Israel

President Truman issued a de facto recognition of Israel within minutes of its declaration of independence. Following that, strategic, military and other ties between Israel and the U.S. government gradually began to be built. See also:

More about Israel

Answer 1

There is no record of a Palestinian state or people before 1947. However, there were large numbers of Arabs in Israel who had flocked to Israel once Jews began developing the country in the 19th century. Surrounding Arab countries reacted with violence to the creation of the State of Israel and five Arab nations immediately attacked Israel. Before doing so, and confident they would wipe the nascent state off the map before it had put together an army, they warned Arabs living in Israel to flee and then return when the Jews had been destroyed. Fortunately, the Arabs lost.

Answer 2

Palestinians were outraged and greatly saddened by the creation of the State of Israel because they believed that the land that had physically belonged to their parents and grandparents should have been theirs for inheritance. In their minds, it did not make sense that a group of German, Polish, French, English, and Russian speaking people should claim land that their ancestors had not even visited for centuries. Some formed militias such as the Holy War Army and the Arab Liberation Army to oppose the nascent Israeli forces, some assisted Arab armies entering the area, and a vast number fled in fear or coercion or recommendation to neighboring countries.

There was a minority of Palestinians that supported the State of Israel, primarily as guarantors of safe-passage for the Jewish Militias and, later, the Israeli Defense Forces.

Live partial solar eclipse webcast - Bareket observatory

2011 January 4th

With the beginning of the new year, there will be a solar eclipse observable from Israel.

Its a partial eclipse, with a ~60% of coverage (of the solar disk diameter).

We will make a special live webcast of the event.

The web-cast starts at : 07.00 - 10.30 UTC January 4th | 09.00 - 12.30 local Israel time.

There is an "eclipse timer" on the live page, indicates the time left for first contact (07.13 UTC).

The live event is free and open to all the interested.

* Live eclipse page linked to below.

According to NASA the next partial eclipse observable in Israel is in November 2013

Zionism is and was controversial for three different reasons:

Nationalism: The concept of Nationalism today and in the late 1800s was still very controversial. It holds that each people has the right to govern its own future and stands in stark contrast of the idea of a global community or cosmopolitanism.

Diasporic Nationalism: Zionism is a unique case in nationalism, since in most cases, nationalism occurs where the ethnicity desiring a homeland is already the majority population of that region. The Jews were not a majority in any region of the world (with the possible exception of Thessaloniki, Greece). As a result, the formation of a Jewish Nation would require a vast immigration to a certain area of the world, upsetting a local majority and denying their right to self-determination. This is eventually what happened to the Palestinians. Albeit, the Palestinians were not innocent in this, but it was a natural outgrowth of Diasporic Nationalism.

"Religious" Nationalism: Many people confuse the term "Jewish" in "Jewish State" with the religion of Judaism. Jews are an ethno-religious group. The term "Jewish" in "Jewish State" refers exclusively to the ethnic character of Jews. Herzl, Jabotinsky, Ahad Ha'am, and Weizmann were all Atheists or Agnostic Zionists. However, many incorrectly see the "Jewish" in "Jewish State" as referring to the religious aspect of Judaism and are bothered by the creation of a state that is inherently religious. (However, they seem not to have this reaction to "Islamic States", "Hindu States", and "Buddhist States" which are clearly religious terms.)