Israel Population Hits 8 Million

Ezekiel 36: 

"For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all of the countries and bring you back into your own land." (24)

"You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people and I will be your God."

(28)

"I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine." (29, 30)

"...the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited." (35)

Israel Population Hits 8 Million On Eve Of Independence Day

On the eve of its 65th Independence Day, Israel’s population hit 8 million, an increase of 1.8 percent - some 137,000 people - since last year, according to a report released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.

The report, which comes out annually on the eve of Independence Day, also pointed out that at the time of the establishment of the state, Israel’s population amounted to only 806,000 resident.

According to the data, 75.3% - about 6 million people - of the population are Jewish, while the country’s Arab residents  - some 1.6 million people - represent 20.7% of the total population.

The remaining 4% - 318,000 people - are non-Arab Christians, individuals with other religions and those with no religious affiliation.

The CBS figures also showed that at the end of the year 2011, over 70% of the Jewish population in Israel were native Israelis, more than half of whom were at least second generation natives, compared to 35% back in 1948.

In 1948, Tel Aviv was the only city in Israel which numbered over 100,000 inhabitants. Today, some 14 cities across the country are in this case. Out of the 14, six have over 200,000 residents: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Rishon Letzion, Ashdod and Petach Tikva.

Israel at 65: Population Tops 8 Million

This year marks the first time the Jewish population tops the iconic 6 million number, at 6.04 million. The Jewish residents of Israel make up 75.3% of the population. There are approximately 1.6 million Israeli Arabs (20.7%). Members of other religions, including non-Arab Christians, make up 4% of the population, or 318,000.

“Six million Jews perished in the … Holocaust.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at last week’s Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony. “Today, for the first time since the establishment of the State, more than six million Jews live in the State of Israel.  You, the citizens of Israel, are the testament to our victory.  From the abyss of the Holocaust, we climbed to the peak of Zion.  From a deep pit, we rose to a pinnacle. “

Also see:

Chemical Warfare Looms Over Syria

As the Syrian civil way went into its third year this week, signs abounded of increasing readiness for the use of chemical weapons on both sides of the conflict.
Since February, the US, Israel, Ankara and Amman have been aware of Bashar Assad’s resolve to override their threats and resort to deadly poison gas if the rebels closed in on the heart of Damascus. On April 3, an unnamed Syrian army officer made the warning clear. By continuing to advancie on Damascus, he said, “the rebels and their leaders” were assured of “certain death.”

Protective suits have since been distributed to the Syrian army units fighting in southern Syria and the Golan, the enclave divided between Syria and Israel by the 1974 ceasefire that ended the Syrian war of attrition after the Yom Kippur War.

11 Economic Crashes That Are Happening Right Now

The stock market is not crashing yet, but there are lots of other market crashes happening in the financial world right now.  Just like we saw back in 2008, it is taking stocks a little bit of extra time to catch up with economic reality.  But almost everywhere else you look, there are signs that a financial avalanche has begun.  Bitcoins are crashing, gold and silver are plunging, the price of oil and the overall demand for energy continue to decline, markets all over Europe are collapsing and consumer confidence in the United States just had the biggest miss relative to expectations that has ever been recorded.  In many ways, all of this is extremely reminiscent of 2008.  Other than the Bitcoin collapse, almost everything else that is happening now also happened back then.   So does that mean that a horrible stock market crash is coming as well?  Without a doubt, one is coming at some point.  The only question is whether it will be sooner or later.  Meanwhile, there are a whole lot of other economic crashes that deserve out attention at the moment.

As I have written about previously, a bubble is always the biggest right before it bursts.  I hope that we still have at least a little bit more time before it happens, but I wouldn't count on it.

The economic fundamentals tell us that the stock market should be plunging, not rising.  At some point the boys over on Wall Street will get the message and the market will catch up to reality very, very rapidly.