Q's about Israel?

Question

Which countries are threatening Israel?
Which countries are friends, and are there any bordering nations who wish to maintain a neutral relationship?
Give a description of the fighting on the West Bank and explain who does it and why?
Explain whether Israel has lost or gained ground within the past twenty years-- geographically, is Israel larger or smaller than she was twenty years ago? Why?

Answer 1

Nope. Not doing homework assignments for you today. Your on your own. Hey here is an idea. Why don't you go to Israel and see for yourself?

Answer 2

Egypt and Jordan currently have peace treaties with Israel.
You could put these two into the 'neutral' relationship category.

There isn't a lot of fighting on the West Bank (is there?). Mostly the Gaza strip.

Israel is smaller than it was 20 years ago, as it has 'given back' some of the territory won in the 6-day war of 1967. Mostly the Sinai dessert- back to Egypt. A year ago it unilaterally (i.e. without negotiation) pulled out of the Gaza strip, so was no longer 'occupying' it. However- the folks living there didn't use this opportunity to build roads and schools, but rather a 300ft tunnel and munitions factories to continue to threaten Israel, so they've rolled there tanks back in there.

the PLO was formed in 1964 for the purpose of liberating the palestinians from Israeli occupation. Funny tho- Israel didn't occupy the west bank and Gaza until 1967. Oh- also interesting, 'Palestinians' didn't exist as a people until Arafat rallied them together. They were a variety of war refugees that Egypt and Jordan refused to take in. Even though they had previously lived on land controlled by Egypt and Jordan. It's generally regarded that these people have been (very successfully) used as political pawns in order to destroy the state of Israel.

Answer 3

The Arab/Muslim world seeks the destruction of Israel, since Jewish independence is simply not tolerable to Islam. It's seen as shameful that Jews should have freedom and dignity.

A study of the history of Jews in Arab/Muslim lands can shed more light on this (which may strike some folks not familiar with the subject as suprising).

The front line actors currently, in the effort to destroy Israel, are

Iran,
Syria,
Lebanon,
the Palestinian Authority.

Israel does not have any true allies, with the notable exception of Micronesia, and the USA sometimes.
(Remember this is a nation meant to "dwell alone")

Fighting in Judea and Samaria is no different than the fighting anywhere else. It's part of this effort to destroy Israel and Jewish independence.

Answer 4

These countries threaten Israel:

Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Libya.

Answer 5

I'd recomend you do your own homework . . .

Answer 6

All of that for two points?

Answer 7

"1980s
On July 7, 1981, the Israeli Air Force bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osiraq in an attempt to foil Iraqi efforts at producing an atomic bomb.

In 1982, Israel launched an attack against Lebanon, which had been embroiled in the Lebanese Civil War since 1975. The official reason for the attack was to defend Israel's northernmost settlements from terrorist attacks, which had been occurring frequently. However, after establishing a forty-kilometer barrier zone, the IDF continued northward and even captured the capital, Beirut. Israeli forces expelled Palestinian Liberation Organization forces from the country, forcing the organization to relocate to Tunis. Unable to deal with the stress of the ongoing war, Prime Minister Begin resigned from his post in 1983 and was replaced by Yitzhak Shamir. Though Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon in 1986, a buffer zone was maintained until May 2000 when Israel unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon.

The rest of the 1980s were spent constantly shifting from the right, led by Yitzhak Shamir, to the left under Shimon Peres. Peres, for example, was prime minister from 1984, but handed the position over to Shamir in 1986. The First Intifadah then broke out in 1987 and was accompanied by waves of violence in the Occupied Territories. Following the outbreak, Shamir once again was elected prime minister, in 1988.

See also: 1982 Lebanon War, Lebanese Civil War, and PLO

1990s
During the Gulf War, Israel was hit by a number of Iraqi missiles, which killed two Israeli citizens, even though Israel was not a member of the coalition and was not involved in the fighting.

The early 1990s were marked by the beginning of a massive immigration of Soviet Jews, who, according to the Law of Return, were entitled to become Israeli citizens upon arrival. About 380,000 arrived in 1990-91 alone. Although initially favouring the right, the new immigrants became the target of an aggressive election campaign by Labor, which blamed their employment and housing problems on the ruling Likud. As a result, in the 1992 elections the immigrants voted en masse for Labor, letting the left achieve a 61-59 majority in the 1992 Knesset elections.

Following the elections, Yitzhak Rabin became prime minister, forming a left-wing government coalition. During the election campaign his Labor party promised Israelis a significant improvement in personal security and achievement of a comprehensive peace with the Arabs "within six to nine months" after the elections. By the end of 1993 the government abandoned the framework of Madrid and signed the Oslo Accords with the PLO. In 1994, Jordan became the second of Israel's neighbours to make peace with it.

The initial wide public support for the Oslo Accords began to wane as Israel was struck by an unprecedented wave of attacks supported by the militant Hamas group, which opposed the accords. Public support slipped even further. On November 4, 1995, a Jewish nationalist militant named Yigal Amir assassinated Rabin.

Public dismay with the assassination created a backlash against Oslo opponents and significantly boosted the chances of Shimon Peres, Rabin's successor and Oslo architect, to win the upcoming 1996 elections. However, a new wave of suicide bombings combined with Arafat's statements extolling the Muslim nationalist militant Yahya Ayyash, made the public mood swing once again and in May 1996 Peres narrowly lost to his challenger from Likud, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Although seen as a hard-liner opposing the Oslo Accords, Netanyahu withdrew from Hebron and signed the Wye River Memorandum giving wider control to the Palestinian National Authority. During Netanyahu's tenure, Israel experienced a lull in attacks against Israel's civilian population by Palestinian groups, but his government fell in 1999. Labor's Ehud Barak beat Netanyahu by a wide margin in the 1999 elections and succeeded him as prime minister.


2000s
This section documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

Barak initiated a unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. This process was intended to frustrate Hezbollah attacks on Israel by forcing them to cross Israel's border. The Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Yassir Arafat once again conducted negotiations with President Clinton at the July 2000 Camp David summit. However, the talks failed. Barak offered to form a Palestinian State initially on 73% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip. In ten to 25 years the West Bank area would expand to 90% (94% excluding greater Jerusalem). [3] [4]

After the collapse of the talks, Palestinian officials began a second uprising, known as the Al-Aqsa Intifadah, just after the leader of the opposition Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The failure of the talks and the outbreak of a new war caused many Israelis on both the right and the left to turn away from Barak, and also discredited the peace movement.

Ariel Sharon became the new prime minister in March 2001 and consequently was re-elected, along with his Likud party in the Knesset elections of 2003. Sharon initiated a plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip. This disengagement was executed between August and September 2005.

Israel also is building a West Bank Barrier to defend the country from attacks by Palestinian armed groups. The barrier, which is planned to measure 681 kilometers, meanders past the Green Line and effectively annexes 9.5% of the West Bank.[10] The barrier has been met with some criticism from the international community and numerous protest demonstrations by the Israeli left.

After Ariel Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke, the powers of the office were passed to Ehud Olmert, who was designated the "Acting" Prime Minister. On April 14, 2006, Olmert was elected Prime Minister after his party, Kadima, Hebrew for "forward," won the most seats in the 2006 legislative elections.

On June 28, 2006, after Hamas militias crossed the border from the Gaza Strip and captured an Israeli soldier while also killing two soldiers, Israel began Operation Summer Rains which consisted of heavy bombardment of Hamas targets as well as bridges, roads, and the only power station in Gaza. Israel also has deployed troops into the territory. Israel’s critics have accused it of disproportionate use of force and collective punishment of innocent civilians and not giving diplomacy a chance. Israel argues that they have no other option to get their soldier back and put an end to the rocket attacks into Israel.

On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others, sparking the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. According to Israel, the UN, EU, G8 and the USA, the soldiers were captured in the Israeli town of Zar’it, and several prominent news agencies have characterized the Hezbollah action as "cross-border". However, Lebanese police sources claimed shortly afterwards that the soldiers had been attacked and captured during an Israeli raid into south Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the kidnappings an "act of war" and warned of a "heavy price" to be paid by Lebanon.[11]. As a result, Israel has exercised a strong retaliatory front including strikes on Lebanese bridges, power plants, roads, and army bases. Hundreds of Lebanese civilians, including men, women and children, aid workers, and international observers have died as a result of heavy Israeli shellings and air strikes in the south of the country; over 800,000 people have been displaced from their homes [12] [13] [14]. A smaller number of Israeli civilians also have been killed as a result of Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel, with many tens of thousands forced to hide in fall-out shelters. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said that Israel has a right to defend itself, but he condemned the excessive use of force.[15]. Both Hamas and Hezbollah have stated that they only will release the soldiers in a prisoner exchange with Israel; however, Israel has said that they will not engage in any prisoner exchanges, and only will end the conflicts if they agree to suspend all rocket attacks into Israel and unconditionally release the soldiers."