Israel Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Chaucer
... , the land of Israel (VII.2060, 2152, LGW ...
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World Maps
...Israel Physical map Political map Jerusalem Central Jerusalem Central Jerusalem...
Israel Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... The name has gained different applications over the centuries. In the Old Testament it is the name given to jacob when he was wrestling with God. Jacob’s sons sired the twelve tribes of israel (the Israelites or ‘children of Israel’ or Hebrews), who many years later conquered the promised land and settled there. In due course their land became the kingdom of Israel, with saul , david and solomon as its rulers ( see kings of israel ). On the death of Solomon, the kingdom divided into two unequal parts, the larger becoming Israel and the...
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The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
... . The Hebrew nation, thought of as descending from the Patriarch Israel ( Jacob ). In their history of the period of the Monarchy the biblical writers normally used Israel (in contrast to Judah ) of the ten northern tribes , i.e. of those who attached themselves to Jeroboam I after the death of Solomon . In a theological sense the word was used of the whole nation (South as well as North), especially in their covenant-relation with God. In the NT it was transferred to the Church. The modern Jewish State established in 1948 bears the name Israel...
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The Oxford Companion to Music
...Israel . Work ( 1912–16 ) by Bloch for two sopranos, two contraltos, bass, and orchestra, setting a text drawn from the Song of Songs...
ISRAEL Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (2 ed.)
...). When the Jewish state was established in 1948, it was named the State of Israel. See also Israel, Kingdom of . Abraham Arazy “ The Appellations of the Jews (Ioudaios, Hebraios, Israel) in the Literature from Alexander to Justinian ,” Ph. D. dissertation, New York University, 1977. Peter J. Tomson “ The Names Israel and Jew in Ancient Judaism and in the New Testament [part] I ,” Bijdragen: Tijdschrift voor filosofie en Theologie 47 (1986):...
Israel Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Bible
... . The name Israel (“he contended with God”) is conferred on Jacob by a divine messenger after their struggle at the Wadi Jabbok ( Gen. 32.28 ; 35.10 ; Hos. 12.3 ). The twelve sons of Jacob and their tribal descendants are therefore called “the sons of Israel” (the Israelites; see Tribes of Israel ). The earliest nonbiblical reference to Israel occurs on the inscription of Merneptah, king of Egypt (ca. 1200 BCE ). Israel remains the normal designation for the entire nation until the division of the kingdom in 924 BCE ( 1 Kings 12.1–20 )....
Israel Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 rev. ed.)
...Israel . The Hebrew nation, thought of as descending from the Patriarch Israel ( Jacob ). Acc. to Gen. 32: 28 , the name Israel was bestowed upon Jacob by the mysterious divine stranger with whom he wrestled at Peniel; and it is frequently used of Jacob from this point in the narrative. The twelve tribes of Israel bore the names of the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel ( cf. Gen. 49 ). In their history of the period of the Monarchy the biblical writers normally applied the word Israel (esp. in contrast to ‘ Judah ’) to the ten northern tribes, i.e. to those which...
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World Encyclopedia
...led Israel to launch a major military offensive against Gaza. In November 2012 Hamas and Israel engaged in a further exchange of rockets and missiles which, before a ceasefire brokered by Egypt, killed 158 people in Gaza and six in Israel. In June 2014 the murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank provoked further tensions. In Gaza, Hamas fired more rockets at Israel and in July Israel launched a major counter-attack, initially by air, and later with ground forces with the aim of destroying Hamas rocket launchers and tunnels into Israel. By...
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World Flags
... Israel adopted its present flag when the Jewish state declared independence in 1948. The blue and white stripes are based on the tallit, a Hebrew prayer shawl. The ancient, six-pointed Star of David is in the centre. Blue and white are traditional Jewish colours symbolizing...
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The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
... . 1. Name given to the patriarch Jacob after he wrestled with an angel (Genesis 32. 28–9). 2. Name used for the descendants of Jacob, and so for all the Jewish people, in full: bene Israel , sons of Israel. 3. The Northern Kingdom of the Jews. With the division of the kingdom during the reign of Rehoboam ( c. 930 bce ), the Southern Kingdom, which remained faithful to the House of David , was known as Judah , while the Northern Kingdom was called Israel. It included the territory of all the tribes except Judah and Benjamin . It was eventually...
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World Encyclopedia
... The State of Israel is a small country in the E Mediterranean. Inland lie the Judaeo-Galilean highlands, from N Israel to the N tip of the Negev Desert in the S. To the E lie part of the Great Rift Valley, River Jordan , Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea . At 403m [1,322ft] below sea level, this last is the world's lowest point on land. Climate Israel has hot, dry, summers. Winters are mild and moist on the coast. Annual rainfall decreases W to E and N to S with only 70mm [2.5in] in the Dead Sea region. History Israel comprises most of the Biblical Holy...
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A Dictionary of Human Geography
...they claim as their own. The United States has long tried to broker peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbours, even as it has adopted a largely pro-Israel stance. Israel is a representative democracy with a complex and prosperous economy. Its per capita wealth is among the highest in the region. Its major cities are Tel Aviv and Jerusalem , and its population is nearly eight...
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Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names (6 ed.)
...war Israel has progressively given back captured territory to Egypt and the Palestinian Authority; however, in 1981 it annexed the Golan Heights. The present name comes from the ancient land of Israel which itself comes from Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham; Jacob’s name was changed to Israel because he was ‘one that prevailed with God’ (Genesis 32: 28). Jacob-Israel fathered twelve sons, each one the progenitor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel, the ‘children of Israel’. In due course, their ‘Promised Land’ became the Kingdom of Israel. ...
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Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World
...of Israel and no peace with Israel. This struck a major blow to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Then, in the summer of 2006 , the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing others in a cross-border raid, precipitated a month-long Israeli-Lebanese war. This increased Israeli-Iranian tensions, just as the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( b. 1956 ) was calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and developing a nuclear program that most Israelis saw as an existential threat to their state. Israeli Politics and...
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Jeremy Pressman
The Oxford Companion to American Politics
... Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Israel unilaterally closed its settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005 . But in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 500,000 Israeli settlers sit among millions of Palestinians. Over a million more Palestinians live in Gaza. Israel ’s combination of democracy and occupation make both more difficult to execute. Looking toward the future, Israel may not be able to maintain a democratic regime type, its identity as a Jewish state, and its hold on the occupied territories simultaneously. After the 1967 War, Israel ...
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A Dictionary of the Bible (2 ed.)
... Hebrew: ‘the one who sees God’; used for the twelve tribes, who trace their descent from * Jacob , who was also called Israel (Gen. 32: 28). After the one kingdom of the twelve tribes was separated into north and south, the northern kingdom from 924 to 721 bce is called Israel, as distinct from * Judah . But the OT text is not entirely consistent. By a kind of nostalgia for the united kingdom of * David and * Solomon , even after the disruption we can read of the ‘people of Israel who were living in the towns of Judah’ (1 Kgs. 12: 17). After the...
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Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
... The term “Israel” was used by medieval authors essentially apropos of two themes (the word did not generally designate contemporary Jews ). 1) The question of the Verus Israel was one of the major themes of controversy between Christians and Jews: who was the true Israel, depositary of divine truth, the Jews, faithful to the Old Testament whose prescriptions they scrupulously observed, or the Christians, who recognised the new Law and believed in the Son of God? At the heart of polemical works, this theme received a particular illustration with the...
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The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (2 ed.)
...The Arab-Israeli conflict has dominated Israeli foreign relations. After 1967 , Israel developed a particularly close alliance with the United States. Israel has also had close relations with important states in Western Europe, including Britain, France, and Germany. These ties enabled Israel to maintain its economic and military strength, and they paved the way for privileged trade relations since the 1980s: a free-trade link to the United States and status as a special trading partner with the European Union. After the June War of 1967 , Israel faced...
Israel Reference library
The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture
...Religious Buildings in Israel (Jerusalem, 1950) Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem: Gold- und Silberschmiedeabteilung/Jewelry and Silversmithing Department (exh. cat., ed. F. Falk ; Pforzheim, Schmuckmus.; Hanau, Dt. Goldschmiedehaus; London, Electrum Gal.; 1978) R. Millstein : Islamic Painting in the Israel Museum (Jerusalem, 1984) In Memory of Paul Balog (exh. cat. by N. Brosh , Y. Meshorer and I. Pommerantz ; Jerusalem, Israel Mus., 1988) Jewellery and goldsmithing in the Islamic world (exh. cat. by N. Brosh ; Jerusalem, Israel Mus., 1991) M. Sharon : ...
