Misplaced Pages

Talk:Israel: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 18:13, 14 August 2007 editTariqabjotu (talk | contribs)Administrators36,354 edits culture in israel: + reply← Previous edit Revision as of 18:56, 14 August 2007 edit undoGilabrand (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users72,084 edits culture in israel: replyNext edit →
Line 114: Line 114:


:I've had enough. I've disagreed with you and others on pieces throughout the process of improving this article, but I have never resorted to ("Certain editors are trying to monopolize this page and push an Arab agenda"), ("The phrase "I take issue" already shows me you are in a militant state of mind."), ("If tariq tries to remove my edits, I will declare an edit war"), ("umpteenth time"), and comments. If you think you can do better, be my guest. But perhaps you should also spend some time examining how destructive some of your comments have been. -- ''']''' 18:13, 14 August 2007 (UTC) :I've had enough. I've disagreed with you and others on pieces throughout the process of improving this article, but I have never resorted to ("Certain editors are trying to monopolize this page and push an Arab agenda"), ("The phrase "I take issue" already shows me you are in a militant state of mind."), ("If tariq tries to remove my edits, I will declare an edit war"), ("umpteenth time"), and comments. If you think you can do better, be my guest. But perhaps you should also spend some time examining how destructive some of your comments have been. -- ''']''' 18:13, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
:::I don't enjoy the battle, I assure you, but your methods of reversing what anyone else has written (and not only me), rather than putting in a correction where needed, is presumptuous, inflammatory and destructive, to use your terminology. If you think that another sentence is necessary to balance the article out, I can understand that and will gladly work with you to find a compromise. What I will not accept is these blanket reverts, accompanied by statements to the effect that I have ruined some great masterpiece of English style and historical accuracy that was there before. Oh, and my comment on someone else's user page makes no mention of you. Could you be jumping to conclusions? On the whole, the article is slowly improving, and I hope we can work together to make it better and more accurate. One of the major problems I see is that in trying to condense the information into a few sentences, causal relationships are being introduced that are inaccurate, such as stating that Israel is doing well in high tech and linking that to the influx of Russians with college degrees. Also, important information that is crucial to the development of Israel and Israeli mentality is being glossed over as unimportant. An example is the Adolf Eichmann trial, where the text reads as if he were some ordinary Nazi that Israel decided to execute just for the heck of it. Another example is leaving out major reasons for the outbreak of a war, as if Israel launches wars without any provocation. These omissions are unacceptable. If there were only one such instance, I wouldn't make a big deal, but the text is full of such inaccuracies and my goal is to correct them. --] 18:56, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Revision as of 18:56, 14 August 2007

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Israel article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.
Article policies
Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs· FENS · JSTOR · TWL
Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109
Please use the archive parameter to specify the number of the next free peer review page, or replace {{Peer review}} on this page with {{subst:PR}} to find the next free page automatically.
Good articleIsrael has been listed as one of the Geography and places good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
February 16, 2007Good article nomineeNot listed
May 25, 2007Good article nomineeListed
Current status: Good article
This article has not yet been rated on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconIsrael Top‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Israel, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Israel on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IsraelWikipedia:WikiProject IsraelTemplate:WikiProject IsraelIsrael-related
TopThis article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.
Project Israel To Do:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconJewish history Top‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Jewish history, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Jewish history on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Jewish historyWikipedia:WikiProject Jewish historyTemplate:WikiProject Jewish historyJewish history-related
TopThis article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.
Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details.
WikiProject iconWestern Asia Top‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of the WikiProject Western Asia, which collaborates on articles related to Western Asia. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.Western AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject Western AsiaTemplate:WikiProject Western AsiaWestern Asia
TopThis article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.
Wikimedia subject-area collaboration "WP:WPC" redirects here. For the WikiProject on WikiProjects, see Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Council. For the editing tool, see Misplaced Pages:WPCleaner. See also Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Categories and Misplaced Pages:WikiProject China.
Project Countries main pageTalkParticipantsTemplatesArticlesPicturesTo doArticle assessmentCountries portal

This is a WikiProject, an area for focused collaboration among Wikipedians. New participants are welcome; please feel free to participate!
Shortcuts

This WikiProject helps develop country-related pages (of all types) and works toward standardizing the formats of sets and types of country-related pages. For example, the sets of Culture of x, Administrative divisions of x, and Demographics of x articles, etc. – (where "x" is a country name) – and the various types of pages, like stubs, categories, etc.

WikiProject Countries articles as of November 2, 2024

What's new?

Article alerts

Did you know

Articles for deletion

Categories for discussion

Redirects for discussion

Good article nominees

Featured article reviews

Requests for comments

Peer reviews

Requested moves

Articles to be merged

Articles to be split

Updated daily by AAlertBotDiscuss? / Report bug? / Request feature?
Click to watch (Subscribe via  RSS  Atom) · Find Article Alerts for other topics!

To do list

To-do list for Israel: edit·history·watch·refresh

To-do list is empty: remove {{To do}} tag or click on edit to add an item.

Scope

This WikiProject is focused on country coverage (content/gaps) and presentation (navigation, page naming, layout, formatting) on Misplaced Pages, especially country articles (articles with countries as their titles), country outlines, and articles with a country in their name (such as Demographics of Germany), but also all other country-related articles, stubs, categories, and lists pertaining to countries.

Navigation

This WikiProject helps Misplaced Pages's navigation-related WikiProjects (Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Outline of knowledge, WikiProject Categories, WikiProject Portals, etc.) develop and maintain the navigation structures (menus, outlines, lists, templates, and categories) pertaining to countries. And since most countries share the same subtopics ("Cities of", "Cuisine of", "Religion in", "Prostitution in", etc.), it is advantageous to standardize their naming, and their order of presentation in Misplaced Pages's indexes and table-of-contents-like pages.

Categories

Click on "►" below to display subcategories:
Countries
Click on "►" below to display subcategories:
WikiProject Countries

Subpages

Formatting

Many country and country-related articles have been extensively developed, but much systematic or similar information about many countries is not presented in a consistent way. Inconsistencies are rampant in article naming, headings, data presented, types of things covered, order of coverage, etc. This WikiProject works towards standardizing page layouts of country-related articles of the same type ("Geography of", "Government of", "Politics of", "Wildlife of", etc.).

We are also involved with the standardization of country-related stubs, standardizing the structure of country-related lists and categories (the category trees for countries should be identical for the most part, as most countries share the same subcategories – though there will be some differences of course).

Goals

  1. Provide a centralized resource guide of all related topics in Misplaced Pages, as well as spearhead the effort to improve and develop them.
  2. Create uniform templates that serve to identify all related articles as part of this project, as well as stub templates to englobe all related stubs under specific categories.
  3. Standardize articles about different nations, cultures, holidays, and geography.
  4. Verify historical accuracy and neutrality of all articles within the scope of the project.
  5. Create, expand and cleanup related articles.

Structure and guidelines

This section contains an essay on style, consisting of the advice or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest.This information is not a formal Misplaced Pages policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

Although referenced during FA and GA reviews, this structure guide is advisory only, and should not be enforced against the wishes of those actually working on the article in question. Articles may be best modeled on the layout of an existing article of appropriate structure and topic (See: Canada, Japan and Australia)

Main polities

Main article: Country

A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, states with limited recognition, constituent country, or a dependent territory.

Lead section

Shortcut See also: WP:Lead section
For lead length see, #Size
Opening paragraphs
Further information: MOS:INTRO

The article should start with a good simple introduction, giving name of the country, general location in the world, bordering countries, seas and the like. Also give other names by which the country may still be known (for example Holland, Persia). Also, add a few facts about the country, the things that it is known for (for example the mentioning of windmills in the Netherlands article). The primary purpose of a Misplaced Pages lead is not to summarize the topic, but to summarize the content of the article.

First sentence
Further information: MOS:FIRST

The first sentence should introduce the topic, and tell the nonspecialist reader what the subject is, and where. It should be in plain English.

The etymology of a country's name, if worth noting and naming disputes, may be dealt with in the etymology section. Foreign-languages, pronunciations and acronyms may also belong in the etymology section or in a note to avoid WP:LEADCLUTTER.

Example:

checkY Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe.
☒N Sweden,(Swedish: Sverige ) formally the Kingdom of Sweden,(Swedish: Konungariket Sverige ) is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe.

Detail, duplication and tangible information
Shortcut Further information: Misplaced Pages:How to create and manage a good lead section

Overly detailed information or infobox data duplication such as listing random examples, excessive numbered statistics or naming individuals should be reserved for the infobox or body of the article. The lead prose should provide clear, relevant information through links to relevant sub-articles about the country an relevant terms, rather than listing random stats and articles with minimal information about the country.

Example:

checkY A developed country, Canada has a high nominal per capita income globally and its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Recognized as a middle power, Canada's strong support for multilateralism and internationalism has been closely related to its foreign relations policies of peacekeeping and aid for developing countries. Canada is part of multiple international organizations and forums.
☒N A highly developed country, Canada has the seventeenth-highest nominal per-capita income globally and the sixteenth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index. Its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world and the 14th for military expenditure by country, Canada is part of several major international institutions including the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the Organization of American States.

Infobox

There is a table with quick facts about the country called an infobox. A template for the table can be found at the bottom of this page.

Although the table can be moved out to the template namespace (to e.g. ]) and thus easen the look of the edit page, most Wikipedians still disapprove as of now, see the talk page.

The contents are as follows:

  • The official long-form name of the country in the local language is to go on top as the caption. If there are several official names (languages), list all (if reasonably feasible). The conventional long-form name (in English), if it differs from the local long-form name, should follow the local name(s). This is not a parameter to list every recognized language of a country, but rather for listing officially recognize national languages.
  • The conventional short-form name of the country, recognised by the majority of the English-speaking world; ideally, this should also be used for the name of the article.
  • A picture of the national flag. You can find flags at the List of flags. A smaller version should be included in the table itself, a larger-sized version in a page titled Flag of <country>, linked to via the "In Detail" cell. Instead of two different images, use the autothumbnail function that wiki offers.
  • A picture of the national coat of arms. A good source is required for this, but not yet available. It should be no more than 125 pixels in width.
  • Below the flag and coat of arms is room for the national motto, often displayed on the coat of arms (with translation, if necessary).
  • The official language(s) of the country. (rot the place to list every recognized or used language)
  • The political status. Specify if it is a sovereign state or a dependent territory.
  • The capital city, or cities. Explain the differences if there are multiple capital cities using a footnote (see example at the Netherlands).
  • If the data on the population is recent and reliable, add the largest city of the country.
  • Land area: The area of the country in square kilometres (km²) and square miles (sq mi) with the world-ranking of this country. Also add the % of water, which can be calculated from the data in the Geography article (make it negligible if ~0%).
  • Population: The number of inhabitants and the world-ranking; also include a year for this estimate (should be 2000 for now, as that is the date of the ranking). For the population density you can use the numbers now available.
  • GDP: The amount of the gross domestic product on ppp base and the world ranking. also include the amount total and per head.
  • HDI: Information pertaining to the UN Human Development Index – the value, year (of value), rank (with ordinal), and category (colourised as per the HDI country list).
  • Currency; the name of the local currency. Use the pipe if the currency name is also used in other countries: ].
  • Time zone(s); the time zone or zones in which the country is relative to UTC
  • National anthem; the name of the National anthem and a link to the article about it.
  • Internet TLD; the top-level domain code for this country.
  • Calling Code; the international Calling Code used for dialing this country.
Lead map

There is a long-standing practice that areas out of a state's control should be depicted differently on introductory maps, to not give the impression the powers of a state extend somewhere they do not. This is for various types of a lack of control, be it another state (eg. Crimea, bits of Kashmir) or a separatist body (eg. DPR, TRNC).

Sections

Further information: Misplaced Pages:Summary style and Misplaced Pages:Too much detail Shortcut

A section should be written in summary style, containing just the important facts. Undue weight can be given in several ways, including but not limited to the depth of detail, the quantity of text, prominence of placement, the juxtaposition of statements, and the use of imagery. Main article fixation is an observed effect that editors are likely to encounter in county articles. If a section it is too large, information should be transferred to the sub-article. Avoid sections focusing on criticisms or controversies. Try to achieve a more neutral text by folding debates into the narrative, rather than isolating them into sections.

Comparison table of section sizes in country articles as a percentage of article size. Click image for latest data.

Articles may consist of the following sections:

  • Etymology sections are often placed first (sometimes called name depending on the information in the article). Include only if due information is available.
  • History – An outline of the major events in the country's history (about 4 to 6 paragraphs, depending on complexity of history), including some detail on current events. Sub-article: "History of X"
  • Politics – Overview of the current governmental system, possibly previous forms, some short notes on the parliament. Sub-article: "Politics of X"
  • Administrative divisions – Overview of the administrative subdivisions of the country. Name the section after the first level of subdivisions (and subsequent levels, if available) (e.g. provinces, states, departments, districts, etc.) and give the English equivalent name, when available. Also include overseas possessions. This section should also include an overview map of the country and subdivisions, if available.
  • Geography – Details of the country's main geographic features and climate. Historical weather boxes should be reserved for sub articles. Sub-article: "Geography of X"
  • Economy – Details on the country's economy, major industries, bit of economic history, major trade partners, a tad comparison etc. Sub-article: "Economy of X"
  • Demographics – Mention the languages spoken, the major religions, some well known properties of the people of X, by which they are known. Uncontextualized data and charts should be avoided. (See WP:NOTSTATS and WP:PROSE) Sub-article: "Demographics of X".
  • Culture – Summary of the country's specific forms of art (anything from painting to film) and its best known cultural contributions. Caution should be taken to ensure that the sections are not simply a listing of names or mini biographies of individuals accomplishments. Good example Canada#Sports. Sub-article: "Culture of X".
  • See also – 'See also" sections of country articles normally only contain links to "Index of country" and "Outline of country" articles, alongside the main portal(s).
  • References – Sums up "Notes", "References", and all "Further Reading" or "Bibliography"
  • External links – Links to official websites about the country. See WP:External links
Size
Graphic showing article quality, size, contentiousness, protection, and vital level. Click for live data.
Shortcut Main pages: Misplaced Pages:Article size and Misplaced Pages:Summary style § Article size
Articles that have gone through FA and GA reviews generally consists of approximately 8,000 to 10,000 words as per WP:SIZERULE, with a lead usually 250 to 400 words as per MOS:LEADLENGTH.
  • Australia = Prose size (text only): 60 kB (9,304 words) "readable prose size"
  • Bulgaria = Prose size (text only): 56 kB (8,847 words) "readable prose size"
  • Canada = Prose size (text only): 67 kB (9,834 words) "readable prose size"
  • Germany = Prose size (text only): 54 kB (8,456 words) "readable prose size"
  • Japan = Prose size (text only): 51 kB (8,104 words) "readable prose size"
  • East Timor = Prose size (text only): 53 kB (8,152 words) "readable prose size"
  • Malaysia = Prose size (text only): 57 kB (9,092 words) "readable prose size"
  • New Zealand = Prose size (text only): 62 kB (9,761 words) "readable prose size"
  • Philippines = Prose size (text only): 62 kB (9,178 words) "readable prose size"
Hatnote

The link should be shown as below: Avoid link clutter of multiple child articles in a hierarchical setup as hatnotes. Important links/articles should be incorporated into the prose of the section. For example, Canada#Economy is a summary section with a hatnote to Economy of Canada that summarizes the history with a hatnote to Economic history of Canada. See WP:SUMMARYHATNOTE for more recommended hatnote usages.

checkY== Economy ==Main article: Economy of Canada ☒N== Economy ==Main article: Economy of Canada See also: Petroleum industry in Canada and Agriculture in Canada Further information: Economic history of Canada and Early Canadian banking system

Charts

Shortcut

As prose text is preferred, overly detailed statistical charts and diagrams that lack any context or explanation such as; economic trends, weather boxes, historical population charts, and past elections results, etc, should be reserved for main sub articles on the topic as per WP:DETAIL as outlined at WP:NOTSTATS.

Galleries

Shortcut

Galleries or clusters of images are generally discouraged as they may cause undue weight to one particular section of a summary article and may cause accessibility problems, such as sand­wich­ing of text, images that are too small or fragmented image display for some readers as outlined at WP:GALLERY. Articles that have gone through modern FA and GA reviews generally consists of one image for every three or four paragraph summary section, see MOS:ACCESS#FLOAT and MOS:SECTIONLOC for more information.

Footers

As noted at Misplaced Pages:Categories, lists, and series boxes the number of templates at the bottom of any article should be kept to a minimum. Country pages generally have footers that link to pages for countries in their geographic region. Footers for international organizations are not added to country pages, but they rather can go on subpages such as "Economy of..." and "Foreign relations of..." Categories for some of these organizations are also sometimes added. Templates for supranational organizations like the European Union and CARICOM are permitted. A list of the footers that have been created can be found at Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Countries/Templates/Navboxes, however note that many of these are not currently in use.

Transclusions

Transclusions are generally discouraged in country articles for reasons outlined below.

This section is transcluded from Help:Transclusion. (edit | history) Shortcut Further information: Misplaced Pages:Transclusion costs and benefits

Like many software technologies, transclusion comes with a number of drawbacks. The most obvious one being the cost in terms of increased machine resources needed; to mitigate this to some extent, template limits are imposed by the software to reduce the complexity of pages. Some further drawbacks are listed below.

Lists of countries

To determine which entities should be considered separate "countries" or included on lists, use the entries in ISO 3166-1 plus the list of states with limited recognition, except:

  • Lists based on only a single source should follow that source.
  • Specific lists might need more logical criteria. For example, list of sovereign states omits non-sovereign entities listed by ISO-3166-1. Lists of sports teams list whichever entities that have teams, regardless of sovereignty. Lists of laws might follow jurisdiction boundaries (for example, England and Wales is a single jurisdiction).

For consistency with other Misplaced Pages articles, the names of entities do not need to follow sources or ISO-3166-1. The names used as the titles of English Misplaced Pages articles are a safe choice for those that are disputed.

Resources

Sisterlinks

Related WikiProjects

Popular pages

Notes

  1. Swedish: Sverige ; Finnish: Ruotsi; Meänkieli: Ruotti; Northern Sami: Ruoŧŧa; Lule Sami: Svierik; Pite Sami: Sverji; Ume Sami: Sverje; Southern Sami: Sveerje or Svöörje; Yiddish: שוועדן, romanizedShvedn; Scandoromani: Svedikko; Kalo Finnish Romani: Sveittiko.
  2. Swedish: Konungariket Sverige

Misplaced Pages key policies and guidelines (?)
Content (?)
P
G
Conduct (?)
P
G
Deletion (?)
P
Enforcement (?)
P
Editing (?)
P
G
Style
Classification
Project content (?)
G
WMF (?)
P
 WikiProject Council
 WikiProject guides
 Directories and summaries
 Culture and the arts
 Geographical
 History and society
 Science, technology
and engineering
 Misplaced Pages assistance
and tasks
Misplaced Pages help pages

About Misplaced Pages (?)
Help for readers (?)
Contributing
to Misplaced Pages
 (?)
Getting started (?)
Dos and don'ts (?)
How-to pages and
information pages (?)
Coding (?)
Directories (?)
Missing Manual
Ask for help on your talk page (?)

Template:WP1.0

This article is a frequent source of heated debate. Please try to keep a cool head when responding to comments on this talk page.

Template:FAOL

This page is not a forum for general discussion about Israel. Any such comments may be removed or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. You may wish to ask factual questions about Israel at the Reference desk.

Archives

Index 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40
41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50
51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60
61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70
71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80
81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90
91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100
101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109


Archive
Old archives
  1. Israel and the Occupied Territories
  2. Jerusalem as capital

Utter Disgrace

How dare the editors, mention the occupied East Jerusalem and Hebron as a part of Israeli land. These areas were seized during the 6 day war, and they are not recongnised as Israeli land by the International community, but simply occupiers, hense the thought of the two state solution. This article has distroted the facts far enough, its time to stop this injustice and propaganda. I demand it be edited as quickly as possible. Any occupier does not have this power. And if the cowards are mentioning this, why have they failed to clearly state that Israel is a occupier nation. Cowardly attempt to make stuff up86.132.112.148 00:31, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

You demand? Wow. Get over yourself.
And just as a reminder to anyone thinking of acting on this, please note that the article carefully distinguishes between Pre-1967 Israel, areas under Israeli law (like East Jerusalem) and disputed/occupied territories controlled in part by Israel but not under Israeli law (most of the West Bank).Schrodingers Mongoose 01:00, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Stop filling wikipedia with lies then. Heborn is in the West bank, just like E.J. dont tell me its under israeli law, because if that was the case, why are the thousands of Palestinians not treated the same as Israelis. The Palestinians that live in Hebron and the West Bank, should deserve the same rights the Israelis get inorder for this article to say ||palestinian territory||. And the settlements are illegal, that is why the Israel Prime minister has recently started its order of dismantlement. Israel can never get peace, if it continue its mass genocide and dispacement. 86.138.101.18 01:02, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Do you have any suggestions for improving the article? If there are errors, please cite sources that demonstrate this. Schrodingers Mongoose 01:06, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

thats stupid, find evidense to prove fact incorrect?, surely its the other way around. find evidense to prove facts right. theres no cite sources which say hebron 'belongs' to israel. on the other hand, you dont need to go far to see that israel is a occupier nation that denies the civilians of the occupation the rights they deserve under any occupation. 86.132.116.109 15:52, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Maybe give us an example from the article of what you are saying. Where in the article is it written that "Hebron belongs to Israel" ? Benjil 16:17, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

well, its not a maybe, its just plain common sense, lol? you dont make claims without cites. and hebron is mentioned several times, i appreciate that sometimes it was suitable to mention it, but talking about hebron under the religion section is ridicilous. firstly this article is about israel, not the religion of judaism and its stupid to say the jews bla bla in hebron, secondly you shouldnt mention hebron under this section as it gives the impression that hebron is in israel (belongs to israel) which it does not, but is a disputed area. i say that because you dont see canadian cities listed on the american wiki, french on the spanish, kashmir on either pakistan and india, so it doesnt make sense, further more it is disrespect for the displaced palestinians that live in hebron.

if you want to talk about hebron, also talk about the fact that israel is an occupier nation, and that the international community sees there occupation as illegal following the rules of the fourth geneva convention bla bla. and it does not also allow the settlements that are made in the west bank, e.j and hebron (the main three) are also illegal, (that is why the israeli prime minister has demanded some to be dismantled (hebron recently))86.132.120.120 00:19, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

The article mentions Hebron exactly four times:
  1. "In the 16th century, the pace stepped up, and large communities were established in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias." (from Zionism and the British Mandate) - describes the Jewish presence in Eretz Israel and immigration to it.
  2. "At the end of the 1990s, Israel, under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, withdrew from Hebron" (from The first fifty years, 1950s-1990s) - do you have a problem with this one?
  3. "Of those, over 267,000 Israeli citizens lived in the West Bank within numerous settlements, including Ma'ale Adummim, Ariel, and a handful of communities, such as Hebron and Gush Etzion..." - the fact that these people don't live in Israel proper is clear. If we claimed Hebron is "in Israel", we wouldn't bother making the distinction, would we?
  4. "Other landmarks of great religious importance are located in the West Bank and include the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem." - Again, it's clear that these landmarks aren't in Israel proper, but are mentioned since they're under Israeli control.
I rest my case. okedem 14:40, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
For what's it's worth, in regards to the fourth item: the part about the West Bank was removed on August 7 (UTC) and I put it back this morning. -- tariqabjotu 15:34, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Intro, again

I have issues with the second paragraph of the intro:

Israel declared its independence in 1948 after the United Nations approved the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab, in November 1947. Israel was admitted as a UN member in 1949. Since Independence, Israel has been at war with many of its neighbours, and many of its borders are disputed.

It's an awfully short paragraph and misleadingly implies that the U.N. Partition Plan's Jewish state is today's Israel. So... I propose something between this paragraph and the lengthy paragraph that previously resided in its place:

Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yisra'el), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: \u05de\u05b0\u05d3\u05b4\u05d9\u05e0\u05b7\u05ea \u05d9\u05b4\u05e9\u05b0\u05c2\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc<\/b>"},"data":{"ipa":"","text":"","lang":"en","wikibase":"","file":"He-Medinat Israel.ogg"},"classes":}">מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medinat Yisra'el; Template:Lang-ar, Dawlat Isrā'īl), is a country in Asia located on the southeastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It has borders with Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Also adjacent are the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which are partially administrated by the Palestinian National Authority.

The modern state of Israel has its roots in the land of Israel, which has been central to Judaism for four thousand years and, more recently, significant to other Abrahamic religions. In 1948, after the United Nations approved the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab, Israel declared its independence. The new country's victory in the subsequent Arab-Israeli War expanded the borders of the Jewish state beyond those conceived by the UN Partition Plan. Since then, Israel has been in conflict with many of the neighboring Arab countries, with confrontations including the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Nevertheless, peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and numerous other conferences and agreements, have attempted to bring peace to Israel and the region.

Today, the population of Israel is about 7.1 million, with a large Jewish majority. While Israel is home to both Jews and Arabs, as well as a large number of Christian and other minority groups, it is the world's only Jewish state. Jerusalem is the capital, seat of government, and largest city. Due to its broad array of political rights and civil liberties, Israel is considered the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. Despite Israel's political problems and the vast sums it spends on military defense, Israel is an active competitor in the global market and is considered the most progressive in the region in terms of freedom of the press, business regulations, economic competition, and overall human development.

-- tariqabjotu 21:00, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi Tariqabjotu, firstly thanks for your comments the other day. I am responsible for removing the lengthy history section from the intro as I think we should try to avoid unnecessary repetitions and verbiage and there was a history seciton in place. I left the line about the UN as I think that UN membership legitimates a modern state and it seemed right for the intro. I have no objection to your correction iexcept that I think your last sentence is akward and wordy: "Nevertheless, peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and numerous other conferences and agreements, have attempted to bring peace to Israel and the region." I suggest "Since 1977 Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan and efforts have been made to reach agreement with the Palestinian leaderhip." Telaviv1 09:03, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Scientific papers per capita

I removed a statement saying Israel has more scientific papers per capita, but Beit Or re-added it saying "the statement is reliably sourced, the link cited is not about per capita". The second part of that edit summary is not true. From the American Chemical Society:

An analysis by NSF gives a guide to the scientific productivity of nations. Based on the most recent data available (from within the 2000-to-2003 range) for each country, it is expressed as the number of science and engineering articles published per year per million inhabitants.


Of 157 nations ranked, the U.S. ranks 12th at 707 papers per million. The top six are smaller nations, with Sweden at 1,137; Switzerland, 1,120; Israel, 1,018; Finland, 974; Denmark, 933; and the Netherlands at 800. The U.K., at 796, ranks the highest among larger nations at seventh. The worldwide average is 108 papers per million.

Divide the figures by a million apiece and you have straight per capita (with the rankings unchanged). The Jerusalem Post is a reliable source, but they are a media source and probably did not research this matter themselves. Instead, they probably got this information from sources such as this one that are from the Israeli government, who has a vested interest in exaggerating Israel's status in this ranking and/or has outdated information. The article from the American Chemistry Society, on the other hand, comes from November 2006 (after the writing of the JP article) and cites the source of its data – the National Science Foundation, an organization that is certainly qualified to do the pertinent research. They also have no apparent reason to rank Sweden and Switzerland (and not the U.S.) above Israel in this matter. So, if anything, the article should say Israel is third in this field. However, I do not believe there is a need to attempt to pinpoint its exact position. Israel's contributions to the sciences are already amply detailed throughout the rest of the section. -- tariqabjotu 13:56, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

The argument is based on a string of false premises. The idea that The Jerusalem Post took its data from the Israeli government is completely baseless. Likewise, the claim that the Israeli government gives a favorable spin to the information (in other words, that it is lying) reflects only an editor's personal opinions and/or prejudices. Yet more questionable was the action, If there is a contradiction between two reliable, then either both sources must be presented (to comply with WP:NPOV) or it must be decided which source is preferable under the circumstances. Tariqabjotu's decision to remove the material altogether did not improve the article and thus was correctly reverted. Beit Or 16:33, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
Likewise, the claim that the Israeli government gives a favorable spin to the information (in other words, that it is lying) reflects only an editor's personal opinions and/or prejudices. That statement, heavily implying that I am prejudiced against Israel and/or Israelis, couldn't be farther from the truth and is derived from a perfectly valid statement that covers both explanations for the ranking disparity. Anyway, I will bypass the diversion, and allow you to find a third-party scientific source with data more recent than that published by the American Chemistry Society and National Science Foundation that corroborates the claim made in the article. If you can find that source comparable to the one I presented, I will gladly concede the point made in the article.
But, in the meantime, let's look at the two sources we have – one from The Jerusalem Post and the other from the American Chemistry Society. One is a media source and the other is a scientific source. Which is more relevant to the fact? (The latter.) One was published less recently, in August 2006, and one was published more recently, in November 2006. Which source is more pertinent? (The latter.) One does not cite where it received its data and the other does (citing from an established scientific foundation, at that). Which source is more reliable? (The latter.) Thankfully, I don't have to wrestle with you over which of those questions should take precedence, because all three point to the same source – the one that places Israel as third by this measure.
If you want to talk about neutrality, neutrality would be call for saying its "either first or third" (which, in my opinion, sounds ridiculous for such a minor point), making a blanket statement that covers every angle (i.e. saying "it's among the most"; this could work I suppose, but again this fact is so minor), or removing it altogether. I chose the last option. You chose the option of using the less reliable, more outdated source. That's not just an issue of neutrality, but an issue of factuality. If anything, you should have placed Israel third. Try formulating a sentence that fits that in. -- tariqabjotu 17:48, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
First of all, let's get our facts straight. While the ACS article was published in 2006, it relies on data from 2001-2003. I don't know where the JP got its info from, but it is quite conceiveble that the data is from a later period. Second, the ACS article refers to "science and engineering articles", wheras the JP article refers to "Scientific" papers, so it's quite possibel that we're talking about apples and oranges. In any case, it was inappropriate to completely remove the section - at best , you could have changed it to "ranked among the top 3". Isarig 18:02, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
I completely agree with Isarig; it was the action, not the argument, that was the most reprehensible. Beit Or 18:09, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

culture in israel

The culture section before I edited it was a disaster (and still needs much work). The English was poor and the information clearly written by someone who doesn't have a clue about Israel or Israeli culture. If someone has specific information that will improve it, fine, but going back to the nonsense that was there previously is unacceptable.--Gilabrand 17:17, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I've had enough. I've disagreed with you and others on pieces throughout the process of improving this article, but I have never resorted to back-handed ("Certain editors are trying to monopolize this page and push an Arab agenda"), presumptuous ("The phrase "I take issue" already shows me you are in a militant state of mind."), inflammatory ("If tariq tries to remove my edits, I will declare an edit war"), exaggeratory ("umpteenth time"), and simply insulting comments. If you think you can do better, be my guest. But perhaps you should also spend some time examining how destructive some of your comments have been. -- tariqabjotu 18:13, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
I don't enjoy the battle, I assure you, but your methods of reversing what anyone else has written (and not only me), rather than putting in a correction where needed, is presumptuous, inflammatory and destructive, to use your terminology. If you think that another sentence is necessary to balance the article out, I can understand that and will gladly work with you to find a compromise. What I will not accept is these blanket reverts, accompanied by statements to the effect that I have ruined some great masterpiece of English style and historical accuracy that was there before. Oh, and my comment on someone else's user page makes no mention of you. Could you be jumping to conclusions? On the whole, the article is slowly improving, and I hope we can work together to make it better and more accurate. One of the major problems I see is that in trying to condense the information into a few sentences, causal relationships are being introduced that are inaccurate, such as stating that Israel is doing well in high tech and linking that to the influx of Russians with college degrees. Also, important information that is crucial to the development of Israel and Israeli mentality is being glossed over as unimportant. An example is the Adolf Eichmann trial, where the text reads as if he were some ordinary Nazi that Israel decided to execute just for the heck of it. Another example is leaving out major reasons for the outbreak of a war, as if Israel launches wars without any provocation. These omissions are unacceptable. If there were only one such instance, I wouldn't make a big deal, but the text is full of such inaccuracies and my goal is to correct them. --Gilabrand 18:56, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
  1. Skolnik 2007, pp. 132–232 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSkolnik2007 (help)
  2. "Israel". Country Report. Freedom House. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  3. Template:He icon "Israel Population Statistics" (PDF). Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2006-10-02.
  4. Jerusalem is the capital city and seat of government of Israel: it is home to the President's residence, government offices, supreme court, and parliament. The Jerusalem Law states that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel" although the Palestinian Authority sees East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian State and the United Nations and most countries do not accept the Jerusalem Law, arguing that Jerusalem's final status must await future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Most countries maintain their embassies in other cities such as Tel Aviv, Ramat-Gan, and Herzliya(see the CIA Factbook and Map of Israel) See Positions on Jerusalem for more information.
  5. "Global Survey 2006: Middle East Progress Amid Global Gains in Freedom". Freedom House. 2005-12-19. Retrieved 2007-07-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. "Israel". Annual Report 2007. Reporters Without Borders. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  7. "Economy Rankings: Middle East & North Africa". Doing Business. The World Bank Group. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  8. "Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007". World Economic Forum. 2007-02-14. Retrieved 2007-07-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. "Human Development Report 2006". United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
  10. "Israel". Index of Economic Freedom 2007. The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
  11. "An Interactive Map". Economic Freedom of the World. Cato Institute. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
Categories: