Israel

1). Israel is the alternate name of the biblical patriarch Jacob.

2). Israel is the name of a nation that existed from just after the Biblical Exodus until the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman occupiers in 70 CE, then faded from political identification and independence, and was restored as a nation in 1948. Israel is a democracy, with a unicameral legislature whose representatives are chosen by popular vote of all adult citizens, is a member of the United Nations, and is recognized by and maintains diplomatic relations with all but 34 of the world's 196 nations.

Israel is an independent, sovereign nation, with its own government, political system, popularly elected legislature, currency, etc. It does not 'belong' to any other nation, although several of its close neighbors might like to change that.

-- Lebanon

-- Syria

-- Jordan

-- Egypt

(Of course, this answer ignores that Israel borders the partially-recognized country of Palestine and the unrecognized country of Hamas-Controlled Gaza.)

Israel has a democracy for Israeli citizens. It is parliamentary. The Palestinians do not have full inclusion in the Israeli state, as I understand.

Most of them were expelled in the year 70 by the Romans. But not all ... there has

been a continuous Jewish presence there since more than 1,000 years before that

time, including throughout the Diaspora, exiles, dispersions, etc., right up to the

time when the modern state of Israel was restored.

Nowadays, Israel is not divided into two kingdoms, but thousands of years ago, Israel was split into two kingdoms called "Yehuda" and "Israel". Both kingdoms were Jewish and both had their own ledership, but only one kingdom, "Yehuda", was oficially ruling the land of Israel and Jerusalem

Examples of foods eaten in Israel are:

Falafel

Shwarma

Shishlik

Kebab

Hummus

Schnitzel

Kugel

Cholent

Matza ball soup

Pita, dipped in humus

The list is endless because as a culture, we love good food. You can find food from all over the world in Israel because of the diversity of the population. (Jews have immigrated to Israel from nearly every country in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Americas. Additionally, because of guest-worker programs with East Asia, you can find Chinese, Filipino, and Thai restaurants if you look hard enough (even though there are no Jews from these countries).

Jews migrated to the German states over a long period. In the Middle Ages, especially at the time of the crusades and the Black Death, Jews were expelled from many parts of Germany and were pushed eastwards - to Poland, which until about 1650 was very tolerant towards the Jews. Until the Nazi period there were a few Jewish farmers in Baden who claimed to have settled there in Roman times. (This claim cannot be verified, but it is clear that many of the families had been there for many centuries as farmers, despite expulsions - which were sometimes less thorough than at first appears). There were also some other areas and states that were reasonably tolerant, for example, Hamburg. A very large number of German Jews became inhabitants (and later citizens) of Prussia as a result of the partitions of Poland in 1772-1795. In 1812 Prussia granted something close to full citizenship to its Jewish population and acquired an international reputation for toleration. This attracted some inward migration.

According to the Bible, there were 600,000 fighting men, a figure which excluded the tribe of Levi. Scholars have estimated that this would be equivalent to at least two and a half million people in total. The archaeological evidence indicates that the total population did not really reach this figure for many centuries.

The so-called "Holy Land" is the territory in and around Jerusalem. Three religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, have important religious locations there.

Any follower of any of those religions might want to visit that area at some point in their life. In addition, the region has been continuously inhabited for several thousand years, so those who lack a religious interest but are interested in human history and the development of civilization, or merely in the history of the region, would also be interested in going there.

It is about 41 kilometres (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres (4-7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometres (140 sq mi).

The land of the Canaanites never became Israel in its entirety. Archaeologists say that the mountainous hinterland was sparsely populated until around 1250 BCE, when there was a gradual increase in the population, indicating the arrival of Hebrew settlers. A minority of scholars think that even these settlers were not the true ancestors of the Israelites, and that there was a further influx around 1000 BCE. At the same time, around 1250 BCE, the Philistines arrived and occupied the rich coastal plains and foothills south of present-day Tel Aviv. The northern coastal areas remained populated by Canaanites, possibly under the rule of Sea People like the Philistines. The Negev remained essentially unhibitable for centuries, until the Nabataean Arabs invented cisterns to collect and store rainwater.

The hinterland was divided between two Hebrew states, which the Bible says were united as a single monarchy in the tenth century BCE, although some scholars say that they were always separate, with their own culture, pottery and dialects of the Hebrew language. In the ninth century, the northern kingdom of Israel briefly occupied much of coastal Palestine, as well as some of southern Syria, although the population mixes of those regions did not change. However, by the eighth century, the tide of history had turned and Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and ceased to exist.

The State of Israel came together as the result of Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine, Zionist leadership, Jewish militias and political and financial support from the West (primarily Jewish philanthropists). Additionally, after the Holocaust, it became clear to the International Community that the Jews needed a place to exist freely and without fear of persecution where previously this sentiment was confined to radicals in the Jewish community. (Most Jews were anti-Zionist or at least not pro-Zionist before the Holocaust.) As a direct result of the Holocaust, the United Nations convened and proposed the UN Partition of the British Mandate in 1947 which gave Israel a legal claim to statehood in 1948. The Zionists in Mandatory Palestine seized upon this opportunity and declared a State.

The Zionist project existed long before the Holocaust. The first pioneers or Halutzim came to the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine while it was still under Ottoman control -- late 1800s and early 1900s. The Halutzim took it upon themselves to modernize Israel by cultivating the land and using European technology to improve its output and productivity. The Zionist leadership included some like Theodor Herzl, who envisioned the state, to Eliezer ben Yehuda, who developed Modern Hebrew as a functional language, to David Ben Gurion who declared Israel's independence and sovereignty, among many others. There were numerous Jewish militias defending the Halutzim and attacking the British (and eventually the Arabs when conflict started) such as the Palmach, the Haganah, and the Irgun. Finally, without the monetary contributions from families like the Rothschilds, there would have been no way for the nascent pre-governmental and governmental organizations to acquire enough capital to maintain an internal infrastructure.

Secret Meetings. =]

Israel has been the Jewish homeland for over 3000 years. The Bible describes this as Abram (later changed to Abraham) moved his family and to the land that God promised would be his home. Since then, there has been an uninterrupted Jewish presence on that land.

More than any other country in the world.

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The Jordan River. There is a small part of the Jordan River north of the West Bank that was part of the Israeli-Jordanian border. This has been greatly expanded since the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank territory and acquired a much longer stretch of the Jordan River. Prior to that war the West Bank was part of Jordan & Jerusalem was a divided city.

The Jordan River forms a large part of that international boundary (between Israel-West Bank and Jordan.

South of the Dead Sea, the Israeli-Jordanian border follows the Wadi Arabah valley.

It it was called British Mandate of Palestine. (It never had the title of Palestine)

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The state of Israel was established by Britain and the United Nations for the Jews after the second world war. [Are you confusing World War 1 and World War 2? In any case, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 did not establish the state of Israel. That had to wait till 1948.]

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It was called Cana'an, or "K'naan" in Hebrew in the Jewish Bible (called the Torah). Since then it has had various names including Judea and Samaria, before it was given back to the Jews 65 yrs ago.

Apart from small interludes of exile, Jews have always lived on the land that is now known as Israel, but haven't always had the Independence to be Jewish while living there. Many different kingdoms have attacked and tried to destroy or take over, some allowing the Jews to stay and be Jewish, some allowed them to stay on condition of not practicing their religion, while others just wanted them out.

In the State of Israel now all religion's are free to practice their own religion.