Reshaping the Map of Israel: A New National Planning Doctrine

The planning doctrine that guided Israel's planning policy for the first forty years of its existence is being replaced by a new planning doctrine, prompted largely by the great wave of immigration from the Soviet Union starting in 1989. New approaches to housing, employment, and physical and social infrastructure were needed to meet the demands of the sudden influx of some 700,000 new immigrants. In addition to Soviet immigration, two other important factors influenced planning policy: the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, which changed the geostrategic importance of the peripheral regions of the country, and the development of the Israeli economy into an economy based on high-technology industry and producer services. The globalization of Israel's economy has reduced the capacity of public policy to influence the location of economic activity. The new planning doctrine is highly sensitive to the scarcity of land and is based on a view of the future map of Israel as an agglomeration of four metropolitan regions, strongly interconnected and sharply delineated by the open spaces and green areas between them.