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Israel
Located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is the only Jewish-majority state in the world. It has a total land area of 22,072 sq km with an estimated population of approximately 7.7 million as of 2010.
6,421 Questions
When did israel take control of the West Bank?
Israel has a number of issues as concerns giving up control of the West Bank. This list a non-exhaustive set of reasons.
1) Strategic Physical Defense Issues: If Israel were to withdraw out of the West Bank, the area around the city of Herzliyya would be only 8 miles wide. If this area was breached by an attacking Arab army, Israel could be cleaved in two (Galilee and Central Regions) in only fifteen minutes and would greatly threaten Israeli viability.
2) Strategic Air Defense: The Judean Highlands, which make up the lower half of the West Bank are some of the tallest mountains/hills in Israel. As a result, they have a large number of radar towers used to maintain vigilance over all of Israeli airspace. Without a highland position, of which there are few in 1949-Israel, such a sensor array would be ineffective at scanning Israeli airspace.
3) Palestinian Militants: Even though Salam Fayyad has done an incredible job of reducing the amount of Palestinian Extremists operating in the West Bank, there still remain a number of Terrorist organizations in the territory. A withdrawal from the territory would not only embolden them, but make communications, meetings, and other dealings easier for them. The Palestinian Police cannot control the territory alone at this point.
4) Israeli Settlements: Israel has 121 settlements with nearly 350,000 inhabitants in the West Bank. (This does not count for internal redistribution in Jerusalem). Many of these settlements are firmly entrenched both in the minds of their occupants and in terms of their building structures (such as government offices, universities, highways, and other markers of long-term settlement). Removing these settlements would be one of the most difficult things for Israel to do militarily-speaking and politically-speaking (as a number of political parties actively support West Bank settlement).
5) Jerusalem: Jerusalem has a lot of significance to Jews and both Eastern Jerusalem and the Old City of Jerusalem are considered part of the West Bank. The idea of a unified Jerusalem is considered very special to a great number of Israelis and control of the Old City is seen as the only practical way to make sure that Jews can access the holy sites there. (Under Jordanian occupation, Jews could not go to their holy sites.)
6) Non-Jerusalem Holy Sites: The West Bank (by sheer accident of history) happens to be where much of Ancient Israel used to exist. Therefore, a number of Biblical cities with an Israelite past, like Hebron, Jericho, Bethlehem, Shchem (Nablus), and others, are in the West Bank. There are numerous holy sites in those places as well as the historical past buried in them. Many Israelis do not want to lose access to those places as well.
7) Religious Zionism: There are numerous political parties (and the Israelis they represent) who believe that Zionism refers to Divine Mandate to create a State in all lands controlled by the Israelites. Since the Israelites controlled the West Bank (and it was the center of their Kingdom), the West Bank is necessarily, in their view, part of any Jewish State.
When will the war in the middle east stop?
There is no single "war in the Middle East". There are numerous Middle East Conflicts. All of them ended or will end when one of three criteria are met:
(1) One side is victorious and has completely eliminated all opposition. An example of this is the Turkish War of Independence where the Ottoman Elite were completely eradicated by the Young Turks and the Greek Forces were evicted from Anatolia.
(2) One side is removed from conflict by a third party. An example of this is the Iran-Iraq War. The fighting was ended by ceasefire in 1988 without a true victor, but the overthrow of the Iraqi State by the USA in 2003 allowed the new Iraqi State to make peace with Iran and re-establish diplomatic ties.
(3) Both sides find a mutually acceptable compromise. An example of this is the Taif Agreement that ended the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1991 that allowed the Lebanese Maronites, Sunnis, Shiites, and other minorities to resolve many of their differences. All of the parties accepted the agreement.
Who are Israel's best-known actors?
Here are some of the most famous ones: Male: Lior Ashkenazi, Moni Moshonov, Oshri Cohen, Moshe Ivgy, Assi Dayan, Alon Abutbu, Avi Kushnir, Sharon Alexander, Ze'ev Revach Female: Gila Almagor, Yona Elian, Tiki Dayan, Keren Mor, Ronit Elkabetz, Ayelet Zurer, Yael Abecasis, Anat Waxman, Assi Levi
Why did the creation of the state of Israel lead to a conflict in the middle east?
During WWII, Britain made two promises in its search for allies. One, it promised the Palestinians that if they joined them and overthrew the Ottoman Turks, they'd be given their own country. Two, Britain promised the Zionists that if they joined their cause, a Jewish homeland would be created for them.
After the war, Britain found itself between a rock and a hard place. To compromise, Britain partitioned the land. That is, they split the land in two and gave the western half to the Zionists and the eastern half to the Palestinians.
Needless to the say, this didn't fly well, and ever since, the Palestinians and the Israelis have been fighting for the land.
What is the average yield of wheat in Israel?
At present, it's about 100,000 metric tons annually, though it has varied in the past. See also:
What are some things that Israel can improve on?
Their policies concerning Palestinians and their claim to land. Their social policies regarding single parents and women. Their settlement policies on the West bank. Their policies on controlling Palestinians moving within the West bank.
What happened to the army of Israelites at Ai?
This refers to the invasion of Canaan by the Israelites, which the Bible says took place around 1400 BCE. Joshua chose thirty thousand men and sent them away by night to wait beyond the city. Next morning, with the bulk of his army and all the people, he camped on the northern side of the city, then sent five thousand men to wait in ambush between Bethel and Ai. As expected, the king of Ai came out of the city with the army, to attack the Israelite camp, and the Israelites made as if to flee. Then the Israelite army hidden in reserve entered the city and set it on fire.
Certainly, the tactic used to entice the king of Ai to leave the city undefended, is an example of military genius - except that there was no city of Ai at that time. Archaeologists have confirmed that the city of Ai had been abandoned several centuries before the time this conquest is supposed to have taken place. The name given to the city, Ai, actually means 'Ruins', reflecting the fact that the Hebrew people had never known the place to be other than a ruin and did not know its former name.
This was a glorious legend of military genius that the Israelites must have been proud of, but it was no more than a legend, created long after the people had forgotten how they really came to occupy the Canaanite hinterland.
Who ended up with the holy land after the ninth crusade?
After the collapse of the Crusader States by the end of the ninth Crusade, Palestina was made part of Egypt's Bahri Mamluk sultanate which ruled Palestina until almost 1400 AD. After that, the Ottoman Turks ruled the country until the early 20th century.
Haifa is a city located in which country?
Haifa is a city located in the northern part of Israel and it built on Mt. Carmel. The city is somewhat unique in that it has a tiered structure, building up from the base of the mountain.
What can Israel be compared with?
Israel cannot really be compared to any other country, due to the fact that it's in a very specific scenario.
What effect did the Assyrian conquest have on the Kingdom of Israel?
The northern ten tribes comprised the Kingdom of Israel. The Assyrians sent the aristocracy to rule peoples in Assyria, and imported a new aristocracy to rule the ten tribes. This technique ensured that each kingdom was ruled by an aristocracy which was not sympathetic to the locals, and avoided uprisings.
The Babylonians when they took over from Assyria also followed this successful technique. And the Babylonians also took over the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, sending off their aristocracies to Babylon and importing a new ruling aristocracy from there to replace them. The 'exile' was the aristocracy. The mass of the people remained in place in both events.
What is the postal code for the poleg netanya israel?
Please post your Question again and be specific. There is a Poleg beach, a Poleg mall, a Poleg chiropractic office, a Poleg industrial park, a Poleg sport center, etc. Poleg is an entire neighborhood in Netanya, with tens of postal codes, if not hundreds. Thank you.
Did Israel pay for the original land in 1948?
Partially.
Initially, Jews bought land from the Ottomans in private transactions. Eventually, they pooled their moneys and formed the Jewish National Fund, whose primary objective was the purchase of land in the British Mandate of Palestine. The percentage of land in the British Mandate of Palestine that Jews had purchased individually or through the JNF by 1947 was roughly 10-12 percent of the British Mandate of Palestine, but the UN Partition Plan accorded the Jewish State 56 percent of the British Mandate as territory. When war broke out, the Jews made the conscious decision not to reimburse those who fled in the wake of the armies. As a result, when the armistice was declared in March of 1949, Jews had still not purchased any more land than what they held in 1947, but were now in control of 78% of the British Mandate of Palestine.
There are discussions in Israel today concerning reparation payments owed the Palestinians for some of this land acquisition. Those who support it say that it will help to wipe Israel's slate clean. Those who oppose it say that if the Arabs had been willing to permit a Jewish State, some bargain could have been struck then, but Israel has paid for that land with Israeli lives (both Jews and Non-Jews) lost in battle.
What treaty established Israel as a nation?
Israel's creation was the result of it declaring independence with permission granted by UN Resolution 181. There was no treaty involved.
