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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
Did Israel commit war crimes in Gaza in 2008?
No. Arabs committed war crimes by launching rockets from schools and mosques, and by using marked ambulances to stage terrorist attacks.
Why are Israel and Pakistan fighting over Gaza Strip?
Israel and Pakistan have no diplomatic relations, but are not currently in a State of War. Pakistan has not attempted, militarily or politically, to prevent Israeli or Palestinian interests from being realized in the Gaza Strip.
If instead of Pakistan, you meant Palestine, please see the Related Question.
WOW have you got it backwards.
Israel does not want war.
Some of the countries around Israel would rather see nuclear war than allow Israel to exist.
And yes we will have to pay for oil when war drives the price up.
A: That's the very point I've been trying to make since joining answers, there is no need to be paying the price for these wars by buying oil products. Yes the price of oil will go up. And yes there is Religious trouble in the middle East, and there will always be trouble, as long as the sons of Abraham are remembered. This is when the West should step back from it, and monitor nuclear activity in the sector. The program of non fossil fueled transport, should be of Western priority. Or Am I reading the wrong books.
What was the Arab reaction to the increase in Jewish immigrants from Europe?
The Arabs in the Middle East flocked to Palestine in their tens of thousands when Jews began developing it in the mid to late 19th century. However, despite benefitting enormously, Arabs regularly attacked Jewish civilians, often whole villages, and perpetrated the most appalling violence and bloodshed. A typical example is the Hebron Massacre of 1929.
Are the Israelis and Palestinians fighting the Muslims?
No. Neither of them are fighting "the Muslims" as a group. Most Palestinians are Muslims anyway. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is between two national groups: Israelis who are primarily Jewish against Palestinians who are primarily Muslim. However, neither Israeli nor Palestinian forces have declared that they are fighting Islam. There are numerous mosques in both countries where Muslim worshipers freely pray to God.
Why have Israeli leaders built up a strong military?
To protect their citizens and to not give up their homeland again.
What event led to the Six Day War?
The causus-belli was the Egyptian blockade of the Straits of Tiran. The first military action was the Israeli bombing of the Egyptian Airfields not long after. Depending on whether you take the Israeli or Arab perspective, either of these events could be seen as the "event that led to the Six Day War".
How did the struggle between Arabs and Jews over Palestine lead to the creation?
The Zionist kept increasing pressure on the British to support the Zionist plan to create their own separate homeland. In the midst of WWI the British issued the Balfour Declaration thus gaining Britain's support for a creation of a new Jewish in Palestine without violating the rights of the Arabs living there.
What role did Alexander the Great play in Israel's history?
He passed through and conquered it in passing. The introduction of Greek culture in the region produced a significant Hellenisation of Palestine. The books of Maccabes report that some men later had an operation to reverse circumcision to avoid looking mutilated at the public baths in the Hellenised upper classes.
Answer:
The Talmud (Yoma 69b) reports that the Jews, including the sages, had cordial relations with Alexander. It wasn't until the provocations of the Hellenising Jews that problems began.
Why are Israel and Palestine controversial?
Israel is not present in all Palestinian Conflicts. The Arab-Palestinian Conflict was fought between Arab States and the Palestinian people and Palestinian militant groups. The Palestinian Civil War involved the two Palestinian paramilitary organizations Hamas and Fatah without Israel at all.
As for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Israel is involved because Israel and Palestine cannot currently agree on a long-term solution of how to effectively divide the territory of the former British Mandate of Palestine.
Why did fighting between the Jews and Arabs increase in Palestine after 1945?
Arab Opinion
Because in 1948 something called Nakba from Palestinian History, in this year most of Palestinians were forced their houses lives and lands to live now in refugees in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and other Arabic countries with almost very bad situations specially the once living in Lebanon.
The number of refugees lives outside Palestine estimated with 4 to 6 millions, they are not allowed even to visit Palestine.
Israel didn't stop at that point it keeps taking lands to build Israeli settlements, they are increased day by day due to the large increase of Jewish immigration, and the most important problem is that Israel keeps digging under Al-Aqsa mosque which increase the chance for it's collapse, and because it's one of the most important places for Muslims unequal fights always happens.
Also Jewish only allow people above 50 years to pray at Al-Aqsa. Younger people are not allowed, and so and so on, without stopping.
May god help Palestine, and set it Free soon, to live in peace for once.
Israeli Opinion
The Zionists and others who supported the Creation of the Jewish Nation were finally able to get the International Community to see the entrenched nature of Anti-Semitism in Europe after the Holocaust. This international perspective finally allowed Jews to successfully campaign for a State. When the United Nations was formed and indicated this would be a goal of theirs (the Partitioning of the Mandate of Palestine), a large number of Jews from refugee camps across Europe began to immigrate both legally and illegally to the territory. Arabs, who were repulsed by the idea of a Jewish State, used militias formed to oppose the British occupation and turned them against the Jews. The Jews responded with similarly formed militias and targeted the Arabs.
When the Partition plan was announced, the Jews were not happy with the small piece of land that they were awarded, but figured that some land would be better than none. The Arabs on the other hand refused to tolerate the idea that they would have to compromise at all. Jewish militias returned to defend the Partition borders, but were forced to engage with the Arab militias throughout the Mandate. As the Jewish-Arab Engagement of 1947-1949 became compounded by Israel's declaration of Statehood and the intervening of seven Arab countries, the War got bloodier. As the Arab opinion above notes, not all of the Jewish soldiers behaved honorably and there were numerous massacres of Arab civilians during the Jewish-Arab Engagement, but there were also attacks on Jewish civilians during the same period and prior to (as mentioned above).
Is former Israel prime minister Ariel Sharon still alive?
As of April 2011, Ariel Sharon was still alive, but in a coma. He died on January 11, 2014.
What is the Zionist movement and what was its main goal?
Who were the Zionists: The Zionist leadership was ardently secularist with one or two critical exceptions. These leaders included Theodor Herzl (who developed the concept of Modern Jewish Nationalism or Zionism), Eliezer ben Yehuda (who developed the Modern Hebrew Language), Ze'ev Jabotinsky (Jewish Advocate to the British and Leader of the Palmach), Menachem Begin (Leader of the Irgun and future Israeli Prime Minister), and the Halutzim in general (the Jewish pioneers who arrived in the British Mandate of Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s). On the religious side, there was primarily Rabbi Avraham Kook (First Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel and founder of Religious Zionism) who was treading a new theological doctrine to back up Zionism with Jewish religious values.
What were the goals of the Zionists: Being a Zionist only means one thing: Believing that the Jews have a right to an independent State and that this State should be in the Land of Israel. Many people incorrectly believe that Zionism refers to the Anti-Semitic depictions of a worldwide Jewish Cabal or some other conspiracy theory. However, that is not what Zionism is.
What European country controlled Palestine before it became Israel?
Ottoman Empire till 1918 and Britain after that.
What territories did Israel gain from the Arab-Israeli conflict?
At one point, Israel controlled all of the Palestinian regions set apart from the nation, the Sinai Peninsula all the way to the Suez Canal, and Syria's Golan Heights. They eventually conceded some of those territories for peace, pursuant to UN Resolution 242.
What happened to the Jews in 1948 CE?
It depends on the Jews in question.
If you are referring to the Jews that were already in post-Mandatory Palestine, they were able to secure a state against the force of seven Arab armies. With strong will and persistence, they were able to compel each of the Arab leaders to sign an armistice with Israel. During the war, Israeli politicians got to putting the Basic Laws and the Right of Return into effect, establishing a state that reflected their values and had a specific role for both secular and religious authority.
If you are referring to the Jews of Europe, the overwhelming majority of the survivors of the Holocaust soon discovered that no country, even the ones in which they had formerly lived, wanted to take the Jews in. From 1945-1949, many Jews were stranded in Internment Camps across Europe, some only a few minutes away from the Concentration Camps (like Bergen-Belsen). These Jews petitioned for the right to migrate to Mandatory Palestine. Upon Israel's Declaration of Independence, they began to immigrate and many of them joined with the Jewish Militias in the war against the Arabs.
If you are referring to the Jews of the Arab World, the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 was a watershed moment which made life in the Arab World change from mildly intolerant to completely unsafe. Jews were accused by nearly every Arab government of conspiring with Israel (even though the majority of Jews from Arab Countries were Anti-Zionist or Non-Zionist prior to this point). In Iraq, there were show-trials and executions. In Jordan, all Jews were expelled from the country. From 1950-1952, Israel was required to absorb 500,000 Jews from Arab Countries (of the total 800-850,000 who fled). The Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9 completely uprooted their lives, although given the rough decade that the 1940s had been in the Arab World for Jews, it was not entirely unexpected.
If you are referring to the Jews of America, the realization that the American Jewish community was the dominant Diaspora Jewish Community in the wake of the Holocaust finally came to a head in this conflict. American Jews began to embrace and support the State of Israel, but also see themselves as the preservers of Jewish interests and Jewish sects which were exterminated to near or complete extinction in Europe. This was a fundamental shift for American Jewry as the community prior to the Holocaust had been seen as "the Jewish Frontier". The real Jews and traditional Jews were considered to be those of Europe, prior to their annihilation. Being the new center of the Diaspora changed American Jewish discourse and the way that American Jews embraced their religion, leading to an uptick in religiosity among American Jewry.
Events that led to creation of Israel?
It was the moment when Israelis decided that they wanted their own country and declared it by reading a Declaration of Independence over the radio from a non-descript building in Tel Aviv.
This happened on May 14, 1948.
What are the Palestinians fighting for?
Depends on the Palestinian. Some want the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an independent Palestinian State. The remainder want all of the former British Mandate of Palestine as a Palestinian State.
What was Benjamin netanyahu's role in the israeli-palestinian conflict?
He signed the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat providing for Palestinian-controlled Gaza. He was assassinated by an Israeli Jewish Extremist for being too dovish and "leading to the destruction of Israel".
The fundamental issue between Israel on the one side, and the Muslim nations
and so-called Palestinian "refugees" on the other side, is the existence of a
sovereign and democratic nation largely populated and controlled by Jews, in
the place where Israel is.
Zionism is the movement to create a state?
Zionism is the call for Jews to freely live in their ancient homeland.
How did the Arab-israeili war of 1948 affect Palestinian Arabs?
The Palestinian Arabs and Jewish Militias were already embroiled in a civil war as early as 1946 (but primarily in 1947) before the conflict widened to be an international Arab-Israeli War. Most Palestinians fled either because of fear of Jewish/Israeli retaliation, incitement by community leaders, or generally a desire to be away from the conflict. After the war, Palestinians see the events of the 1947-1949 Jewish-Arab Engagement as the Nakba (Great Catastrophe).
In Modern Times, Jews never had a country and lived scattered in all countries ruled by other religions. They wanted to have a country of their own. They always had power and great pressuring lobbies in great countries. So at the time Britain was colonizing Palestine, and due to the great pressure by Jews, Britain gave permission and promise for Jews in 1917 to build their own country in Palestine, which was already inhabited by Arabs (Palestinians) but who were colonized and very week.
Jews started to migrate in tens and hundreds to Palestine, buying lands and houses, making gang wars on people if they refuse to leave their houses or lands, killing stealing & invading. Until they became powerful enough to demand their existence and to be declared a country by the UN in 1948.
Where is the original nation of israel?
1) Geographically, the original country of Israel is where the modern country of Israel exists today. The borders are not identical, but Israel overlays its ancient location to a large degree.
2) In terms of genealogy, the descendants of the ancient Tribes of Israel today are the Jewish people worldwide. The great majority of Jews today, some 80% or so, are descended from the tribe of Judah (plus converts and descendants of converts). The remaining 20% include Levites (from the tribe of Levi), Cohanim (also a part of the Levites), the entire Tribe of Benjamin, and a small percentage from every one of the remaining tribes. (When the Ten Tribes were carried off into Assyria and didn't return, a few of them had already mixed into the tribe of Judah before that, through marriage. Also, the Talmud relates [Megillah 14b] that, one century after the Ten Tribes were exiled [and their location was still known], Jeremiah journeyed to where they were and brought some of them back to Judea. Thus, today's Jewry includes a small percentage of every one of the Lost Tribes. See for example the Talmud, Pesachim 4a.)
As to the location of the bulk of the lost Ten Tribes, because of the lack of a continuous tradition in this particular matter, we can only speculate. Some well-known claims, such as the suggestion that the Native Americans or African Americans are the Lost Israelite Tribes, we can confidently dismiss offhand. Other claims, such as that which has been suggested concerning the Pathani (Pashtun), are less far-fetched but must for the time being remain nothing more than a guess.
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