Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35
Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.
Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.[neutrality is disputed] Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
Ken O'Keefe (born August 18, 1953) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently a wide receivers coach for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL), a position he assumed in February 2012. O'Keefe has previously served as the offensive coordinator for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team from 1999 to 2011. He was the head football coach at the Allegheny College from 1990 to 1997 and at Fordham University in 1998, compiling a career college football record of 83–17–1. In O'Keefe's first season at Allegheny, in 1990, his team went 13–0–1 and won the NCAA Division III National Football Championship.
On February 3, 2012, O'Keefe resigned from the Iowa program to take a job with the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). New Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin spent several years on Iowa's staff, coaching the offensive line from 1999 to 2002.
Dan Israel is a singer-songwriter currently based in Minneapolis. He won Song of the Year (for "Come to Me") in the 2005 Minnesota Music Awards.
Israel led the folk-duo One Town Horse in Chicago in the late 1980s and early 1990s, went on to lead the more electrified folk-rockers Potter's Field in Austin, TX in the mid '90s (where he was named one of Austin's top 15 songwriters), and finally relocated to his hometown of Minneapolis in 1996, where he formed Dan Israel and the Cultivators and released several critically acclaimed CDs, both solo and with the Cultivators.
His 2000 solo release "Dan Who?" received a 4-star review from music reviewer Jim Walsh (then at the St. Paul Pioneer Press), who summed up his outrage at the under-recognition of Israel's talent with these words: "Well, somebody buy a billboard, hire a blimp, and give this guy his due already. His name is Dan Israel, one of the mad ones, one of the strugglers, and he just made the record of his life."
Israel has been reviewed favorably in national magazines like Paste and No Depression and in major American newspapers such as the Chicago Sun-Times, has received extensive radio airplay both stateside and overseas, has showcased multiple times at the prestigious South by Southwest Music Conference, and has opened for acts such as Morrissey, the Tragically Hip, Todd Snider, Iris DeMent, Peter Himmelman, the Honeydogs, Mason Jennings, Martin Zellar, Mary Lou Lord, Ike Reilly, Steve Poltz, the Silos, and many more.
Dr. Gregor Gysi (German pronunciation: [ˈɡiːzi]; born 16 January 1948) is a German attorney and key politician of the socialist left-wing political party The Left (Die Linke). He played an important role in the end of communist rule in East Germany in 1989[citation needed], and was a main figure in the post-reunification Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). He is well known for his rhetoric talent and is considered one of the best German public speakers.
Gysi was born in East Berlin, Soviet Zone of Germany. His father, Klaus Gysi, was a high-ranking official in East Germany, and had been Minister of Culture from 1966 to 1973. His mother, Irene, was the sister of political activist Gottfried Lessing, who was married to the British writer Doris Lessing during his exile in Southern Rhodesia. The surname "Gysi" is of Swiss-German origin. Both of his parents were of part Jewish ancestry; his paternal grandmother was Jewish, as was one of his maternal great-grandfathers. One of his maternal great-grandmothers was Russian.
Kenneth "Ken" Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.
He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness (Cathy Come Home) and labour rights (Riff-Raff).
Loach was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and following two years in the Royal Air Force read law at St Peter's College, Oxford. There he performed in the now well-established comedy group, the Oxford Revue. He initially worked as an actor in repertory theatre, but in the early 1960s moved into television direction and was credited in this role on early episodes of Z-Cars in 1964.
In 1966, Loach made the influential docudrama Cathy Come Home portraying working class people affected by homelessness and unemployment, and presenting a powerful and influential critique of the workings of the Social Services. Soon afterwards with Poor Cow (1967) he started directing films for the cinema, and in 1969 made Kes, the story of a troubled boy and his kestrel, based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. The British Film Institute named it No 7 in its list of best British films of the twentieth century, published in 1999.