Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Israel is a tiny part of the Middle East region, shown in white on the map. It has about 5 percent of the people
(7 million compared to 150 million) and less than 0.2 percent of the area (8,000 out of 5 million square
miles). The Arab League of the Middle East has twenty-two predominantly Arab and Muslim countries as
members. (© 2003-2010 Koret Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.)
something new. Hence, too, this territory has always had an important strategic value. Many
wars have been fought over these trade routes and this borderland of contending empires over
the millennia, from Biblical times through the Crusader-Muslim wars to World War I and the
Arab-Israeli wars of modern times.
As the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity and an important site in Islam, the Land of
Israel became a focal point in the world's religious and intellectual development. What to the
Jews has always been the Promised Land is viewed by Christians as the Holy Land and by Mus-
lims as a holy land. People of all three faiths have claimed the land over the centuries. Details
about its history and geography were disseminated throughout the world by way of the Bible
and, to a lesser extent, the Quran. Illiterate peasants living thousands of miles away, who had
never traveled more than a few miles from their villages, knew of its places and its past. In
Jewish life, the Land of Israel has always been overwhelmingly at the center of consciousness,
culture, and religious practice; it was the Promised Land from which Jews had been exiled and
to which they believed they would eventually return.
Disputes over the territories that make up Israel as well as those captured by Israel in 1967
have brought a half-dozen major wars, several revolts, and some of the most intense, continu-
ing diplomatic efforts of modern history. Israel today is a focus of international attention. A
wide variety of new events on almost a daily basis bring into existence continents of passionate
debate, rivers of research, mountains of media coverage, and tectonic plates of policy. Great
powers have been drawn into all of these confl icts and debates to a tremendous extent.
Israel borders Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and
Egypt to the south. To the west is the Mediterranean Sea. The country is about 290 miles
 
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