Israel is a country located in the Middle East; the country sits on the shores of the Mediterranean. Israel is defined as the Jewish people's homeland, and is the only democratic country in the Middle East.

Israel borders with Lebanon and Syria in the north, Jordan in the east, Egypt and the Red Sea in the south, and the Mediterranean in the west. The capital of Israel is Jerusalem and it is also its biggest city.

Biblical Times:

The country's name "Israel" is taken from the bible, and is mentioned in the bible over 2000 times. According to the bible the land of Israel was promised to the Israelites (Hebrew people) by god after they left their enslavement in Egypt. From the 11^th century BC until the year 928 BC there was a united Israelite kingdom, made up from the 12 Israelite tribes, in the land of Israel, this was also the time when the First Temple was built by King Solomon. The kingdom starched from the Negev desert to the Golan, and in the year 928 BC the kingdom fractiond into two separate kingdoms- the kingdom of Judaea, which was composed of 2 tribes and the kingdom of Israel which was composed from the other 10 tribes.

In the 8^th century BC the Assyrians invaded the kingdom of Israel and in the year 722 BC they conquered it and exiled its people. The kingdom of Judea lasted until the year 586 BC when the Babylonian Empire invaded and king Nebuchadnezzar the second, king of Babylon conquerd the Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple, and exiled almost all of the Jewish people from the holy land.

In the year 539 BC Koresh, king of Persia conquered Babylon and won the entire Babylonian Empire, including the holy land, king Koresh allowed the Jews to return to the Holy Land (called the return to Zion) and even allowed the construction of the Second Temple.

After that the holy land was conquered by many rulers, including Alexander the Great. And in the year 63 BC when the Roman emperor Pompeius captured Jerusalem, the Land of Israel became a conquered country subjected to the Roman Empire. In the year 66 AC a Jewish rebellion began, and was oppressed by the Romans, after that the Roman Emperor Titus destroyed the Second Temple.

After the Bar Kokba insurrection in the year 135 AC was oppressed by the Romans the Jews became a minority in the land of Israel, and after the 9^th century and for about a thousand years only a very small Jewish community existed in the Holy Land.

The Zionist Movement:

 In the 19^th century the Zionist movement was founded by Theodor Herzel, the movement's purpose was to create a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. After the First World War and the Balfour Declaration in 1917 by the British government, which acknowledged the fact that the Jewish people is entitled for a homeland in the Land of Israel, the Zionist movement started with the "Aliyah" (immigration), encouraging Jews from all over the world to come back and settle in the Promised Land after two thousand years of exile.

During these years the Arabs in the holy land were mostly against the Jewish settlement and the notion of a returning Jewish sovereignty in the holy land, violent conflicts aroused between Arabs and Jews throughout these years and in some ways these conflicts continue even today.  

The Jewish settlement, led by David Ben-Gurion, advocated the founding of a Jewish state even at the price of dividing the land of Israel between Jews and Arabs. After the Second World War and after the horrors of The Holocaust were discovered by the world, "The European Jewish Refugee Problem" gained a worldwide sympathy, and in November 1947 the U.N general assembly passed resolution 181, which ended the British Mandate in the land of Israel and divided the holy land into a Jewish State (Israel) and an Arab State (Palestine).

After the U.N resolution was announced the Arabs (Palestinians) began rioting and attacking the Jews in the holy land, this is known as the beginning of the Israeli War of Independence, and on May 14^th 1948, the last day of the British Mandate in the Land of Israel, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of The State of Israel. The next morning, after the last British soldiers left, the Arab armies, which included- Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq, declared war over Israel and invaded. The Israeli war of independence ended on July 1949 with a miraculous Israeli victory over the Palestinians, and five Arab armies.

During the war Israel managed to hold back the Arab armies and even managed to capture some territories. When the war was over Israel had the entire Negev desert, the Galilee and most of the Mediterranean coastal plain. Egypt had the Gaza Strip, Syria had the Golan Heights and reached the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, and Jordan had the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Western Wall. The Arab Palestinian State which was supposed to be created alongside the Jewish State wasn't created; parts of the Palestinian State were lost to Israel during the war and in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip the Jordanian and Egyptian regimes didn't permit the Palestinians to establish an independent state.

The Early Years:

After the war ended a massive wave of Jewish immigrants immigrated from all over the world to the newborn Jewish State, and in just 18 months the country's population increased by over 100% (these numbers were unprecedented), the overwhelming number of new immigrants, most of which were poor Holocaust refuges, put a massive strain on the new country's economy, and forced the government to introduce the austerity period (rationing of food and other resources), this policy ended in 1959, after the country's economical condition improved and stabilized.

Over the years, and despite adversities like wars and a complete lack of natural resources, Israel advanced and became one of the world's leading High-Tec countries. Israel's scientists are world renown in many areas including- Agriculture, Water Technologies, Military Technologies, Green Energy, Medicine, Computers, Chemistry and much more…

During the 1967 Six Day War Israel managed to defeat the Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi armies (in only 6 days) and captured the Sinai desert, Golan Heights, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem including the Western Wall. After the rejoining of Jerusalem the Jewish people could go back and pray once again in front of the Western Wall, this was a major event in the lives of all Israelis, and Jews in general, the return of Jewish sovereignty to the Temple Mount after 2000 years in exile, meant to many Jews as the incarnation of God's promise to the Jewish people to return them to the Promised Land.

Tourism is one of Israel's major sources of income, the country offers a variety of attractions that vary from religious and holy sites to beaches and vacation spa resorts. In 2009 more than 2.7 million foreign tourists came and visited Israel.