1.
Israel
–
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
2.
Negev
–
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The regions largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba, in the north, at its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city of Eilat. It contains several development towns, including Dimona, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon, as well as a number of small Bedouin cities, including Rahat and Tel as-Sabi and Lakyah. There are also several kibbutzim, including Revivim and Sde Boker, the origin of the word negev is from the Hebrew root denoting dry. In the Bible, the word Negev is also used for the direction south, during the British Mandate it was called Beersheba sub-district. The Negev covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km² or at least 55% of the land area. It forms a triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features, among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim, which are unique to the region, Makhtesh Ramon, Makhtesh Gadol, and Makhtesh Katan. The Negev is a rocky desert and it is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis and deep craters. It can be split into five different ecological regions, northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau, the northern Negev, or Mediterranean zone, receives 300 mm of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm of rain per year, with light, sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres here. The high plateau area of Ramat HaNegev stands between 370 metres and 520 metres above sea level with temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm of rain per year, with inferior, the Arabah Valley along the Jordanian border stretches 180 km from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm of rain annually and it has inferior soils in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants there, among them Acacia, Pistacia, Retama, Urginea maritima. A small population of Arabian leopards, an animal in the Arabian peninsula. The Negev Tortoise is a endangered species that currently lives only in the sands of the western. The Negev shrew is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae found only in Israel, hyphaene thebaica or doum palm can be found in the Southern Negev
3.
Ishmael
–
Ishmael is a figure in the Tanakh and the Quran and was Abrahams first son according to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Ishmael was born to Abrahams and Sarahs handmaiden Hagar, according to the Genesis account, he died at the age of 137. The Book of Genesis and Islamic traditions consider Ishmael to be the ancestor of the Ishmaelites, according to Muslim tradition, Ishmael the Patriarch and his mother Hagar are said to be buried next to the Kaaba in Mecca. Cognates of Hebrew Yishmael existed in various ancient Semitic cultures, including early Babylonian and Minæan and it is a theophoric name translated literally as God has hearkened, suggesting that a child so named was regarded as the fulfillment of a divine promise. This is the account of Ishmael from Genesis Chapters 16,17,21,25 In Genesis 16, the birth of Ishmael was planned by the Patriarch Abrahams first wife, who at that time was known as Sarai. She and her husband Abram sought a way to have children in order to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant that was established in Genesis 15. Sarai was 75 years old and had yet to bear Abraham a child, her idea was to offer her Egyptian handmaiden Hagar to Abraham, so that they could have a child by her. So Sarai, Abrahams wife, took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar, customs of that time dictated that, although Hagar was the birth mother, any child conceived would belong to Sarai and Abram. Genesis 16, 7-16 describes the naming of Ishmael, and Gods promise to Hagar concerning Ishmael and this occurred at the well of Beer-lahai-roi, located in the desert region between Abraham’s settlement and Shur. Hagar fled here after Sarai dealt harshly with her for showing contempt for her mistress following her having become pregnant, here, Hagar encountered an angel of God who said to her Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction and he shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen. The blessing that this father was promised was that Abrahams descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth. However, the promise would be to a son of Sarai, yet God would make of this child a great nation, when Ishmael was born, Abraham was 86 years old. When he was 13 years old, Ishmael was circumcised at the time as all other males in Abrahams house becoming a part of the covenant in a mass circumcision. His father Abram, given the new name Abraham, was also at this time, at the age of 99, initiated into the covenant by having himself and the males of his entire household circumcised. At the time of the covenant, God informed Abraham that his wife Sarah would give birth to a son, which he was instructed to name Isaac. God also mentioned that He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyones hand will be against him, And he will live to the east of all his brothers. A year later, Ishmaels half-brother Isaac was born to Abraham by his first wife Sarah when she was 90 years old and this proposition was grievous in Abrahams sight because of his son and the bondwoman, Hagar
4.
Aliyah
–
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Land of Israel. Also defined as the act of going up—that is, towards Jerusalem—making Aliyah by moving to the Land of Israel is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism, the opposite action, emigration from the Land of Israel, is referred to in Hebrew as yerida. The State of Israels Law of Return gives Jews and their descendants automatic rights regarding residency, the large-scale immigration of Jews to Palestine began in 1882. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, more than 3 million Jews have moved to Israel, as of 2014, Israel and the Palestinian territories together contain 42. 9% of the worlds Jewish population. Successive waves of Jewish settlement are an important aspect of the history of Jewish life in Israel, Eretz Yisrael is the Hebrew name for the region known in English as Israel. This traditional Hebrew toponym, in turn, has lent its name to the modern State of Israel, pre-Zionist Aliyah refers to small-scale return migration of Diaspora Jews to the Land of Israel. Since the birth of Zionism, its advocates have striven to facilitate the settlement of Jewish refugees in Ottoman Palestine, Mandatory Palestine, Aliyah in Hebrew means ascent or going up. Jewish tradition views traveling to the land of Israel as an ascent, anyone traveling to Eretz Israel from Egypt, Babylonia or the Mediterranean basin, where many Jews lived in early rabbinic times, climbed to a higher altitude. Visiting Jerusalem, situated 2,700 feet above sea level, Aliyah is an important Jewish cultural concept and a fundamental component of Zionism. It is enshrined in Israels Law of Return, which accords any Jew and eligible non-Jews, someone who makes aliyah is called an oleh or olah. Many religious Jews espouse aliyah as a return to the Promised land, and regard it as the fulfillment of Gods biblical promise to the descendants of the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, nachmanides includes making aliyah in his enumeration of the 613 commandments. In the Talmud, at the end of tractate Ketubot, the Mishnah says, A man may compel his entire household to go up with him to the land of Israel, but may not compel one to leave. Sifre says that the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisrael is as important as all the other mitzvot put together, there are many mitzvot such as shmita, the sabbatical year for farming, which can only be performed in Israel. In Zionist discourse, the term includes both voluntary immigration for ideological, emotional, or practical reasons and, on the other hand. The vast majority of Israeli Jews today trace their familys recent roots to outside the country, while many have actively chosen to settle in Israel rather than some other country, many had little or no choice about leaving their previous home countries. While Israel is commonly recognized as a country of immigrants, it is also, in large measure, a country of refugees. 2 Chronicles 36,23 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me, and he hath charged me to him an house in Jerusalem. Who among you of all his people, the LORD his God with him, and let him go up
5.
Romania
–
Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
6.
The Holocaust
–
The Holocaust, also referred to as the Shoah, was a genocide in which some six million European Jews were killed by Adolf Hitlers Nazi Germany, and the World War II collaborators with the Nazis. The victims included 1.5 million children, and represented about two-thirds of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe, killings took place throughout German-occupied Europe, as well as within Nazi Germany, and across all territories controlled by its allies. Other victims of Nazi crimes included ethnic Poles and other Slavs, Soviet citizens and Soviet POWs, communists, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovahs Witnesses, some 42,500 detention facilities were utilized in the concentration of victims for the purpose of gross violations of human rights. Over 200,000 people are estimated to have been Holocaust perpetrators, the persecution was carried out in stages, culminating in the policy of extermination of European Jews termed the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Following Hitlers rise to power, the German government passed laws to exclude Jews from civil society, starting in 1933 the Nazis began to establish a network of concentration camps. After the outbreak of war in 1939 both German and foreign Jews were herded into wartime ghettos, in 1941, as Germany began to conquer new territory in the East, all anti-Jewish measures radicalized. Specialized paramilitary units called Einsatzgruppen murdered around two million Jews in mass shootings actions in less than a year, by mid-1942, victims were being regularly transported by freight trains to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most were systematically killed in gas chambers. This continued until the end of World War II in Europe in April–May 1945, the most notable exception was the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, when thousands of poorly-armed Jewish fighters held the Waffen-SS at bay for four weeks. An estimated 20, 000–30,000 Jewish partisans actively fought against the Nazis, French Jews took part in the French Resistance, which conducted a guerilla campaign against the Nazis and Vichy French authorities. Over a hundred armed Jewish uprisings took place, the term holocaust comes from the Greek adjective holókaustos, a variant of holókautos, referring to an animal sacrifice offered to a god in which the whole animal is completely burnt. Often used substantively in apposition with the noun thysia, the term appears in a fragment of pseudo-Callisthenes, writing in Latin, Jerome Latinized the Greek word as a neuter noun holocaustum, using it to translate references to the Jewish burnt offering in his translations of Exodus and Leviticus. In his Chronicon de rebus gestis Ricardi Primi, Richard of Devizes, the English poet John Milton had used the word to denote a conflagration in his 1671 poem Samson Agonistes and the word gradually developed to mean a massacre thereon. The term was used in the 1950s by historians as a translation of the Jewish word shoah to refer specifically to the Nazi genocide of Jews, the television mini-series Holocaust is credited with introducing the term into common parlance after 1978. The biblical word shoah, meaning calamity became the standard Hebrew term for the Holocaust as early as the 1940s, especially in Europe and Israel. Shoah is preferred by some Jews for several reasons including the offensive nature of the word holocaust which they take to refer to the Greek pagan custom. The Nazis used the phrase Final Solution to the Jewish Question, all branches of Germanys bureaucracy were engaged in the logistics that led to the genocides, turning the Third Reich into what one Holocaust scholar, Michael Berenbaum, has called a genocidal state. Every arm of the countrys sophisticated bureaucracy was involved in the killing process, as prisoners entered the death camps, they were made to surrender all personal property, which was catalogued and tagged before being sent to Germany to be reused or recycled. Berenbaum writes that the Final Solution of the Jewish question was in the eyes of the perpetrators, through a concealed account, the German National Bank helped launder valuables stolen from the victims
7.
Iran
–
Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
8.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
9.
Beersheba
–
Beersheba also spelled Beer-Sheva is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Beersheba grew in importance in the 19th century, when the Ottoman Turks built a police station there. The Battle of Beersheba was part of a wider British offensive in World War I aimed at breaking the Turkish defensive line from Gaza to Beersheba. In 1947, Bir Seba, as it was known, was envisioned as part of the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, following the declaration of Israels independence, the Egyptian army amassed its forces in Beersheba as a strategic and logistical base. In the Battle of Beersheba waged in October 1948, it was conquered by the Israel Defense Forces, Beersheba has grown considerably since then. Second and third waves of immigration have taken place since 1990, bringing Russian-speaking Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the Soviet immigrants have made the game of chess a major sport in Beersheba and the city is now a developing technology center. The city is now Israels national chess center, with more chess grandmasters per capita than any city in the world. There are several etymologies for the origin of the name Beersheba, the oath of Abraham and Abimelech is the one stated in Gen.21,31. Others include the seven wells dug by Isaac though only three or four have been identified, the oath of Isaac and Abimelech, the seven lambs that sealed Abraham, Beer is the Hebrew word for well, sheva could mean seven or oath. In this case the meaning is probably oath, as the ancient Hebrews believed seven to be a number. The Arabic toponym can also be translated as Seven wells or as commonly believed Lions well. During Ottoman administration city was referred as بلدية بءرالسبع Birüsseb, Beersheba is mainly dealt with in the Hebrew Bible in connection with the Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, who both dig a well and close peace treaties with King Abimelech of Gerar at the site. Hence it receives its name twice, first after Abrahams dealings with Abimelech, the place is thus connected to two of the three Wife–sister narratives in the Book of Genesis. According to the Hebrew Bible, Beersheba was founded when Abraham and Abimelech settled their differences over a well of water, Abimelechs men had taken the well from Abraham after he had previously dug it so Abraham brought sheep and cattle to Abimelech to get the well back. He set aside seven lambs to swear that it was he that had dug the well, Abimelech conceded that the well belonged to Abraham and, in the Bible, Beersheba means Well of Seven or Well of the Oath. Beersheba is further mentioned in following Bible passages, Isaac built an altar in Beersheba, jacob had his dream about a stairway to heaven after leaving Beersheba. Beersheba was the territory of the tribe of Simeon and Judah, the sons of the prophet Samuel were judges in Beersheba. Saul, Israels first king, built a fort there for his campaign against the Amalekites, the prophet Elijah took refuge in Beersheba when Jezebel ordered him killed
10.
Eilat
–
Eilat is Israels southernmost city, a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba. The citys beaches, coral reef, nightlife and desert landscapes make it a destination for domestic. A concerted effort by the Israeli Government to populate Elat began in 1955, Eilats arid desert climate and low humidity are moderated by proximity to a warm sea. Temperatures often exceed 40 °C in summer, and 21 °C in winter, Eilat averages 360 sunny days a year. With an annual rainfall of 28 millimetres and summer temperatures of 40 °C and higher, water resources. The main elements that influenced the history were the copper resources and other minerals, the ancient international roads that crossed the area. These resulted in a settlement density that defies the environmental conditions, like numerous other localities, Eilat is mentioned in the Bible both in singular and plural form. The original settlement was probably at the tip of the Gulf of Eilat. Ancient Egyptian records also document the extensive and lucrative mining operations, Eilat is mentioned in antiquity as a major trading partner with Elim, Thebes Red Sea Port, as early as the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt. In antiquity Eilat bordered the states of Edom, Midian and the territory of the Rephidim. Eilat is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Exodus, the first six stations of the Exodus are in Egypt. The 7th is the crossing of the Red Sea and the 9th–13th are in and around Eilat, after the exodus from Egypt, station 12 refers to a dozen campsites in and around Timna in Modern Israel near Eilat. When King David conquered Edom, which up to then had been a border of Edom and Midian, he took over Eilat. The commercial port city and copper based industrial center were maintained by Egypt until reportedly rebuilt by Solomon at a known as Ezion-Geber. In 2 Kings 14, 21–22 All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old and he rebuilt Elath, and restored it to Judah, after his fathers death. And again in 2 Kings 16,6, At that time the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom and it was a prosperous Judean trading port from the 9th through 7th centuries BCE. Naʾaman, Nadav. During the Roman period a road was built to link the area with the Nabataean city of Petra, in the writings of medieval Muslim scholars, such as Al-Waqidi, it is told that Muhammad made a treaty with Eilats population, Jews and Christians. In the treaty, Muhammad offered protection to the Jews and the Christians, preserving their self-rule over the city, another reference to the Eilat in Islamic texts is believed to appear in the Quran, sura 7, 163–169
11.
Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
12.
Magen David Adom
–
The Magen David Adom is Israels national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service. The name means Red Star of David, MDA has a dedicated medical emergency phone number in Israel,101. The Magen David Adom organization was formed by nurse Karen Tenenbaum in 1930 as an association with a single branch in Tel Aviv. After opening branches in Jerusalem and Haifa, it was extended five years later, providing medical support to the public including not only Jews. In the late 1960s the organization refocused its rapid trauma treatment, Dr. Carolines work at Magen David Adom was based upon studies she conducted with Dr. Peter Safar and the Freedom House Paramedics of Pittsburgh. Magen David Adom is mainly staffed by volunteers, and has over 10,000 people volunteering over one million man-hours per year, the minimum age to join Magen David Adoms basic first aid course and become a volunteer is 15. Since 2001, international volunteers aged 18 and over have the option to come to Israel for a two-month MDA Overseas Program in Memoory of Yochai Porat. The program is named after its founder and first coordinator, who was killed by a sniper on March 3,2002 while serving duty as a combat medic in the Israel Defense Forces. All volunteers pass a 60-hour course that covers a range of topics ranging from common medical conditions. Those who pass the course are then dispatched throughout the country and work with volunteers in ambulances to provide initial medical care on the regular. Visitors to Israel are also welcome to donate blood through the Sharing for Life program, MDA headquarters and its blood bank are located at the Tel HaShomer complex in the center of the country. The organization operates 119 stations over the country, with a fleet of over 1000 ambulances nationwide, among them are mobile intensive care units, special ambulances equipped for mass casualty events, and armored ambulances. Most of the fleet is made up of regular size vans providing Basic Life Support and these are called Lavan due to their external aspect and to differentiate them from the MICU, which have orange stripes on the sides. They are manned by EMTs who generally have ranks equivalent to Basic, in Israel, they are called maar, maar bachir, chovesh, and chovesh bachir. Ambulance drivers are EMTs or higher with a license for emergency vehicles. MICUs similar to the US Type II units and manned by paramedics and they are called Natan or Atan. Major stations include special units for responding to mass casualty events such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks, in some cases Air ambulance service is provided by Israeli Air Force 669 unit with MEDEVAC helicopters. However, in 2008, MDA started to provide paramedics for three EMS MBB Bo 105s imported from Germany by Lahak Aviation Ltd and these three helicopters are operated by Lahak Aviations operating company, Shapirit Air Services Ltd. as Ambulance helicopters
