<P> In August 1987, the Israeli government cancelled the IAI Lavi project, an attempt to develop an independent Israeli fighter aircraft . The Israelis found themselves unable to sustain the huge development costs, and faced US opposition to a project that threatened US influence in Israel and US global military ascendancy . In September 1988, Israel launched an Ofeq reconnaissance satellite into orbit, using a Shavit rocket, thus becoming one of only eight countries possessing a capacity to independently launch satellites into space (two more have since developed this ability). The Alignment and Likud remained neck and neck in the 1988 elections (39: 40 seats). Shamir successfully formed a national unity coalition with the Labour Alignment . In March 1990, Alignment leader Shimon Peres engineered a defeat of the government in a non-confidence vote and then tried to form a new government . He failed and Shamir became prime minister at the head of a right - wing coalition . </P> <P> In 1990, the Soviet Union finally permitted free emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel . Prior to this, Jews trying to leave the USSR faced persecution; those who succeeded arrived as refugees . Over the next few years some one million Soviet citizens migrated to Israel . Although there was concern that some of the new immigrants had only a very tenuous connection to Judaism, and many were accompanied by non-Jewish relatives, this massive wave of migration slowly transformed Israel, bringing large numbers of highly educated Soviet Jews and creating a powerful Russian culture in Israel . </P> <P> In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, triggering the Gulf War between Iraq and a large allied force, led by the United States . Iraq attacked Israel with 39 Scud missiles . Israel did not retaliate at request of the US, fearing that if Israel responded against Iraq, other Arab nations might desert the allied coalition . Israel provided gas masks for both the Palestinian population and Israeli citizens, while Netherlands and the United States deployed Patriot defence batteries in Israel as protection against the Scuds . In May 1991, during a 36 - hour period, 15,000 Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) were secretly airlifted to Israel . The coalition's victory in the Gulf War opened new possibilities for regional peace, and in October 1991 the US President, George H.W. Bush, and Soviet Union Premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, jointly convened a historic meeting in Madrid of Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and Palestinian leaders . Shamir opposed the idea but agreed in return for loan guarantees to help with absorption of immigrants from the former Soviet Union . His participation in the conference led to the collapse of his (right - wing) coalition . </P> <P> In the 1992 elections, the Labour Party, led by Yitzhak Rabin, won a significant victory (44 seats) promising to pursue peace while promoting Rabin as a "tough general" and pledging not to deal with the PLO in any way . The pro-peace Zionist party Meretz won 12 seats, and the Arab and communist parties a further 5, meaning that parties supporting a peace treaty had a full (albeit small) majority in the Knesset . Later that year, the Israeli electoral system was changed to allow for direct election of the prime minister . It was hoped this would reduce the power of small parties (mainly the religious parties) to extract concessions in return for coalition agreements . The new system had the opposite effect; voters could split their vote for prime minister from their (interest based) party vote, and as a result larger parties won fewer votes and smaller parties becoming more attractive to voters . It thus increased the power of the smaller parties . By the 2006 election the system was abandoned . </P>

Who controlled the land that became israel in 1948