Israel...."her"??

Travel Info
I am reading an article about Israel. In the article, i keep reading, "HER"....whoever wrote the article keep mentioning Israel as "her"...why is this???? am just curious.....=)

Travel Tips

The homeland is the motherland, taking a feminine connotative to it. Countries are referred to as she, just as some people refer to their cars as she, as in "she's a beauty".
Others

maybe it was translated from a language that has gendered pronouns
or maybe it's like referring to boats as female, this person or people from their country refer to countries as female?
Unlike English, Hebrew nouns and pronouns are either feminine or masculine. (The writer of the article was obviously not a native English speaker.) Countries are "feminine" in Hebrew.
I know Hebrew .
In Hebrew calling a country he is a mistake! So the book you're reading is probobly written by an Israeli or is translated.
Have fun with your book.
I am Israeli and I know Hebrew fluently
how cen we explain the fact that it's more natural to call a country in feminene why...???

eret'z yaffa... that's wierd...