Portal:Israel/Featured Article Archive

The IAF was formed when Israel achieved statehood in 1948 and found itself under immediate attack during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The air force was at first assembled from a hodge-podge collection of civilian aircraft commandeered or donated and converted to military use.

During the 1950s, France became a major supplier of warplanes to Israel, but the warm relations between the two countries cooled just before the 1967 Six-Day War, when France declared an arms embargo on Israel, mainly due to economic and diplomatic considerations. The Arab states were deemed by France to be a much more profitable trading partner than Israel, and a vital pillar of the French oil supply. This had a two pronged effect: Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) significantly increased its efforts and abilities in weapons production (initially based on the French models) and the United States replaced France as Israel's primary military aircraft broker, producing the majority of the IAF combat fighters from the late 1960s till today.

During the Six-Day War, the Israeli Air Force achieved absolute air superiority by eliminating the entire opposing Arab air forces on the first day of fighting.

Israel's first and most important move was a pre-emptive attack by the Israeli Air Force on the Egyptian Air Force. It was the largest and most modern of all the Arab air forces, with about 385 new Soviet-built aircraft. The attack was successful, destroying virtually all of Egypt's air force on the ground, guaranteeing Israeli air superiority during the rest of the war.

On June 5, Jordanian forces shelled and made thrusts into Jerusalem, occupying Government House the headquarters for the UN observers. On June 6, Israel counter-attacked: paratroopers encircled Jerusalem during the Battle of Ammunition Hill. On June 7 heavy fighting ensued. Israel's paratroopers entered the Old City of Jerusalem via the Lion's Gate, and captured the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. The Israeli army continued south, capturing Judea, Gush Etzion and Hebron.

The political importance of the 1967 War was immense; Israel demonstrated that it was not only able to, but also willing to initiate strategic strikes that could change the regional balance. Egypt and Syria learned tactical lessons, but perhaps not the strategic ones, and would launch an attack in 1973 in an attempt to reclaim their lost territory.

With a population of 704,900 (as of December 31, 2004 [1]), it is a richly heterogeneous city, representing a wide range of national, religious, and socioeconomic groups. The section called the "Old City" is surrounded by walls and consists of four quarters: Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim.

The modern Knesset building, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem today

The status of the city is hotly disputed. The 1949 cease-fire line between Israel and Jordan, also known as the Green Line, cuts through the city. Since Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, it has controlled the entire city and claims sovereignty over it. According to Israeli Jerusalem Law, Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel, and is the center of Jerusalem District; it serves as the country's seat of government and otherwise functions as capital.

Jerusalem has long been embedded into the religious consciousness of the Jewish people. Jews have always studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his desire to build the Jewish temple there as described in the Book of Samuel and his yearnings about Jerusalem which became part of the popular prayers and songs.

Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in the Torah and Tanakh, or Old Testament, a text sacred to both Judaism and Christianity. In Judaism it is considered the Written Law, the basis for the Oral Law (Mishnah, Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh) studied, practiced and treasured by Jews and Judaism for three millennia. (List of Jewish Prayers and Blessings).

Around 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students study a wide variety of topics, specializing in social sciences, humanities, law, and education. The university is broadly divided into six faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Science and Science Education, Social Welfare and Health Studies, and Education. There is also the Graduate School of Business.

It is home to a vibrant archaeology and art museum: the Hecht museum, several very active research centers and institutions, such as the Evolution Institute, the Center for the Study of the Information Society, the Center for the Study of National Security, Tourism Research Center, and more. It also hosts a large IBM research center on campus.

Beyond the objective of a first-rate higher education, the university aims to provide equal educational opportunities to all sectors of society, and in particular to encourage mutual understanding and cooperation between the Jewish and Arab populations on and off campus.

Geography

The cliffs on the east edge of Masada are about 450 meters high, dropping off to the Dead Sea, and the cliffs on the west are about 100 meters high; the natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult. The top of the plateau is flat and rhomboid shaped, approximately 600 by 300 meters. There was a casemate wall around the top of the plateau totalling 1400 meters long and 4 meters thick with many towers, and the fortress included storehouses, cisterns that were refilled by rainwater, barracks, palaces and an armory. Three narrow, winding paths led from below to fortified gates.

One of the Zionist movement's dreams was to establish a Hebrew university in the Land of Israel. The establishment of the university was proposed as far back as 1884 in the Kattowitz conference of the Hibbat Zion society. A major supporter of the idea was Albert Einstein, a Jewish physicist, who later bequeathed all his property and writings to the University.

The cornerstone for the university was laid in 1918, and, seven years later, on April 1, 1925, the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus of Jerusalem was opened at a gala ceremony attended, among others, by leaders of world Jewry including the University's chairman of the board, Chaim Weizmann, distinguished academic and communal figures, and British dignitaries including Lord Arthur James Balfour, Viscount Allenby and Sir Herbert Samuel. The university's first Chancellor was Dr Judah Magnes.

By 1947, the University had grown to become a large, well-established research and teaching institution. It comprised faculties or other units in humanities, science, medicine, education and agriculture, (the last at a campus in Rehovot); the Jewish National Library (later becoming the National Library of Israel), a University press; and an adult education center.

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.

Though revered by many Israelis, Begin’s legacy remains highly controversial and divisive. As the leader of Irgun, Begin played a central role in Jewish military resistance to the British Mandate of Palestine, but was strongly deplored and consequently sidelined by mainstream Zionist leadership. Suffering eight consecutive defeats in the years preceding his premiership, Begin came to embody the opposition to the Ashkenazi Mapai-led establishment. His electoral victory in 1977 not only brought to an end three decades of Labor Party political hegemony, but also symbolised a new social realignment in which hitherto marginalized communities gained public recognition. However, the extent to which this symbolic change was translated into government policy remains highly debatable.

Tel Aviv was founded less than 100 years ago in 1908 as a suburb of nearby Jaffa (Yafo). It quickly grew to become the centre of Israeli urban life, which it remains to this day. The name Tel Aviv can be interpreted as "new meets old". In 1950, Tel Aviv joined with Yafo to form the city now known as Tel Aviv-Yafo

More recently, the city has shown the most advancement in the Middle East being is the region's most expensive city for expatriate employees and most liberal city. The White City of Tel Aviv has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its architectural interest.

The core of the Tanach (the Hebrew Bible תנ"ך) is written in Classical Hebrew, and much of its present form is specifically the dialect of Biblical Hebrew that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, near the Babylonian exile. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Lĕshôn Ha-Qôdesh (לשון הקודש), "The Holy Tongue", since ancient times.

The revival of Hebrew language as a mother tongue was initiated by the efforts of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922) (אליעזר בן–יהודה). He joined the Jewish national movement and in 1881 immigrated to Palestine, then a part of the Ottoman Empire. Motivated by the surrounding ideals of renovation and rejection of the diaspora "shtetl" lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making the literary and liturgical language into everyday spoken language.

Haifa is built on the slopes of the historic Mount Carmel. Known in the 3rd century CE as a dye making center, the city is today home to a mixed population of Jews and Arabs, as well as to the Bahá'í World Centre (including the Bahá'í Gardens), and two world-class academic institutions, the University of Haifa and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. High-tech companies such as Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, and Google have opened R&D facilities in Haifa in recent years.