LAND & PEOPLE

GEOGRAPHY

Situated at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is a narrow strip of land bordered to the north by Lebanon; to the east by Syria, the West Bank, and Jordan; to the south by the Red Sea; and to the southwest by Egypt. A more recent border, added by Israel's disengagement in 2005, is that of the Gaza Strip, a slim finger of land pointing along the coast from the Sinai Peninsula, ending just south of the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Israel has been compared in size to the state of New Jersey and to the country of Wales, but with a climate and topography that varies greatly from north to south and from east to west. Along the Mediterranean on the verdant coastal plain are two of its three main cities: Tel Aviv–Jaffa, "the city that never sleeps," and, about 53 miles (85 km) north, Haifa, serene and beautiful on the slopes and crest of Mount Carmel. Haifa is the port city gateway to the Galilee, with its landscape of hills, forests, and olive groves and, at its lowest point, below sea level, the Sea of Galilee. There are no mountains in Israel, only hills.

Jerusalem, Israel's spiritual capital and seat of government, nestles in the biblical Judean hills 37 miles (59 km) east of Tel Aviv. East of Jerusalem is the Judean desert, which slopes down to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, and the start of the Great Rift Valley that runs south through Africa.

About 71 miles (115 km) south of Tel Aviv lies Beersheba, the capital of the Negev desert, and a 150-mile (241 km) journey further south through the desert, to its southernmost point, takes you to the Red Sea port and resort of Eilat.

CLIMATE

Israel enjoys a Mediterranean climate with hot, rain-free summers and mild winters, which have intermittent periods of heavy rain, particularly in the north and center of the country. From April to October daily temperatures range from 73.4°F (23°C) low to 86°F (30°C) high, with July and August the hottest months. From November to March temperatures range from 59°F (15°C) low to 68°F (20°C) high. In the winter, from the northern Galilee to the northern Negev, the country is transformed into a deep green. You are unlikely to encounter snow, but if you do it will be in winter in Jerusalem or on the Golan Heights. Temperatures and tempers rise during the occasional hamsin (sharav in Hebrew), a hot, dry, desert wind occurring mostly in early summer and fall.

Jerusalem is cooler than the coastal plain, especially in the evenings, and enjoys lower humidity. Eilat is always warmer, and is a winter sunshine favorite for Israelis and foreign visitors alike, as are the Dead Sea resorts.

A BRIEF HISTORY

The State of Israel was established in 1948, in a land holy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Unsurprisingly, interpretations of its history are hotly contested, but to understand the Israelis one must start with the Jewish perspective.

Ancient History

Jewish history began about 4,000 years ago (c. 1600 BCE) with the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Book of Genesis relates how Abraham, a native of the Sumerian city of Ur, in today's southern Iraq, was commanded to go to Canaan to found a community that worshiped the One God. When a famine spread through Canaan, Abraham's grandson Jacob (Israel), his twelve sons, and their families moved to Egypt, where their descendants were forced into slavery.

Modern scholarship is continually refining our understanding of the historical context of the biblical account, but the powerful narrative of the Hebrew Bible is the foundation stone of Jewish identity. Thus, after generations of bondage in Egypt, Moses led the Israelites to freedom, to receive the revelation of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, and to be forged into a nation by forty years of wandering in the desert. Joshua spearheaded the conquest of Canaan, the promised land of milk and honey, where the Children of Israel were bound to establish a moral and ethical society that would be "a light unto the Gentiles." The exodus from Egypt, indelibly implanted in Jewish consciousness, is still celebrated by Jews every year, wherever they may be, at Pesah (Passover), the festival of freedom.

The Biblical Kingdoms of Israel (c. 1000–587 BCE)

The Israelites settled in the central hill country of Canaan more than a thousand years before the birth of Christ. These were the years of the biblical Judges, Prophets, and Kings. The hero-king David vanquished the Philistine champion Goliath, and his kingdom, with Jerusalem as its capital, became a power in the area; his son Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem in the tenth century BCE. Solomon made political alliances through marriage, expanded foreign trade, and promoted domestic prosperity. After his death the kingdom was split into two: the kingdom of Israel in the north with its capital at Shechem (Samaria), and the kingdom of Judah in the south with its capital at Jerusalem.

Exile and Return

The small Jewish kingdoms were caught up in the power struggles of the day, between the rival empires of Egypt and Assyria. In about 720 BCE, the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and dispatched its inhabitants into oblivion; in 587 BCE the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple and transported all but the poorest Jews to Babylon. Throughout the period of exile the Jewish people retained their faith: "If I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning" (Psalm 137.5). After the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great allowed the exiles to return and rebuild the Temple. Many Jews remained in Babylon, and communities grew up in every major city around the Mediterranean. Thus began the pattern of coexistence of a Jewish presence in the land of Israel with Jewish communities in the outside world, known collectively as the Diaspora (dispersal).

In 332 BCE Alexander the Great conquered the region. After his death in 323 BCE his empire was divided up, with Judah eventually falling to the Syrian portion ruled by the Seleucid dynasty. Their Hellenizing policies were resisted, and they were expelled in an insurgency led by the priest Mattathias and his son Judah Maccabee, who rededicated the defiled Temple in 164 BCE, a victory celebrated to this day in the festival of Hanukkah. The Jewish royal house they founded, the Hasmoneans, ruled until Pompey's siege of Jerusalem in 63 BCE, after which the Jewish state was absorbed into the Roman Empire.

Roman Rule and the Jewish Revolts

In 37 BCE Herod, son of an Idumaean chieftain, was appointed King of Judea by the Roman Senate. Granted almost unlimited autonomy in the country's internal affairs, he became one of the most powerful client kings in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Herod kept his subjects ruthlessly in check, and launched a massive construction program, which included...