Portal:Israel
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Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל ; Medinat Yisra'el; Arabic: دَوْلَةْ إِسْرَائِيل, Dawlat Isrā'īl), officially the State of Israel, is a country in Western Asia on the southeastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan in the east, and Egypt in the south-west and has a population of over seven million people. Founded in 1948, Israel is the world's only Jewish state although its population includes citizens from many ethnic and religious backgrounds. Israel is a parliamentary democracy with multi-party system and separation of powers, rated as "Free" by Freedom House. In 2005 Reporters Without Borders ranked it 47th out of 167 countries in freedom of the press (just behind the United States at 44th), the highest of any country in the Middle East. Israel enjoys a vibrant cultural life and has a technologically advanced economy. Israel was ranked 23rd out of 177 countries in the 2005 United Nations Human Development Index, the highest ranking in the Middle East and 3rd highest in all of Asia. The Land of Israel was the birthplace of Judaism in the 10th century BCE or earlier and of Christianity at the beginning of the 1st century CE. 
 Ilan Ramon (Hebrew: אילן רמון) (June 20, 1954 – February 1, 2003) was a combat pilot in the Israeli Air Force and later the first Israeli astronaut. Ramon was the space shuttle payload specialist of STS-107 (Columbia) who was killed along with the rest of the shuttle's crew when it disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. 
As a fighter pilot, Ramon fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and in 1981 he took part in the Operation Opera. In 1997, Colonel Ramon was selected as a Payload Specialist. In July 1998, he reported for training at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, where he trained until 2003. He flew aboard STS-107, logging 15 days, 22 hours and 20 minutes in space. For ancient history, see History of ancient Israel and Judah... In 637 Jerusalem was surrendered to the Caliph Omar bin al-Khattab expanding Muslim rule to the region. The Ottoman Empire controlled the Land of Israel for 400 years, from 1517 when Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem until 1917 when British Field Marshal Allenby defeated them, and it then became the British Mandate of Palestine until 1947. Three years after World War II and the Holocaust, Israel was declared on May 14, 1948... The Arab-Israeli conflict started the next day with the 1948 war when Israel was attacked by Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq because they did not accept the 1947 UN Partition Plan... The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) defeated all of them and the 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed... Close to one million Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews fled their homes because of Arab anti-Semitism, most came to Israel... During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria... In 1973 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War, the IDF defeated them... Subsequently the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty was signed in 1979 and the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace in 1994... There is a peace process to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... The government of Ariel Sharon built a barrier and implemented a unilateral plan pulling Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank in 2005.
The modern culture of Israel is inseparable from Judaism and Jewish history although it differs in many ways. It flourishes in many areas, such as music, literature, museums, sport, universities, film, archaeology, cuisine with tradition and humor often revolving around food. Subcategories of Israel: |
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