Talk:Israel

Administrative Divisions

There is inconsistency here regarding the population of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The number given for Judea and Samaria is for Jewish settlers and not Palestinians while the number given for the Gaza Strip is for Palestinians (since Jewish settlers were pulled out). This inconsistency makes it look like the Gaza Strip has a larger population than Judea and Samaria, which is not the case. Death by fugue (talk) 00:26, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Suggest alteration to Map and Table featured in this section which identify the Administrative Divisions/Districts of the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza using the letters A, B and C, respectively. This may give rise to confusion due to the fact that the formal Administrative Divisions of the West Bank are known as Areas A, B and C. Imahd (talk) 19:36, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Geography and Climate

Yes, Hello!

There is no climate chart for Israel (as for eg. Malta).

Don't make me watch Israeli weather reports for a year!

Shalom.

Gottservant (talk) 00:19, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

The following sentence is missing the word "days": The area of Beersheba and the Northern Negev has a semi-arid climate with hot summers, and cool winter but with fewer rainy "days" than the Mediterranean climate. Imahd (talk) 18:55, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Also, the comma after "summers" (above) may be superfluous. Imahd (talk) 18:57, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Suggest: The area of Beersheba and the Northern Negev has a semi-arid climate with hot summers and cool winters but with fewer rainy days than the average Mediterranean climate. Imahd (talk) 22:32, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Israeli Druze

"In the Golan Heights, Druze are entitled to citizenship but most have rejected it in favor of "loyalty to Syria."[22] -- if you go to the Wikipedia page on Israeli Druze, you find that 93% of young Druze in Israel consider themselves Israelis. If so, this would not seem to be true. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.61.216.152 (talk) 18:53, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

No inconsitency. the Golan Heights are in Syria.--Peter cohen (talk) 20:47, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Did you, at some point while researching this topic, happen to notice the separate section of the Israeli Druze article specifically devoted to Druze of the Golan Heights or the Washington Post article cited therein which says "Unlike most of the Druze in Israel, those here identify themselves as Arabs and do not serve in the Israeli military. The vast majority consider themselves citizens of Syria, although a small percentage support Israel's presence here."? Fat&Happy (talk) 20:50, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

the druze in israel have an israeli citizenship. most of then are serving the israeli army and see themselves as israelis. the druze in the golan hights dont see themselves as israelis because of the relation to syria and a fair that one day israel withdrawal fron the golan, and they will be accused in loyality to israel. Nirvadel (talk) 23:09, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

law of return

in the section on language, it states that non-Jewish Russian immigrants are not accepted as Jews by the Orthodox rabbinate, but the Law of Return does accept them. This sentence is misleading. The Law of Return is in fact agnostic of religious or halachic considerations, and functions on the principles of the Nuremberg race laws. The text should be changed so as not to imply discrimination where none exists. 95.86.77.244 (talk) 22:11, 31 January 2012 (UTC) bennyp

I don't think the section implied a legal discrimination and was clear that the Law of Return recognized these people as Jews, but I have removed the part about the Law of Return regardless. The question of acceptance by the Orthodox of Russian Jews has nothing to do with the topic of language. --OuroborosCobra (talk) 23:29, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Water technology

I would like to insert a short paragraph in Science and technology about Israel's notable water technology industry. AnkhMorpork (talk) 18:07, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

This template is for requesting specific changes to the article--Jac16888 ^Talk 18:21, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

In other words, you need to make a concrete and specific suggestion of what you want to add to the article, including reliable sources to back it up and preferably the exact language of your suggested addition. --OuroborosCobra (talk) 18:27, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

BE

I don't think British English makes much sense for this. The British left decades ago and Israel is a close US ally. Opinions? Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 05:48, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Opinions? Here's one. This topic is contentious enough already, and this has got to be the most ridiculous thing to start another argument over. Still, whatever... AndyTheGrump (talk) 06:01, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Non neutral sentence

It says in the lead: "Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined."

This implies that East Jerusalem is Israel and is so permanently. --Supreme Deliciousness (talk) 21:10, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

I think you are splitting hairs. At least as it reads to me it states simple facts that Israel has annexed portions of the west bank (which includes East Jerusalem) but nothing has been set in stone because of world wide opposition. The sentence specifically states that nothing has been "permanently defined", so I am not sure how you think it implies that East Jerusalem is permanently part of Israel?

While the pre-1967 borders are commonly mentioned by various interest groups, I think a fair number of organizations and governments agree that the status of the borders of the west bank and even all of Jerusalem have yet to be determined. Like the CIA world fact book says: "The current status of the West Bank is subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be determined through further negotiation". This is just my thought on the issue.

Thanks,

Theo — Preceding unsigned comment added by Theotokan (talk • contribs) 23:56, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Vandalism

all links here with vandalism. פארוק (talk) 17:21, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Would you care to expand that to a meaningful English sentence? Fat&Happy (talk) 18:56, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

my english is not so good. but i see that now it is fixed. פארוק (talk) 07:34, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Paragraph 2

The article's second paragraph reads like so, in reference to the Israeli War of Independence: "Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states"; sentence one holds an incredibly biased view of Arab motives, which at the time and ever since have always been publicly declared to be "the elimination of the Zionist entity," and not "support for Palestinian Arabs." Proof of this lies partially in the many recorded & written sources declaring such motives, and also partially in the fact that the War ended with Jordan annexing the West Bank instead of establishing there a Palestinian state, which could easily have been done by allowing the thousands of Palestinian refugees who'd left instead of staying to return to the West Bank and set up a state.

Secondly, Israel has a history of being invaded by its neighboring Arab states, in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Only in 1982 did Israel engage in an offensive action, and although it went horribly wrong due to the actions of Christian Phalangist massacres of Palestinians, which Israel was not wise enough to guard against but by its own admission takes as its own indirect fault, the action was a necessary attempt to eliminate the violence caused by PLO terrorists that had been attacking civilian targets throughout Northern Israel from bases in Lebanon. All this needs to be pointed out; defensive wars are quite different from wars of aggression, and the expression of anti-Semitism formerly directed at Jews by European Christians in the form of violence must not be allowed to define Israel now that there are few Jews left in post-WW2 Europe, as it continues in the European press's attempts to label any and all Israeli defensive maneuvers as war crimes, but to cheerfully legitimize Palestinian murders of Israeli citizens. Palestinians have had numerous chances to seriously negotiate with Israel and establish a state for themselves, but have constantly refused to do so, believing the ENTIRETY of the Palestinian mandate to be Arab lands, a "waqf" given to them to rule "until Judgment Day." This appears in Palestinian charters, but always is ignored by the European powers who would be just as happy with no Israel.

Please, let's eliminate this biased reading. Remember, the Arab states who surround her (with the exception of Jordan and pre-Arab Spring Egypt) have still refused vehemently to recognized her very right to exist, frequently call for her destruction, and still say "the Jews are our dogs" when speaking in Arabic to their peoples. This although Israel has been there for over 60 years. (I say "pre-Arab Spring Egypt" because the Muslim Brotherhood in that country holds a majority in its parliament, and has sworn to annihilate Israel despite the Sadat/Begin peace treaty. Were the military of Egypt to submit to civilian control, its parliament would obviously, according to a majority of its members, therefore void said peace treaty, and leave Jordan as the sole Arab state recognizing her right to exist. BarakZ (talk) 22:09, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

The talk page is not the appropriate forum to promulgate your particular point of view and expound upon historical events. Please specify the text that you object to and what you would rather it was replaced with, and supply a reliable source to support this viewpoint.
Best Wishes AnkhMorpork (talk) 23:02, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

QRpedia

QRpedia is a WikimediaUK project which uses QR codes to deliver Wikipedia articles to users, in their preferred language. We need versions of the article about it, in Hebrew and Arabic. Can anyone oblige, please? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:22, 27 February 2012 (UTC)