Israel part of Europe?

28-08-2012 11:11PM

mike65 wrote: »

That's Eurasia!

Have a little respect

karma_ · 28-08-2012 11:12PM

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Ok. And you think Siberia is a country?

No. It's obviously not, I'm just pointing out where the demarcation line of Europe extends to.

Lawrence1895 · 28-08-2012 11:12PM

Gee Bag wrote: »

Technically speaking, Ireland isn't part of Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe

As the link correctly says 'continental' Europe.

Then Norway, Sweden, Finland, the UK, Iceland, every island. in fact, has to be excluded.

Pawwed Rig · 28-08-2012 11:16PM

Lars1916 wrote: »

As the link correctly says 'continental' Europe.

Then Norway, Sweden, Finland, the UK, Iceland, every island. in fact, has to be excluded.

But Norway, Sweden and Finland aren't islands?

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Ok. And you think Siberia is a country?

No it is Russia in Asia

ponpon · 28-08-2012 11:16PM

But would anyone say Israel is "politically" part of Europe?

dlofnep · 28-08-2012 11:16PM

Israel shares very little in common with Europe. Israeli culture isn't homogeneous either. It is split between moderate Israelis, who are probably closer to Americans than Europeans... and lunatic orthodox Jews who believe in public segregation akin to what existed in apartheid South-Africa.

In anycase - I can't think of a single country in Europe that is similar to Israel.

My name is URL · 28-08-2012 11:18PM

https://www.google.ie/search?q=what+continent+is+israel+in&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

As for the football thing - http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/feb/27/worldcup2010

keith16 · 28-08-2012 11:20PM

Lars1916 wrote: »

As the link correctly says 'continental' Europe.

Then Norway, Sweden, Finland, the UK, Iceland, every island. in fact, has to be excluded.

"Continental" or "the continent" are colloquialisms and are not the same as the continent of Europe proper.

These terms are used in place of 'the mainland'. Quite true to say that Ireland is not part of mainland Europe or "the continent" but untrue to say that Ireland is not part of the continent of Europe.

ameeee · 28-08-2012 11:22PM

ponpon wrote: »

I have been having this debate with a friend and would like to see what others opinions are. I believe that Israel may be culturally involved with Europe, as it is part of the EBU and participates in many European sporting events. However as far as I am aware it is not officially considered to be part of Europe. My friend believes that Israel is 'politically' part of Europe. However as far as I am cocerned, wouldn't Israel need to have a representative in some European body such as the parliament or council to be.considered as politically part of Europe?

Israel is a country in the middle East. How on earth would it be part of Europe?

KenSwee · 28-08-2012 11:22PM

In my opinion, they shouldn't have anything to do with Europe.
Having them playing their sports and singing their songs along with Europe is just an easy way out for those lot.
The sooner they accept that they are part of the middle east, the better for everybody.
If they didn't have the support of western democracies, then maybe they would be in more of a hurry to organise their own backyard.

Stabshauptmann · 28-08-2012 11:25PM

I can't believe there are so many people making definitive statements, and making on-up comments, technically its X without any explanation as to why...

The simple way to put it, is that the term "continent" is open to interpretation, and a unanimously agreed definition does not exist.
If you subscribe to the "traditional" view of Europe and Asia as different continents, Israel is not part of Europe.

And if you want to subscribe to the Eurasian view, then why not Afro-Eurasia

keith16 · 28-08-2012 11:30PM

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

And if you want to subscribe to the Eurasian view, then why not Afro-Eurasia

My god....this new super-continent will kill us all!

Duckworth_Luas · 28-08-2012 11:30PM

Sulla Felix wrote: »

There isn't a continent called Europe, whatever you might have learned in primary school. That's just a western contrivance.

Yeah, it's really called Zubadoobadooo!

im invisible · 28-08-2012 11:39PM

Pride Fighter · 28-08-2012 11:40PM

Israel is not a part of Europe, it is a part of Asia. The only European Country Israel is similar to is Belarus, cause they both have horrible human rights records.

wendell borton · 28-08-2012 11:48PM

it's part of eurasia.

Show Time · 28-08-2012 11:53PM

My nephew is starting fifth class this week and looking at his geography work book the map of Europe has changed an awful lot since my day thirty four countries on the map compared to about the twenty or so back when i was his age.
** It was well before the wall came down""

Pawwed Rig · 28-08-2012 11:54PM

Yugoslavia made things alot easier in my day

wp_rathead · 28-08-2012 11:56PM

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Yugoslavia made things alot easier in my day

you obvo didn't grow up there :pac:

Augmerson · 29-08-2012 12:12AM

Well, with regards to sport, Israel is included in UEFA because many countries really don't like the Israeli's and their football associations have shunned them in the past. They made it to a 1958 World Cup play-off against Wales without having played a single game (nobody would play them). They were expelled in 1974 from the AFC.

For instance afaik Jews are banned in Saudi Arabia. Might make playing a qualifier a bit troublesome. I couldn't imagine Israel's team going to Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus, Islamabad and so on. These are all places where you might end up going to if you were included in the AFC.

For me, Israel is in Asia. Specifically the Middle East. It is not in Europe. It doesn't even touch off a country that touches off a European country. Plenty of countries have a western lifestyle, have immigrants who settled there having come from European countries, but that does not make them European or in Europe. Australia isn't in Europe, neither is New Zealand, neither is Canada or the US.

Victor · 29-08-2012 12:21AM

ponpon wrote: »

'politically' part of Europe.

No such thing unless you want to get into some high-falutin, academic debate. Continents aren't political entities.

It could be argued that it is 'politically' part of the United States or Jamaica or Mozambique, but it wouldn't quite be right, wouldn't it?

Note that the traditional 4/5/6/7-continent models have gaps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Geology

Colmustard · 29-08-2012 12:26AM

I thought it was once but boards proved me wrong, it is not part of Europe. Turkey is.

Pawwed Rig · 29-08-2012 12:49AM

There is part of Turkey in Europe but most of it is in Asia. It's historical links to Greece would seem to suggest a European heritage but the fact that it is a muslim country would indicate closer ties to middle east

Goro · 29-08-2012 12:56AM

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Israel is not a part of Europe, it is a part of Asia. The only European Country Israel is similar to is Belarus, cause they both have horrible human rights records.

Many European countries including Western countries also have appalling human rights records.

ejmaztec · 29-08-2012 01:24AM

It's part of America, just left of the anus.

Amirani · 29-08-2012 02:30AM

Augmerson wrote: »

For me, Israel is in Asia. Specifically the Middle East. It is not in Europe. It doesn't even touch off a country that touches off a European country.

It has a border with Syria which itself has a border with Turkey.

Mervyn Crawford · 29-08-2012 07:43AM

Israel, like Belarus, Turkey, the UK , Ireland, the USA, Russian Federation, Maritius, China, ....and every country, is part of the world economic system.

The demonstrations, ongoing, in Israel against poverty, ineqaulity and war show as much.

The division in Israel is not that of Europpean versus Asiatic; but class against class.

Just as it is in South Africa, Ecquador, Tibet, the Faroe Islands.

The supposed Islamic dominance of countries who have a muslim characteristic in their national personality?

See this: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/tuni-a29.shtml

Israeli youth and workers have been fighting the zealots also. Bitter at conscription into state armed forces that are seen more and more as instruments of the ruling class - not defenders of the supposed 'Promised Land' against the apparent atavistic hordes living for nothing more than the death of all Jews.

Pherekydes · 29-08-2012 07:58AM

Kazakhstan are a member of UEFA!

Cú Giobach · 29-08-2012 08:38AM

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

There is part of Turkey in Europe but most of it is in Asia. It's historical links to Greece would seem to suggest a European heritage but the fact that it is a muslim country would indicate closer ties to middle east

I don't think just being an Islamic country really means the Turks have or feel closer ties to the Middle East, most of the world's Muslims live in South and Southeast Asia and the largest Islamic country is Indonesia.
Turks are not Arabic and hate it when some westerners make the mistake of referring to them as such, their roots are Central Asian.
Young people from Turkey (a huge proportion of the population) tend identify very much with Europe.

Stimpyone · 29-08-2012 08:52AM

Physically Israel is not in Europe. But they do strongly identify with it.

Oddly I’m currently over in Tel Aviv working for a couple of weeks and even more bizarrely had this conversation with my Israel colleagues only yesterday. Many of them expressed a desire for Israel to join the EU too.

Remember that roughly 20% of their population is European with a large percentage of that being Russian.

Israel part of Europe?

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