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Israel: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News – Huffington Post

Posted By on September 11, 2015

Each week we share a random video clip to fuel your travel dreams. This week, we take in the sights, sounds, and experiences that reward a curious tra...

Rick Steves

Author of European travel guidebooks and host of travel shows on public television and public radio

Given my long public record of correcting misperceptions about Islam and championing the rights of American Muslims, why was I consorting with the so-called "enemy"?

If GCC officials slowly pivot toward the perception that their long-term interests reside in an improved relationship toward Iran, such a strategic shift would be seen in Riyadh as an erosion of GCC unity against an emboldened Iran.

After five weeks in Israel, a couple of days after the war ended, I left the bubble -- only to realize I had just reentered another. A benign bubble, for sure, substituting "rationality" for hatred, godless happiness for divine devotion, but a bubble nonetheless.

Uriel Abulof

Associate professor of politics, Tel-Aviv University; LISD Senior Research Fellow, Princeton Universitys Woodrow Wilson School

No doubt, the bombastic Donald is an unlikely president. Yet what may be most extraordinary about his campaign is that on foreign policy, at least, he may be the most sensible Republican in the race.

It's imperative that the Jewish and Israel-loving community never succumb to battle-fatigue over the Iran deal and make things personal. Cory's choice to vote for the Iran deal is not a personal betrayal or a display of disloyalty to the Jewish community.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Rabbi Shmuley, "America's Rabbi," is the international best-selling author of 30 books and an award-winning TV host and columnist.

During my term as Israel's Ambassador in Washington, I visited Pollard in his North Carolina prison. I did not find him defiant. I did not find him exasperated over why the U.S. reneged on its deal. I found only a fellow Jew in poor health and in need of liberty.

Danny Ayalon

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Rennert Visiting Professor of Foreign Policy Studies at Yeshiva University

President Barack Obama and Governor Jerry Brown have both been pushing the envelope of efforts to bring climate change under control and running up against major ingrown opposition to their efforts.

A Republican former secretary of state and a Democratic "Jewish mother" may have just given us the strongest case yet for the nuclear agreement with Iran. The first is a pillar of the "realist" camp in the American national security establishment. The second is a rising star in the Democratic Party from a heavily Jewish district in South Florida. Together, they represent key constituencies whose support for the historic accord is critical to isolating right-wing opponents and preventing last-minute sabotage attempts. Together, they also lay out a compelling narrative of why the agreement is so important to American national security.

Joe Cirincione

President, Ploughshares Fund; Author, 'Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late'

I could write you all the details of the high-pitched screams, the hitting, pinching and the pushing (all in the back seat), but that would be way too overwhelming and annoying.

Tosha Schore, M.A.

Teaching parents how to handle those rip-out-your-hair parenting moments.

I'm angry. As a woman film blogger, I need twice as much effort and talent to get a quarter of the recognition that my male counterparts receive. I notice it on a daily basis and I've grown to really hate it.

His behavior since July has provided strong evidence that he not only doesn't care about bipartisan support for Israel but, rather, is actively working to swing Jewish support to the Republicans while virtually writing off, even deliberately alienating, traditionally pro-Israel liberal Democrats.

Paul Scham

Associate Research Professor of Israel Studies and Executive Director of the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies at the University of Maryland

Israel's multiple fault lines -- secular vs. religious, Jewish vs. Palestine and controversial calls for a boycott of the Jewish state -- are exploding on the soccer pitch.

James Dorsey

Senior fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

One could hardly blame liberal Jews for wanting to celebrate AIPAC's defeat or for some Israeli's to lament what they called "Netanyahu's strategic blunder". Both views, however, are nave and shortsighted. On several levels, Netanyahu won.

James Zogby

President, Arab American Institute; author, 'Arab Voices'

My daughter, my eldest child, just had her first child-- a baby boy. They live in Israel, and I flew over for his birth and to help afterwards. What w...

Dawn Q Landau

Mother, Writer, Traveler, Treasure Hunter and Sushi lover. Dawn was named a BlogHer "Voices of the Year" for 2015 and writes regularly on her blog: Tales From the Motherland.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's August campaign trip to Israel challenged longstanding U.S. policy towards Israel and the Palestinian territories.

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Israel: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News - Huffington Post

Russian troops reportedly join Syria fight, prop up …

Posted By on September 11, 2015

The Obama administration's hopes for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step aside and make way for a democratic government in Damascus are being dashed once again -- this time, by evidence that the dictator's strongest ally is joining the fight to keep him in power.

According to multiple reports, Russian troops are on the ground to aid Assad forces battling Islamic State militants.

To make matters worse, the Obama administration's push to train and equip a moderate rebel force has failed to get off the ground. The developments are, in turn, fueling criticism of the U.S. effort to bring peace to the long-running civil war.

"The whole region is in chaos," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told Fox News on Thursday.

The State Department has warned that Russia's latest involvement in Syria could "further escalate the conflict" and "risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL Coalition operating in Syria."

But Moscow appears to have ignored that warning, despite a second call in five days from Secretary of State John Kerry to his counterpart in Russia expressing "concerns" about the "buildup."

Reuters now reports that the Russian forces, according to Lebanese sources, are participating in military operations to boost Assad troops. Israel's defense minister also said Thursday that Russian troops are in Syria to help Assad fight ISIS, and could be looking to launch jets and combat helicopters, the Associated Press reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov acknowledged at a news conference Thursday that Moscow indeed is sending military equipment, which he said falls under "existing contracts." He said Russia "will continue aiding the Syrian government in equipping the Syrian army with all that is necessary for it to prevent a repetition in Syria of the Libyan scenario and other sad events that have occurred in this region, because of an obsession by some of our western partners with ideas of changing unwanted regimes.''

Russia earlier acknowledged it has military experts on the ground, but had not addressed the scope of that effort.

U.S. officials also tell Fox News the Pentagon has observed several Russian military cargo flights into Syria -- to date, the Pentagon has seen seven An-124 "Condor" flights to an airbase outside of Latakia, a port city on the Mediterranean, Fox News is told.

A separate official confirmed that two Russian Navy tank landing ships moored in Tartus -- where the Russians have a naval base -- in the past few days, offloading armored vehicles as well as nearly 50 Russian marines.

Asked what the U.S. military planned to do about the Russian buildup, the official said, "nothing."

It's unclear how far Russia is preparing to go to boost Assad, but one U.S. official told Fox News the presence there is "unprecedented."

"This is definitely a build-up straight out of Russia's military doctrine," one official said.

The development comes as the Obama administration's effort to train and equip a moderate rebel fighting force in Syria falters.

The Pentagon says it has spent nearly $42 million -- out of $500 million allocated by Congress -- to train a total of 54 fighters so far.

But Politico reported Thursday that all those fighters are now either dead, captured or missing. Asked by Fox News how many of the 54 the Pentagon could account for, a Pentagon spokesman did not answer directly, saying only that they've "been candid that the initial phase of this program did not lift off with the kind of efficiency that we'd hoped."

The spokesman added that "supporting these moderate Syrian forces is a critical component in the fight going forward."

Without a credible moderate rebel force operating inside Syria, though, Assad is potentially poised to strengthen his position, now that the Russians are involved. Despite the Obama administration's fizzled "red line" threat over Assad's chemical weapons use and declarations that he needs to relinquish power, Assad's most powerful opponent remains the Islamic State and other terror groups -- which the United States also is fighting.

McCain said the Russians are moving to "prop up" Assad and argued the Syrian strongman is surviving with the help of allies like Moscow and Tehran.

"That's the only thing that's keeping Bashar Assad in power," he told Fox News on Thursday.

He faulted the Obama administration for both withdrawing forces from Iraq and not doing more from the start to get rid of Assad, saying this fueled the rise of ISIS.

"When we create that vacuum, then it is filled by evil," McCain said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Republican presidential candidate, also told Fox News that the administration should have helped the Free Syrian Army three years ago by establishing a no-fly zone -- "when it would have mattered."

Even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton critiqued the Syria policy. "We have to bring sufficient pressure on Assad to force a political solution in Syria, including a meaningful increase in our efforts to train and equip the moderate Syrian opposition, something I called for early in the conflict," Clinton, the former secretary of state, said Wednesday in Washington.

State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday that Kerry is warning his Russian counterpart, Lavrov, that Russia is fueling instability in the country where a four-year civil war has claimed 250,000 lives.

"[Kerry] reiterated our concern about these reports of Russian military activities -- or buildup, if you will -- in Syria and made very clear our view that [it] ... could lead to greater violence and more -- even more instability in Syria," Kirby said.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

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Russian troops reportedly join Syria fight, prop up ...

Match Preview – Wales vs Israel | 06 Sep 2015

Posted By on September 11, 2015

Last Updated: 06/09/15 4:13pm

Wales striker Gareth Bale runs over to the bench after scoring against Cyprus

Wales can seal their place at a major tournament for the first time in 58 years with victory against Israel on Sunday.

Chris Coleman's side head into their Euro 2016 qualifier at the Cardiff City Stadium on the brink of ending more than half a century of heartache away from world football's biggest stages.

The hosts enter the game in buoyant mood after Gareth Bale's 82nd-minute header sealed victory in Cyprus, and they will be looking to build on that display, as well as their positive performance in their last game in Cardiff, where they defeated Belgium.

Israel also have automatic qualification ambitions after a 4-0 win over Andorra on Thursday kept them in touch with the top two in Group B.

Eli Guttman's side are just two points behind second-placed Belgium and will be out to atone for their 3-0 home defeat to Wales when the sides met back in March.

Team news

After arriving back from Cyprus on Friday, Wales are not expected to make too many changes against Israel.

Midfielder Joe Ledley has been forced to pull out with a hamstring injury so Nottingham Forest's David Vaughan has been called up to the squad.

Israel will be without a number of regulars due to injury, including Lior Refaelov, Rami Gershon, Sheran Yeini and Omer Damari.

Stats

Wales are aiming to qualify for their first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup.

Wales are unbeaten in a record nine competitive games (W6 D3) going back to September 2013.

Bale's header secured Wales' victory over Cyprus which leaves them one win away from securing European qualification

Gareth Bale has either scored or assisted eight of Wales' nine goals in 2016 European Qualifiers (six goals, two assists).

Wales have kept five clean sheets in their six Qualifiers, including their last four, but they have never gone five successive internationals without conceding.

Israel are looking to qualify for their first major tournament since the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.

Betting

Sky Bet make Wales odds-on shots to secure the three points they need against Israel (18/5) to book a place in the Euro 2016 finals.

Chris Coleman's men lead Belgium by three points and are 1/3 to qualify as Group B winners with Belgium 2/1 shots to overhaul them.

Gareth Bale scored the winner against Cyprus last week and the Real Madrid man has been Price Boosted to 9/4 to net in a home win while Aaron Ramsey is 8/1 (from 6/1) to open the scoring.

Watch live coverage of Wales v Israel on Sky Sports 1 HD from 4.30pm on Sunday.

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Match Preview - Wales vs Israel | 06 Sep 2015

TRAVEL PALESTINE | The Official Site for Tourism in Palestine

Posted By on September 10, 2015

Welcome to Palestine

With a history that envelops more than one million years, Palestine has played an important role in human civilisation. The crucible of prehistoric cultures, it is where settled society, the alphabet, religion, and literature developed, and would become a meeting place for diverse cultures and ideas that shaped the world we know today. Its rich and diverse past, abundant cultural heritage, and the archaeological and religious sites of the three monotheistic faiths including the birthplace of Jesus Christ, make Palestine a unique centre of world history.Continue reading

Round up the best of Palestine the holy shrines, the historical treasures, the hospitality, the folklore, the hiking, the biking, the culture, the handicrafts, the food, the beer and you have the building blocks for one of the most interesting journeys youll ever take. While so many things in Palestine are interesting, some things are better defined as surprising! Weve selected a collection of Palestines Most Interesting for First-timers Continue reading

Most first-time visitors to Palestine will stick to highlights like the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Old City and Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and Tel Es-Sultan and Quarantine in Jericho. But for those that have been to Continue reading

People choosing to explore pedal power can enjoy tracks in an enchanted landscape rich in history; immersed in the breathtaking Biblical landscape, taking the ancient roads from the quiet of the Jerusalem Wilderness desert to the majesty of the Dead Continue reading

Accommodations are not hard to find in Palestine, for Palestine is a place where hospitality is a way of living. Whether you are a comfort traveler or an economic one, Palestinian cities boast an array of hotels and guesthouses as tourists and pilgrims are frequent in this beautiful country.

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TRAVEL PALESTINE | The Official Site for Tourism in Palestine

Aliyah is Up: 29,500 Immigrants Arrived in Israel in 5775

Posted By on September 10, 2015

According to data compiled by The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, some 29,500 immigrants arrived in Israel in the Jewish year 5775, representing a 13% increase over the 26,000 who came in 5774.

Most of this years immigrants came from the former Soviet Union (some 14,100, compared to 10,800 last year) and Europe (more than 9,000, compared to 8,400 last year). Some 3.600 immigrants came to Israel from North America (similar to last years number) and 1,200 came from South America (a modest increase compared to last year).

The two largest sources of aliyah were France, with 7,350 immigrants compared to 6,700 in 5774 (a 10% increase), and Ukraine, with 6,900 immigrants compared to 4,600 last year (a 50% increase).

The Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption have been running programs in both countries in order to encourage aliyah and remove barriers to the immigrants integration in Israeli society. Aliyah from Russia also saw a significant 23% increase with the arrival of some 5,900 immigrants this year compared to 4,800 in 5774.

Also in Europe, some 690 immigrants arrived in Israel from the United Kingdom (a 13% increase when compared to the 612 who came last year), some 400 from Italy (a 30% increase, compared to 300 last year), and 290 from Belgium (similar to last years figure).

Immigrants to Israel came from 97 countries across the world. One immigrant each came from Andorra, Angola, Namibia, Paraguay, the Philippines, and Slovakia.

The Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky, said: For the past few years, the majority of immigrants to Israel have been coming from free and democratic Western countries. These immigrants free choice to live in Israel, and their preference for Israel over other countries, is the true triumph of Zionism.

Minister of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption Zeev Elkin added: These figures, which show a significant increase in the number of immigrants to Israel, reinforce the overall picture that the year 2015 will represent a year of record aliyah for more than a decade. We estimate that, at this rate, by the end of the civil year we will reach between 30,000 and 35,000 immigrants. This is a window of opportunity that the State of Israel cannot miss. Therefore, we at the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, the government, and Israeli society in general are faced with a fascinating and compelling challenge, to both ensure that immigrants who arrive in Israel are well integrated and do whatever we can to increase activities to encourage aliyah.

Thousands of the new immigrants to Israel are young college graduates who came via specially created programs run by The Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption. Some 3,000 of the new immigrants work in engineering and technology, and more than 1,000 are doctors and other medical professionals. Some 70% of the new arrivals are under the age of 44, including some 7,800 who are 19 or younger and some 12,000 between the ages of 20 and 44.

As in previous years, the bulk of immigrants came during the summer, which saw the arrival of some 8,350 immigrants compared to the 7,160 who came last year (a 17% increase).

The three most popular destinations in Israel were Tel Aviv-Yafo, which welcomed some 3,500 new immigrants, the coastal city of Netanya with 3,400, and Jerusalem, which some 3,000 new immigrants made their home in 5775.

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Aliyah is Up: 29,500 Immigrants Arrived in Israel in 5775

Hasidic philosophy – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted By on September 10, 2015

Ashkenazi Hebrew – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted By on September 10, 2015

There are considerable differences between the Lithuanian, Polish (also known as Galician), Hungarian, and German pronunciations. These are most obvious in the treatment of lam: the German pronunciation is [au], the Galician/Polish pronunciation is [oi], the Hungarian is [i], and the Lithuanian pronunciation is [ei]. Other variants exist: for example in the United Kingdom, the original tradition was to use the German pronunciation, but over the years the sound of olam has tended to merge with the local pronunciation of long "o" as in "toe", and some communities have abandoned Ashkenazi Hebrew altogether in favour of the Israeli-Sephardi pronunciation. (Haredi communities in England usually use the Galician/Polish [oi]).

Another feature that distinguishes the Lithuanian pronunciation, traditionally used in an area encompassing modern day's Baltic States, Belarus and parts of Ukraine and Russia, is its merger of sin and shin, both of which are pronounced as [s]. This is similar to the pronunciation of the Ephraimites recorded in Judges 12, which is the source of the term Shibboleth.

There have been several theories on the origins of the different Hebrew reading traditions. The basic cleavage is between those who believe that the differences arose in medieval Europe and those who believe that they reflect older differences between the pronunciations of Hebrew and Aramaic current in different parts of the Fertile Crescent, that is to say Judaea, Galilee, Syria, northern Mesopotamia and Babylonia proper.

Within the first group of theories, Zimmels believed that the Ashkenazi pronunciation arose in late medieval Europe and that the pronunciation prevailing in France and Germany in the time of the Tosafists was similar to the Sephardic. His evidence for this was the fact that Asher ben Jehiel, a German who became chief rabbi of Toledo, never refers to any difference of pronunciation, though he is normally very sensitive to differences between the two communities.[citation needed]

The difficulty with the second group of theories is that we do not know for certain what the pronunciations of these countries actually were and how far they differed. Since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, if not before, the Sephardic pronunciation of the vowels became standard in all these countries, ironing out any differences that previously existed.[2] This makes it harder to adjudicate between the different theories on the relationship between today's pronunciation systems and those of ancient times.

Leopold Zunz believed that the Ashkenazi pronunciation was derived from that of Palestine in Geonic times (7th11th centuries CE), while the Sephardi pronunciation was derived from that of Babylonia. This theory was supported by the fact that, in some respects, Ashkenazi Hebrew resembles the western dialect of Syriac while Sephardi Hebrew resembles the eastern, e.g. Eastern Syriac Peshitta as against Western Syriac Peshito. Ashkenazi Hebrew in its written form also resembles Palestinian Hebrew in its tendency to male spellings (see Mater lectionis).

Others, including Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, believed that the distinction is more ancient, and represents the distinction between the Judaean and Galilean dialects of Hebrew in Mishnaic times (1st2nd centuries CE), with the Sephardi pronunciation being derived from Judaean and the Ashkenazi from Galilean. This theory is supported by the fact that Ashkenazi Hebrew, like Samaritan Hebrew, has lost the distinct sounds of many of the guttural letters, while there are references in the Talmud to this as a feature of Galilean speech. Idelsohn ascribes the Ashkenazi (and, on his theory, Galilean) pronunciation of kamatz gadol as [o] to the influence of Phoenician: see Canaanite shift.

In the time of the Masoretes (8th10th centuries CE) there were three distinct notations for denoting vowels and other details of pronunciation in Biblical and liturgical texts. One was the Babylonian; another was the Palestinian; the third was the Tiberian, which eventually superseded the other two and is still in use today.

In certain respects the Ashkenazi pronunciation provides a better fit to the Tiberian notation than do the other reading traditions: for example, it distinguishes between pata and qama gadol, and between segol and ere, and does not make the qama symbol do duty for two different sounds. A distinctive variant of the Tiberian notation was in fact used by Ashkenazim, before being superseded by the standard version. On the other hand it is unlikely that in the Tiberian system ere and olam were diphthongs as they are in Ashkenazi Hebrew: they are more likely to have been closed vowels. (On the other hand, these vowels sometimes correspond to diphthongs in Arabic.) For more details of the reconstructed pronunciation underlying the Tiberian notation, see Tiberian vocalization.

In other respects Ashkenazi Hebrew resembles Yemenite Hebrew, which appears to be related to the Babylonian notation. Shared features include the pronunciation of qama gadol as [o] and, in the case of Lithuanian Jews and some but not all Yemenites, of olam as [e]. These features are not found in the Hebrew pronunciation of today's Iraqi Jews, which as explained has been overlaid by Sephardi Hebrew, but are found in some of the Judeo-Aramaic languages of northern Iraq and in the Syriac language.

Another possibility is that these features were found within an isogloss that included Syria, northern Palestine and northern Mesopotamia but not Judaea or Babylonia proper, and did not coincide exactly with the use of any one notation (and the olam = [e] shift may have applied to a more restricted area than the qama gadol = [o] shift). The Yemenite pronunciation would, on this hypothesis, be derived from that of northern Mesopotamia and the Ashkenazi pronunciation from that of northern Palestine. The Sephardic pronunciation appears to be derived from that of Judaea, as evidenced by its fit to the Palestinian notation.

According to the Maharal of Prague[3] and many other scholars,[4] including Rabbi Yaakov Emden, one of the leading Hebrew grammarians of all time,[5] Ashkenazi Hebrew is the most accurate pronunciation of Hebrew preserved. The reason given is that it preserves distinctions, such as between pata and qama, which are not reflected in the Sephardic and other dialects. Only in the Ashkenazi pronunciation are all seven "nequdot" (the Hebrew vowels of the ancient Tiberian tradition) distinguished: Yemenite, which comes close, does not distinguish pata from segol.

On the other hand, this view does not appear to be supported by any non-Ashkenazi scholars. Some scholars argue in favour of the greater authenticity of the Yemenite pronunciation on the ground that it is the only Hebrew pronunciation to distinguish all the consonants.

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Ashkenazi Hebrew - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Holocaust Denial | Southern Poverty Law Center

Posted By on September 9, 2015

Deniers of the Holocaust, the systematic murder of around 6 million Jews in World War II, either deny that such a genocide took place or minimize its extent. These groups (and individuals) often cloak themselves in the sober language of serious scholarship, call themselves historical revisionists instead of deniers, and accuse their critics of trying to squelch open-minded inquiries into historical truth.

The deniers claims run a gamut. Some say that most Jews were the victims of disease and other privations, or died in much the same way that other casualties of a huge and horrific war did. Some say that the gas chambers did not exist, or were only used to delouse prisoners, or could not possibly have killed as many victims as mainstream historians have asserted, and many suggest that the gas chambers were built after the war as a way extracting reparations from the Germans. The main purpose of Holocaust denial has been to rehabilitate the German Nazis image as part of a bid to make the ideology of national socialism more acceptable.

David Irving, a British writer who is the worlds best-known denier, sued an American scholar for calling him a denier but suffered a devastating defeat in 2000, when a British judge concluded that Irving had selectively edited the facts in his books as part of his pro-Nazi, pro-Hitler and anti-Jewish ideology.

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Holocaust Denial | Southern Poverty Law Center

Gaza Strip Economy 2015, CIA World Factbook

Posted By on September 9, 2015

Economy - overview: Israeli security controls imposed since the end of the second intifada have degraded economic conditions in the Gaza Strip, the smaller of the two areas comprising the Palestinian territories. Israeli-imposed border closures, which became more restrictive after HAMAS seized control of the territory in June 2007, have resulted in high unemployment, elevated poverty rates, and a sharp contraction of the private sector that had relied primarily on export markets. Gazans increasingly turned to tunnels that ran under the Egyptian border to bring in fuel, construction materials, and consumer goods. In July 2013, Egyptian authorities began a serious crackdown on the tunnels, causing shortages in Gaza. The population depends on government spending - by both the Palestinian Authority and HAMAS's de facto government - and humanitarian assistance. Changes to Israeli restrictions on imports in 2010 resulted in a rebound in some economic activity, but regular exports from Gaza still are not permitted. Standard-of-living measures remain below levels seen in the mid-1990s.

GDP (purchasing power parity): see entry for West Bank [see also: GDP country ranks ]

GDP - real growth rate: see entry for West Bank [see also: GDP - real growth rate country ranks ]

GDP - per capita: see entry for West Bank [see also: GDP - per capita country ranks ]

GDP - composition, by end use: household consumption: 99.5% government consumption: 29.5% investment in fixed capital: 18% investment in inventories: 0% exports of goods and services: 14.9% imports of goods and services: -62%

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Gaza Strip Economy 2015, CIA World Factbook

history of Palestine | Britannica.com

Posted By on September 9, 2015

History

The Yarmk was the site of the Battle of the Yarmk River, one of the decisive battles in the history of Palestine. The Arabs, who under Khlid ibn al-Wald had conquered Damascus in ad 635, were forced to leave the city when they were threatened by a large Byzantine army under Theodorus Trithurius. Khlid concentrated his forces south of the Yarmk River,...

...treaties in the ancient world comes from Hittite sources, which were contemporary with the events that preceded and led up to the formation of the ancient Israelite federation of tribes in Palestine. The treaty form in written texts was highly developed and flexible but usually exhibited the following structure: preamble, historical prologue, stipulations, provisions for deposit and...

A successful surprise attack on the Egyptian relief army ensured the Crusaders occupation of Palestine. Having fulfilled their vows of pilgrimage, most of the Crusaders departed for home, leaving the problem of governing the conquered territories to the few who remained. Initially, there was disagreement concerning the nature of the government to be established, and some held that the holy...

...vacant bishoprics and abbacies from Clement III (118791). Yet Frederick did not live to consolidate this effort. The defeat of the Crusader army at an in the Holy Land in July 1187 and the subsequent fall of Jerusalem sent a great shock through the West and inspired the Third Crusade. Frederick took the cross; the kings of England and France followed...

...from Asia is known in the late 12th dynasty and became more widespread in the 13th. From the late 18th century bc the northeastern Nile River delta was settled by successive waves of peoples from Palestine, who retained their own material culture. Starting with the Instruction for Merikare, Egyptian texts warn against the dangers of infiltration of this sort, and its occurrence...

...frequent and violent. The pressure prevented any Egyptian government from settling its two main external problems: the need to revise the treaty with Britain, and the wish to back the Arabs in Palestine. Negotiations with Britain, undertaken by al-Nuqrsh and (after February 1946) by his successor, idq, broke down over the British refusal to rule out eventual...

After rule by the Ottoman Empire ended there in World War I (191418), the Gaza area became part of the League of Nations mandate of Palestine under British rule. Before this mandate ended, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in November 1947 accepted a plan for the Arab-Jewish partition of Palestine under which the town of Gaza and an area of surrounding territory were to be...

militant Palestinian Islamic movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in Palestine. Founded in 1987, ams opposed the 1993 peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

...198690. One conflict, however, always remained volatileand perhaps even more so for the retreat of the superpowers and their stabilizing influence: the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Throughout his years as U.S. secretary of state, George Schultz had tried to promote the peace process in the Middle East by brokering direct negotiations between Israel and the...

The Jewish population is diverse. Jews from eastern and western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia, North America, and Latin America have been immigrating to this area since the late 19th century. Differing in ethnic origin and culture, they brought with them languages and customs from a variety of countries. The Jewish community today includes survivors of the Holocaust,...

The Zionist movement of the late 19th century had led by 1917 to the Balfour Declaration, by which Britain promised an eventual homeland for Jews in Palestine. When that former Ottoman province became a British mandate under the League of Nations in 1922, it contained about 700,000 people, of whom only 58,000 were Jews. By the end of the 1920s, however, the Jewish community had tripled, and,...

...in rallying pan-Arab unity around resistance to Israels plans to divert the waters of the Jordan. Also with both eyes on Israel, the conference restored an Arab High Command and elevated the Palestinian refugees (scattered among several Arab states since 1948) to a status approaching sovereignty, with their own army and headquarters in the Gaza Strip. Syria likewise sponsored a terrorist...

(Hebrew: Defense), Zionist military organization representing the majority of the Jews in Palestine from 1920 to 1948. Organized to combat the revolts of Palestinian Arabs against the Jewish settlement of Palestine, it early came under the influence of the Histadrut (General Federation of Labour). Although it was outlawed by the British Mandatory authorities and was...

Jewish right-wing underground movement in Palestine, founded in 1931. At first supported by many nonsocialist Zionist parties, in opposition to the Haganah, it became in 1936 an instrument of the Revisionist Party, an extreme nationalist group that had seceded from the World Zionist Organization and whose policies called for the use of force, if necessary, to establish a Jewish state on both...

...and nationalist parties. The decision caused deep divisions within the party; many members objected that alliance would undermine Labours position of support for peace negotiations with the Palestinians. In January 2011 Barak and four Labour members of the Knesset split away from Labour, forming a new party that remained in the ruling coalition. The remaining Labour members of the...

...government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin) and the Palestine Liberation Organization; although Likud supported a peace with guarantees of security, it opposed ceding major portions of land to Palestinian control and dismantling Israeli settlements in the territories that Israel had conquered in 1967. However, in subsequent years the party grew increasingly divided over its policies...

In modern times, Lod was part of the territory allocated to the potential Arab state in Palestine according to the United Nations partition resolution of Nov. 29, 1947. When the resolution was rejected by the Arab states, Lod was occupied by the invading Arab Legion of Jordan. The Israel Defense Forces attacked and captured the city on July 12, 1948; since then it has been part of Israel and...

Thanks to Bushs leadership, the conference that opened in Madrid on October 30, 1991, spawned three diplomatic tracks: IsraeliPalestinian discussions on an interim settlement; bilateral talks between Israel, on the one hand, and Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, on the other; and multilateral conferences designed to support the first two tracks. Syrias President Assad signalled a new...

...and education. It also has opposed efforts to further secularize Israel, particularly proposals to introduce civil marriage. Shas has equivocated on the peace accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s; with the exception of East Jerusalem, Shas has steadfastly opposed the building of Israeli settlements in areas conquered by Israel in 1967, and, though it supports...

Zionist extremist organization in Palestine, founded in 1940 by Avraham Stern (190742) after a split in the right-wing underground movement Irgun Zvai Leumi.

Palestine in Jesus day was part of the Roman Empire, which controlled its various territories in a number of ways. In the East (eastern Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt), territories were governed either by kings who were friends and allies of Rome (often called client kings or, more disparagingly, puppet kings) or by governors supported by a...

...by the famous Sword of Islam, Khlid ibn al-Walddestroyed a Byzantine army at the Battle of the Yarmk River and brought the greater part of Syria and Palestine under Muslim rule.

...accord in 1993 but nonetheless stated his willingness to support the Palestinian people. He was concerned over issues relating to Jordans economic links with the West Bank and the future status of Palestinians in Jordan. About a year later, Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in which ussein was recognized as the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in East Jerusalem.

...tried to push forward into Egypt but was forced to pull back after a bloody, undecided battle and to regroup his army in Babylonia. After smaller incursions against the Arabs of Syria, he attacked Palestine at the end of 598. King Jehoiakim of Judah had rebelled, counting on help from Egypt. According to the chronicle, Jerusalem was taken on March 16, 597. Jehoiakim had died during the siege,...

...surface to ensure some kind of crop under normal conditions. It is therefore not surprising that there is evidence of simple agriculture as far back as the 8th or 9th millennium bc, especially in Palestine, where more excavating has been done in early sites than in any other country of the Middle East. Many bone sickle handles and flint sickle edges dating from between c. 9000 and 7000...

...sphere of influence in Mesopotamia extended as far north as Baghdad, and Britain was given control of Haifa and Akko and of territory linking the Mesopotamian and Haifa-Akko spheres. Palestine was to be placed under an international regime. In compensation, the Russian gains were extended (AprilMay 1916) to include the Ottoman provinces of Trabzon, Erzurum, Van, and Bitlis...

umbrella political organization claiming to represent the worlds Palestiniansthose Arabs, and their descendants, who lived in mandated Palestine before the creation there of the State of Israel in 1948. It was formed in 1964 to centralize the leadership of various Palestinian groups that previously had operated as clandestine resistance movements. It came into prominence only after the...

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), organized in 1964 to represent some 2,000,000 refugees from the Palestine mandate who were scattered around the Arab world and from 1968 led by Ysir Araft, was also divided between old families of notables, whose authority dated back to Ottoman times, and young middle-class or fedayeen factions anxious to exert pressure on Israel...

Discontent in Palestine intensified after 1920, when the Conference of San Remo awarded the British government a mandate to control Palestine. With its formal approval by the League of Nations in 1922, this mandate incorporated the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which provided for both the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine and the preservation of the civil and religious (but...

one of a people of Aegean origin who settled on the southern coast of Palestine in the 12th century bc, about the time of the arrival of the Israelites. According to biblical tradition (Deuteronomy 2:23; Jeremiah 47:4), the Philistines came from Caphtor (possibly Crete). They are mentioned in Egyptian records as prst, one of the Sea Peoples that invaded Egypt in about 1190 bc after...

...He was the only Arab ruler prepared to accept the United Nations partitioning of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states (1947). In the war with Israel in May 1948, his armies occupied the region of Palestine due west of the Jordan River, which came to be called the West Bank, and captured east Jerusalem, including much of the Old City. Two years later he annexed the West Bank territory into the...

...to rally Jewish opinion, especially in the United States, to the Allied side during World War I. The declaration, pledging British aid for Zionist efforts to establish a home for world Jewry in Palestine, gave great impetus to the establishment of the State of Israel.

(Nov. 2, 1917), statement of British support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. It was made in a letter from Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary, to Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (of Tring), a leader of British Jewry. Though the precise meaning of the correspondence has been disputed, its statements were...

...after the general election of 1981. Despite his willingness to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the terms of the peace agreement, he remained resolutely opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In June 1982 his government mounted an invasion of Lebanon in an effort to oust the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from its bases there....

...to their original homeland of Israel. Zionism fascinated the young David Gruen, and he became convinced that the first step for the Jews who wanted to revive Israel as a nation was to immigrate to Palestine and settle there as farmers. In 1906 the 20-year-old Gruen arrived in Palestine and for several years worked as a farmer in the Jewish agricultural settlements in the coastal plain and in...

Appointed mediator in Palestine by the UN Security Council on May 20, 1948, Bernadotte obtained the grudging acceptance by the Arab states and Israel of a UN cease-fire order, effective June 11. He soon made enemies by his proposal that Arab refugees be allowed to return to their homes in what had become the State of Israel. After a number of threats against his life, he and Andr-Pierre...

in the Old Testament, one of the spies sent by Moses from Kadesh in southern Palestine to spy out the land of Canaan. Only Caleb and Joshua advised the Hebrews to proceed immediately to take the land; for his faith Caleb was rewarded with the promise that he and his descendants should possess it (Numbers 1314). Subsequently Caleb settled in Hebron (Kiriatharba) after driving out the...

...he substituted a reliance on the air force and the establishment of rulers congenial to British interests; for this settlement of Arab affairs he relied heavily on the advice of T.E. Lawrence. For Palestine, where he inherited conflicting pledges to Jews and Arabs, he produced in 1922 the White Paper that confirmed Palestine as a Jewish national home while recognizing continuing Arab rights....

...as a British army major, he served as an aide to the British minister of state in Cairo. In 1946 he worked with the Jewish Agency as a political information officer to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. He also served as the liaison officer with the United Nations (UN) Special Committee on Palestine in 1947 and as a member of the delegation to the General Assembly that played a critical...

grand mufti of Jerusalem and Arab nationalist figure who played a major role in Arab resistance to Zionist political ambitions in Palestine and became a strong voice in the Arab nationalist and anti-Zionist movements.

Jewish mystic, fervent Zionist, and first chief rabbi of Palestine under the League of Nations mandate to Great Britain to administer Palestine.

...his victory over the English, Louis IX fell seriously ill with a form of malaria at Pontoise-ls-Noyon. It was then, in December 1244, that he decided to take up the cross and go to free the Holy Land, despite the lack of enthusiasm among his barons and his entourage. The situation in the Holy Land was critical. Jerusalem had fallen into Muslim hands on August 23, 1244, and the armies of...

...attended the Milwaukee Normal School (now University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and later became a leader in the Milwaukee Labor Zionist Party. In 1921 she and her husband, Morris Myerson, emigrated to Palestine and joined the Meravya kibbutz. She became the kibbutzs representative to the Histadrut (General Federation of Labour), the secretary of that organizations Womens Labour...

...Mizrai wielded a disproportionate influence in Zionism, because of both its religiohistorical weight and its hold on the masses of Orthodox Jews in eastern Europe. In post-World War I Palestine, it played an active role in the Jewish community, establishing religious schools and firmly backing the sole authority of the chief rabbinate over matters of personal status among Jews,...

On expeditions in Syria and Palestine from June to December of 604, Nebuchadrezzar received the submission of local states, including Judah, and captured the city of Ashkelon. With Greek mercenaries in his armies, further campaigns to extend Babylonian control in Palestine followed in the three succeeding years. On the last occasion (601/600), Nebuchadrezzar clashed with an Egyptian army, with...

...the region, who were unable to present a unified military front against the invaders. Nr al-Dn waged military campaigns against the Crusaders in an attempt to expel them from Syria and Palestine. His forces recaptured Edessa shortly after his accession, invaded the important military district of Antakiya in 1149, and took Damascus in 1154. Egypt was annexed by stages in...

British author, traveller, and mystic, a controversial figure whose quest to establish a Jewish state in Palestinefulfilling prophecy and bringing on the end of the worldwon wide support among both Jewish and Christian officials but was thought by some to be motivated either by commercial interests or by a desire to strengthen Britains position in the Near East.

...this fundamental question, Paul VI undertook a series of apostolic journeys that were unparalleled occasions for a pope to set foot on every continent. His first journey was a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (January 1964), highlighted by his historic meeting with the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, in Jerusalem. At the end of that same year, he went to India, the first...

Richard, who succeeded Henry as king of England, had already undertaken to go on Crusade against Saladin in the Holy Land (the Third Crusade), and Philip now did likewise. Before his departure, he made the so-called Testament of 1190 to provide for the government of his kingdom in his absence. On his way to Palestine, he met Richard in Sicily, where they promptly found themselves at variance,...

When Pompey (10648 bce) invaded Palestine in 63 bce, Antipater supported his campaign and began a long association with Rome, from which both he and Herod were to benefit. Six years later Herod met Mark Antony, whose lifelong friend he was to remain. Julius Caesar also favoured the family; he appointed Antipater procurator of Judaea in 47 bce and conferred on him Roman citizenship,...

...and philosopher, one of the first Jewish members of the British cabinet (as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, 190910). He was perhaps most important as first British high commissioner for Palestine (192025), carrying out that delicate assignment with varying but considerable success.

Palestine was destined to be an important centre because of its strategic location for trade by land and sea. It alone connects Asia and Africa by land, and, along with Egypt, it is the only area with ports on the Atlantic-Mediterranean and Red SeaIndian Ocean waterways. Solomon is said to have fulfilled the commercial destiny of Palestine and brought it to its greatest heights. The...

...the early years of the war he took an important part in the negotiations that led up to the governments Balfour Declaration (November 1917) favouring the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.

...War I between Great Britain and France, with the assent of imperial Russia, for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement led to the division of Turkish-held Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine into various French- and British-administered areas. Negotiations were begun in November 1915, and the final agreement took its name from its negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and...

...from India required, at almost the same time, the termination of the mandate in Trans-Jordan, the evacuation of all of Egypt except the Suez Canal territory, and in 1948 the withdrawal from Palestine, which coincided with the proclamation of the State of Israel. It has been argued that the orderly and dignified ending of the British Empire, beginning in the 1940s and stretching into the...

resolution passed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1947 that called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, with the city of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum (Latin: separate entity) to be governed by a special international regime. The resolutionwhich was considered by the Jewish community in Palestine...

The approximately 2,270-square-mile (5,900-square-km) area is the centre of contending Arab and Israeli aspirations in Palestine. Within its present boundaries, it represents the portion of the former mandate retained in 1948 by the Arab forces that entered Palestine after the departure of the British. The borders and status of the area were established by the Jordanian-Israeli armistice of...

...colonial spheres of influence. In their dealings with the Arabs the British spoke of independence for the region. Then, on Nov. 2, 1917, the Balfour Declaration promised the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, albeit without prejudice to the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities. Foreign Secretary Arthur...

Having assumed command in Egypt (see above The Egyptian frontiers, 1915July 1917), Allenby transferred his headquarters from Cairo to the Palestinian front and devoted the summer of 1917 to preparing a serious offensive against the Turks. On the Turkish side, Falkenhayn, now in command at Aleppo, was at this time himself planning a drive into the Sinai Peninsula for the autumn, but the...

...exercising their right under the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930 to move troops across Iraqi territory, landed troops at Basra on April 19 and rejected Iraqi demands that these troops be sent on into Palestine before any further landings. Iraqi troops were then concentrated around the British air base at abbnyah, west of Baghdad; and on May 2 the British commander there...

...a necessity both for the Jews and for the rest of humanity. Among the Jews of Russia and eastern Europe, a number of groups were engaged in trying to settle emigrants in agricultural colonies in Palestine. After the Russian pogroms of 1881, Leo Pinsker had written a pamphlet, Auto-Emanzipation, an appeal to western European Jews to assist in the establishment of colonies in...

Jewish nationalist movement that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jews (Hebrew: Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel). Though Zionism originated in eastern and central Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, it is in many ways a continuation of the ancient attachment of the Jews and of the...

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