A country in the Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It is subject to a number of AH.com-related jokes:
David bar Elias most often has a cameo appearance as prime minister of Israel in alternate and future histories.
Tel-Avision hails from Israel, and his activities have led many AH.com members to believe that Tel-Avision somehow hijacked all Israeli IP addresses. Apart, that is, from the ones used by
nonny.
Israel is one of the more minor nationalistic-running jokes relating to
Wikipedia, specifically the idea that Israeli Wikipedians allegedly delete all references to 'Palestine' as a modern state.
Israel is invariably at the center of controversy and…“debate” on the board. To cut to the crunch, Hank Fletcher was banned and I accuse Abdul Hadi Pasha with the Holy Grail in the Dome of the Rock.
The topic of Israel has been an extremely hot one, and debates often lead to intervention by Ian and the mods. Overall, Israel discussions have generated more kicks and bans than any other topic.
Alternate Israels - Not that big a cliché, but the idea is noted as a bit overdone at times - to the point that in many alternate histories, a state of Israel is founded at places anywhere on Earth except at its OTL location. As our member ninebucks once put it, “Let's play Pin the Zion on the Eurasia…”.
Michael Chabon's AH novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a notably genre-savvy and original take on this, with the Alaskan town of Sitka and its environs becoming the new homeland of Jewish exiles after WWII. Notable AH.com examples of this idea are David Bar Elias' Zionist Uganda TL and the territory of Altneuland from EdT's Fight and Be Right.
Here's a list of territories and countries commonly suggested as alternate Israels by fans of alternate history:
Alaska - Based on a plan presented in OTL to allow the widespread immigration of Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany into the then-US territory. The success of this plan forms the foundation for Michael Chabon's aforementioned AH novel.
The Baltic Sea coast
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Far-Eastern Russia - Another proposal that existed in OTL, but was never a very popular idea to begin with.
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Madagascar - Actually one of the British proposals
in OTL. It was also part of an early plan by some elements in Nazi Germany as a place of resettlement for all of the Jews of Europe). Madagascar is the subject to large numbers of Jewish immigrants in the online timeline “Italian Surge,” as well as yet another Jewish nation (New Israel) in Tony Jones's “Clive-less World.”
Manchuria - Based on OTL's Fugu Plan, which was drawn up by the Japanese during World War II to import 10,000-600,000 “unwanted” Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe to settle in Manchuria, where they would work for the glory of the Japanese Empire; the Plan was notorious for being linked to the anti-Semitic work of fiction
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which some elements in the Japanese government naively assumed meant that the Jews, if exploited properly, would contribute greatly to Japan's economic and geopolitical prowess.
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Texas - Likely based on OTL's efforts by a Jewish territorialist organization in the early 20th century to encourage large numbers of Jewish migrants to come to Texas; Texas is the setting for an alternate Israel in
Tony Jones' ”
Cliveless World”)
Uganda - One of the British proposals in OTL. The basis for david's
Ugandan TL, as mentioned above.
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Over the years, it has become a kind of running gag/meme that every thread started in Chat that discusses Israeli domestic politics (particularly the neverending Jewish-Palestinian tussle) will result in at least one member getting banned before the thread closes. This is a reference to how heated these political debates can get among many AH.commers.