This has always been a bone of contention between the religious and the secular. The religious want it to start after the seder on Pesach and end before Yom Kippur, while the secular want it be from the end of March/beginning of April through the end of October like Europe and the US. Finally this year they compromised and passed a law that it starts the first Friday of April and ends the last Saturday night before Yom Kippur.
I believe that the religious parties were mistaken in pursuing this. There are enough real issue to deal with in terms of the religious vs the secular (shabbos, civil marraige, etc.) that to make this an issue when it really doesn't make a difference was short sighted. No one is not going to fast on Yom Kippur because the fast ends an hour later. It would have been smarter not to expend anything on what is really a silly issue.
