women should be separate from men but that they should have equal rights with them.
