Countries Closest to Africa

Fair enough if that is the policy. However 70.5 %(136) of member states on the UN have recognised Palestine as a independent state so in my opinion they should be featured as such in all quizzes.

It is not a question of PR (being recognised by a list of countries) but of control over the territory. Kosovo achieves many more characteristics of a sovereign country than Palestine does. Hence, Kosovo is included in the Countries of the World quiz and Palestine or Tibet are not.

Georgia and Cyprus are independent countries with independent sovereign or semi-sovereign regions within them. Even if you took away those regions, they would still be countries, just smaller countries. "Palestine" is not anywhere near analogous to Cyprus or Georgia. It's not even clear what "Palestine" is. Most countries that recognize Palestine as a country recognize the PNA as the government of that country, but this is in dispute (primarily because Hamas, the elected government of Gaza, is not part of the PNA). The PNA claims Jerusalem as their capital, but they have no presence there. They have nominal control over a smattering of cities and settlements around the West Bank, but the IDF controls 100% what goes in and out of there and they control a large portion of the territory, as well, entirely encircling cities under PNA control. Israel DOES claim the West Bank. It has annexed large portions into Israel proper and the rest is under Israeli administration.

Gaza is free and self-determined, though under blockade from Israel and Egypt so they don't control their own borders even if there is no Israeli occupation within the borders of Gaza. Gaza has it's own government (Hamas) which is not the PNA and is not Fatah. But nobody thinks of "Palestine" as solely Gaza.

The existence of a Palestinian state is pure fantasy. I've lived there. It does not exist. I've also been to Cyprus, Northern Cyprus, Georgia, and Adjara incidentally.

And finally the 136 countries that recognize Palestine do so because they are more concerned with playing politics than observing reality. Many of these countries are Muslim countries and they recognize Palestine for purely and obviously partisan reasons- they hate Jews and will support Muslims in their efforts to destroy a Jewish state. Many of these countries are in Africa, South America, or SE Asia, are still resentful of European colonialism, and have been duped by the false narrative that Israel is a European colony and not a nation-state of people with ties to the land same as any other. Many of these countries are from within the sphere of influence of the former Soviet Union and are still stuck in the Cold War where the US backed Israel and Russia backed Israel's enemies. A handful are despotic rogue nations who hate the USA and have confusedly conflated the United States with Israel. And a smattering are liberal countries that see Arabs as oppressed minorities.

@Jerry928 I don't really agree with your argument about Palestine. The main problem is that existence of one country tries in other "countries". How do you know these are countries? If 500 people around the world each declared their houses independent countries and all recognised each others' as countries, then by your argument all of them would be sovereign countries, at least to the extent that any UN member states is. If countries are wholly occupied they are no longer sovereign states, which is what is usually meant by a country, but not all of Georgia or Cyprus are occupied. Nobody really controls the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, so the area is not any country's sovereign territory.

I didn't say anything that was incorrect, Jerry. As I pointed out above, what exactly one means by "Palestine" is confusing and contentious. If you identify the "West Bank" as all the territory east of the 1949 armistice line previously annexed by Jordan, as most do, then absolutely there are portions of the West Bank claimed by Israel. 12% of this territory is on the Israeli side of the wall that Israel has built. The other 78%, though not claimed by the Israeli government officially as part of the state of Israel proper, has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Territory in the colloquial sense just means land. There is land in the area known as the West Bank. Some of it disputed, some claimed only by the PNA, but all of it under Israeli control and the state has repeatedly defended its presence and control there using various definitions and rationale.

No it's not. If I said that I was the dictator of LaLa Land, a country with vaguely defined territorial range that overlaps other extant countries, in spite of the fact that I did not have sovereign control of any of that territory, and there were other people making similar competing claims of being the governor of LaLa Land, and then I went out and got a majority of the members of the UN to recognize my dictatorship.... that would not make LaLa Land a real country. It would make me a fruitcake, and it would make those UN members out of touch with reality. Where do you see my admission of wrongness? The United Nations could vote unanimously tomorrow to recognize that Justin Bieber is the greatest musician in human history. That wouldn't make it so.

Are you referring to the comment I left Aug 25 that begins "I didn't say anything that was incorrect?"

Not if they're inconvincible. I'm sorry that you can't wrap your head around this. It's not really that complicated. A questionably supported declaration of sovereignty and winning a popularity contest at the UN doesn't bring a country into existence, whether that country is China, Palestine, or the Mushroom Kingdom it doesn't matter. It simply doesn't work that way.

My position is neither weird nor inconsistent. You didn't bring up these other nations before, though calling them "more questionable" as nations I think reveals a pretty strong bias against reality on your part. Cyprus, Georgia, Kosovo, and Taiwan all have a single, central, undisputed government. Those governments exert full sovereign control over at least some of the territory that they claim including the parts of the nation identified as their capital cities. They control their own borders and do not have a foreign power occupying the entire extent of their country. They have territorial disputes with neighboring countries, but that's not really the same thing. The don't use the currency of a foreign occupying power and most of their citizens are not nationals of other countries. They each have a functioning military or national guard that maintains control of their borders. Their borders are clearly demarcated, largely contiguous and unambiguous.

None of that can be said for Palestine.

Like "Palestine," they each have been recognized by multiple members of the United Nations and carry on foreign diplomatic relations with multiple other countries. They issue their own passports. They hold their own elections. They have their own flag.

JetPunk takes a holistic view when it comes to country recognition. UN recognition and foreign diplomatic relations is *part* of the equation. But it's not the whole equation. If other UN member states recognize a country, this is a clue that the country being recognized might exist. It's evidence for that. But it's not the whole story. Because there are other reasons that UN members might choose to recognize or not recognize another country. Mostly politics, economics, and popularity. It doesn't always have to do with reality. So... Taiwan is less recognized in the UN because the members don't want to piss off China. But to say that makes Taiwan less of a real country is nuts.

How do you know all of our names?

Jerry's even got my real e-mail address but I think he only ever used it once.

Though I am on the side of the democratic countries on this issue, I don't think that this is a relevant point. It's more of a coincidence. A holdover from the Cold War since most of the Communist countries in the Soviet sphere have become authoritarian states while those in the American sphere are more democratic. Also most Muslim countries are not very democratic. Cold War geopolitics and religious tribalism play a huge role in recognition of "Palestine." Cold War geopolitics and religious tradition also play a large role in what form of government your country has today. The fact that these two things intersect, though, is a coincidence.

I've never taken this quiz.

That quiz appears to be by a "different" kal. You used your alternate quiz profile to make THAT quiz, hmmm?

That's interesting. I'd never thought about the fact that part of Egypt is in Asia. We often hear about Turkey being on two continents, but no one ever seems to mention Egypt as "bi-continental".

Probably because there is not much in the Sinai, yet the Turkey split happens right in the middle of a huge city.

And Melilla. Same case.

In my opinion it makes as much sense to group the Sinai in with Africa as it does with Asia. Maybe more sense. The Suez was not always there. It's not like the cutoff between North and South America is at the Panama Canal.

I've never heard of Italy being transcontinental a single time in my entire life.