title: Israel : Past and Present
author: D. Bahat
description: <I>Israel: Past & Present</I> is a beautifully produced guide to the 16 top archeological sites in Israel. It uses pictures and overlays to illustrate what the sites look like now and how they would have appeared in their heyday, centuries ago. For Tiberias, for example, the guide provides some pivotal history--including its founding by Herod Antipas around A.D. 18, its fortification against the Great Revolt in A.D. 66, the Arab takeover in A.D. 636, the arrival of the crusaders in the 12th century, and all the subsequent crusader/Saladin battles, plus the restoration of the city walls in 1562 and the earthquake in 1837 that mangled those walls. There's a picture of Tiberias today, with sections of the ancient walls poking out among trees, cars, restaurants, and hotels, and an overlay with cutouts for the remnant walls that shows the 18th-century southern wall built on crusader fortification foundations. This is a lovely book from which to learn about Israel, inspire those interested in its history, and plan for a trip. <I>--Stephanie Gold</I>
zlib_text: Produced by StandWithUs
  
  World Religions
  Christianity: 
  2 billion people
  Islam: 
  1.3 billion people
  Hinduism:  
  900 million people
  Buddhism:  
  360 million people
  Judaism:  
  14 million people
  Christian Population in the Middle East
  Israel is the only Middle Eastern country where the 
  Christian population is thriving instead of disappearing. 
  Between 1948 and 1998, Israel’s Christians grew fourfold, 
  from 34,000 to 130,000.
  Israel’s Size Compared to Arab World
  •	 Israel’s	land	mass	is	about	1/625 (1/6 of 1 percent)  
  the	size	of	the	Arab	World
  • 5.5 million Israeli Jews; 
  300	million	Middle	Eastern	Arabs	and	Muslims	
  URL	links	for	all	sources	cited	in	this	booklet	are	at	www.standwithus.com
  Israel’s territory is 8,019 square miles (sq. mi.). 
  That makes it smaller than…
  2
  
  In the following pages, you will learn how the Jewish people restored their national independence in their ancestral 
  homeland after 2,000 years of living under the rule of others. You will see how this young state bui