The Jewish state significantly outperformed the average of the top 50 medaling countries, per the JNS analysis.

By JNS

Israeli citizens have been significantly likelier to earn medals at the Olympics than are those from the leading two medaling countries, China and the United States, and they were more likely to earn gold medals than Chinese people were, but not Americans, according to a JNS analysis.

JNS studied the top 50 medaling countries—in descending order of gold medals—and it used the most recent population estimates for countries from the CIA World Fact Book.

Israel, which has a population of 9.402 million, per the CIA, earned one gold medal and seven total medals at press time. That means that one Israeli per 1.343 million medaled, and one Israeli per 9.402 million earned a gold medal.

The Jewish state significantly outperformed the average of the top 50 medaling countries, per the JNS analysis. On average, the top 50 countries had populations of 75.2 million—some eight times Israel’s population—and earned 6.26 golds and 18.56 total medals.

That meant that, on average, those in the top 50 medaling countries had a one in 5.877 million chance of medaling and one in 17.456 million chance of earning gold.

Israelis were 4.376 times likelier to medal than average, among top 50 countries, and were 1.857 times likelier to earn gold than the average.

The top two medaling countries at press time were China—which earned 40 golds and 91 total medals, or one per 35.401 million receiving gold, and one per 15.561 million medaling—and the United States, which earned 39 golds (one per 8.768 million) and 125 medals (one per 2.736 million).

Israelis were 11.587 times likelier to medal than were Chinese people, and 3.765 times likelier to earn gold. Citizens of the Jewish state were 2.037 times likelier to medal than were Americans, but Americans were 1.072 times likelier to earn gold than were Israelis.

According to the JNS analysis, New Zealand was the country, of the top 50, in which citizens were most likely to medal (one in 258,060), with Israel coming in 20th on the list. Jamaica was the country whose citizens were likeliest to earn gold (one in 2.824 million), with the Jewish state coming in 33rd on the list.

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The 500,000-plus Jews living in Judea and Samaria account for an estimated 3.3% of the Jews in the world.

By Akiva Van Koningsveld, JNS

The Jewish population in Judea and Samaria grew by almost 15,000 people last year, according to an annual report compiled by former Israeli lawmaker Ya’akov Katz and based on Interior Ministry data.

As of Jan. 1, 2024, a total of 517,407 Jews lived in the area, which Israel liberated during the 1967 Six-Day War, up from 502,991 on the same date in 2023.

The 500,000-plus Jews living in Judea and Samaria account for an estimated 3.3% of the Jews in the world.

Katz’s figure does not include the nearly 350,000 Jews living in the eastern part of Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim despite it being part of the Jewish state’s capital.

Last year’s growth amounts to a 2.87% increase, the report said. Israel’s total population grew by 1.9% in 2023, per the Central Bureau of Statistics.

“Despite massive internal Israeli media attempts to delegitimize residents of Judea and Samaria, and despite international pressures to halt the growth of the population, the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria continues to blossom at a rate much higher than the rest of the country,” Baruch Gordon, director of the annual report, told JNS.

The Jewish population in Judea and Samaria has grown 15.11% since 2019, when 449,508 Jews lived in the area, according to the report.

Some of the fastest-growing towns include Mevo Dotan in northern Samaria, Ma’ale Amos and Nokdim in eastern Gush Etzion, and the Jordan Valley farming communities of Masu’a and Na’ama.

The report projects the Jewish population in the area to reach 613,554 by 2030; 706,233 by 2035; and 1,020,506 by 2047.

“If construction in Judea and Samaria will become a priority, as it as under the administration of [former Israeli Prime Minister] Yitzhak Shamir between 1990 and 1992, when they built 65,000 [housing] units, then we will reach a million Jews in Judea and Samaria at a much faster rate,” stated Gordon.

“Alongside that, we will solve a huge housing crisis in Israel at a very low cost to the government,” said Gordon.

“You’ve got plenty of state-owned lands in Judean and Samaria that are not far from the center that could 100% solve the housing crisis and return to the situation where every young couple will have within its reach the ability to purchase an apartment,” he explained.

Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 15, the Hatzalah Judea and Samaria rescue group recorded more than 2,600 terrorist attacks against Israelis in the area, including 760 cases of rock-throwing, 551 fire bombings, 12 attempted or successful stabbings and nine vehicular assaults.

“Anyone who is serious about bringing about a peaceful solution must take into account that the Jews are here to stay in Judea and Samaria,” said Gordon.

According to the researcher, “no one” in the Biden administration regards the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria as a feasible prospect under the current conditions, despite paying “lip service to their voters.”

“They all understand that an overwhelming majority of the Israeli population is against it, and Palestinians are against it,” he said, citing 2014 remarks to that effect in The New York Times by Tareq Abbas, son of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.

“I think that’s an important statement—that the son of the leader of the Palestinian party, a prominent Ramallah businessman—faced reality 10 years ago and told his father: There’s no change for a state; there are [Jewish] houses everywhere, so let’s just get equal rights like Israeli Arabs, and that way, we can go to the sea, see our cousins in Jaffa and have business deals with people in Tel Aviv,” noted Gordon.

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