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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
Is there any problem of overpopulation in Israel?
Answer 1
1) Let me tell you a little story. At some point around the year 1920 or so, one of the high-ranking officials of the British Mandate did an extensive survey of the area that is now called Israel. After his careful study, he officially published the opinion that "the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean will certainly not be able to support a population of more than five hundred thousand."
Yet today Israel has seven million people. And still plenty of extra space.
2) In 1990, very large numbers of people from the former Soviet Union began emigrating to Israel. Within a just few years, one million of them had settled in Israel. Yes, there was a brief housing crunch, but that was followed by a massive upswing in new construction. Entire cities were built from scratch at that time (such as Modiin Illit and Betar). And the economic situation of these immigrants was and remains vastly better than what it had been in the USSR.
3) The Talmud (Ketubot 112b) assures us that Israel has a special quality which enables it, through God's blessing, to provide space and sustenance for those who live there.
Israel's population has increased twelvefold since 1948, while the quality of life has steadily gone up, not down.
Answer 2
Israel does have some problems on account of its sizable population, but none of them are unique to Israel. All of the surrounding countries have these problems and are typically in a worse position to ameliorate them than Israel is, since Israel's government actually functions.
The bigest overpopulation issue in Israel is water scarcity. The Sea of Galilee, Israel's largest freshwater body has seen its levels decrease. Correspondingly, Israel has invested heavily in desalination technology in an attempt to reverse the trend.
Unlike its neighbors (especially Egypt), Israel is a net exporter of food products and since it does not have the explosive growth rates of Arab countries, sees increases in farming efficiency come before the population is too massive to overwhelm the supply.
There is some crowding in cities, but the Israeli government takes an active role in building new viable cities in sparsely populated areas and developing the countryside which prevents the kind of urban price jumps that are seen in Vietnam where the government does not make similar investments.
Which israel or judah had an advantage when it came to trading?
Israel probably had an advantage, since they had a larger land, a longer border, and access to the sea.
How long does it take to drive from Jerusalem to the Ben-Gurion Airport?
Discounting the traffic jams you might bump into within Jerusalem itself, it's about a 40-minute drive from the Western exit of Jerusalem to the Ben-Gurion International Airport.
What is money from Israel worth compared to American money?
How in the world can a question like that be answered ? What's the reference ?
Anything on earth that can be bought with American dollars can also be bought
with Israeli shekels. Only the numbers are different. But the number of shekels
that an Israeli is paid for an hour, a day, a week, or a month of work is also
different from the number of dollars that an American is paid for the same work.
How do you express and describe the value of money ?
On October 18, 2010, the New Israeli Shekel traded at the rate of NIS 3.5765 per USD 1.00 .
On the same date, the Ghanaian Cedi traded at the rate of GHS 1.43958 per USD 1.00,
and the Euro at the rate of EUR 0.7177 per USD 1.00
Why does fawaz turki refer to the israelis as colonizers?
According to those who believe like Fawaz Turki, the entire idea of Israel is a modern colony in the Middle East. Prior to 1900, less than 10% of the population of what would become Mandatory Palestine was Jewish and the Fellahin or Settled Arabs were the majority. There were also a large percentage of Turks, Circassians, Bedouin, and Druze, but the Settled Arabs were still the majority. Zionist Jews or those Jews who desired to create a Jewish State cleverly manipulated the Great Powers, especially the United Kingdom into giving them the right to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine in large numbers without consulting the rights of the Fellahin. Additionally, Zionist Jews purchased large swaths of land from Turkish nobility without consulting the Fellahin who lived on that land for centuries but did not properly own it. As a result, numerous Fellahin were forced off of their land during the Yishuv period, Yishuv being the word for a Zionist Jewish settlement in Mandatory Palestine. The Jewish population in Palestine continued to rise until 1939 when the Fellahin successfully petitioned the British government to close off Jewish immigration.
However, the Jewish minority had grown sufficiently large in Mandatory Palestine that this combined with the Holocaust was able to earn international sympathy for the Zionist cause of establishing a State for the Jews in a land where the Jewish population had literally "just" shown up. Compare this to Rhodesia which was a state that declared independence to be ruled by the White Settlers of Rhodesia in 1960 that had been on that land. Rhodesia was so vilified in the international community that in only 20 years, it reverted to become the African nation of Zimbabwe. However, in that case, the White Settlers had come to Rhodesia as early as 1860, which makes them far more "local" than the Zionist Jews in Palestine in 1948 (most of whom were in the country for less than 30 years). The attempt by the Yishuv to form a state could not be tolerated and the Arabs formed militias to prevent the Yishuv from asserting control over land that had been historically settled by the Arab people. As a result, war broke out between the Zionist Haganah, Palmach, Irgun, and Lehi militias and the Fellahin, represented by the Holy War Army and the Arab Liberation Army. The neighboring Arab countries joined in when the Yishuv declared independence as Israel to help to the Arab militias. Subsequent to Israeli Independence, there was the eventual Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip which further reduced and minimized the power and presence of the Fellahin through numerous acts, such as the Settlements which are Israeli colonies in the West Bank and, formerly, the Gaza Strip.
What was the name of the treaty ending the 1973 between Israel and Egypt?
There was no treaty ending the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The UN Security Council passed cease fire resolution 338 [which actually didnt work & so was followed by resolution 339] in '73. Finally, in 1978 U.S. President Jimmy Carter persuaded Israel and Egypt to meet on U. S. soil at Camp David for a 12-day secret conference. This historic meeting resulted in the leaders of both countries to sign what are known as the Camp David Accords. Not a treaty, the Accords were more of an aggreement for peace and intention to ultimately sign a peace treaty. Many people all over the world were upset about the Accord. The Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty was signed in 1979. Of much significance is that is previously no Arab country had acknowledged Israel. Egypt became the first Arab country to recognize the Jewish state of Israel. Later, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat actually visited Israel which was quite extraordinary.
What year did Israel fall to invaders?
In the year 70 C.E. (Common Era), the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its Holy Temple and exiled the Jews. However, although Jews were no longer permitted in Jerusalem, Jews lived throughout the country. In fact, there was never a period where there were NO Jews living somewhere in Israel. During the Middle Ages, more Jews began to return to Israel, growing in the Nineteenth Century. By the end of the Nineteenth Century, Jews outnumbered Arab in Jerusalem itself.
Why is there a state of war between Israel and Gaza?
Longer View Answers
General Answer
This question is best answered by a PhD history thesis. However, in this limited format, we will attempt to simplify without gross oversimplification.
Gaza, a small strip of land along Israel's south Mediterranean coast, is a ghettoized area used by Israel to isolate Palestinians. Palestinians are the Muslim natives of Palestine, an historic area traditionally defined as that part of Arabia containing most of the sites described in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. As one might expect, the Palestinians resent their ghettoization and have rebelled throughout the history of Israel as a modern country. Their primary weapon in rebellion is terrorism against civilian Israelis.
Recently this terrorism has taken the form of rocket attacks fired from the Gaza strip into Israeli settlements in the adjoining Negev desert. The Israeli government has chosen to answer these attacks with overwhelming military force as a sort of collective punishment for all residents of Gaza who allow the terrorists free passage. The terrorist leadership, an organization called Hamas, refuses to stop the rocket attacks, and the Israelis seem disinclined to stop at this point even if Hamas does stop, as their stated aim is to wipe out the Hamas organization.
Palestinian Perspective
The reasons for the current conflict in Gaza are very complicated, however, at its most basic level, conflict in Gaza comes from the creation of Israel in 1949.
Before 1949, Palestine was a country, however, after WWII, Israel were given a Palestine as a "National Homeland", the decision to do this had been in the making for years, however with the atrocities committed by Hitler in WWII, the Zionist movement (those seeking the creation of Israel finally achieved their objective.
The taking of Palestine was extremely unpopular, as it displaced all those people previously living there, and was seen by many people from the Middle East as further evidence of Western interference and imperialism.
Recently, groups in Gaza (a disputed territory that nobody officially owns) have been firing rockets into Israel killing only three people in the last many years, but certainly disrupting Israeli life. Because of this the Israeli military have attacked Gaza, killing hundreds (as of this writing). Most people agree that this is a disproportionate response.
However, the root of the problem, and conflict in Gaza, stems from the creation of Israel and western interference since 1919, along with many other local groups, committed to the extermination of Palestinians.
Israeli Perspective
What a one sided view. First of all, there was never a Palestinian country or state as the area was under British occupation and before that under Ottoman rule (old Turkey). When Israel was formed under UN decision in 1948, many locals (retroactively referred as Palestinians although the term did not exist at the time) fled the area on the newly formed Israel for fear that they would be slaughtered as is customary in the region. Many years later, these people wanted to come back and reclain ownership of the land and homes they left behind when they fled. This is commonly reffered to as the "right of return". Israel refused and said that the property was then occupied by Israelis and to give so many people Israeli nationality at once would completely up-end the demografic distribution inside Israel, turning it into a mostly Arab state. Since there are 22 other such states and only a single Jewish State this seems rather unfair, however this point is debatable. The Palestinian issue and the first use of the term began in 1967 when Israel won a preemptive war against the entire Arab world and in the process took over what is now called the Palestinian Territories. It was initilly thought that these regions would be used as leverage in peace talks similar to the way Sinai Peninsula was given back to Egypt in return for peace. Unfortunately, this did not work, for many complex reasons faulting both sides, and Israel ended up occuping the area since. This has had detrimental effects on both sides and results in the flaring of warfare every few years ever since.
Shorter View Answer
Discussion of Operation Cast Lead of December 2008
1). Gaza is under military occupation. Article 42 of the Hague Regulations stipulates, a "territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army," and that the occupation extends "to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised." Similarly, in the Hostage Case, the Nuremberg Tribunal held that, "the test for application of the legal regime of occupation is not whether the occupying power fails to exercise effective control over the territory, but whether it has the ability to exercise such power."
Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, like those in the West Bank, continue to be subject to Israeli control. For example, Israel controls Gaza's air space, territorial waters, and all border crossings. Palestinians in Gaza require Israel's consent to travel to and from Gaza, to take their goods to Palestinian and foreign markets, to acquire food and medicine, and to access water and electricity. Without Israel's permission, the Palestinian Authority (PA) cannot perform such basic functions of government as providing social, health, security and utility services, developing the Palestinian economy and allocating resources.
2). Terrorists or freedom fighters depending on your point of view continue to resist the Israeli occupation with rocket attacks. The reality is the rockets contain no warhead and no guidance system. (Then what in the world can be their purpose, other than to invite retaliation ?) It can argued that the rockets are nothing more than a large firework with no powder. (Then what defensive value can they possibly have ? Perhaps you need a better class of more capable freedom fighters.) The mortality rate from rocket attacks since 2001 in Israel is 0.002% (How shocking! Only two of every hundred thousand Israelis have been killed by large powder-less fireworks with no warhead or guidance system from across the border, and still they keep whining and getting nasty about it ? ! The nerve of those uppity Jews anyway, refusing to die in serious numbers.)
3). In January of 2009, Israel broke the peace and launched operation 'Cast Lead' a massive military offensive against a civilian population. (Perhaps they had grown tired of being targeted by large powder-less warhead-less unguided fireworks from across the border?) It banned foreign press from entering Gaza. It used white phosphorus (a chemical weapon) on UN sanctioned hospitals and schools (a war crime). Within 23 days the death toll had reached 1,284 Palestinians dead, 6 IDF by enemy fire and 3 IDF by friendly fire. When the operation had finished Israel had claimed more land from the Gaza strip in the name of security zones for their protection. (Is that the same Gaza strip from which the Israeli military had removed all Israeli civilian "settlers", by force where it was necessary, and turned it over to Palestinian control? The same Gaza strip that the new owners immediately trashed as soon as they had the chance?)
The following links detail some of the incidents that took place during 2009
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What is the largest cities in Israel?
Jerusalem is the largest city in Israel in terms of both area and population with 773,600 people.
Answer 1
About the same as everyone else.
Answer 2
Israelis are generally considered to be a relatively monochronic society, similar to European and Anglo-American societies. Israelis usually show up to events on time or fashionably late. By contrast, most Arab, African, and Latino societies are considered to by polychronic, where punctuality is not that important and people can arrive 30-60 minutes "late" to a meeting. Israelis, like Europeans and Anglo-Americans, are less punctual than Koreans and Japanese, who are very monochronic.
Do Mormons believe that Jesus died in Israel then visited North America and died again?
3 Nephi, in the Book of Mormon says that in America, in the 4th day of the 1st month in the 34th year of the new calendar, a great destruction lasting 3 hours, with storms, earthquakes and a city buried, was followed by 3 days of total darkness. There were no sun, moon or stars and they could not light a fire. The calendar, to which this refers, assumes that Jesus was born in the year 1 CE, rather than during the reign of Herod the Great - coincidentally the same error as made in 533 by the Roman abbott Dionysus Exiguus. Soon afterwards, Jesus appeared in the American colony, to the multitude of about 2500 men, women and children. They all touched his wounds and knew it was he.
Which country uses a system of human made canals to transport freshwater from the Jordan River?
Israel
Why is Israel important to the US?
Well for starters, Israel is the most civilized country in the middle east, they
provide/help us with technology, medicine, scientific data. I was in Israel and I
could have sworn I was in California (U.S.) it looks really similar to the United
states, except for all the old buildings that covers 2/4 of their land.
We train with Israel, Israel learns from us...and so forth. Palestine, Syria and Iran
want death to Israel and America because countries like (Iran) are savages,
they've yet to reach space or have one modern building.
When's the last time Syria sent a rover or anything to the moon? oh right, never.
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Fellas, fellas, let's tone it down. It's not about modern buildings, technology,
training together, or space rovers. Those are just a few visible signs of what's
really underneath, down deep.
Let's think about it for a minute, like intelligent people:
-- Since 2001, the US has spent several trillion dollars and several thousand lives
in our attempt to build nations in the Middle East, that have stable democratic
representative governments, equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex or religion,
and little or no threat to their stability from insurgent forces, and are friendly toward
the US. It must be pretty important for the US to have some of those in that part of
the world.
-- There is one nation in the Middle East that built itself at no expense to the US,
has a stable, representative, democratic government, has equal rights for all
citizens regardless of their sex or religion written into its law, has had no threat to
its stability from within and several orderly transfers of government since it was
founded more than 60 years ago, and is friendly toward the US.
It's Israel.
Would it make sense to say that Israel has made itself what we would so dearly
love to see in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Egypt,
but it's not important to us ?
No. The Ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria, but that is the extent of the relationship between Israel and Assyria. The modern State of Israel was founded by the descendants (2600+ years later) of the Ancient Southern Kingdom of Judah.
What secret allowed the Philistines to dominate the Israelites for years?
It wasn't a secret at all, it all had to do with the sin of Israel. Deuteronomy 7:1-11 describes it pretty well in that the Lord commanded Israel not to intermarry with foreigners because it would cause them to worship their gods. You can see this played out in Judges 2:1-3 and 2:11-15, where the Israelites do not destroy the foreigners, later to be known as the Philistines, the Canaanites, etc., and the Lord does not drive out the foreigners because of Israel's sin and idol worship.
So, in short, Israel disobeys the Lord and He allows them to be "dominated" by the Philistines.
Remember, all in all this is a depiction of us and Christ, in that when we turn to foreign gods, and idols, our sin controls us. However, unlike Israel we are not bound to that sin, and the Lord is not going to deliver us into the hands of our enemies. Rather, by His grace the cross of Jesus Christ frees us from sin's control over our lives.
Live redeemed because Jesus purchased your freedom by His death on the cross, and resurrection from the grave.
What was most responsible for helping Israel to become an independent nation?
The United Nations
After World War I, the League of Nations asked Great Britain to govern Palestine. (This land had been taken away from the Ottoman Empire partly because the Ottomans had been Germany's ally during World War I.) But the British had great difficulty ruling the land because Jews and Arabs in Palestine often quarreled with each other.
After World War II, the quarrels between Palestinian Jews and Arabs became fierce battles. And to make matters worse for the British, Palestinian Jews and Arabs began to attack them as well. By 1947 the British had had enough. They asked the U.N. to take responsibility for Palestine and end the fighting between the Jews and Arabs.
In Israel, women do everything that women do in the USA, the UK, France, Germany,
Brazil, Argentina, Canada, etc., and somewhat more than women do in some of the
neighboring countries that surround Israel.
That includes working in construction, in government, in the sciences, in engineering,
in the Law, in Medicine, in Education, and in stores and restaurants, and keeping
house, giving birth, and raising their children.
Women also have the same universal obligation for military service that men have.
What is the present relationship between Arabs and Israelis?
Since 20% of Israelis are Arabs, the two groups have some overlap, but if the question refers exclusively to non-Israeli Arabs and Israelis, there is a tense and violent political and economic relationship. On a personal level, there are some Arab-Israeli relationships.
