[Samuel_Michon]

Sure, geographically speaking, that’s correct. That’s not what I was getting at, though. Israel is more akin to Western Europe culturally than European countries like Albania. Israel has a functioning democracy, freedom of speech and religion, excellent education and healthcare, and it has a higher GDP than most European countries. Europeans have been coming to Jerusalem en masse for thousands of years, especially this guy by the name of Jesus has been quite popular with Europeans.

[VexXtreme]

Pretty much everyone I know considers Israel to be a middle eastern country. While it's true that European Jews have absorbed a huge amount of European culture and are Europeans for all intents and purposes, whether Israel can be considered a part of Europe is extremely debatable.

Just because certain nations are culturally close, that doesn't suddenly close the geographical gap between them. New Zealand and Australia are culturally much closer to Europe than Turkey and yet that doesn't make them a part of Europe.

Now, to say that Israel is a western country would be correct (as are US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and possibly even many central and south American countries). But to say that they are in Europe would be incorrect. Let's stick to geographical facts and not reinvent common knowledge, shall we?

[sbmassey]

In the same vein, "European" is not the same as "In Europe"