The story of the Golan and its position between Israel and Syria is not only a legacy of the past. It has been interwoven in the political experience of the two states up to now. The story exposes a significant gap between memory and history. This gap is natural, understandable, and characteristic of issues dealing with current history and especially of those whose subjects and the resulting findings touch upon present questions. Such a gap usually leads to a preliminary reaction of difficulty in accepting research findings. Personal or public memory confronting these findings has already been structured and there is a natural fear of updating it. Additionally, in some cases, research conflicts with existing myths, and myths, which have their own validity, cannot easily be changed. While the story of history is formulated and updated and is ultimately dependant upon research which has been conducted using methods and accepted rules for historical research, memory is personal and private, choosy, subject to illusion and dependent on its agents. Thus, the gap between the two is personal. Regarding the Golan, the reader may evaluate its extent. The gap between memory and history is important as it directly influences the political process in Israel where public opinion sways the decisions of leaders. Therefore to reach a peace agreement, it is a precondition that the Israeli public appreciate this gap. Only in this way will public opinion be able to accompany the process and evaluate it in a serious manner, with careful consideration based on the facts, as detached as possible from the emotions it evokes.

The Gulf of Aqaba-Eilat is a unique pocket-sized tropical coral ocean, functioning in a subtropical environment. This book, the first one to treat the Gulf in an interdisciplinary collection of contributed chapters, celebrates also the 40 years of existence of the Heinz Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory in Eilat. The authors of the 28 chapters are mainly Israeli scientists , but many are also from abroad, chiefly from Germany. The results presented, relate to Israeli, Jordanian and Egyptian waters. In presenting the Gulf, virtually unknown some 50 years ago and today a major diving tourist hub , the issues of coral reef preservation and restoration are predominant in this richly illustrated book. How many marine biological laboratories are there in the world where you have clear water, coral reefs, seagrass beds, and deep reefs off your door step? This multiple-author volume edited by Dov Por deals optimistically with the elimination of the sources of pollution and the challenge of restoration of the marine habitats of the Gulf, especially the coral reefs. (John E. Randall, Bernice Bishop Museum Hawaii)

This book deals with the arrival of modernity in the Holy Land in the form of the 86 km Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway. Befitting the completion of such a substantial undertaking, the inauguration, in September 1892, was a grand affair, attended by representatives of the Ottoman Empire, consuls, religious leaders, and foreign delegations. The tracks approached Jerusalem from the southwest through the Judean Mountains, taking advantage of the deep, winding river bed of the Soreq Valley. This afforded the least steep route, though even then the grades were a challenge for the locomotives. Since the tracks were of narrow meter-gauge they could easily follow the natural contours of the land on the ascent to Jerusalem, the highest point, at about 700 meters above sea level. . The railroad was the largest civil engineering project ever undertaken in the modern Holy Land. It was built to exploit the tremendous growth of pilgrim traffic and tourism during the second half of the nineteenth century. Though several proposals had been put forward since the 1850s, it was only in the 1880s that two young Jewish entrepreneurs, Joseph Navon of Jerusalem and Joseph Amzalak of Jaffa, backed by the Protestant banker Johannes Frutiger, were enabled to take the first steps leading to the acquisition of a license from the Ottoman government for laying down the iron rails. Unable to raise sufficient capital in Europe, Navon sold the license to a group of Catholic businessmen in Paris, who established the Société du Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusalem et Prolongements. When the first locomotive was tested on a short length of track at Jaffa half the population turned up to witness the event, such was the novelty of the sight and sounds of the horse of fire and iron. Despite difficulties due to the low cost of construction and poor traffic during the early years, the railroad opened up Jerusalem to modern tourism, brought greater numbers of pilgrims, and contributed to the growth of the city. It also delivered fresh water in times of drought. This is the most thoroughly researched publication ever to appear on the first railroad in the Holy Land. Moreover, it relies extensively on the one resource that best captures the spirit of the Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway: magnificent photographs, mainly taken between 1891 and 1914. These early photographs, gathered from archives in Israel, the United States, England and Germany, are supplemented with those taken by British forces from December 1917 on, from Israel, Australia and England, and a number of color images dating from the mid-1980s. Details of locomotives and rolling stock, maps, tables of statistics, track plans, extensive notes, a bibliography, and index are included. The intended audiences, apart from general readers and railway enthusiasts, are historical geographers, historians of the Holy Land in modern times, and transport and tourism historians.

Contents: Zvi Ben Avraham and Michael Lazar- The structure and development of the Dead Sea basin Gideon Baer- A view from space on movements in the earth’s crust at the dead sea basin Shmuel Marco- Lake sediments of the Dead Sea basin as paleoseismometers Abraham Kaplan- Bromine of the Dead sea – production and applications Aharon Oren- Life in the Dead Sea – past, present and future Gideon Hadas- ‘Ein Gedi, where they grow the best dates and the opobalsamum (balsam)’

Contents: Zvi Garfunkel- The tectonics of the Dead Sea transform Mordechai Stein- Climate change in the Dead Sea basin and the evolution of human culture in Israel and the neighboring regions during the Holocene Avinoam Danin- Vegetation in the Dead Sea basin Yoseph Yechieli and Meir Abelson- Sink-holes on the Dead Sea shore Nir Moscovitch and Oren Bar-Yosef- The magnesium metal era – the future is light Shimon Moses- The Dead Sea – a natural site for therapy and health

The book brings to the interested reader a collection of popular scientific papers on the special natural phenomena associated with the Dead Sea region and its past and present people

In 1901, the Zionist Organization founded the Jewish National Fund to purchase lands in the Land of Israel and transfer them to the ownership of the Jewish people. The book before us examines and summarizes the JNF's land purchasing policies and endeavors, from the establishment of the Fund to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. A major part of this essay centers on the period from 1936 to 1948, which were the most important years of the JNF's activities and during which it became almost the sole Jewish entity promoting this aspect of the building of the land of Israel. During these years, the JNF purchased about 600,000 dunams, which constitute more than 60% of its acquisitions from its establishment to the establishment of the State. The pivotal nature of the JNF during those years stems first and foremost from the recognition of its settlement endeavors by the top institutions of the Zionist Organization, in promoting the political interests of the Zionist movement in the land of Israel. The creation of actual real property owned by the Jewish people which also served as a foundation for settlement was a prerequisite for achieving a Jewish state. Under it's articles of association, the lands purchased by the JNF cannot be sold. They were leased for the purpose of establishing agricultural and urban settlements and subsequently, the State of Israel applied this principle to all its lands (about 20.5 million dunams), of which JNF lands now constitute about 13%.

Distribution and Population Density During the Late Ottoman and Early Mandate Periods