History UsefulNotes / Israel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/israel_flag_8009.png

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Israel, also known as the State of Israel ('''''Hebrew:''' מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, Medīnat Yisrā'el; '''Arabic:''' دولة إِسرائيل‎, Dawlat Isrāʼīl'') is a Middle Eastern country whose constituents comprise primarily of Jews, but also has a minority Arab population.

'''Israel presents examples of:'''
* AllJewsAreAshkenazi: Averted, obviously, for the population as a whole (most Israeli Jews are actually Mizrahi or Sephardic, descendants of immigrants and/or refugees from Arab countries or North Africa, plus the Jews who've been living in Israel since Roman times), but played somewhat straight in Israeli politics. As of 2013 there has not been a single non-Ashkenazi Prime Minister. There have been Sephardic and Mizrahi Presidents, but the President of Israel is just a ceremonial figurehead.
** Israel is also the home to some of the smaller Jewish cultural groups who are now rarely seen anywhere else, most notably the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), almost all of whom have mass-immigrated to Israel, and the Bene Israel, B'nei Menashe, and Cochin Jews (Indian Jews), who are immigrating in a fairly steady stream. More recently, a number of Chinese Jews, descended from those who settled in Kaifeng area in 12th-13th centuries, have joined immigrants to Israel.
** Basically if there is any group of Jews in the world, many of them now live in Israel. Ironically American Jews are one big exception to this rule - being underrepresented among Israel's population - and ''those'' are largely Ashkenazi, which is where this trope most likely comes from.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil / AlwaysLawfulGood: Try to find any media on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that don't present one side as AlwaysChaoticEvil and the other as AlwaysLawfulGood.
* BadassBoast: "We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead." Also arguably the first time that international diplomacy has been conducted via {{Website/Twitter}} (this was part of a brief exchange between the official IDF and Hamas Twitter accounts).
** Subverted often when the IDF tries to make an effective one of these and winds up making one that is either {{narm}}y or quickly becomes [[MemeticMutation memetic]].
* BadassIsraeli: Their military is a lot stronger than you might expect for a country of their size.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Maps without Israel in them are available in schools of the Arab world. A strong contender for most audacious CanonDiscontinuity in the history of ever.
** Meanwhile, pro-Israeli writers have been known to refer to the "Jordyptians"[[note]]Before the Six Day War, the West Bank was occupied by Jordan and the Gaza Strip by Egypt.[[/note]] rather than the "Palestinians," although this is not common. There have been maps in Israel showing all of the Occupied Territories (i.e. the West Bank and formerly Gaza) as part of the state also.
* ChurchMilitant: An aversion, as most Ultra-Orthodox Jews were excused from serving in the army, making the army in general a bastion of secularism. Ultra-Orthodox Jews who did serve were often shunned by their communities. There is one battalion, the Netzah Yehuda, which is designed to accommodate the needs of Ultra-Orthodox Jews. However, the government passed laws to end the practice of excusing Ultra-Orthodox Jews, although many still refuse to serve. National Religious Jews (who were generally more of a Modern Orthodox bent), however, are often very enthusiastic to serve in order to protect the land they view as holy.
* CurbStompBattle: The Six Day War. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_day_war Take a look at the statistics]]. Consider the geography. This evidently should have ended in about six days, but ''in the other direction''.
** Of course, vigilance and modern technology are responsible: in modern war, air power is all-important. Knock out the enemy's air power while it's still on the ground, and...
** The fact that Israel held initiative with a preemptive strike also helped.
** The IDF didn't let itself get bogged down by over 10,000 Egyptian [=POWs=], instead they executed them all.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: With Jordan and Egypt. Or at least "Defeat means a begrudging mutual acceptance that it would be best if we just settled whatever it takes for us to stop shooting at each other for the time being".
* DoesNotLikeShoes: {{Downplayed}}; the Israeli Jews (even the most well-off among them) have a penchant for wearing minimalist open-toed sandals known as "Biblical". Partly justified by the country's hot climate, but the Israelis tended to wear them even abroad, since these sandals were seen as the symbol of Zionism and succession with ancient Jews (hence their name), and something that distinguishes a Jew from a non-Jew. The trend somehow waned in 1990s due to globalization, but [[https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Biblical-sandals-are-once-again-in-fashion-for-all-walks-of-life-457396 nowadays the sandals are becoming popular again]].
** Many kibbutzniks went barefoot literally.
* GodwinsLaw
** [[http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/88100/ It might soon become illegal]] to invoke this trope in Israel.
* HaveYouSeenMyGod
* ElephantInTheRoom: The UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict.
* IssueDrift: Every piece of fiction generated in Israel has GOT to be about some ISSUE (difficulties of immigrants, Arab-Israeli conflict angst, the spreading of poverty, the spreading of crime, it just goes on and on...). The prime directive seems to be "something is wrong with this country, and we will now pick at it for maximum pain", and this is what all TV shows are about and what all the books are about, always. There is pretty much no such thing as Israeli-written fantasy or Israeli-written science fiction, or at least not any that has garnered any serious following. At least it seems this way, especially the exported media, though ''Series/InTreatment'' is Israeli, and so are several other television programs bought by US cable companies.
* KnightTemplar: Unfortunately, a big part of the common speech around politics and religion can be matched to this trope. Everywhere. In the streets, in schools, and even in the goverment, Israel's residents can hear a lot of [[LargeHam aggressive shouts and profanity]] just because someone expressed a different political opinion than others'. Being alligned with the political left is often considered an insult among teenagers and many adults.
* LastWords: The dying words of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trumpeldor Joseph Trumpeldor]], protecting the settlement of Tel-Hai, were "It is good to die for the sake of our land", according to eyewitnesses (including the doctor that bandaged him before he died).
** Later on this was heavily disputed, and it was claimed that those last words were a patriotic myth, and that Trumpeldor actually cursed in Russian, or died without saying anything at all. This too was eventually debunked, as the people who knew him testified that Trumpeldor was very mild mannered, and the worst he said was "l'azazel" (the Hebrew equivalent of 'damn') while getting shot. Also, his last words were very consistent with things he'd written in letters years earlier. The Russian curse myth, however, is still very popular, and you can't teach a class in Israel about Trumpeldor without someone bringing it up.
* ProperlyParanoid: It spends a ridiculously disproportionate amount of its budget on its military for some [[SarcasmMode odd]] reason.
** Also, founded in a post-Holocaust world. For the first few decades, it was essentially an ''entire nation'' suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, messing up the country's entire psyche in a myriad of interesting and terrifying ways that are still being studied vigorously.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: There are a few conventions to write Hebrew into English, and there's no preferred method. One may find road signs with different English spellings than what a map will tell you. Fortunately, for the most part, place names (a town, city, moshav, etc.) tend to be consistent. Usually.
* TheSquadette: Secular women, like most any other Jewish 18-year-old in Israel, get a compulsory drafting into the military where they spend a few years hanging around wearing olive-green uniforms and holding M-16 assault rifles. Though the majority of them probably fill support roles, it should be noted that some 'support roles' in the army are far, far removed from sitting in some air-conditioned office and filing paperwork. And then there are [[AmazonBrigade female-only combat units]]. Legend has it that in the past they tried having mixed male and female combat units, but whenever the girls would get hurt the guys would [[TheDulcineaEffect drop everything to make sure they were all right]], to the detriment of whatever it was they were supposed to be doing instead. Of course, said legend is rather debunked by the mixed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracal_Battalion Caracal Battalion]], a combat unit like any other.
** The first time women served in the IDF was during the 1948 War of Independence, when a desperate need of troops was the main reason to include women. After that women were removed from combat roles until relatively recently, due to the disproportionate risks they took if captured.
** Fun fact: one of the better known female combatants of 1948 is sexologist Ruth Westheimer, who was a decorated sniper.
* WarRefugees: All over the place: Zionist organizations in Europe tried to help Jews fleeing during World War II get to Palestine, which was hampered by the British. After the War a significant amount of Holocaust survivors either did not want to go back to their former homes or could not go back (thanks to their non-Jewish neighbors using the Holocaust as an opportunity to take their property, then killing those who tried to get it back), and so they also moved to Palestine (against the wishes of the British and the local Arab population). After the first stage of the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict Israel received a huge influx of Jews from Middle Eastern countries who were either expelled or fleeing from retaliation. Then of course you have Palestinian refugees, who still exist all over.
* WesternTerrorists: Prior to Israel's foundation (that is, during the British mandate over Israel), LaResistance-esque organizations Etzel and Lehi. Etzel specifically was led by about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin nerdiest-looking guy ever]], under whose command British officers were hung and civilian-filled hotels were blown up. He later shut Etzel down to make a political party out of it, became prime minister and signed the Camp David peace treaty with Egypt.[[note]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext It makes sense in context]], we swear! [[/note]]
* WhatAnIdiot: Lord Balfour or British policy in general, for promising the land to three different groups, all three of which were either not that powerful, or in the case of France had their own reasons for fighting the Kaiser.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:

** Subverted. In 1919, Prince Faisal (leader of the Arab Revolt) and Chaim Weizmann (leader of the British Zionist Organization) made an agreement that in theory could have led to the Jews receiving a state with the blessing of the Arabs. However, the agreement was really a propaganda move by Chaim Weizmann, who only had one meeting with Prince Faisal (when he was without his advisers), where he presented the Prince with an agreement in English. The Prince signed the agreement and added a condition which was never met.

** Played straight. Jacob Israël de Haan was a Jewish Anti-national Zionist who advocated peace between Arabs and Jews. He argued a nation of Jews in the Middle East would only cause war. That it would be better to gain a national home with unlimited immigration rights in exchange for giving up all rights to establishing a nation. De Haan gained the attention of the British press. This worried both London Zionist and Israeli Zionist, and eventually lead to De Haan's assassination when he was leaving his Temple by agent of the Haganah.

UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Quite possibly one of the most prominent modern examples, and naturally strongly in play on both sides and with both sides' allies, with both sides denying that the other's interpretation has much in the way of validity. To the extent that factual information and descriptors are more or less impossible to separate from whoever is writing's own stance on the issue. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that is all we will say about that.]]

** The IDF didn't let itself get bogged down by over 10,000 Egyptian POWs, instead they executed them all.

Despite extreme reluctance, Britain eventually agreed to the UN's demands, and in 1948 pulled out. Their fears of a war between the Jewish immigrants and Palestinians were already realized, with the Jewish insurgency rolling right into a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947%E2%80%931948_Civil_War_in_Mandatory_Palestine civil war]] before the British even withdrew. The day that Israel declared independence, based on the United Nations plan that was rejected by Palestinians and Arab states, war was declared by seven Arab states. Palestinians were expelled from the areas they lived in in accordance with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Dalet Plan Dalet]] or ordered to leave by their leaders, depending on who you ask. By 1949 the war had finished in Israel's favor, but with massive tensions with the Arab world, and serious issues regarding the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees still simmering. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_and_Muslim_countries To make things more complicated]], 800,000–1,000,000 Jews either left willingly, what Zionist organizations termed aliyah, or were expelled from their homes in Arab countries. The majority of Israel's Jewish population is descended from these Jews and other Mizrachi, or "Oriental," Jewish populations that had arrived earlier. To make matters even ''more'' complicated, there is still a substantial Arab minority in Israel, making up 10-15% of the population--and many of them are Christians, rather than Muslims, especially in cities that are significant to Christianity, such as Nazareth. While they are citizens of Israel, their status relative to Jewish citizens is subject of much InternetBackdraft.

* KnightTemplar: Unfortunately, a big part of the common speech around politics and religion can be matched to this trope. Everywhere. In the streets, in schools, and even in the goverment, Israel's residants can hear a lot of [[LargeHam aggressive shouts and profanity]] just because someone expressed a different political opinion than others'. Being alligned with the political left is often considered an insult among teenagers and many adults.

* [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Moishe Sharoff, Israeli telecommunications mogul]] serves as one of the directors of [[NebulousEvilOrganisation Quantum]] in the rebooted ''Film/JamesBond'' series, appearing briefly in the Lake Constance Opera house.

!!Prominent artists:
* Creator/EphraimKishon
* Creator/NataliePortman (born there)
* Creator/GalGadot

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In 1919, Prince Faisal (leader of the Arab Revolt) and Chaim Weizmann (leader of the British Zionist Organization) made an agreement that would likely have led to the Jews receiving a state with the blessing of the Arabs. Had the agreement not fallen through, it could have aborted the entire UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict.

[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement We shall leave it at that]].

* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Quite possibly one of the most prominent modern examples, and naturally strongly in play on both sides and with both sides' allies, with both sides denying that the other's interpretation has much in the way of validity. To the extent that factual information and descriptors are more or less impossible to separate from whoever is writing's own stance on the issue. [[TheRuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement And that is all we will say about that.]]

* GreyAndGreyMorality: All over the freakin' place. STRONG InternetBackdraft warning if you ever try to sort this out.

* HeroWithBadPublicity / VillainWithGoodPublicity: A lot of the buzz surrounding the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict pertains to exactly which of these Israel is, if any or both. News coverage would have you believe that the Israeli government doesn't give two figs what the rest of the world thinks about its behavior, but within the Israeli public and media a popular sport is obsessing over exactly this.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: {{Downplayed}}; the Israeli Jews (even the most well-off among them) have a penchant for wearing minimalist open-toed sandals known as "Biblical". Partly justified by the country's hot climate, but the Israelis tended to wear them even abroad, since they were seen as the symbol of Zionism and succession with ancient Jews (hence their name), and something that distinguishes a Jew from non-Jew. The trend somehow waned in 1990s due to globalization, but [[https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Biblical-sandals-are-once-again-in-fashion-for-all-walks-of-life-457396 nowadays the sandals are becoming popular again]].

* DoesNotLikeShoes: {{Downplayed}}; the Israeli Jews (even the most well-off among them) have a penchant for wearing minimalist open-toed sandals known as "Biblical". Partly justified by the country's hot climate, but the Israelis tended to wear them even abroad, since they were seen as the symbol of Zionism and succession with ancient Jews (hence their name), and something that distinguishes a Jew from non-Jew. The trend somehow waned in 1990s due to globalization, but [https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Biblical-sandals-are-once-again-in-fashion-for-all-walks-of-life-457396 nowadays the sandals are becoming popular again].

* Legion, the Israeli son of [[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} Professor X]].

** Israel is also the home to some of the smaller Jewish cultural groups who are now rarely seen anywhere else, most notably the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), almost all of whom have mass-immigrated to Israel, and the B'nei Menashe and Cochin Jews (Indian Jews), who are immigrating in a fairly steady stream. More recently, a number of Chinese Jews, descended from those who settled in Kaifeng area in 12th-13th centuries, have joined immigrants to Israel.

* PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower: A current controversy revolves around implications for the region if Iran succeeds, despite serious opposition and lack of external help, in manufacturing a single nuclear warhead.

The undisputed world champion in geopolitical buzz per square kilometer of dirt (now that the Cold War is over at least).

World War II and the Holocaust resulted in the murder of two-thirds of the Jews in Europe, and the utter extermination of nearly every Jewish community which had sheltered Ashkenazi Jews for centuries. Now Zionism, once seen as a pointless pipe dream by many European Jews, seemed to be an utmost necessity to survive.

During the War, Britain had persisted in trying to keep tensions to a minimum by minimizing the influx of Jews to Palestine, especially now that this had become a major ideological issue for many soon-to-be Muslim states-states which, being only recently made colonies of Allied powers, could easily be persuaded to make common cause with the Axis should they be provoked. However, this then caused active Jewish resistance to British rule, either by way of illegally bringing more Jews into Palestine, or actively attacking British soldiers and officials ([[InsaneTrollLogic with some like the Lehi having started attacking British soldiers and bases during UsefulNotes/WW2, even attempting to ally with Hitler to drive the British out.]][[labelnote:*]]This is not as insane as it initially seems. First, Jewish and Zionist organizations ran the political gamut. Some of the more violent organizations were openly fascistic, including the Lehi. Second, Nazi antisemitic policy changed a lot before the FinalSolution became the official plan in 1942. Initially, Hitler wanted to ''deport'' all of the Jews in Germany and later Europe, a position to which the Zionists were actually somewhat amenable, since the displaced Jews could then settle in Palestine. This led to something of a detente, with Hitler essentially "selling" Jews to the Zionists (financed by the unbelievably wealthy Rothschilds), the Zionists resettling them in Palestine, and the Rothschilds providing economic support to the settlers. It worked fairly well for a while, with some 60,000 Jews escaping to Palestine in this manner. In this context, certain right-wing Jewish militant organizations attempting to align with Hitler against the British seems considerably less absurd.[[/labelnote]]) This developed into a rather brutal guerrilla war, with the expected atrocities committed by both Jewish insurgents and British troops in retaliation, further dividing the Jewish immigrants and Britain.

In terms of the modern Jewish history in the area, there has always been a small Jewish presence in the area that is modern-day Israel (centered around the Four Holy Cities: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias) since the various Biblical upheavals that destroyed several Jewish kingdoms (Babylonians, Assyrians, Romans, etc.) and scattered its population across Europe, Asia, and Africa. However in the mid 19th century, after centuries of antisemetic persecution and pogroms throughout Europe (but particularly the Russian Empire), a Jewish movement called Zionism steadily evolved with the aim of ensuring the Jewish people would have a homeland where they could be protected from the anti-semtic violence and discrimination.

The undisputed world champion in geopolitical buzz per square kilometer of dirt (now that the Cold war is over at least).

* ElephantInTheRoom: The ArabIsraeliConflict.
* HeroWithBadPublicity / VillainWithGoodPublicity: A lot of the buzz surrounding the ArabIsraeliConflict pertains to exactly which of these Israel is, if any or both. News coverage would have you believe that the Israeli government doesn't give two figs what the rest of the world thinks about its behavior, but within the Israeli public and media a popular sport is obsessing over exactly this.

* WarRefugees: All over the place: Zionist organizations in Europe tried to help Jews fleeing during World War II get to Palestine, which was hampered by the British. After the War a significant amount of Holocaust survivors either did not want to go back to their former homes or could not go back (thanks to their non-Jewish neighbors using the Holocaust as an opportunity to take their property, then killing those who tried to get it back), and so they also moved to Palestine (against the wishes of the British and the local Arab population). After the first stage of the ArabIsraeliConflict Israel received a huge influx of Jews from Middle Eastern countries who were either expelled or fleeing from retaliation. Then of course you have Palestinian refugees, who still exist all over.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In 1919, Prince Faisal (leader of the Arab Revolt) and Chaim Weizmann (leader of the British Zionist Organization) made an agreement that would likely have led to the Jews receiving a state with the blessing of the Arabs. Had the agreement not fallen through, it could have aborted the entire ArabIsraeliConflict.

'''Israel and Israelis in Fiction (Outside the context of the ArabIsraeliConflict)'''

It should also be noted that Israel has plenty of conflicts and issues that have nothing to do with the ArabIsraeliConflict, or (like disputes between the government of Israel and Bedouin tribes in the Negev, or accusations by Israeli Arabs that they are treated like second-class citizens) are only tangentially related to it. In particular, there are increasing disagreements between secular and Ultra-Orthodox Jews, over the latter being excused from serving in the army and who often are supported by government allowances to allow them to study the Torah and the Talmud (the previous ruling coalition in the Israeli Knesset revolved around ending these exemptions, leading to many Ultra-Orthodox Jews both inside Israel and in the Diaspora to protest), and between religious but non-Orthodox Jews and the Israeli Rabbinate which only includes ''extremely'' Orthodox Jews, and who gets to decide who counts as a Jew for religious matters (although not for the Right of Return), and who sets the rules for the Kotel (aka the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism). There are also racial and ethnic tensions between Ashkenazi (aka "European," although many of them wouldn't identify like that), Sephardic and Mizrachi (aka "Middle Eastern," although it's more complicated than that), and Beta Israel (Ethiopian) Jews. Israel has a significant population of Filipinos and Chinese people who moved there for work; unfortunately, if they're fired their right to stay in the country is terminated and their children (even those born in Israel) are often not considered eligible for Israeli citizenship. Finally, Israel, as the most stable and tolerant nation in the region (not that that's saying much), has attracted a significant population of people who have fled mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, who the international community generally considers refugees but whom the Israeli government considers "economic infiltrators" (aka illegal immigrants), who are currently in limbo (Israel has allowed them to stay but not to work legally, and there have been increasing pushes to lock them up at a facility in the middle of the Negev desert).

[[UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 You can probably]] [[FinalSolution guess what happened next.]]