There is a lot of negative attention on Israel in the world's media and among the world's politicians. One of the many accusations against Israel that is often made by the various propaganda sources is that Israel is "expansionist". The truth is that Israel is the size of a large metropolitan area. How is it that such an allededly aggressive, expansionist state is so tiny? To put things in perspective, here are comparisons of Israel's area and population.
Area:
- 20,770 km² — Israel (excluding disputed territories)
- 22,789 km² — San Francisco Bay Area
- 26,990 km² — Israel (including disputed territories)
- 27,336 km² — Massachusetts
- 1,717,854 km² — Alaska
Population:
- 5,364,560 — Israel (non-Arab)
- 5,456,428 — Metro Detroit
- 6,631,100 — Israel (including "Israeli Arabs", but not Arabs of the disputed territories)
- 7,039,362 — San Francisco Bay Area
- 9,157,540 — Greater Chicago
- 9,628,595 — Israel (including "Israeli Arabs" and PLO Arabs)
- 16,373,645 — Los Angeles and the Southland
- 21,199,865 — New York City and the Tri-state Area
(Israel's population as of the end of 2002. Population of US cities as of 2000.)
In other words, Israel has the territory and the population of a metropolitan area. It is besieged by large and populous dictatorships. Keep this in mind the next time you hear about the big bad "Zionist aggressor".