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fourth century B.C., when Greece overran the Persian Empire and
Israel, and again in the first century B.C., when the Romans
conquered the region.
The second manifestation saw Israel as a small actor within the
framework of larger imperial powers, a situation that lasted until the
destruction of the Jewish vassal state by the Romans.
Israel's third manifestation began in 1948, following (as in the other
cases) an ingathering of t least some of the Jews who had been
dispersed after conquests. Israel's founding takes place in the context
of the decline and fall of the British Empire and must, at least in part,
be understood as part of British imperial history.
During its first 50 years, Israel plays a pivotal role in the
confrontation of the United States and the Soviet Union and, in some
senses, is hostage to the dynamics of these two countries. In other
words, like the first two manifestations of Israel, the third finds Israel
continually struggling among independence, internal tension and
imperial ambition.
Israeli Geography and Borderlands
At its height, under King David, Israel extended from the Sinai to the
Euphrates, encompassing Damascus. It occupied some, but relatively
little, of the coastal region, an area beginning at what today is Haifa
and running south to Jaffa, just north of today's Tel Aviv. The coastal
area to the north was held by Phoenicia, the area to the south by
Philistines. It is essential to understand that Israel's size and shape
shifted over time. For example, Judah under the Hasmoneans did not
include the Negev but did include the Golan. The general locale of
Israel is fixed. Its precise borders have never been.
Thus, it is perhaps better to begin with what never was part of Israel.
Israel never included the Sinai Peninsula. Along the coast, it never
stretched much farther north than the Litani River in today's Lebanon.
Apart from David's extreme extension (and fairly tenuous control) to

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