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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
Why was there a southern and northern kingdom of Israel?
According to the Bible, the source of the division between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel and Judah respectively comes from Solomon's successor Rehoboam failing to lift the tax burden on Israelites as well as his lead general Jeroboam's charisma in leading ten of the Israelite tribes to secede from Rehoboam's country and establish another dominion.
Archaeologically, there is insufficient evidence at this point to say whether or not the Northern and Southern Israelite Kingdoms were ever united. (This is not to say that they were not or that they were, but that we do not have enough evidence to be sure either way.)
They remained politically divided as there was never an attempt by either state to conquer the other state. They were far more useful to one another as allies against other secondary powers like Aram, Moab, and Phoenicia as well as against the larger powers like Assyria (which eventually destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel), Egypt, and Babylonia (which eventually destroyed the Southern Kingdom of Judah).
Who was given Golan Heights in 1981?
Nobody was "given" the Golan Heights in 1981.
Israel conquered the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and repelled a Syrian invasion to retake the Golan Heights in 1973. By the end of the Arab-Israeli population of 1973, the Arab population of the Golan Heights and its strategic value was immense. Therefore, in 1981, Prime Minister Menachem Begin decided to annex the territory of the Golan Heights to the Israel. This has been seen by most international observers as a violation of UNSC Resolution 242 and 338 which requires that Israel return the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for peace, not to acquire it. Israel has responded by saying that it fully intends to return the territory to Syria should a peace treaty be struck, but it sees no reason why it has to leave the Golan Heights under military administration pending such a resolution as opposed to a civilian one.
What is the meaning of 555 in Hebrew?
It is just a number, so it has the same meaning in Hebrew that it does in all other languages.
- If you write 555 using Hebrew letters, it comes out as ×ª×§× ×´×”
- If you speak it, it's pronounced chamesh me'ot chamishim vechamesh (חמש מ×ות ×—×ž×™×©×™× ×•×—×ž×©).
What is the capital of israel in the 900's BC?
Israel did not exist as a state until 1948!
In 1947, the British concluded that they could no longer manage Palestine and handed the issue over to the United Nations. On November 29, 1947, after much debate and discussion, the UN recommended the partition of Palestine into two states one Jewish and one Arab. The Jews accepted the UN resolution while the Arabs rejected it.
The British mandate over Palestine officially terminated on May 14, 1948 at midnight. Earlier in the day, at 4:00 p.m., David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel and became its first prime minister. Longtime advocate of Zionism in Britain Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) became Israel's first president. On May 15, 1948, the United States recognized the State of Israel as a nation and the Soviet Union followed suit the next day.
Why was Moses denied entry into the promised Land of Israel?
"Despite living to 120, he did not enter the Land of Israel,or the promised land, because he hit the rock twice instead of speaking to the rock" An alternate answer: Moses's function as the deliverer of the Israelites (they weren't "Jews" yet) from Egypt to the promised land had concluded. The Israelites now had to conquer the land - fighting some tribes and making peace with others. This phase required a completely different persona, embodied in the young, charismatic military tactician, Joshua. An alternative to this theory is that Moses had been "building up" the promised land in the imaginations of the Israelites for 40 years. Moses knew that the reality on the ground would be much more difficult and complex. Had Moses crossed the Jordan river with his people, they might have rebelled against him and the LORD for misleading them. This is why a new leader, one that could start with a "clean slate" was needed.
What was the name of Israel at the time of Jesus' birth?
What do the Palestinians want to do with the land of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip?
A number of Palestinians would like to create an independent Palestinian State on the lands of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This aspiration is seen as legitimate by the United Nations, which currently recognizes the early elements of this state as the State of Palestine and previously recognized it as the Palestinian Authority.
However, the majority of Palestinians who support the full independence of the State of Palestine do not believe that the territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are sufficient and lay claim to all or part of the current State of Israel as a longer-term ambition.
What countries are Israelis from?
Israelis are from a variety of different places around the world, similar to Americans. There is also a lot intermarriage between Jews from different areas, which makes the demographics difficult to hash out. However, the most common ethnicities in Israel are listed below:
1) Endemically Palestinian: The largest ethnicity of Israeli citizens (approximately 1.7 million Israelis) are those who can trace their ancestry to the territory of the former Mandate of Palestine while it was still under Ottoman occupation. The majority of these citizens are non-Jewish and are identified as Israeli Arabs.
2) Russian: After the Russian mass immigration to Israel in the early 1990s, Russians make up the largest Jewish ethnicity (at approximately 1.4 million Israelis).
3) Moroccan: Due to the large Moroccan Jewish immigration in the early 1950s and continuing trickle into the 1970s, the Moroccan Jewish community in Israel is still very large (at approximately 1.2 million Israelis).
The remainder of Israelis hail mostly from Europe, North America, the Arab World, and small minorities from Africa, South America, and East Asia. However, this geographic mixing and matching refers to people's ethnicities. Most Israelis are Israeli-born, not foreign-born.
Are Israel and Iran mostly similar?
The Israeli people and Iranian people are actually rather similar. They both are very cultured with a "European" disposition. They like to read and write, have on-average a high degree of commerce and education, and a strong feeling of a national historic narrative.
The governments and social organization of Israel and Iran, though, could not be more different. Israel is a secular Parliamentary Democracy, where all citizens, including minorities, have the right to vote for the political party that will best represent them. The governing authority forms through various coalitions of different parties which between them select a Prime Minister. Israel protects most basic freedoms such as freedom of speech, freedom from unwarranted searches and seizures, personal freedom (permission of homosexuality and abortions), trial by jury, and numerous other rights. Iran is an Islamic Republic which means that while it has a legislature, its power is strongly circumscribed by an unelected judiciary: the Supreme Council of Ayatollahs. These religious leaders have prevented basic civil rights by repressing minorities, banning freedom of speech and assembly, and executing individuals for violations of Islamic Law. They also have a veto over the candidacy of any politician running for office, meaning that they can effectively prevent any politician who wishes to push Iran in a different direction than they do. Iran has become increasingly religious and apocalyptic in its world view.
Which of the two Israelite kingdoms went into exile first - Israel or Judah?
Israel, comprising ten of the twelve Jewish tribes, was exiled 133 years before Judah was exiled.
What was the climate in ancient Israel?
In Ancient Israel, the temperature was about what it is today. It received four or five more inches (15 centimeters) of rainfall than today. Farms dotted the Sinai with the Bedouins using the hills. Today, there are no farms.
What are the ways of life of people in Israel?
Israelis currently live very similarly to Americans or West Europeans. Most work at businesses, some work in hospitality or the tourism industry, some work in agriculture, and some work in entertainment. They go to malls and beaches when they are off the clock and buy the latest fashions at their leisure.
What was the impact on Israel and Palestine after the Suez Crisis?
Palestine was minimally impacted. There were some border skirmishes with Egyptian-supported Fedayeen in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was overrun during the Arab-Israeli War of 1956, but for the most part, the effect on Palestinians was only slight disheartenment.
Israel had a better showing, occupying parts of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip for nearly half-a-year, securing freedom of access to the Straits of Tiran (at least until 1967, when Egypt would try to close them off agains), and setting the standard of a demilitarized Sinai Peninsula (which was reinstated in 1979 following the Camp David Accords). It was also Israel's first real military success and showed that the state was not going to disappear in the next few years, as predicted by its unabashedly violent neighbors.
What was the vote for and against Israel in 1948?
It needs to be clarified that the vote occurred in 1947 (not 1948) and was not about voting for or against Israel. The United Nations Vote was about the validity and binding nature of UN Resolution 181, which was the United Nations Partition Plan. The Partition Plan gave legitimacy to both the establishment of a Jewish State and an Arab State. The Jews eventually used this legitimacy to declare the Independence of the State of Israel, but there has never been a referendum on Israel's legality.
The vote passed the required two-thirds mark to have binding effect, which means that it serves as a viable international treaty for all United Nations members.
The vote came down (For-Against-Abstaining-Absent) as 33-13-10-1, 72%-28%. (Abstentions and Absentia do not affect percentages.)
To find out further information (such as which countries voted which ways), see the Related Link.
Should Israel have its own land?
Answer 1
Israel already has its own land, so this question sounds strange.
The State of Israel is situated on the historically Jewish land that formed The Kingdom of Israel and The Kingdom of Judah, and the capital of Israel is that same city that was its capital 3,000 years ago: Jerusalem.
Answer 2
Since Israel is an extant country, there is no justifiable reason to deprive it of the land it lawfully occupies. India controls several disputed territories like Arunchal Pradesh and Kashmir, but nobody makes the absurd statement that India should cease to control land at all because there are disputed territories.
The reason why people find it is legitimate to ask these questions of Israel is because Jews did not make up the majority of people in Mandatory Palestine prior to mass immigrations. (Note that this does not legitimize these views, but explains why people have them.) Therefore, Jews have had to defend why their state was legitimate. There is the implicit question as to whether a Jewish State is something that should exist. There is the second implicit question as to whether the geographical location chosen for this Jewish State is proper for its mission. Both questions should be answered in the affirmative for the following reasons.
1) Why a Jewish State: Herzl explained quite well that the European concept of a nation-state was dependent on the idea that all of the people in any particular nation were of the same ethnic stock and heritage. Jews were branded by this system to be "the Other" and were regarded at best as possible equals and at worse as traitors, spies, thieves, and fifth columns. When the Dreyfus Affair turned out marches in Paris that said "Death to the Jews" on account of a kangaroo court against a particular guiltless Jew, it became clear that the Jew could not be integrated into Europe. After the Holocaust, the strongest proof that the Jew and the European Nation-State were irreconcilable, this view persists. In Europe, it is now directed at the Muslims since the Jews are not large enough of a threat to the European System. Unlike Muslims, though, which can return to their countries of origin if the discrimination becomes intolerable, the Jews did not have such a place. This is why the Jewish State is necessary. Since it came into existence it has accepted Jewish political refugees from over 50 nations and flown missions at its own expense to rescue Jews from at least 10 nations.
2) Why Palestine: Ahad Ha'am explains that the Jewish Soul is intrinsically connected to his history and in the same way that a German-American can never be as properly German as a German in Germany, the People of Israel can never be as properly Jewish if they are not in the Land of Israel. The relics in that land speak to a Jewish sensibility and character. There are also religious reasons as expounded by Rav Avraham Kook which posit that the development of a Jewish State in Israel hastens the arrival of the Messiah. There are additional political reasons why Palestine and not Europe. As explained above, the European Culture is strongly anti-Other and making a Jewish State there would have fostered much more contempt and alienation (ironically).
Who is to blame for starting the Arab-Israeli conflict?
It honestly depends on perspective. The Arabs claimed that the Israelis started it for having the audacity to realize their dreams for creating an independent country. The Israelis claimed that the Arabs started it for having the audacity to violently try to repress their dreams to create an independent country. As for what particular event started the conflict, every person would claim something else.
Christians in Israel celebrate Christmas on December 25, just as Christians
everywhere else in the world do. Although Jews don't celebrate Christmas,
Israeli police and military are posted at Christian holy sites, to protect the
security of the Christian pilgrims and avoid disruption of their worship.
Which group wants an independent state of their own in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?
Palestinians and their supporters wish to create a State of Palestine in those regions.
