Tel Aviv (Israel’s commercial center) is often compared to New York City. Jaffa (now part of Tel Aviv) has long been famous for the Jaffa orange. Tel Aviv has called itself “the Big Orange.”
   
The “Big Orange” nickname probably comes from the article “From the Big Orange” by Martha Meisels in the Jerusalem (Israel) Post on August 26, 1983:
     
“THIS WEEK’S column is devoted to several consumer developments in Tel Aviv which have significance or future ramifications for readers elsewhere in the country. After my recent visit to New York City, which is affectionately known as The Big Apple, I am tempted to bestow on Tel Aviv an appropriate corresponding nickname, The Big Orange. I hope Mayors Ed Koch and Shlomo Lahat won’t mind.”
   
   
Wikipedia: Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew: תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ‎; Arabic: تَلْ أَبِيبْ يَافَا), more commonly Tel Aviv, is the second most populous city in Israel, after Jerusalem, with a population of 384,600. Tel Aviv is located on Israel’s Mediterranean coastline over an area covering 51.8 km². It is the main city of the largest and most populous metropolitan area in Israel, Gush Dan (Dan Bloc), whose population numbers 3.15 million as of 2007. Tel Aviv is recognized as a strong candidate global city, and has been named the most expensive Middle Eastern city to live in.
 
The City of Tel Aviv was originally founded in 1909 by Jewish immigrants as an alternative to expensive housing in the neighbouring historic port city of Jaffa (Hebrew: יפו‎, Yafo; Arabic: يافا, Yafa). Tel Aviv’s extensive growth eventually overtook its Arab-majority neighbour, and the two towns were united into the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv is today considered the center of Israel’s globally oriented economy, and is the anchor of the area popularly known as “Silicon Wadi”. It is also considered Israel’s cultural capital due to its vibrant, modern, cosmopolitan character. The city’s Bauhaus architectured White City was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.
 
Wikipedia: Jaffa orange
The Jaffa orange, also known as the Shamouti orange, is a very sweet, almost seedless orange exported from Israel. It takes its name from the city of Jaffa.
 
Characteristics
Jaffa oranges are very similar to Valencia oranges, though they are much sweeter. They are characterized by their oval shape, sweet flavor, and strong aroma. The peel is light orange in color, and is normally very easy to remove from the fruit.
 
These oranges are very cold-tolerant, allowing them to grow outside of the tropical regions normally associated with growing oranges. Jaffa oranges ripen in the spring-to-summer months, making it a midseason fruit.
 
Jaffa oranges are susceptible to Alternaria, a type of fungus, and are prone to alternate bearing.
     
26 August 1983, Jerusalem (Israel) Post, pg. 15, col. 1:
From the Big Orange
MARKETING WITH MARTHA (Martha Meisels—ed.)
THIS WEEK’S column is devoted to several consumer developments in Tel Aviv which have significance or future ramifications for readers elsewhere in the country. After my recent visit to New York City, which is affectionately known as The Big Apple, I am tempted to bestow on Tel Aviv an appropriate corresponding nickname, The Big Orange. I hope Mayors Ed Koch and Shlomo Lahat won’t mind.
     
21 October 1983, Jerusalem (Israel) Post, Challenging a nice guy” by Mark Segal, pg. 15, col. 3:
(Tel Aviv Mayor Shlomo—ed.) Lahat may go down in Tel Aviv’s 75-year history as the Great Cosmetician, and there are those who say that just as Lindsay termed his city the Big Apple, so Lahat has made the Hill of Spring into the Big Orange.
 
27 January 1989, Jerusalem (Israel) Post, pg. 5:
Like so many other fads, today the U.S., tomorrow Israel. Already a mountain bike club has been formed in the Big Orange by Jeff Segal of Moshav Kfar Daniel, near Tel Aviv. 
 
3 March 1995, Jerusalem (Israel) Post:
Former Big Orange mayor Shlomo (Chich) Lahat stars this week in a scandal-soaked report from the city comptroller concerning the goings-on at Tel Aviv’s ... 
 
18 February 1996, New York (NY) Times, “Israel’s Second City” by Ann Birstein, Pg. XX8, col. 1:
Compared with all this piety, the mood in Tel Aviv is stunningly secular. In this city, which variously called itself the Big Orange, the City That Never Stops, and the City That Never Takes a Break (who writes their p.r., I wonder?), it’s hard to imagine anyone looking at you askance about anything.
 
10 October 1998,

(London, England), “Twins separated by no-man’s land: What have Gaza City and Tel Aviv got in common?” by David Sharrock, pg. 18:
Tel Aviv, the brash Big Orange, with Gaza City, teeming hub of Yasser Arafat’s incipient Palestinian state.
   
Google Books
Israel handbook
by Dave Winter
Footprint Travel Guides
1999
Pg. 439:
Tel Aviv attitude
No guidebook to Israel would be complete without that old cliche, “Haifa works, Jerusalem prays, Tel Aviv plays.” Comparisons with New York, including references to the “Big Orange,” are stretching reality a little, but visitors and residents alike are well catered for in terms of entertainment and action.
 
Google Books
Between Sodom and Eden:
A Gay Journey Through Today’s Changing Israel
by Lee Walzer
New York, NY: Columbia University Press
2000
Pg. 3:
I made to the “Big Orange,” as Tel Aviv is nicknamed, for my last day in Israel.
     
Live Search Books
Words and Stones:
The Politics of Language and Identity in Israel]
by Daniel Lefkowitz
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
2004
Pg. 39:
Tel Aviv is the bustling fashion and nightlife center of Israel (sometimes called “The Big Orange,” in joking comparison to New York), and Jerusalem is the intellectual and spiritual center, with its government institutions, prestigious university, and hallowed religious sites. 
 
Google Books
When the Sparrows Stop Singing
by Marciano Perry Lee
iUniverse
2006
Pg. 135:
While Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Tel-Aviv serves as its economic and cultural center. Nicknamed “the Big Orange” for its famous Jaffa oranges, mirroring New York’s appellation as “the Big Apple”, it is known as the “city that does not stop”: its culture an nightlife goes on around the clock. 
 
On the Face
Housing crisis in the Big Orange
by Lisa Goldman on Sun 28 May 2006 08:23 PM IDT
The hottest topic in Tel Aviv is how the hell to find an (affordable) apartment. Vacant apartments are snatched up within hours of being listed. Landlords are greedier and nastier than ever.
 
Jerusalem (Israel) Post
Jun 21, 2007 15:40 | Updated Jun 28, 2007 12:15
Hot night in the Big Orange
By ILANA DIAMOND
 
It will be hard to avoid free shows this Thursday evening, when Tel Aviv celebrates its annual White Night festival, marking the anniversary of UNESCO’s declaration of the White City as a cultural world treasure.