I think it is useful to look at 15-year old descriptions of nations. For one thing, you can see predictions for the next fifteen years and assess them. Another virtue is being able to see how 15-year old issues stay with us. The authors are Protestant Christians, thus the book has some interesting discussions about Protestant Christianity in Israel. They make the point that in the Middle East, most people are born into a religion rather than choosing it. We find out that the Protestants have no representation at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But that's okay, because they have their own site where Jesus was buried, namely the Garden Tomb. My Christian friends guffawed when someone asked them if Jesus was actually buried in both places, once before the resurrection and once afterwards. The book points out that many Arab Christians have very racist attitudes towards Jews. They explain this by an analogy: two hundred years ago, many American Christians had equally racist attitudes towards Blacks. And we see a discussion of Israel's "anti-mission" law. There are sections about all sorts of aspects of Israeli society. But there is an interesting emphasis on some religious issues. These include the Jewish Temple, its history, and prospects for rebuilding it. And there's also some material on technology, including ideas about a canal from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea (but nothing on the, um, anticommunist version of it, from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea). One intriguing discussion was about Meir Kahane's political party, Kach, and a Knesset antiracism law. The focus was on getting rid of Jewish racism in the Israeli Knesset. But I think the more interesting consequence is that antiracism legislation is more applicable to the far more prevalent Arab racism we see there. Overall, this is an interesting and atypical book about Israel. I recommend it.
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