The State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medinat Yisra’el from יִשְׂרָאֵלYisra’el, “Struggled with God”) is a nation located in the Middle East. It is the world’s only Jewish state, having emerged from Zionism in Europe and the U.S. in the 1880s-1940s. It grants citizenship to anybody considered to be Jewish, although this does not apply to anyone suspected or convicted of serious crimes or who the state otherwise considers a serious threat to its welfare. It also contains Arab Muslim and Arab Christian minorities who are remnants of the pre-1948 Arab majority, along with a small Druze community. It is the location of most Biblical events.
Israel occupies an area along the eastern Mediterranean Sea, with Jordan and Syria to the east; Lebanon on the north; and Egypt to the south. The territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are currently controlled by Israel, but disputed. The terrain varies from a temperate, coastal climate to desert conditions. Israel shares with Jordan the shoreline of the Dead Sea, at 1,378 feet below sea level.
People
Of the approximately 6.43 million Israelis in 2007 about 76% were counted as Jewish, though some of those are not considered Jewish under Orthodox Jewish law. Since 1989, nearly a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union have arrived in Israel, making this the largest wave of immigration since independence. In addition, an estimated 105,000 members of the Ethiopian Jewish community have immigrated to Israel, 14,000 of them during the dramatic May 1991 Operation Solomon airlift. 32.9% of Israelis were born outside of Israel. Under Israel’s Law of Return, any person of Jewish ancestry (with extremely few exceptions, such as those with a criminal background) have a legal right to make Aliyah (immigrate) to Israel.
The three broad Jewish groupings are the Ashkenazim, or Jews who trace their ancestry to Central Europe; the Sephardim, who trace their origin to Spain, Portugal, southern Europe, and North Africa; and Eastern or Oriental Jews, who descend from ancient communities in Islamic lands. Of the non-Jewish population, about 68% are Muslims, about 9% are Christian, and about 7% are Druze.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was formally indicted on charges of accepting bribes, fraud, and breach of trust in connection with three separate scandals. The indictments on Thursday mark the first time in the 71-year history of the nation’s current incarnation that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime. Netanyahu accused political opponents of an “attempted coup.” Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, and ...
When Secretary of State Pompeo announced that the Trump Administration did not view Israeli settlements as violating international law, the American media did its best to convince its audience that this was a radical departure from “40 years” of settled policy. The New York Times outdid itself, insisting in its headline that: In Shift, U.S. Says Israeli Settlements in West Bank Do Not Violate International Law and continued: ...
An internet channel owned by Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera uploaded a video last week claiming Jews control the porn industry and use it to “corrupt people” because they “hate Christ.” According to a translation by watchdog MEMRI, the narrator of the clip on Midan Voice claims that Israel forced the removal of porn sites from the country, which “raises a legitimate question, because it contains a strange paradox: How come the ...
For the first time Iraq's government has issued formal charges blaming Israel for a spate of attacks on Iraqi soil over the past months. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Monday the result of weeks-long investigations into multiple airstrikes and violations of Iraq's airspace show Israel's military to be the culprit. “Investigations into the targeting of some Popular Mobilization Forces positions indicate that Israel ...
(UPI) — Between 1914 and 1923, during and after World War I, hundreds of thousands of Armenians living in Turkey were systematically rounded up and murdered. Thousands more were forced to flee their homes. Some estimates put the death toll at more than 1.5 million. Now, researchers say newly discovered documents suggest the Armenian genocide was both sanctioned and assisted by leaders of the Ottoman Empire ...
SIPRI Governing Board Chair Ambassador Jan Eliasson, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, says: ‘A key finding is that despite an overall decrease in the number of nuclear warheads in 2018, all nuclear weapon-possessing states continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals.’ At the start of 2019, nine states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of ...
The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following Netta's win at the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal, with the song "Toy". It was the third time Israel had hosted the contest, having previously done so in 1979 and 1999. However, this was the first time Israel hosted the contest outside of Jerusalem. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC), the contest ...
Earlier this morning, the Israeli Air Force launched several airstrikes on the key Syrian city of Masyaf in the Hama Governorate. According to a military source near the scene of the airstrikes, the Israeli warplanes hit a number of sites near the Masyaf National Hospital. The source said the Israeli airstrikes targeted some of the military storages in Masyaf; this resulted in several loud explosions that ...
Beirut (GPA) – During his visit with US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, Lebanese President Michael Aoun reportedly received a US-Israeli document detailing plans for creating a civil war in Lebanon with covert false flag operations and possible Israeli invasion. Although the source of the document is Israeli and created in partnership with Washington, no one knows who presented it to Aoun. The Lebanese TV station, ...
The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Gaza protests presented its conclusions, according to which 183 Palestinians were killed by Israel, including 35 children. The investigative commission of the United Nations Human Rights Council that examined the most recent round of violence on the Israel-Gaza border presented its findings on Thursday, saying it found "reasonable grounds" that Israeli security forces violated international law. The commission ...
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