Israel's Geology in the context of plate tectonics...

Both plates were apparently part of Godwana back a half-billion years ago, and didn't start splitting from each other until much more recently - maybe even since the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago. But my one book that even addresses this isn't real clear on when. So don't write it down unless you can find some confirmation.

Well you are the one who concentrated your first effort on the Dead Sea Rift, which is why I suggested adding something about the rocks and structure of the area (i.e., Israel, Jordan, etc.).I would probably start by looking at the rocks in Israel and how old they are. Then, as Cora suggested, discuss where the plates were at the time the rocks in Israel were being deposited, what those depositional systems looked like, and when the Arabian plate began separating from the African plate. Begin with the earliest geologic history and work your way up to today.

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Can someone give me a straight forward explanation of how Israel's geology in the context of plate tectonic formed, and which plates have been involved?

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I take it from that statement you are looking for something detailed. I'm not sure someone is up to putting that much work into a post (I may be mistaken). Judging from the paucity of geologic information on Israel, I suggest you search for "geologic history of the Middle East" and "tectonic history of the Middle East." That will get you started with some informative links.

As a former graduate in geology I came to learn a lot about tectonics and got actively involved in basin analysis and plate boundary behaviour. You have a very nice forum going ! Now ... about the mechanism of rifting : I am not sure weather Israel and Jordan are, or have been, rifting but I will try to build myself some model in the next week or so to help you and myself to crack some guesses about the rifting mechanism in the region of Israel, okay ?! There are very interesting and clearifying research methods in development ... they may have been tested in Israel as well ... a method called "tomography" can make us look and make images at depths of hundreds of kilometers below surface ! As far as I can tell you now :There is a fracture zone, the Syrian-African Fault System, which indeed runs across the Dead Sea ;Rifting is a pre stage of continent splitting which, in the extreme circumstance, can cause Atlantic-like plate behaviour. It is thought that the continents of South America and Africa once were connected and got to move by the formation of oceanic crust at the former suture. In the North Sea basin, we seem to have had rifting but no splitting : the process stopped because there was no "space" for the UK and Europe to really split and drift away. The rifting stopped and there was some kind of tectonic inversion : some fault bounded blocks rised and others moved down. The situation stabilized and simply lost its activity in the course of time ;Bye for now !