Capital and Major Cities:

Capital: Jerusalem, population 1.03 million

Major cities:

Tel Aviv: 414,600

Haifa: 272,000

Rishon LeZion: 235,000

Ashdod: 215,000

Petah Tikva: 214,000

Beersheba: 197,000

Netanya: 192,000

Holon: 185,000

Nazareth: 81,000

Government:

The State of Israel is a parliamentary democracy. It has a parliament called the Knesset, which has 120 members distributed according to the proportion of the vote won by each political party.

  Knesset members serve four year terms, in theory, although a no-confidence vote can force the parliament to dissolve and hold early elections.

The head of the government is the Prime Minister, who is also the head of the cabinet.  He or she is usually the chair of the majority party in the Knesset, or chair of the largest vote-getting party in a coalition. 

Israel also has a president who is the head of state, but has mostly ceremonial duties.

The judiciary branch in Israel is made up of local magistrate courts, six district courts that can hear both appeals and cases of first instance, and then the Supreme Court in Jerusalem.  The Supreme Court is the highest court of appeals, and also hears citizen petitions against the state itself.

Population:

The population of Israel is about 8.15 million people. (2014 est.)  Approximately 75% of Israelis are ethnically Jewish, while 21% are Arabs.  There are smaller minorities of Maronites, Samaritans, Ethiopian Jews, Armenians, Circassians, Roma, and other ethnic groups.

Approximately 500,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Golan Heights.  Another 8,000 had settled in the Gaza Strip, but were relocated as part of a 2005 peace plan with the Palestinians.

Israel also hosts increasing numbers of migrant workers.  Estimates put the number at about 200,000, including 60,000 from Africa alone.  Other migrants come from China, Romania, Thailand,  South American countries, and elsewhere.

Languages:

The official languages of Israel are Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew is the language of state, but Arabic is spoken by the large Arab minority. 

English is also widely used. Because of large influxes of immigrants from the former Soviet Republics, from French North Africa, and from Ethiopia, it is common to hear Russian, French, and Amharic spoken, as well.

Religion:

Israel is also known as the Holy Land.  It is a place of major importance to all three of the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 

The Jewish citizens of Israel self-identify in a number of different ways, in terms of religion.  About 55% consider themselves "traditional," 20% are "secular (non-observant) Jews," 17% call themselves "religious Zionists" and 8% are "Haredi (strictly Orthodox) Jews." 

Muslims are Israel's largest religious minority, at about 16% of the population.  Christians of various denominations make up about 2%, and Druze around 1.5%.  Small numbers of Buddhists and Hindus are also present, mostly among the migrant worker population.  The city of Haifa is also the administrative center of the Bahai Faith, but there is no active Bahai community in Israel.

Geography:

Israel borders the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Egypt and the Gaza Strip to the southwest, and Jordan and the West Bank to the east.  It's a small country, only 20,770 square kilometers (8,019 square miles) in area.

The highest point, Har Meron, is 1,208 meters (3,963 feet) above sea level.  The lowest point is the Dead Sea, at 408 meters below sea level (-1,339 feet).

Climate:

Unsurprisingly, Israel has a Mediterranean climate.  Summers are hot and dry, while winters are cool, windy, and wet with mountain snowfall some years. 

The hottest temperature ever recorded in Israel was 53.7 degrees Celsius (128.7 Fahrenheit) at the tirat Zvi Kibbutz in the Jordan River Valley, in 1942.

Economy:

Israel has a free-market economy that relies strongly on high-tech, pharmaceuticals, foreign investments, and diamond cutting.  It also has a flourishing service industry, including banking and tourism.  The economy grew at a very healthy average of 5% per year between 2007 and 2010, but that rate dropped to about 3% following the global economic crisis.

Israel's GDP per capita is about $36,200 US (2013 estimate).  Its unemployment rate is only 5.8%, but 21% of the population live below the poverty line of $7.30 US per person per day. 

The Israeli currency is the shekel.  As of September 2014, 1 shekel = 0.27 USD, or one US dollar = 3.68 shekels.