Portal:Israel/Selected article

These are articles that are selected for the Israel portal.

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The layout design for these subpages is at Portal:Israel/Selected article/Layout.

1. Add a new Selected article to the next available subpage.
   • The list should only contain articles that have been given a quality rating of Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles.
2. The "blurb" for all selected articles should be approximately 10 lines, for appropriate formatting in the portal main page.
3. Update "max=" to new total for its {{Random portal component}} on the main page.

Selected articles list

Selected article: 1-10

Portal:Israel/Selected article/1

Israeli cuisine comprises local dishes by people native to Israel and dishes brought to Israel by Jews from the Diaspora. Since before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, an Israeli Jewish fusion cuisine has developed. Israeli cuisine has adopted, and continues to adapt, elements of various styles of Jewish cuisine, particularly the Mizrahi, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi styles of cooking. It incorporates many foods traditionally eaten in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines, and foods such as falafel, hummus, shakshouka, couscous, and za'atar are now thought to be synonymous with Israeli cuisine. Other influences on cuisine are the availability of foods common to the Mediterranean region, especially certain kinds of fruits and vegetables, dairy products and fish; the distinctive traditional dishes prepared at holiday times; the tradition of keeping kosher; and food customs specific to Shabbat and different Jewish holidays, such as challah, jachnun, malawach, gefilte fish, cholent (hamin) and sufganiyot. New dishes based on agricultural products such as oranges, avocados, dairy products and fish, and others based on world trends have been introduced over the years, and chefs trained abroad have brought in elements of other international cuisines.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/2

Jerusalem is Israel's capital, seat of government, and largest city, both in terms of population and area, with 732,100 residents in an area of 126 sq. km (49 sq. mi.). Located in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea, the city has a history that goes back as far as the 4th millennium BCE. The walled area of Jerusalem, which constituted the entire city until the 1860s, is now called the Old City, and was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1982. The Old City is home to several sites of key religious importance: the Temple Mount and its Western Wall for Jews, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims. Modern Jerusalem has grown up around the Old City, with its civic and cultural hub extending westward toward the country's urban center in Gush Dan. Today, Jerusalem remains a bone of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem (captured in the 1967 Six-Day War) has been particularly controversial, as there are Palestinians who view this part of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Thus, the status of a united Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal capital" has not been recognized by the United Nations and much of the international community.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/3

The Yom Kippur War was fought from October 6 (the day of Yom Kippur) to October 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Egypt and Syria. The War began with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria into the Sinai and Golan Heights, respectively, which had been captured by Israel six years earlier during the Six-Day War. The Egyptians and Syrians advanced during the first 24–48 hours, after which momentum began to swing in Israel's favor. By the second week of the war, the Syrians had been pushed entirely out of the Golan Heights. In the Sinai to the south, the Israelis had struck at the "hinge" between two invading Egyptian armies, crossed the Suez Canal (where the old cease-fire line had been), and cut off an entire Egyptian army just as a United Nations cease-fire came into effect. The war had far-reaching implications for many nations. The Arab world, which had been humiliated by the lopsided defeat of the Egyptian-Syrian-Jordanian alliance during the Six-Day War, felt psychologically vindicated by its string of victories early in the conflict. This vindication paved the way for the peace process that followed, as well as liberalizations such as Egypt's infitah policy. The Camp David Accords which came soon after led to normalized relations between Egypt and Israel—the first time any Arab country had recognized the Israeli state. Egypt, which had already been drifting away from the Soviet Union, then left the Soviet sphere of influence almost entirely.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/4

Ben Gurion International Airport is the largest international airport in Israel. It is located near the town of Lod, 15 kilometers southeast of Tel Aviv, and operated by the Israel Airports Authority, a government-owned corporation that manages all public airports and border crossings in the State of Israel. The airport, named after the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, is the hub of El Al Israel Airlines, Israir Airlines, Arkia Israel Airlines, and Sun D'Or. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was a focus city of the now-defunct Tower Air. Today, Terminal 3 is used for international flights and Terminal 1, for domestic flights. The airport has three runways and is jointly used by commercial, private, and military aircraft. The airport is located on the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, Highway 1, and can be easily reached by car, public bus, or Israel Railways. Ben Gurion Airport is known as one of the most secure airports in the world. The security force includes IDF and police. Security guards operate both undercover and in uniform, allowing for the detection of a wide range of threats. The airport has been targeted for several terrorist attacks, but no successful hijacking of a plane departing from Ben Gurion has ever taken place.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/5

Operation Wrath of God was a covert operation directed by Israel and the Mossad to assassinate those who directly or indirectly perpetrated the 1972 Munich massacre. Their targets included members of the Palestinian militant group Black September, which was responsible for the Munich attack, and members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization accused of being involved. Authorized to begin by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the autumn of 1972, the operation may have continued for more than 20 years. During this time covert Israeli assassination units killed tens of Palestinians and Arabs across Europe, including the mistaken killing of an innocent waiter in Lillehammer, Norway. An additional military assault was launched by Israeli commandos deep inside Lebanon to kill several high profile Palestinian targets. This string of assassinations spurred retaliation attacks by Black September against a variety of Israeli government targets. It has also prompted criticism of Israel for its choice of targets, tactic of assassination, and overall effectiveness. Because of the secretive nature of the operation, some details are unverifiable beyond a single source, including the story of an Israeli who claims to have led an Israeli assassination squad.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/6

A kibbutz is an Israeli collective community. Although other countries have had communal enterprises, in no other country have voluntary collective communities played as important a role as kibbutzim have played in Israel; indeed, kibbutzim played an essential role in the very creation of Israel. Combining socialism and zionism in a form of practical Labor Zionism, kibbutzim are a unique Israeli experiment and part of the largest secular communal movement in history. Kibbutzim were founded in a time when independent farming was not practical. Forced by necessity into communal life, and inspired by their own socialist ideology, kibbutz members developed a pure communal mode of living that attracted interest from the entire world. While kibbutzim lasted for several generations as utopian communities, today kibbutzim are scarcely different from the capitalist enterprises and regular towns to which kibbutzim were originally supposed to be alternatives. The kibbutz movement, though it never accounted for more than seven percent of the Israeli population, did more to shape the image Israelis have of their country, and the image of foreigners have of Israel, than any other Israeli institution.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/7

Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food that may be consumed according to halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér, meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption). Food that is not in accordance with Jewish law is called treif. Kosher can also refer to anything that is fit for use or correct according to halakha, such as a hanukiyah (candelabra for Hanukkah), or a sukkah (a Sukkot booth). The word kosher has become English vernacular, a colloquialism meaning proper, legitimate, genuine, fair, or acceptable. Among the numerous laws that form part of kashrut are the prohibitions on the consumption of unclean animals, mixtures of meat and milk, and the commandment to slaughter mammals and birds according to a process known as shechita. Most of the basic laws of kashrut are derived from the Torah's Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Their details and practical application, however, is set down in the oral law (eventually codified in the Mishnah and Talmud) and elaborated on in the later rabbinical literature.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/8

Tel Aviv is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 and a land area of 52 km² (20 sq mi). The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in central-west Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, home to 3,325,700 residents. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as Tel Avivim. As the United Nations and most countries do not recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Tel Aviv is home to most foreign embassies. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 by the Jewish Community of Jaffa (Hebrew: יָפוֹ Yafo; Arabic: يافا Yāfā), on the outskirts of the ancient port city. The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population at the time. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings. Known as "The City That Never Sleeps", Tel Aviv is the fifth-most-visited city in the Middle East and Africa, with 2.5 million international visitors annually. It is renowned for its 24-hour culture, cosmopolitan lifestyle, beaches, bars, restaurants, cafés, parks, shopping, and landmark neighborhoods such as Old Jaffa and Neve Tzedek.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/9

The 69 "Hammers" Squadron is an Israeli Air Force squadron operating the F-15I Thunder out of Hatzerim. It was formed in July 1948 to operate three B-17 Flying Fortresses which the fledgling Israeli Air Force had acquired in the United States. The squadron flew the Flying Fortress, a type credited with propelling the IAF into the realm of modern aerial warfare, during both the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and 1956 Suez Crisis. Disbanded in early 1957, 69 Squadron reformed in 1969 to fly the F-4 Phantom II. 69 Squadron operated the Kurnass (Sledgehammer), as the Phantom was known in Israel, for 25 years and its Phantoms saw extensive action during the War of Attrition, Yom Kippur War, First Lebanon War and numerous engagements in between. The squadron often played a central role in IAF Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) efforts and took part in repeated battles against Egyptian and Syrian air defense arrays. The squadron retired its Phantoms in 1994 but reformed shortly thereafter to operate the F-15I Thunder. Described as the "long-range, heavy bombing element of Israeli air power", 69 Squadron is reputed to have carried out Operation Orchard, the 6 September 2007 airstrike on a nuclear site in Syria.

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Portal:Israel/Selected article/10

The American Palestine Line was a steamship company formed in 1924 for the purpose of providing direct passenger service from New York to Palestine and was reportedly the first steamship company owned and operated by Jews. The company negotiated to purchase three ocean liners from the United States Shipping Board but was only able to purchase one, SS President Arthur, a former North German Lloyd steamer that operated as Princess Alice before being seized by the United States during World War I. After refurbishing the liner, the company inaugurated service between New York and Palestine in March 1925, when President Arthur sailed on her maiden voyage. A crowd of 15,000 witnessed ceremonies that included songs, prayers, and speeches in English and Yiddish. The company claimed that President Arthur was the first ocean liner to fly the Zionist flag at sea and the first ocean liner ever to have female officers. The line had labor difficulties and financial difficulties throughout its existence. On President Arthur's first trip, rumors of a mutiny were reported in The New York Times, and several crew members got into an altercation with members of the Blackshirts, the Italian fascist paramilitary group, when the liner made an intermediary stop in Naples. On her second voyage, the ship's master-at-arms was killed by a fellow crew member. Financial difficulties included unpaid bills and resultant court actions as well as accusations of fraud against company officers that were leveled in the press. In late 1925 the company was placed in the hands of a receiver; President Arthur—after a two-alarm fire in her forward cargo hold—ended up back in the hands of the United States Shipping Board (USSB), and the company's office furniture and fixtures were sold at auction in early 1926.

Nominations

Adding articles

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