Israel and Its Neighbors “UNREST IN ISRAEL!” The headlines have read again and again over the centuries. God gave the Promise Land to His people thousands of years ago. It has fallen in and out of the hands of their enemies many times. It was not until 1948 that Israel was actually declared its own nation. While Israel is a parliamentary democracy in which the prime minister is head of government and the president is a basically a ceremonial head of state and since the last major Arab-Israeli War in 1973, Israel has relied on the United States as a friend to either remove or minimize potential threats to its security and its existence whether a result of terrorists or a border dispute. The Middle East seems to continually be in a state of unrest. From one day to the next, life changes from a peaceful state to volatile and deadly. The countries that border Israel attract terrorists, weapons traffickers, and criminal networks because ungoverned or minimally governed spaces are multiplying near Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. As a result, border fences with appropriate security measures are being built. While neighboring Egypt has remained friendly with Israel in the most recent years, it has been struggling to continue those relations since the July 2013 military-guided ouster of President Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood figure. Egyptian forces have reportedly been very active in responding to increased militant activity in Sinai/Gaza Strip along its shared border with Israel. Reports indicate that Israel is seeking continued U.S. and international support for Egypt under its new government in an effort to maintain the peace treaty it has with Egypt. In November 2012, Israel was engaged in a weeklong conflict with militant groups over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the area where Lebanon has continued to expand its geographical range. At that time an Egyptian-mediated, U.S. supported cease-fire was established. However, additional border incursions have occurred as the country continues to face a rocket threat from the Gaza Strip/Sinai Peninsula from militant groups that are now active in Egypt as well as Lebanon. Another neighbor, Iran, while not a border nation to Israel, continues to be a threat because of their pursuit of nuclear weapons. Israeli officials have said that their window of opportunity to delay, stop, or reverse Iranian progress toward a nuclear weapons capability is closing. They have pursued increasingly strict measures from the international community to force Iran to agree to limitations that will ensure that its nuclear program is completely for peaceful purposes. While nuclear weapons are a cause of major concern for any nation, Israel has an even more immediate problem regarding land in the West Bank. For decades the Israelites have fought with Palestinians over this land. Currently, neither side appears ready to make any compromises with the other over the territorial borders. This stalemate has worsened regional tensions. Recurring incidents of violence