Israel!
Natalie Portman! The international movie star! She's best known for playing in French and American movies, but she's Israeli, born in Jerusalem, to parents from Eastern Europe and the U.S. Check her out in "A Tale of Love and Darkness" a 2015 film set in Israel's early days - she speaks Hebrew there.
(Image from Wikipedia by user Georges Biard, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Israel has small territory. Depending on how you count (see below), Israel's area is somewhere between 20,770 sq km and 28260 sq km. If you count the narrow value, Israel's area is between those of El Salvador and Slovenia; if you count the wide value, Israel's area is between those of Albania and Equatorial Guinea. For Americans who like comparisons to U.S. states, it's roughly the size of Maryland. For Indians, it's roughly the size of Manipur.
(Image from Wikipedia, by user Addicted04, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Now where do these extra 7490 sq km come from? Israel is the place of one of longest and most notable border disputes in the world, namely - what are its borders with Syria and the Palestinian State are supposed to be, and also what are the municipal borders of Jerusalem. Countless articles and books were written about the matter, but very roughly and briefly the history goes something like this:
Jews (or Hebrews, or Israelites) lived in the geographical area of Palestine and had their own Kingdom before the Roman conquest about 2000 years ago. The Roman conquest destroyed that kingdom and most of the Jews left to live in other countries.
The land changed hands several times. In the 19th century it was administered by the Ottoman Empire and mostly populated by Arabs.
Starting in the mid-19th century Jews from different countries started immigrating to this land, for ideological and religious reasons. The ideology that advocates immigration of Jews into Palestine and establishing a Jewish country there is called Zionism.
In 1917 Ottoman Empire lost the First World War and as a result the land moved to be administered by the British Empire. The British Empire agreed that it's possible to create a Jewish country on part of this land ("The Balfour Declaration"), which made the Jews living there very happy, and started another wave of immigration of Jews from Europe. The rise of Nazis to power in Germany in the 1930s intensified the immigration further.
In 1947 the UN voted for the Partitioning Plan, to divide that land into an Arab state and a Jewish state.
In 1948 the leadership of the Jews declared independence according to the Partitioning Plan and called the new country Israel. Arab leadership didn't accept the plan and started a war. By the end of the war, an armistice agreement was reached, which in practice gave Israel a bit more territory than the Partitioning Plan; the borders of that plan are largely forgotten, and most of the negotiations since then are about the 1949 border, also known as "The Green Line". The areas that were supposed to be used for the Arab state, were in practice occupied and administered by Egypt (The Gaza Strip) and Jordan (West Bank), and it didn't generate a lot of controversy. The Green Line divided the city of Jerusalem, which Israel declared as its capital.
In 1967 Israel got involved in the Six-Day War. Who started this war is a matter of more controversy, but it's not too important. Israel won it, but this victory also messed things up quite a bit. Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, the Sinai peninsula, the West Bank including all of Jerusalem, and also the Golan heights. The Sinai peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982 as part of a peace agreement, but as of 2015, Israel still controls most of the other territories occupied in 1967.
In 1993 parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank started to be administered by the Palestinian Authority, which according to the Oslo agreement was supposed to be a first step to creating an independent Palestinian state that peacefully coexists with Israel. The peace negotiations got stuck, however, so no completely recognized Palestinian state was ever established. Israel maintains civilian and military control over some parts of these territories, and strictly controls the borders with the areas administered by the Palestinian authority.
The Golan heights are still claimed by Syria, but Israel practically annexed this land, settled it with its citizens, and doesn't plan to withdraw from it, especially given that Syria is so chaotic and dysfunctional as of 2015.
The current de-facto borders. The Gaza strip is not shown as part of Israel here, which makes sense because Israel doesn't claim it and no Israelis live there since 2005, although its Arab residents complain that Israel controls the border too tightly (as does Egypt). Golan heights and East Jerusalem, in yellow, are de-facto completely administered by Israel, but this is not recognized internationally; both places also happen to be prime tourist destinations. The rest of the West Bank (light brown) is de-facto controlled by Israel, with some areas under the administration of the Palestinian authority, which claims all of it.
(Image from Wikipedia, by user Ynhockey, released to the public domain)
Confused? We all are. What the Israeli army does in the occupied territories is easily one of the biggest political controversies in the world, and a lot of Israelis are themselves openly unhappy about it. We do all hope that it will end in piece some day. Really.
With that mentioned, there's so much more to tell about Israel except the wars and the border controversies.
Israel is stretched from south to north, and narrow from east to west. Driving from Metula in the north to Eilat in the south takes about 6 hours. Driving from Tel-Aviv in the west to Jerusalem in the east takes about one hour, and if you drive further through the West Bank on the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem-Jericho highway, it takes about 45 minutes more. That's it - less than two hours and you crossed the whole country.
Also, Israel is precisely where Asia ends and Africa begins: Israel's border with Egypt is the only land border between the two continents.
The main language of Israel is modern Hebrew. Ancient Hebrew is the language in which the Bible was written (or in Christian terms, the Old Testament). Since (roughly) the 1st century until the 19th century, Hebrew was used in religious books and some poetry, but it was not spoken. Jewish ideologists in the 19th century led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda modernized this language and made it suitable for speaking and writing about current events and realities. This is frequently cited as the most successful language revitalization project ever. Hebrew is now used in all areas of life - family, school, work, shopping, newspapers, web, email, SMS, literature, theater, TV, music, and so on.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was the leader of the Hebrew language revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. With his wife Hemda he raised the first children in modern times who had Hebrew as their first native language. He convinced thousands of other people to switch from other languages to Hebrew, wrote a seventeen-volume dictionary of a language that was considered dead, and created a whole modern culture out of almost nothing. Streets are named in most Israeli cities after this man, who did a thing that nobody believed possible, and inspired generations of Israelis to try and do other impossible and unbelievable things.
Hebrew, like Arabic, is written right to left. Computer keyboards in Israel are based on the American English keyboard, and you can switch them to typing in Hebrew, and both Latin and Hebrew letters are shown on the keys. Some people also have Arabic, Russian or Armenian letters added.
Israeli Hebrew computer keyboard.
(Image from Wikipedia, by user Epson291, released to the public domain)
Most of the Jews in Israel are descendants of immigrants who came from Russia, Poland, France, Germany, England, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, India, Argentina and many other countries since the mid-19th century.
Esther Rada, born in Israel in an Ethiopian-Jewish family, is an internationally known soul singer. She mostly sings in English, and also in Hebrew and Amharic.
(Image from Wikipedia by user Fantman, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Israeli Jews share an ethnic-religious identity, but their actual beliefs and practices are wildly different: most don't consider themselves religious and don't care about traditions such as Sabbath, Kosher food, prayers, etc. Some even call themselves atheists. Some call themselves religious, so they pray three times a day, they don't drive or use electricity of Saturday (Sabbath), they check that all their food is Kosher, etc. Some dedicate almost all of their lives to religion - they are called Haredim or Ultra-Orthodox, and are identified by black clothes and hats for men and long dresses for women.
Shuli Rand is a Haredi Jew, and a highly popular actor and singer all over the country. There are a lot of differences and misunderstandings between Haredi and secular Jews in Israel, but Rand is an example of crossover success and recognition.
(Image from Wikipedia by user שלמה [Shlomo], licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
But dividing Israelis into just these three groups doesn't really do them justice - it's a large spectrum of opinions, beliefs, practices and identities, and the label "Jewish" is pretty much the only common thing for them. A small number of Israeli Jews are Christians, Buddhists or Scientologists, but they nevertheless call themselves Jews; this may sound like a contradiction to you, but it's not a contradiction to them (I know a few of each personally in real life).
Shakhar Tzuberi, Olympic medalist, born in Israel in a Yemenite-Jewish family.
(Image from Wikipedia, by user Baderez, licensed as CC-BY-SA 2.5.)
Israel is a democracy, with a parliament that is supposed to be elected every four years, although because of frequent political crises the elections are often held earlier. Despite this instability with elections and parliamentary coalitions, the political system in general has been fairly stable since the establishment of the country in 1948.
The building of the Knesset, Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem. We love hating our parliament members and complaining about their incompetence, corruption and lies, but we can replace them in elections every four years, and usually even earlier.
(Image from Wikipedia, by user Beny Shlevich, licensed as CC-BY-SA 2.5.)
Roughly 20% of people in Israel are Arabs. Most are Muslim, some are Christians. There are also the Druze people, who speak Arabic, but whose religious and ethnic identity is distinct from the Arabs, as well as small communities of Muslim Circassians and Christian Armenians. They are all citizens of Israel, they vote for the parliament and they can be elected. There were Arab Muslim, Christian and Druze parliament members throughout the history of the country. Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank are citizens of the Paliestinian Authority and vote for its own parliament.
Bassam Zuamut was an Arab-Israeli theater and television actor, beloved by both Arabs and Jews.
(Image from Eli Eshed's website. Sorry, no clever licensing remark, I just googled it. I'd love to have a better image - please edit this answer if you find one.)
Israel is one of the gay-friendliest countries in the world, and definitely the gay-friendliest in the Middle East. Gay couples live openly and raise children all over the country (although Tel-Aviv is known as the most important gay center), and the legislation is relatively egalitarian even if not yet perfect. So many singers, actors, journalists, scientists and politicians are openly gay, bi or trans that in 2015 it's not even a big deal any more. There is some homophobia in the religious circles, but this, unfortunately, exists all over the world.
Pride parade in Tel-Aviv.
(Image from Wikipedia by the U.S. Embassy staff, licensed as CC-BY-SA 2.0.)
The most popular team sports in Israel are football (soccer for Americans) and basketball. Local football teams are passionately loved by the fans, but are not very notable internationally, although some Israeli footballers played abroad, such as Yaniv Katan and Hayim Revivo. In basketball we are actually quite good - the Israeli Maccabi Tel-Aviv team won six European cups.
Maccabi Haifa (green) playing with Maccabi Tel-Aviv (yellow). Cricket is played in Israel only by a few immigrants from India and England; baseball and American football is played only by a few immigrants from the U.S.; ice hockey is played by a few immigrants from the USSR; golf is played by some millionaires. My apologies to my Indian, American and Russian readers. Israel also does quite well internationally in tennis, sailing and judo.
(Image from Wikipedia by user Orrling, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Both male and female Israelis are drafted to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) when they are 18. That's right, girls, too. Haredim, as well as Muslim Arabs are exempt from draft, but some do volunteer for service. Service is very varied - infantry, navy, air force, electronics, intelligence, radio, and many other professions are available. For a lot of Israelis, the army service is the time when they learn the profession to which they will dedicate their careers, and meet their best friends for life, and in quite a lot cases - their spouses. You can very often see uniformed soldiers walking the streets of cities and riding buses and trains; they are not patrolling, they are just going about their business, probably from their home to the base or back. Israel is such a small country that a lot of soldiers don't even have to stay at the base, so they go home at the end of the work day.
Israeli soldiers in training. Men and women can serve in any position according to their abilities.
(Photo from Wikipedia by the IDF spokesperson, licensed as CC-BY 2.0.)
About 70% of Israelis know English. Some better, some worse, but if you know English, you'll most likely be able to get around.
Rona Kenan, a popular Israeli rock singer. Most of her songs are in Hebrew, and a few are in English.
(Image from Wikipedia by user The forgotten, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
About 15% of Israelis (possibly even more) know Russian, because they immigrated from the Soviet Union. They all learn Hebrew upon arrival, or even before it. I am one of them ;)
Arkadi Dukhin, one of the biggest rock stars in Israel, was born in Belarus. He knows Russian, but sings in Hebrew.
(Image from Wikipedia by Adi Cohen Tzedek, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Israel has a beautiful coast line in the west, on the Mediterranean sea. Cities like Acre (Akko), Haifa, Caesarea, Tel-Aviv and Ashkelon are all highly recommended to tourists.
The ancient theater, well-preserved for 2000 years, in the city of Caesarea built by the Romans on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, which you can see right behind the stage. It's still used for music and theater shows. Half an hour of driving from Tel-Aviv.
(Image from Wikipedia by James Emery, licensed as CC-BY 2.0.)
Though its legal status is internationally controversial, as far Israelis are concerned, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and the seat of its parliament, government and high court. Most tourists who come to Israel visit Jerusalem, especially the old city with its famous churches, mosques and markets, as well as the Western Wall, but the rest of the city is worth a tour as well, for its modern culture and beautiful streets. (I live here and it's AWESOME! OK, I'm biased.)
Jerusalem! I love it! Yeah!
(Image from Wikipedia by user Nettadi, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
In the north-east of Israel you have Kinneret, or the Sea of Galilee - actually a lake, but traditionally called a "sea". It has beautiful nature around it, and is highly meaningful to Christians, because a lot of the events described in the New Testament happened there. That's where Jesus is told to have walked on water, among other things.
View of the Sea of Galilee, also known as Kinneret, from Mount Arbel.
(Image from Wikipedia by user Yuvalr, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
From the Sea of Galilee the Jordan river flows to the south and into the Dead Sea - actually also a lake, but it's so special that it's called a "sea", too. Its water is the saltiest on the planet, and its coast is the lowest land anywhere on Earth.
The Dead Sea, as seen from Masada, another popular tourist destination.
(Image from Wikipedia by user Grauesel, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
The southern tip of Israel is the city of Eilat on the Red Sea, with Jordan and Saudi Arabia on one side and Egypt on the other. It's a popular tourist destination, both as a resort and as a natural sanctuary connecting sea, colorful fish, corals and desert mountains.
A seahorse in Eilat, photographed in the natural habitat from the underwater observatory.
(Image from Wikipedia by Avishai Teicher, licensed as CC-BY 2.5.)
Israeli food is a wild mix of Italian, Polish, French, American, German, Lebanese, Balkan, Egyptian, Yemenite and Iraqi cuisine. You can be sure of one thing - the food will be tasty everywhere. Excellent latte and espresso coffee is easy to find everywhere, too.
Falafel, though not invented in Israel, became one of the symbols of Israeli life.
(Image from Wikipedia by Ted Eytan, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Israeli music is as varied as its food - you have classical music, opera, rock, jazz, "mizrahi" (pop music based on Turkish and Arab melodies), reggae, hip hop, various World Music ethnic orchestras, klezmer and what not.
Sarit Hadad is one of Israel's most successful pop singers, performing in the Mizrahi style. She also appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002. And yes, we LOVE our smartphones, but then who doesn't.
(Image from Wikipedia by user Neukoln, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Israeli rock music, in particular, in highly diverse, with some artists playing in a completely British-American style (but mostly singing in Hebrew), and some playing with unique Israeli touches (if this makes you curious, check out Berry Sakharof, Ehud Banai, Ofer Shriki, Amir Benayoun and Knesiyat Hasekhel).
Berry Sakharof, born in Israel to parents from Turkey, is one of the leading figures in Israeli rock music, combining Western rock with oriental influences, as well as electronic music. In the 1980s he was a member or the band Minimal Compact, which achieved some popularity in Europe, but since early 1990s he is having a very successful career here in his home country.
(Image from Wikipedia by Koren Ziv, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Two Israeli higher-education institutions appear in the top 100 of the Shanghai Academic Ranking - the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion in Haifa. The Weizmann Institute in Rehovot is another study and research institution with international prestige. Despite its tiny size, twelve people from Israel won the Nobel prize: Shmuel-Yosef Agnon, Yitzhak Rabin, Ada Yonath, Dan Shechtman, Yisrael Aumann and others.
Ada Yonath is a winner of the Nobel prize in Chemistry. She was born in Jerusalem in 1939 to Jews who immigrated from Poland six years earlier - just before the Holocaust. Jews in general and Israelis in particular are quite obsessed about the Holocaust, which was a genocide of European Jews by the Nazis. Israelis see the very existence of the country, not to mention its people's successes in economics, science and culture, as a victory against Nazism. Israel doesn't have a lot of minerals or oil, so its most important asset is its people.
(Image from Wikipedia by Miki Koren, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
Israel is a power house of electronics and software development. Intel, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Cisco, Qualcomm, 3M, Red Hat and plenty of other hi-tech companies do a lot of their development work in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Netanya and other Israeli cities. In particular, Israel is the birth place of instant messaging (ICQ, acquired by AOL), network firewalls (Check Point), pay TV with smart cards (NDS, acquired by Cisco), and many other technologies.
The city of Haifa, and the Haifa bay in the back. Mountains, a sea and a bay make it slightly similar to San-Francisco, but it's much smaller and cozier. It's a city of tourism, science, maritime trade and industry - electronics, software and chemical processing, among other things, as well as the transportation hub of Northern Israel.
(Image from Wikipedia by Zvi Roger, licensed as CC-BY-SA 3.0.)
It's an unpleasant thing to say, but if you plan to visit Israel, you should know that Israeli airport security has a good record of preventing terrorism, but is notoriously slow and intrusive, both on the way to and from Israel. Also, some taxi drivers tend to be quite rude. But in all honesty, once you are past them, you are among friends.
A beach in Tel-Aviv. The "Matkot" is a simple paddle ball game that Israelis love to play on the beach. Not to win, just to have fun. As a matter of fact, it says a lot about this country.
(Image from Wikipedia by user David Shankbone, licensed as CC-BY 3.0.)
Some other answers about Israel that you might find useful:
Amir E. Aharoni's answer to Are Jewish people part of an ethnicity, a race, a religion or all of the above?
Amir E. Aharoni's answer to What's it like to ride the bus in Israel?
Amir E. Aharoni's answer to What experiences are unique to Israel?
Amir E. Aharoni's answer to How did the transition to Hebrew as the language of the majority in Israel occur?
Read other answers by
Amir E. Aharoni on Quora:
What should I do in Israel this winter if I am on a two week study abroad program, and have a few days free?
What are the must-see places in Israel?
I spontaneously bought a ticket to Israel. What are some things I should see during a 2 month trip there?
Read more answers on Quora.