Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,900
edits
Israel: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (cleanup {{Useful Notes}}) |
No edit summary |
||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Useful Notes}}
[[File:
'''Note:''' ''This page discusses the modern incarnation of Israel. For ancient Israel, see [[The Bible
The undisputed world champion in geopolitical buzz per square kilometer of dirt.
Line 11:
This in particular owes itself to the [[Arab-Israeli Conflict]], which is the result of both Jews and Muslims laying claim to the same land. There has been a small Jewish presence in the area that is modern-day Israel since Biblical times, though they were by no means in charge. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, Jews began returning to Israel en-masse. Israel, at the time, was a desolate, end-of-nowhere wasteland ruled from afar by the Ottomans. The Jews were willing to pay many times the going rate for the land, still considering it holy despite it being desolate, and the landlords had little interest in swamps and deserts - which was everywhere that wasn't Jerusalem, which was itself a run-down, dirty city. With years of effort and incredible amounts of money being sunk in, eventually the some of the land was made arable again. The Jews built Tel Aviv completely out of the sand, and dozens of suburbs of Jerusalem (the new, modern city) sprang up on Jewish dollar. This, in turn, brought in large numbers of Muslims and Christians to what is also their Holy Land (most holy for Christians, third-most holy for Muslims), which was flourishing once more. There was sporadic tension and hostilities, but by-and-large the situation worked.
Cue [[World War
Then came the Mandatory period, where the British were assigned to make sure that the Jews became ready to run their own state. Obviously, this job was given to the British on their stellar reputation for [[Sarcasm Mode|''not being antisemitic'' and ''not destroying every and any country they ran by setting everyone against each other'']]. That, like in many other places, was when shit started hitting the fan.
For the better part of the next two decades (through [[
Through the course of this, the British removed what is now Lebanon from the original plan of land to give to the Jews from the (now defunct) [[League of Nations]]. They also more-famously partitioned the remaining land among the Jews and Muslims, in the final schema that they presented to the new United Nations General Body - who didn't and still doesn't have the right to create a country, it should be noted; since the dissolution of the League of Nations, only the United Nations Security Council can do that legally - who did pass the resolution to divvy up that land and finally present it to the Jews and Muslims living in Israel. The Jews accepted the plan, the Muslims rejected it on the grounds of not getting all of Israel - something the UNGB couldn't have ever legally done, mind!
This whole time, most of those Jews and Muslims had been trying to live normal lives in peaceful cohabitation (except the ones trying to kill each other, and even them sometimes). However, with the British doing their usual divide-and-conquer gambit, and foreign Muslims leaders (especially those of Egypt and Saudi Arabia) egging on the violence, it couldn't last.
The day that Israel declared independence, it was invaded by the armies of the seven Arab nations; those armies were roughly equal to the Israeli population. The local Muslims left the country at the urging of those armies; the latter recommended a several-day holiday, avoiding the grimness of the war, and then returning when it was over and all the Jews dead. Obviously, against all conventional military wisdom, this didn't happen. However, at this point the Israelis couldn't well let collaborators back into the country - you try telling Jews to trust ''"just collaborators"'' so soon after [[the Holocaust
Since then, the "[[Arab-Israeli Conflict]]" has perpetuated. In part it's grievances that are somewhat legitimate, such as the issue of those refugees, who incidentally are the only people in the world born into refugee status - normally a refugee is only someone who personally fled a country, but in this case the rule is different and all descendants of refugees are refugees themselves, which makes no sense at all. It's also in large part still the prodding of Saudi Princes, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, the other usual bad actors. The street-circus of news companies - even among otherwise very-reputable news sources - doesn't help a jot, either. As an interesting aside, technically Israel has only ever successfully made peace with two Arab nations (Jordan and [[Egypt]]), and thus is still at war with at least five of them, making the "Arab-Israeli Conflict" one of the longest wars in history, although that's not the usual usage of that term.
On less inflammatory aspects; Israel is known for having one of the best education systems in Asia, and for a thriving computer industry; cell phones, texting, laptops, hard drives; many of these things wouldn't exist without Israel. It is one of the most economically and technologically advanced countries in the Middle East, despite having only been founded relatively recently. Compounding this effect is the large influx of intellectuals from foreign nations, particularly those who fled Nazi persecution, the more recent surge of immigrants from former communist states (which, in contrast to Cold War-era propaganda, are very well educated), the studious nature of Jewish culture, and Israel's particular defense needs (the current Israeli high-tech boom was spurred by veterans of [[wikipedia:IAI Lavi|one fighter plane project]]).
Line 35:
Although Israel definitely sits on the Asian continent, it participates in a fair number of European institutions, for varying reasons. Israel can participate in the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] because it can receive radio signals from a "proper" European country (or some such), it participates in the European Football Championship, and it is a member of the Western European and Others group in the [[United Nations]]. This is all partly because Europeans consider it culturally European, and partly because the Arabs wouldn't have them in the Asian/Middle Eastern equivalents.
[[File:Flag_of_Israel.svg|thumb|The Israeli flag]]▼
* [[Ephraim Kishon]]
* [[Natalie Portman]] (born there)
* [[Useful Notes/Arab-Israeli Conflict|Arab Israeli Conflict]]
* [[Israelis With Infrared Missiles]] (The Israeli Defense Force, the national military of Israel)
Line 55:
** Images of Israel tend toward this, too. Also, Mizrakhim tend to be discriminated against.
*** This is more of an issue when it comes to much older generations. For anyone who’s in their twenties and younger in Israel today this is essentially a non-issue.
* [[
* [[Base Breaker]]: Israel is one of the biggest ones in geopolitics.
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]- Maps without Israel in them are a popular accessory in schools the other side of the conflict. A strong contender for most audacious [[Canon Discontinuity]] in the history of ever.
Line 86:
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' go to Israel in one episode, though there are very few countries they haven't been to at this point. Notable that Homer was able to get all religions in the holy land to agree on one thing: that they hated him.
▲[[File:Flag_of_Israel.svg|thumb]]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/The Middle East]]
[[Category:index]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
| |||