Why is Israel not listed alphabetically when you select a country?

Perhaps this has been asked before but I'm sort of new to this particular thread.

Why is Israel not listed between "Iraq" and "Jordan" on the drop-down list? Is this political?

Perhaps it was created later than the other countries

I cant believe I'm such a geek that I think I know this, but I may as well give it a shot:

The lists of countries in the drop down menus come from standardised international look-up tables available for free access to anyone writing code.

When the newest version of TT was released, without any deliberate intent from the TT team, the look-up table that was used had "Israel and the Palestinian Territories" as a single entity, which pissed off several regular posters in a big way. As a result, the drop down menu was specifically edited to separate the two nations, and I imagine that that is why they both appear at the bottom, out of alphabetical order.

Probably for the same reason as the UK branch is listed in the order Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England...
I have both British and Israeli citizenship. I'm not bothered in the slightest by these lists!

Montenegro and Serbia come out at the bottom of the list in the Eastern Europe branch as well!!!! While this may appear to give some credibility to #2's theory, I personally remain absolutely convinced that this is all part of major conspiracy. Coincidence? Ha!

Oh okay, thanks Genghis. I hadn't really looked at any other region's drop-downs so I didn't see that other places also were out of alpha order.

Gracias, merci and todah raba.

I am sure it has something to do with the divided country