ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the general context of rural development and settlement as a background for understanding the problems associated with providing public services. The nature of essential public services in Israel along with their rural uniqueness followed by a review of strategies for delivering services to rural areas, present issues and problems in service delivery, and an assessment of future prospects. Studying the nature, operation, and viability of public services in rural Israel naturally requires an understanding of the general contexts within which rural life in Israel is embedded. All governments until 1977 have taken a socialist orientation which was supported by a pre-1948 socialist institutional infrastructure oriented toward cooperative rather than individualistic models. The state thus assumed responsibility for a wide range of public and private services. Public services in Israel are provided in the governmental, cooperative, and private sectors.
