Yisrael: Difference between revisions

The Kingdom of Yisrael
*Malchus Yisroel*
The Kingdom of Yisrael Malchus Yisroel
	Flag Coat of arms
	Yisrael (light green) in Scipia
	Map of Yisrael with internal borders drawn, including major cities.
Capital	Yerushalayim
Largest	Dervaylik
Official languages	Modern Hebrew; Allamunnic English
Recognised regional languages	Yiddish
Ethnic groups	Jews
Demonym(s)	Yisraeli
Government	Federal presidential constitutional monarchy
• HRM King	Josiah IV
• President	Yitzchok Katz (RC)
• Leader of the Knesset	Binyamin Goldschmidt (RC)
Proclamation of the Kingdom of Yisrael
• First West Scipian War	circa 1713-1715
• Proclamation of the Kingdom of Yisrael	1715
• 1919 Revolution	November 4th, 1919
• 1920 Constitution	September 3rd, 1920
• Year of Blood	circa 1950 - 1951
• Yarden Accords	January 1st, 1974
Area
•	150,304 sq mi (389,290 km2)
Population
• 2022 census	20,298,765
GDP (nominal)	2022 estimate
• Total	$823.89 billion
• Per capita	$41,588.18
Gini (2016)	43.2; medium
HDI (2016)	0.913; very high
Currency	Yisraeli new shekel ($)
Time zone	West Scipian Time (WST)
Date format	mm/dd/yyyy CE
Calling code	+504
ISO 3166 code	YIS
Internet TLD	.yis

Latest revision as of 02:12, 4 April 2024

The Kingdom of Yisrael (commonly called Yisrael) is a federal presidential constitutional monarchy in the world.

The Kingdom is an nation-state located in the continent of Scipia. Yisrael borders Sydalon to the north, the Salacian Ocean to the west, the Periclean Sea and country of Ascalzar to the far northeast, Talakh to the east, and Talahara to the southeast. At 150,304 km² and with 22.4 million people, it is one of the smaller nations in the world by both land and population.

Yisrael is the home of world Jewry and was founded as a Jewish nation-state. The kings of Yisrael are reputed to trace their lineages to the last kings of ancient Israel. It is considered the holy land for Jews and is also sacred by Christians, although most of the holiest Christian sites are nearby in Sydalon.

The Kingdom was preceded by the Grand Duchy of Yisrael and earlier by the Jewish petty states. For much of its history, it has been largely under foreign control, vassalage, or partial occupation. From the 18th century onward, it has developed a centuries-long rivalry with neighboring Sydalon, a Christian Crusader state which has asserted historical claims to the Yarden River Valley. Sydalon and Yisrael fought a series of wars with each other throughout the 20th century, before signing the Yarden Accords in 1973, turning a cold war into a cold peace. Since 2000, the nations have developed warmer, more cordial relations. From the mid-1970s, Yisrael has been beset by pro-Sydalene Christian terrorism following the Accords; however, since 2019, the terror campaign has been increasingly thwarted, leading to the first year without a successful terrorist attack since 1975.

Since the 1970s, Yisrael has developed a globalizing post-industrial economy that has consistently raised Northwest Scipia's economic profile. The banking sector in Yisrael is considered a regional and global policy-setter. Because of secretive banking laws and low, favorable tax rates, Yisrael has become a tax haven for numerous global elites, especially from Fahran, Ghant, Onekawa-Nukanoa, and the Jewish diaspora, earning the nickname "Banker of Scipia." Yisrael has membership in the Forum of Nations, as well as broadly being considered apart of the Western Monarchies geopolitical bloc in the international community.

Etymology

The names Land of Yisrael and Children of Yisrael have historically been used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Yisrael and the entire Jewish people, respectively. The name "Yisrael" (Modern Hebrew: Yisraʾel, lit. "struggle with G-d") in these phrases refers to the patriarch Yaakov who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was given the name after he successfully wrestled with an angel of G-d. Yaakov's twelve sons became the ancestors of the Yisraelites. Yaakov and his sons had lived in Kenaan but were forced by famine to go into Mitzrayim for four generations, lasting 430 years, until Moshe, a great-great grandson of Yaakov, led the Yisraelites back into Kenaan during the "Shemos" (Exodus).

The area is also known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism and Christianity.

History

Government and politics

Yisrael is a federal presidential constitutional monarchy whose structure arose from the 1919 Revolution, after which constitutionalist liberal reformers created and passed the 1920 Constitution, ending the absolute monarchy. This form of government was significantly modified in the Royal Reform Acts of 1952 in the aftermath of the Year of Blood.

There are three branches of government purposefully designed to ensure that the King has substantive executive authority that is tempered by a system of checks and balances with the President of Yisrael, the Royal Knesset, and the royal judiciary each possessing concentrations of responsibilities to counter abuse by either the monarch or the elected government. This division of power, duties, obligations, and responsibilities are outlined in the Royal Constitution, which is considered the supreme law of the land throughout Yisrael.

Branches of government

His Majesty's Royal Government of Yisrael, similar to most modern nation-states, consists of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

Executive

The current monarch is HRM King Josiah IV.

The current chief executive is HE President Yitzchok Katz.

The executive powers are divided between His Royal Majesty the King and the elected His Excellency the President. The King is the head of state by his hereditary right to rule and is formally the royal commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the national representative of the Yisraeli people. The executive head of government of the Kingdom is the President, who is aided in his administration of the royal bureaucracy by the Cabinet, who are appointed by and serve at the President's pleasure. The reigning King is Josiah IV. The current President is Yitzchok Katz.

Since the Royal Reform Acts of 1952, the President has been endowed by His Majesty as the military Supreme Commander, making the President the effective commander-in-chief of the Royal Yisraeli Defense Forces on a day-to-day basis. However, since January 2020, the King has declared the 1952 Acts as they relate to his powers null and void, ending this de facto transfer of C-in-C powers to the President. The King has broader political powers than is typical in most constitutional monarchies, including an array of reserve powers and the ability to give or refuse royal assent.

The President also has the power to sign or veto legislative bills passed by the Knesset. He appoints his Cabinet as well as a bevy of senior and mid-level administrative and regulatory posts throughout the Royal Government. The King may override this with a royal counter-veto.

The president serves a term of four years, and cannot run more than twice, and both the president and vice president must run on the same ticket. The president is elected through a plurality majority in an electoral college, whose votes are decided by the winner of the popular vote in each of the eight districts by eligible, registered voters in a first-past-the-post electoral system.

Cabinet

Ministry	Minister	Party
President	Yitzchok Katz	RC
Vice-President	Gershon Blau	RC
Foreign Minister	Ariel Goldblatt	RC
Defense Minister	Naftali Bauman	RC
Justice Minister	David Roth	RC
Interior Minister	David Touro	LNJ
Finance Minister	Alexander Keisenberg	RC
Transportation Minister	Yehudis Eisenberger	RC
Immigration Minister	Avrohom Abadi	RC
Education Minister	Tuvia Abramowitz	TA
Religious Affairs Minister	Yoshiyahu Siegel	TA
Economic Development Minister	Mendel Feinstein	AFY
King's Minister	Prince Michoel	Nonpartisan

Legislative

The legislative branch of the Royal Government consists of the unicameral Royal Knesset. The Knesset, collectively, is charged with lawmaking, declaring war or authorizing military force, the power of the purse, creating or eliminating public services, the oversight, investigation, and impeachment of sitting government officials, ratifying treaties, and providing the advise and consent for presidential appointments.

The Knesset consists of 142 members. Each member serves a two-year term with the ability to run for re-election indefinitely without term limits.

Judiciary

In Yisrael, the court system is divided between religious and secular courts. Secular courts mainly deal with general societal laws (both civil and criminal) while there exists a state-sponsored confessional system for religious courts depending on the person's religious faith. Most religious courts, as reflecting the majority of the Kingdom, are Jewish courts. A smaller structure of sectarian Christian religious courts exist for specific non-Jewish populations and their individual religious traditions.

A non-practicing or secular person is required to attend to a case in a religious court of the faith of his familial upbringing; barring that or in extraordinary cases, a person may appeal and transfer their case to the Royal Yisraeli Special Court of Last Resort, an ad hoc court consisting of a select panel of Sanhedrin judges who decide which law to apply and try the case.

The Royal Yisraeli Sanhedrin is the supreme court of Yisrael. It is a properly constituted Jewish religious court (beis din) that is the final authority over all religious and secular legal disputes. It is comprised of 71 judges (dayanim), who are all Torah scholars who are well-recognized as the most revered and learned Jewish legal decisors of their generation.

The secular Yisraeli courts are referred to as the Royal Yisraeli General Courts, with courts at the district and royal levels, including an appellate division. It handles secular civil and criminal law. The highest court in this system under the Sanhedrin is the High Appellate Court.

The religious Yisraeli courts for Jews are referred to as the Royal Yisraeli Jewish Courts, and similar to their secular counterparts, exist at the district and royal levels, but also at the local level. They are overseen by the Sanhedrin and the Chief Rabbinate of Yisrael. The non-Jewish courts are referred to officially as the Royal Yisraeli Non-Jewish Courts and are officially administered by their respective religious authorities under nominal supervision by the Ministry of Justice.

Other courts

There exists a litany of Special Royal Courts, including:

Royal Yisraeli Special Court on Political Crimes and Corruption,
Royal Yisraeli Court for Moral Crimes (for serious religious crimes),
Royal Yisraeli Bankruptcy Court
Royal Yisraeli Tax Court
Royal Yisraeli Special Court of Last Resort

Politics

Yisrael has a de jure multiparty system but a de facto two-party system. For nearly a century, the right-wing Royalist Conservatives and the center-left Constitutional Liberals dominated Yisraeli politics, though, given the fractious nature of Yisraeli life, a number of minor and third parties were able to gain the loyalties of certain constituencies through bloc voting and entered the Knesset, forcing the major two parties to often form coalitions to govern effectively.

However, since the ongoing Centrist Revolt (2019 - present), the formerly "leading party of the left" the Con-Libs have been displaced by the Alternative for Yisrael-led United Center Bloc, which is currently the chief political opposition in the Knesset after the 2020 elections. Later, in 2021, the Constitutional Liberals collapsed entirely, separating into the National Liberal Party and the Party of the Left.

Foreign relations

Yisrael recognizes and maintains embassy-level foreign relations with many states in the world. The Kingdom has special relationship with Arthurista, and is on a friendly or cordial status with a litany of other countries, including many of its immediate neighbors such as Talakh, as well as most of Belisaria, most of Northumbria, and parts of Oxidentale. The nation has few ties to the Eastern continent of Ochran and Malaio, with the notable exception of Onekawa-Nukanoa (of which it has over a century's worth of shared history), but in recent decades as Yisraeli trade relationships and tourism has grown, the Kingdom has opened embassies in some of the more prominent states located there, including Tsurushima.

There are several nations that Yisrael either does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with, or only has indirect relations with, including Nekulturnya, Mutul, Ostrozava, Elatia, and Ludvosiya.

From the end of the 19th century until the last third of the 20th century, Yisrael's foreign policy was based on geostrategic and survivalist interests fiercely opposed to Sydalon. Before and during the West Scipian Wars, Yisrael and its bloc, including its geopolitical patron Arthurista and allies such as Talakh, Ghant, Ottonia, and others opposed the "Sydalon Bloc," including its eponymous nation and much of the Belisarian Catholic world, such as Latium, Lihnidos, and Ascalzar. The landmark Yarden Accords reoriented Belisario-Scipian geopolitics, with Yisrael pivoting under President Binyamin Schwartz in the late 1970s and 1980s towards its former foes in much of the Western Monarchies, united by growing trade ties, political reconciliation, and shared geopolitical goals such as anti-leftism and anti-republicanism. From the 1980s until 2022, Sydalon and Yisrael had growing, warm ties. However, the outbreak of the 2022 Sydalon diplomatic crisis caused relations to plummet into a cold peace.

The apex of this foreign policy stance has been reflected in the recent Feldman and Katz presidencies and the nascent Hezekian Reaction, whereas Yisrael has aligned closely as a prominent player in the Western Monarchies and opposing the rollback of monarchy and market capitalism in Gran Aligonia and elsewhere at the end of the 2010s and the beginning of the 2020s, including other geopolitical flareups such as in Enyama opposed to the global left-republican bloc, mostly represented by the Kiso Pact nations.

Despite this, due to historical, economic, and other contexts, Yisrael enjoys cordial or even warm relationships with several left-leaning or Kiso states, such as North Ottonia (historical trading ties and ethnoreligious connections to Ottonian Jewry, Wazheganon (agricultural and banking ties), and (at least before the Hezekian era) the Talaharan Commune (a mixture of trust-building as allies in the Fourth WSW, cross-border economic trade, and ethnic ties to Jews in Talahara).

Wars

Yisrael has been involved in a number of wars and military conflicts, starting with its victory in the First West Scipian War that sparked the created of the kingdom of Yisrael from a grand duchy and continuing until the 21st century.

Military

Royal Defense Forces

The Royal Yisraeli Defense Forces consist of four military services: the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Border Guard. Currently, the Yisraeli military is comprised of approximately 1.24 million active and reserve personnel.

The Defense Forces are largely deployed to fight a hypothetical two-front war given its regional security situation, with a legacy hostile power in Sydalon (since 1973, a cordial power), and potential hostile powers in the Periclean basin. Consequently, the Sydalon, Ascalzar, and to a lesser extent (for geopolitical and climatic reasons) the Talahara borders are all militarized. Because of this, the Border Guard was militarized and made a part of the Defense Forces in the Royal Reform Acts of 1952.

More recently, the sudden and unprecedented 2022 Sydalon diplomatic crisis has challenged Sydalon-Yisrael relations unlike any time since the signing of the Yarden Accords - the Accords themselves being at the center of the firestorm. If the Accords are even repealed at least partially, the two-generation peace between the two countries is likely to be dead and a cold peace, if not open conflict, may erupt. Due to these tensions, the RYDF has reassessed its territorial defense plans, pivoting from a Talahara-centric focus to preparing for a Sydalon focus - the first time in decades.

Intelligence

The Royal Yisraeli Intelligence Service is the Kingdom's primary foreign intelligence service whose jurisdiction is largely overseas. In contrast, the Royal Yisraeli Security Service is an internal security service as well as a domestic intelligence and counterintelligence agency that is mandated to protect the safety of the Government of Yisrael inside its borders.

Independent security units

Inside Yisrael, there exist several independent paramilitary units. Often, these are protective security units or District gendarmes and defense forces.

Several examples include the Presidential Guard and the Eastern District Civil Defense Corps. Some security policymakers have argued that the Royal Yisraeli Special Political Police, as an independent agency under the Monarchy of Yisrael, should be considered in this category rather than categorized strictly as a police organization.

Law enforcement

In Yisrael, law enforcement is split along royal (national), district, and municipal levels. The regular Yisraeli Police exist as independent police agencies at the district and local level, with no central royal authority. Rather, they are overseen by district governors and city and town mayors, respectively.

On the national level, there are several special royal police forces. The Royal Yisraeli Special Political Police pursues ideological and political crimes and answers directly to the King. The Royal Yisraeli Civil Guard is a special religious police force that pursues a number of religious-specific crimes.

Administrative divisions

Yisrael is divided into eight districts, including a special district: the Northern District, Dervaylik District, Central District, Western District, Southern District, Yerushalayim District, Eastern District, and Yarden Valley Special District.

Two of the mehozos (districts) consist of just a major metropolitan city and its surrounding suburbs (Yerushalayim and Dervaylik), while four districts - Northern, Eastern, Western, and Yarden Valley - are part of Outer Yisrael, which permits a greater degree of security and military control over civilian authorities.

District	District Capital	Population	Largest City
Northern District	Shomrom	454,098	Natzras
Dervaylik District	Dervaylik	1,302,885	Dervaylik
Central District	Netanya	6,874,231	Rishon LeZion
Western District	Tel Eilat	5,412,976	Ashkelon
Southern District	Beersheva	881,935	Beersheva
Yerushalayim District	Yerushalayim	1,431,566	Yerushalayim
Eastern District	Modiin	3,483,677	Modiin
Yarden Valley Special District	Yericho	632,713	Chevron

Economy

Technology

High-technology and scientific research in Yisrael is one of the nation's most highly developed economic sectors. The percentage of Yisraelis engaged in scientific and technological inquiry, as measured by the amount spent on research and development (R&D) in relation to gross domestic product (GDP), is among the highest in the world. This often surprises casual observers of the country, who assume less scientific expertise due to the Kingdom's high religiosity and social conservatism; in reality, many of the workers in these fields are from the less-religious Chiloni sectors of society, but it is also the case that, unlike in other cultures, religion and science are not seen as in conflict. In fact, religion and science often are viewed hand-in-hand by most rabbinic authorities. Despite its small population relative to other mature advanced nations around the globe, Yisrael has the fourth-highest number of scientists and technicians per capita.

Yisraeli scientists, engineers, and technicians have contributed to the modern advancement of the natural sciences, agricultural sciences, computer sciences, electronics, genetics, medicine and medical technology, optics systems, energy projects, and numerous fields of engineering, from civil to mechanical to nuclear. The country is home to major corporate players in the high-tech industry; consequently, it has one of the world's technologically most literate populations. In 1987 and 2004, Ashkelon was named by the International Financial Insider as one of the top five influential cities for high-tech in the world.

Start-up tech firms are prolific; government and industry statistics suggest that 150-300 new start-ups are formed every year. However, as the sector has grown by leaps and bounds (sometimes hitting double-digit growth) for almost forty years, it has shown some signs of strain. Certain types of scientists, especially biologists, as well as some disciplines of technicians, such as software engineers, are increasingly hard to fill all the available openings, forcing companies to look abroad. Between 2010-2020, about 41% of these foreign workers came from Arthurista and 23% from Belfras; the rest come from a number of Belisarian and Scipian countries.

Finance and banking

Finance

Yisrael has an internationally-renown finance and banking industry. The Royal Dervaylik Stock and Bond Exchange is one of the closely-watched stock exchanges by international and institutional investors and floor traders, along with Arthuristan and Latin markets.

The nation has over 200 active venture capital funds operating throughout the country with $17.8 billion under management. Yisrael's venture capital sector has taken off since the late 1970s in the wake of widespread deregulation and removal of earlier capital controls under President Binyamin Schwartz. The sector saw the largest clip of double-digit growth throughout the 1980s, before slowing in the early-to-mid 1990s. During the Digital Age technology booms in the early 2000s, the venture capital industry rapidly starting growing again, before cooling off in the mid-2010s. The Kingdom's proliferating venture capital and business-incubator industry played an essential reciprocal role in financing the prosperous high-tech sector. As of 2020, Yisraeli venture capital funds top $3.4 billion shekels in domestic and foreign markets.

There is as well a smaller-but-quickly-growing hedge fund industry. The idea of hedge funds emerged in Arthurista in the early 1990s, before cross-pollinating with Yisraeli traders and investors, leading to their emergence in Yisrael. By 2000, the number of active hedge funds had doubled to 68 while the total asset value that the funds have control over quadrupled from $850 million to $3.3 billion from 1993 to 2010.

Banking

Yisraeli banks currently have total asset values of over $4.1 trillion as of January 2020. There are several major banks, and thousands of mid-to-small banks in and outside of the country. The nation has a designation as a "tax haven" due to favorable and light tax, regulatory, and compliance policies; many clients of Yisraeli banks cite the banking secrecy laws and privacy provisions.

Internationally, Yisraeli banks started to participate in global direct foreign investment in 1889, with substantial sovereign debt loans to countries such as Ghant and Garima. This increased over time until the 1940s, when the destruction of the Third West Scipian War, the international isolation of the Autocracy regime, and the Azoulay-era secret rearmament program sapped the country of much of its reserves and lending capability.

By the 1970s, the banking sector had roared back, and in the wake of the late 1970s and early 1980s banking deregulation (combined with a general opening to the countries of the former Sydalon Bloc after the Yarden Accords), attracted a large wealthy international clientele. By the late 1980s, Yisrael was nicknamed the "Banker of Scipia."

Energy

Industrial manufacturing

Geography and climate

Geography

Yisrael is geographically diverse, traversing a number of different geologic classifications. It is bounded in the northeast and west by the Salacian Ocean, in the far north by the Judean Mountains abutting Sydalone, and arid and semi-arid desert in the south/far south bordering Talahara and Talakh. In the country's center-north and northeast are fertile temperate plains referred to as the nation's "breadbasket."

The Great Dry Desert lies to the southern reaches of the nation, including the far south, southwest, and south-center regions, while the far north is marked by a mountainous plateau punctuated by several water systems - the Great Salt Sea, the Kinneres, and the Yarden River.

Climate

The climate in Yisrael is extremely polarized, depending on the season, the location, and the geography. Northern Yisrael, from the Judean Mountains to the northern coast between the Sydalene county of Petra and Ascalzar, is largely a warm-summer Periclean climate. This area has warm-to-hot summers, mild winters, and wetter, less dry spring and autumn.

The core of the Judean mountain range is considered a dry summer continental climate. For example, Yerushalayim in the Judean plateau receives typically several snowfalls in the winter season.

This gives way in western, southern, and south-central Yisrael to semi-arid "hot steppe" climate, which has extremely hot and dry summers and warm-to-mild winters. Precipitation is frequently low. In the far west, because of the cold air streams coming from the northwest towards Western Yisrael, the Salacian coast is very foggy and very warm year-round. It was little rainfall, but tributaries from the Judean Mountains and small streams that flow inland have historically provided the life-sustaining water and flora to establish human habitation. In modern times, the Salacian coast has become an extremely popular place to live, and the Government of Yisrael and later private companies built desalination plants to create fresh water supplies for the growing population and boom in cattle farming and semi-arid crop production.

In the far south, the Great Dry Desert is an desert climate, though a few mountain-dwelling cities such as Beersheva are located in a narrow strip of cold semi-arid desert biomes, which has moderately hot, dry summers, cool-to-cold winters, and very wet spring and autumns.

Because of the wide breath of climate locales in Yisrael, there exists several phytogeographic regions that produce over 3,000 types of plants and vegetables.

Wildlife

Likewise, Yisrael has extensive fauna in addition to flora due to its position between climatic extremes. Often, Yisrael is at the border of many species' territory. It hosts a number of Scipian and Belisarian mammals, invertebrates, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.

Demographics

Major cities

Ethnic groups

Just over three-fourths (75%) of the country consists of Jews (of any background), while about a quarter (25%) are non-Jews, primarily Christians.

The largest ethnic group are Yisraeli Jews, who makeup 85.6% of the Jewish ethnic population, with the remaining consisting of immigrant or resident Jews of foreign birth. Among non-Yisraeli Jews, the majority hail from Sydalon or Latium's Perateia province.

In the Yisraeli Christian sector, the vast majority are Fabrian Catholics, though there are dedicated smaller communities of the Aletheic Church and Protestants (from Sudmark, Garima, and Ghant).

Languages

The official languages of Yisrael are Modern Hebrew and Anglic, though both dialects of Arthuristan Anglic and Allamunnic Anglic are spoken. Yiddish, Standard Latin, and Sydalene are all major secondary and/or regional languages.

Education

Education in Yisrael is governed from a variety of sources, including the 1725 decree on education, the 1876 decree on education, and the revised 1922 Education Acts. The comprehensive education system is completely private, but supported with state subsidies and "community" regulations.

The educational system is three-tiered: primary education (grades 1–6, approximately ages 6–12), middle school (grades 7–9, approximately ages 12–15) and high school (grades 10–12, approximately ages 14–19). All three tiers are compulsory. The high school diploma is called a "Bagrut certificate."

For Yisraeli Jews, there are several options: Mamlachti Dati ("basic religious" schools), which are attended primarily by Chiloni and Masorti students, Chinuch Atzmai Dati ("independent religious" schools), further subdivided between the National Religious, Chardal, and Chareidi sectors, Chinuch HaGoyim ("non-Jewish" schools), which cater to the Christian and other non-Jewish population, as well as private international schools for foreign students or the students of foreign residents, e.g. Latin International Academy in Yerushalayim.

All schools have a national curriculum overseen by the Ministry of Education, with sectarian, local, and/or additional curricula depending on the school's location and sectarian affiliation. For example, in the Southern District, local regulations have added a dedicated geology and desert ecology courses to all of its schools. In Christian sector schools, while students learn about Jewish and biblical history, culture, and practices as do those in Jewish schools, they also have additional curricula geared towards the school's Christian affinity, including separate courses teaching about Christian theology, history, culture, philosophy, the "New Testament," and Yisraeli Christian practices and rites.

National law has established a "community school" regulation mandating that if a student has selected a particular track, he or she must be admitted by one of the schools with that affinity in his or her area, or by the sole school of that affiliation in that area, which ever is the situation. One example is if a family elects to send their child to the only Chareidi school in a jurisdiction, and if they meet all of its standard admittance requirements, that school must admit their child.

Annually, the Knesset appropriates about $8 billion shekels in private school subsidies, about 10% of the overall government budget.

Formerly, between 1954-1978, there existed a different national-school scheme where the government had a system of state schools, called simply Mamlachti, that were strictly secular and taught Jewish and Bible topics as a secular discipline, while permitting Dati (religious) sectors to operate their own schools with minimal state aid. A backlash occurred, amid the religious awakening in the aftermath of the Fourth West Scipian War (1963-66) as well as a cultural revolt to the increasing laxity and weakening of Jewish commitment among Yisraeli youth, led to the Schwartz administration to close the state school system and reorganize national education into state-supported private schools with unambiguous religious education in the late 1970s.

Health

Health care in Yisrael is provided largely by private sector for profit organizations that run health-care facilities, including hospitals, clinics, community health centers, ambulatory services, and medical schools. Government-owned health care entities are found almost exclusively in the Yisraeli military. There is mandatory private health insurance coverage, which is portable and individualized - unlike in some countries, where the insurance is provided by the employer, the employer pays for a plan of the employee's choosing, which stays with the employee whether or not he or she still works for their initial employer. Subsequent employers then take on paying the employee's health plan when they hire that worker. Consequently, after salary, negotiations over insurance plans remain the second-highest item in employer-employee job interviews.

The Government of Yisrael provides state subsidies to private health care networks, totaling $51.2 billion shekels in fiscal year 2020. This is just under 28% of the national budget, making health care costs one of the leading categories of government spending.

The Royal Yisraeli Defense Forces own most of their own military health care facilities, but contract with private health providers to primarily staff and run these facilities.

Religion

Tracking closely with ethnicity, 75% of Yisraelis are Jewish, while about 25% are another religion, usually some form of Christianity.

In the judicial and educational realm, the Yisraeli government has created "confessional" systems where non-Jews have schools that are affiliated with their ethno-religious affinity (including the flexibility to teach the values of that affinity with additional curricula) as well as be tried under its religious law in non-criminal matters.

Paganism, Alban Christianity, and certain other non-Abrahamic religions, spiritual traditions, and/or folklore are banned in the Kingdom. Their public worship or advocacy, including private "altars" or ceremonies to idols, "gods," or other entities forbidden in the Torah is suppressed and punished harshly. Albanism, although technically within the Christian fold, due to its particular descriptions of the God of the Jews which are considered heretical and akin to pagan worship by Judaism, is particularly cracked down upon. These anti-pagan laws have caused foreign policy controversies in both the past and present, including with Nathan IV of Ghant (rumored to be a secret pagan himself), political leaders in North Ottonia, as well as with Mutul, which triggered the decades-long international sanctions regime against the Oxidentale kingdom due to the publication of Darkness in the Heart of Oxidentale in the early 1950s.

Culture

Cuisine

Media

Yisrael has a robust and complex media environment, with dozens of newspapers, magazines, and radio stations, all of which contribute to an crucial role by the press in Yisraeli political, social, and cultural life.

There are over 9 languages in the media landscape, with Modern Hebrew and Allamunnic Anglic topping the list as the main languages. They are followed by Yiddish (among Chasidish Jews and other ethnic Belisarian Jews), Standard Latin (among papers and radios near the borders with Sydalon), and others.

The media market was competitive in the 1920s after the fall of the absolute monarchy, when a plethora of independent newspapers and radio stations emerged, but was curtailed under the nationalization of media and widespread censorship program under the Autocracy regime in the 1940s. The media market burst out again in the 1950s-90s, until the developing digital media trends began to put a number of smaller media outlets out of business. As of 2010, media in Yisrael is largely controlled by three media conglomerates.

The press in Yisrael is rated by the global Press Freedom Index has having "moderate problems," largely due to strong libel/slander laws, strong government control over state secrets and national security information, the prohibition on certain ideological and religious ideas, and the general politicized/partisan nature of many media outlets, who favor one political party or one sector of society over the other. Despite all this, Yisrael is still rated as #2 most free press in Scipia, behind Ascalzar, tied with Sydalon, and ahead of Talahara, Talakh, Gran Aligonia, Fahran, Tyreseia, and Charnea.