I've always known about Kabul because there is a town in my state named for it - except it is spelled the older English way of Cabool. As for Baghdad, yes, us dumb Americans had heard of it before the Iraqi war. Even Hollywood knows about it - The Thief of Baghad, Baghdad, Baghdad Cafe, etc.
I know Bagdad from the Tales of Sinbad the Sailor. He always returned from his travels to the magnificent city of Bagdad. Its one of these legendary cities of the Old World like Rome, Babylon, Timbuktu or Samarkand. Kabul, on the other hand, I think hardly anybody in the west had heard about before 2001.
If "Palestine" were a sovereign state, not just the name attached in the 60s to the land inhabited by a bunch of Arabs (not meaningfully distinguishable from the Jordanians, etc.) whom no other Arabs will let in because their propaganda value is too high for the region's dictators (and because of their unfortunate predilection for blowing themselves up in crowds), and if this Neverland were to take political control of a city populated primarily by Israeli Jews who want to live in Israeli Jerusalem, and if it then managed to achieve some semblance of law, then it might be the case that Jerusalem is the lawful capital of Palestine. But you knew that, of course.
I always wondered why Gaza does not just become part of Egypt and the West Bank part of Jordan. That seems like such an easy and convenient solution for everyone. Weird that nobody seems to want it that way.
amm14: There are many Sabras who are also indistinguishable from Jordanians and Palestinians. That may be because they are one people and need to stop killing each other.
Singapore airlines. The city-state is a world leader on a lot of country rankings. Israel's de facto capital until recently was Tel Aviv. Also Israel mysteriously counts as Europe for sporting and singing competitions.
Singapore is easier to remember because the name of the capital is the same as the country. Some people also tend to associate Israel with Europe because it participates in Eurovision and is in the UEFA confederation in sports.
Interestingly the order of percentages for this quiz is not the same as the overall order.
I also was surprised not to find Jakarta in this list but Kabul, but it seems Kabul is more often in the news than Jakarta and before I started to do quizzes here I didn't know the capitals of Indonesia or the Philippines and a lot of other countries since they are far less often in the political and cultural news than cities like Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi or Baghdad
I would say in the absence of an official capital, the city in which the majority of a nation's central governing institutions are based can be considered the de facto capital. In the case of the Republic of Singapore, that would be the city of Singapore. Thus it is fair to consider Singapore to be the de facto capital city of Singapore.
Also, there needs to be some capital of every country, otherwise, this site would be totally wrecked. If there is no capital, then a de-facto capital is needed. For a de-facto capital, you can look at the city where the majority of the governing bodies are placed.
Missed Kabul.
I also was surprised not to find Jakarta in this list but Kabul, but it seems Kabul is more often in the news than Jakarta and before I started to do quizzes here I didn't know the capitals of Indonesia or the Philippines and a lot of other countries since they are far less often in the political and cultural news than cities like Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi or Baghdad
Saying that Singapore is the capital of Singapore doesn't make any sense. Would the quizmaster consider changing?