Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: What is the wealthiest country in the Middle East?
Qatar currently enjoys the region's highest per capita GDP at $101,000.[42] It has derived its wealth from exploiting its natural gas reserves. With the revenues from its hydrocarbon industries Qatar has established a rentier economy. Qatar has also established the largest per capita sovereign wealth fund in the world. With a population under one million, the government has not found it necessary to diversify its economy.
Montecito (Spanish for "Little mountain") is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California, located east of the City of Santa Barbara. It is the wealthiest community in the county and one of the wealthiest in the country, with a number of celebrities either owning homes or residing there. The population was 8,965 at the 2010 census.
During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Syria and Egypt made moves towards independence. The British, the French, and the Soviets departed from many parts of the Middle East during and after World War II (1939–1945). The struggle between the Arabs and the Jews in Palestine culminated in the 1947 United Nations plan to partition Palestine. Later in the midst of Cold War tensions, the Arabic-speaking countries of Western Asia and Northern Africa saw the rise of pan-Arabism. The departure of the European powers from direct control of the region, the establishment of Israel, and the increasing importance of the oil industry, marked the creation of the modern Middle East. In most Middle Eastern countries, the growth of market economies was inhibited by political restrictions, corruption and cronyism, overspending on arms and prestige projects, and over-dependence on oil revenues. The wealthiest economies in the region per capita are the small oil-rich countries of Persian Gulf: Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.
While the increasing severity of droughts and other dangerous realities are and will continue to be a problem in the Middle East, the region has one of the smallest rates of concern in the world. 38% believe that climate change is a very serious problem and 26% believe that climate change is harming people now. Of the four Middle Eastern countries polled in a Pew Global Study, on what is their primary concern, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon named ISIS, and Turkey stated United States encroachment. 38% of Israel considers climate change to be a major threat to their country, 40% of Jordan, 58% of Lebanon and 53% of Turkey. This is compared to relatively high numbers of residents who believe that ISIS is a major threat to their country ranging from 63% to 97%. In the poll, 38% of the Middle East are concerned about drought and 19% are concerned about long periods of unusually hot weather. 42% are satisfied with their own country's current efforts to preserve the environment.
The Greater Middle East is a political term, introduced in the early 2000s, denoting a set of contiguously connected countries stretching from Morocco in the west all the way to Pakistan in the east. Various countries of Central Asia are sometimes also included. According to Andrew Bacevich in his book "America's war for the Greater Middle East" (2016), the career soldier and Professor Emeritus at Boston University states that this region is the theatre for a series of conflicts dating back to 1980, which heralded the start of the Iran–Iraq War. Since then, the U.S. has been involved in balancing conflicts amongst these culturally interconnected nations in order to further its interests in the region. The Greater Middle East is sometimes referred to as "The New Middle East", or "The Great Middle East Project".
The film was banned in the entire MENA region and 18 of the 22 countries that comprise the middle-east. Egyptian activist and blogger, Ethar El-Katatney wrote the following from Cairo on February 15, 2008, "Homosexuality is not a comfortable, much less a popular, topic among Muslims. Broach the subject in the Middle East, and you're likely to hear a response like the one Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave US audiences last year: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country." At best, society adopts a 'don't ask, don't tell' approach – do what you will, just don't advertise it.
The Middle East Annual, (), published since 2005, covers political, economic and societal developments in each country of the Middle East.
The top congressional Democrats—Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi—strongly oppose the bill. Schumer said of the bill that "The more it's in sunlight, the more it stinks." Pelosi said the legislation was "designed to plunder the middle class to put into the pockets of the wealthiest 1 percent more money. ... It raises taxes on the middle class, millions of middle-class families across the country, borrows trillions from the future, from our children and grandchildren's futures to give tax cuts to the wealthiest and encourages corporations to ship jobs overseas."
The Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous. It instructs:
Use "Middle East" unless "Near East" is used by a source in a story. "Mideast" is also acceptable, but "Middle East" is preferred.
According to "Forbes", she is the richest woman in the Middle East, and the only woman to be ranked in the region's top-20 richest people in 2007. As of 2018, "Forbes" estimated her fortune at US$ 4.5 billion, making her the 334th-wealthiest person in the world, and the fourth-wealthiest in Israel.
Constant conflict in the Middle East has seen some major environmental consequences of water related damage. A report by Strategic Foresight Group, a think tank in Asia, details in the damage and destruction done to water systems and resources. The Middle East is an extremely water scarce region and any damage to this vital resource has an adverse impact on health, bio-diversity, and eco-systems in the region. Water scarcity in the future could prove to be both cause and cost of conflict. A new approach to water in the Middle East was introduced by Strategic Foresight Group, in a report co-sponsored by the Swiss and Swedish governments titled The Blue Peace: Rethinking Middle East Water
Blue Peace is defined as the comprehensive, integrated and collaborative management of all water resources in a circle of countries in a way that is sustainable for the long-term, in an interdependent relationship with social and political dynamics. Instead of concentrating on how to share or divide the stock of water resources, the Blue Peace approach is concerned about preserving, expanding and improving the water budget for the benefit of human life, as well as environment. The Blue Peace is derived from and reinforced by positive relations between water and society and between one society and another. A recent report "Water Cooperation for a Secure World" published by Strategic Foresight Group concludes that active water cooperation between countries reduces the risk of war. This conclusion is reached after examining trans-boundary water relations in over 200 shared river basins in 148 countries. Countries in the Middle East face the risk of war as they have avoided regional cooperation for too long. The report provides examples of successful cooperation, which can be used by countries in the Middle East.
According to the Democracy Index 2016 study, Israel (#29 worldwide) is the only democracy in the Middle East, while Tunisia (#69 worldwide) is the only democracy in North Africa. The measure of the level of democracy in nations throughout the world published by Freedom House and various other freedom indices, the Middle Eastern and North African countries with the highest scores are Israel, Tunisia, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, and Kuwait. Countries that are occasionally classified as partly democratic are Egypt and Iraq. The remaining countries of the Middle East are categorized as authoritarian regimes, with the lowest scores held by Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Since at least the 1950s, Buckhead has been known as a district of extreme wealth, with the western and northern neighborhoods being virtually unrivaled in the Southeast. In 2011, The Gadberry Group compiled the list of the 50 wealthiest zip codes in the United States, ranking Buckhead's western zip code (30327) as the second wealthiest zip code in the South (behind Palm Beach's 33480) and the second wealthiest zip code east of California and south of Virginia. The same group reported the average household income at $280,631, with an average household net worth of $1,353,189. These 2011 figures are up from a similar 2005 study that pegged Buckhead as the wealthiest community in the South and the only settlement south of the Washington D.C. suburb of Great Falls, and east of the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley to be among the 50 wealthiest communities in the country. However, according to "Forbes" magazine, (30327) is the ninth-wealthiest zip code in the nation, with a household income in excess of $341,000. The "Robb Report" magazine has consistently ranked Buckhead one of the nation's "10 Top Affluent Communities" due to "the most beautiful mansions, best shopping, and finest restaurants in the Southeastern United States". Due to its wealth, Buckhead is sometimes promoted as the "Beverly Hills of the East" or "Beverly Hills of the South" in reference to Beverly Hills, California, an area to which it is often compared.
Countries within the Middle East have also begun implementing policies to promote integration between Middle Eastern countries. These are hoped to help the region reach its full economic potential and to sustain the stability of countries that have accomplished higher rates of growth and development.[64]
In addition, Williamson County is ranked among the wealthiest counties in the country. In 2006 it was the 11th wealthiest county in the country according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but the Council for Community and Economic Research ranked Williamson County as America's wealthiest county (1st) when the local cost of living was factored into the equation with median household income. In a 2015 census Williamson County rose in the rankings to become the 7th wealthiest county in the country.
The list of the wealthiest historical figures gathers published estimates as to the (inflation-adjusted) net-worth and fortunes of the wealthiest historical figures in comparison. Due to problems arising from different definitions of wealth, ways of measuring it, various economic models throughout history, as well as multiple other reasons—this article discusses the wealthiest people in the following separate historical periods: Antiquity, Middle Ages and modern period. Accordingly—because of the previously mentioned difficulties—it is not possible to determine the single richest person in all of history.
Rimac Automobili has its headquarters in the town. It is also the wealthiest municipality in Zagreb County and one of the wealthiest municipalities in the country and with most registered small enterprises in the country.
History and politics of the Middle East countries (especially Iran); Georgia-Caucasus interactions with Middle Eastern countries; problems related to Islam and Islamic movements; East-East questions and East-West interactions; Middle East historiography.
HSBC maintains a network of offices in various countries in the Middle East. Operations of the group in the Middle East are under this subsidiary.
The conflict triggered significant demographic change throughout the Middle East. Around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes in the area that became Israel, and they became Palestinian refugees in what they refer to as Al-Nakba ("the catastrophe"). In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel, with many of them having been expelled from their previous countries of residence in the Middle East.
Ahmadiyya in Israel () is a small Islamic community in Israel. The Community was first established in the region in the 1920s, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine. Israel is the only country in the Middle East, where Ahmadi Muslims can openly practice their Islamic faith. As such, Kababir, a neighbourhood on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel, acts as the Middle East headquarters of the Community. It is unknown how many Israeli Ahmadis there are, although it is estimated there are about 2,200 Ahmadis in Kababir alone.
Demographics in East Hampton are skewed by the fact that more than half the houses are owned as second homes (among the owners are some of the wealthiest people in the country). The East Hampton economy is based on retail and services to support the residential community.
In Weberian socioeconomic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class. The common measures of what constitutes middle class vary significantly among cultures. One of the narrowest definitions limits it to those in the middle fifth of the nation's income ladder. A wider characterization includes everyone but the poorest 20% and the wealthiest 20%.
In spite of the fact that every country in the Middle East has at least a small number of believers in Christ from a Muslim background, and in spite of the fact that the vast majority of native Christians are Arabic speakers themselves, Christians in the Middle East face persecution –in various grades, depending on the residence country– and are often isolated. 
In 1983, abortion was legalized in Turkey. In the past, abortions would happen in secret and were usually done in harmful and unsafe ways. Finally, in 1983 Turkey decided to legalize abortions, as they do in Tunisia, during the first trimester no matter what circumstances the mother faces. Out of all the countries in the Middle East region, Turkey and Tunisia are the only two countries in this region that allow abortions under any circumstances during the first trimester. The rest of the Middle East only allows abortions if it affects the health of the woman.