Talk:Israel

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Is this article WP:BCLASS?

I looked at the article assessment and I was surprised to see this article is only at a C. Are there any shortcomings that are causing that to happen? Chess (talk) (please mention me on reply) 20:53, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

@Chess No. Kaotao (talk) 20:42, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 6 February 2025

Redwan Karim wise (talk) 20:49, 6 February 2025 (UTC)
i want to translate info into some language that all the persons also known of it.Also  i want to add info.

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Remsense ‥ 论 20:50, 6 February 2025 (UTC)

See WP:TRANSLATE for advice on translating; you need to go to the Wikipedia you want to translate for. 331dot (talk) 21:21, 6 February 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 15 February 2025

Description of suggested change:

Diff:

−

ORIGINAL_TEXT

+

CHANGED_TEXT

198.105.46.252 (talk) 23:40, 15 February 2025 (UTC)

Yhitzak Amit was confirmed as the Israeli supreme court president so he's no longer serving in an active capacity, please fix up to date?

I think what you want done is change "Chief Justice Yitzhak Amit (acting)" to "Chief Justice Yitzhak Amit". A source is https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/isaac-amit-is-sworn-in-as-supreme-court-chief-herzog-pans-government-for-boycotting-event/ I've checked and made the change --Erp (talk) 00:45, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 20 February 2025 (2)

I would like to edit and correct some subjects, in the first couple lines. DanteDan12 (talk) 19:14, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: It's unclear what kind of edits the User is requesting. Please be more specific. Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 19:43, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 20 February 2025

remove 'Occupied Palestine' from description Partlyparttimeparty (talk) 22:02, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

 Done Chess (talk) (please mention me on reply) 22:06, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 21 February 2025

please change the following hatnote: "For other uses, see Israel (disambiguation)." to "This article is about the modern State of Israel. For the ancient Kingdom of Israel under Saul, David, and Solomon, see Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy). For the Northern Kingdom, see Kingdom of Israel (Samaria). For other uses, see Israel (disambiguation)." Quinnly9 (talk) 18:24, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

@Quinnly9. What's the point of this? This makes the line way longer than it needs to be. The disambiguation link leads to ancient Israel anyway. Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 19:00, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: This unnecessarily makes the hatnote long. If you disagree, feel free to re-open this discussion. Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 02:04, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 24 February 2025

1st paragraph of lead

No RS to support the use of "in" in this context

−

its proclaimed capital is in Jerusalem

+

its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem

Mikewem (talk) 14:21, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

 Done - The redundant word has been removed by me. Thank you for helping out. Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 14:31, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

Geography error in the Spanish version

The first paragraph of the Spanish version of this page should reflect what the English version says (which reflects the correct geography). The English version says:

"the Gaza Strip and Egypt to the southwest, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west"

While the Spanish version says:

"al oeste con la Franja de Gaza (Palestina), al suroeste con la península del Sinaí (Egipto)"

This is wrong and should be corrected. IndigoPansy (talk) 22:11, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

The Spanish Wikipedia is a separate project, so you will need to raise your concern there. 331dot (talk) 22:42, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 28 February 2025

Description of suggested change: 2nd para of lead, 1st sentence. No RS to support the use of "the" in this context. See WP:ETHNICGROUP#Other for the guideline that says not to use “the” in this context.

Diff:

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Israel is located in a region known to the Jews as the Land of Israel

+

Israel is located in a region known to Jews as the Land of Israel

Mikewem (talk) 22:28, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: The two phrases are semantically identical, both expressing that Land of Israel is an ethnospecific term to Jews, not that every individual Jewish person knows the term. That would be quite a silly interpretation, and you can only really arrive there if you're trying on purpose to read it that way. Remsense ‥ 论 22:33, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

can you please supply an RS that demonstrates the use of "the" in this specific context?

I would note that the wording you used is "an ethnospecific term to Jews" rather than "an ethnospecific term to the Jews". Mikewem (talk) 22:42, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

Rewriting a sentence in a semantically equivalent but lexically distinct manner is not original research. Using terms referring collectively to certain human populations prefixed with "the" is not something we are obliged to litigate; when we do it would be a problem of diction in a specific instance, not one of semantics in general. Remsense ‥ 论 22:47, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

The nuance is that most words for names of human populations are both the noun and the adjective for that population. "Jew" is not an adjective, and therefore, there are nuanced lexical rules that come into play that normally would not have to be considered in a usage like this. Mikewem (talk) 22:58, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

I'll re-open the edit request in case someone else wants to weigh in. Remsense ‥ 论 23:02, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

I appreciate that very much, thank you Mikewem (talk) 23:15, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

I think it's correct the way it is. In a collective sense, the Jews know it as the land of Israel. It's a tradition of the Jews as a people. Just "Jews" implies to me that anyone who's a Jew individually knows it that way, which I don't think is the case and, in any event, I don't think that's what's relevant here.

I'll be amazed if you've never seen a scholarly source use "the" in front of the name of an ethnic group or nationality. The Danes, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Turks—it's ordinary English usage. (🎶That's nobody's business but the Turks'.🎶) Also, a meme that goes back I don't know how many decades is the question of whether something or other is "good for the Jews". Never "good for Jews". It's so ordinary I'm surprised it's a point of contention. Largoplazo (talk) 23:29, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

generic collectives can’t know things, only individuals can know things.

Are you okay with either:

“Israel is located in a region known to the Jewish people as the Land of Israel”

or

“Israel is located in a region known in Jewish culture as the Land of Israel” Mikewem (talk) 00:13, 1 March 2025 (UTC)

You're being terribly literal, and wrong. "The American land was much larger than France and the French knew little about it."[1] "The Danes knew long before the war ...."[2]. "According to him, the Turks knew how to use their minds as much as they knew how to fight ...."[3] "The Jews knew how the Christians live and worshiped ...."[4]

Also, it wouldn't be surprising for a blind person, upon having received an explanation of something, to reply "I see." Largoplazo (talk) 00:48, 1 March 2025 (UTC)

This is the conclusive answer

WP:ETHNICGROUP#Other

All of the examples you provided do not match the context here. Mostly you used collectives of nationalities. Nationalities follow different rules for the definite article than ethnicities. There is no nation named “Jew” or “Jewish” or any variant of those so those rules don’t apply here.

For [13], that’s discussing a specific geographic subset of Jews, not the worldwide Jewish people as a collective. In the context of a specific defined subset, you would use “the”. But we’re not talking about a specific defined subset, we’re making a generalization about the collective, which means you follow WP:ethnicgroup and never use a definite article. Mikewem (talk) 15:51, 1 March 2025 (UTC)

 Done It's a small thing, seems smoother without "the", meaning doesn't really change. Myrealnamm (💬Let's talk · 📜My work) 23:31, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

I've just undone it because the question is currently in dispute so we should await a consensus. Largoplazo (talk) 23:35, 28 February 2025 (UTC)

I'm fine with whatever others decide here. Remsense ‥ 论 00:22, 1 March 2025 (UTC)

Reopening for more opinions from others, if necessary. Myrealnamm (💬Let's talk · 📜My work) 20:58, 1 March 2025 (UTC)

I think this request suffered from my failure to link to the pertinent guideline in the original post. Won’t make that mistake again. I’m planning on archiving this one and starting fresh with a streamlined request that cites WP:ETHNICGROUP from the get-go Mikewem (talk) 11:23, 4 March 2025 (UTC)

Minor Edit Request

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Remove "synonymous with Canaan" from the lede.

1. The borders of ancient Canaan don't line up with modern day Israel.

2. No real reason to mention ancient Canaan just like we don't mention that it's synonymous with British Mandatory Palestine or the Judea province of the Roman Empire.

3. The fact that Canaanites lives there is in the following sentence.

I've made this request in the past and it was approved, I don't know who reversed it or why Fyukfy5 (talk) 09:55, 10 March 2025 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 30 March 2025

I'd like to add an audio. This is for the pronunciation footnote a. ^ⓘ Flame, not lame 💔 (Don't talk to me.) 17:56, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

@Flame, not lame  Done Lililolol (talk) 21:38, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

Inaccurate Demographics

The Demographics section starts by stating "Israel has the largest Jewish population in the world..." which in inaccurate, as the USA has 50% of the world's Jewish population, and Israel has 30% (according to Wikipedia). Mathematically, the statement is false and should be clarified. 66.119.110.115 (talk) 14:36, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

According to Jewish population by country then Israel has 7.3M Jews, while USA has 5.7M, not sure where you're getting the 30% and 50% from? Maybe you were reading the populations just for Ashkenazi Jews? As maybe that makes sense perhaps, as most Israeli Jews are not Ashkenazi, while the vast majority of American Jews are Ashkenazi. ~ Mathmo ^Talk 02:29, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

There is whole section Jewish_population_by_country#Debate_over_American_numbers with numbers seemingly ranging from 6 to 7.63 million in the US in 2020 (the 5.7 number is from 2016 though the reporter may have more recent numbers). A lot depends on the definition of Jewish: self-definition, those qualified under Israel's law of return, or those as defined by Orthodox standards plus perhaps other definitions. Another issue is how good the method of counting is (I suspect fairly clear cut in Israel by either the law of return definition or Orthodox standards but far less so in other countries). Erp (talk) 02:55, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

All of those figures under that debate section are well under Israel's 7.3M population, aside from one figure which claims "7.63 million American Jews". Which only barely exceeds Israel's numbers by the skinniest of margins. We can reasonably say with confidence that Israel has the largest Jewish population in the world. ~ Mathmo ^Talk 11:35, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

The RFC above does not appear fulfilled?

The closin admin's conclusion was "INCLUDE IN BODY AND LEAD." However, the article does not currently link to Gaza genocide in the lead. I'm going to restore a wikilink to Gaza genocide into the lead of this article. Feel free to express any concerns or comments about this here. JasonMacker (talk) 03:00, 5 April 2025 (UTC)