The 9,000-year-old metropolis, uncovered during a survey before the construction of a new highway, is one of the biggest ever found. City's population estimated at 2,000 people. Excavation exposes large buildings, storage sheds, flint tools, thousands of arrowheads, axes, sickle blades, and knives.
Even the prime minister's enemies at home are fully aware that it takes weeks of bureaucracy to fill public-servant posts, so they had to limit their baseless accusations to the "suspicious timing" of the announcement.
In 2009, the pundits described him as a weak leader whose government was destined to fall. It was just the first of many journalistic prognostications he would eventually prove wrong on his way to becoming Israel's longest-serving and most successful prime minister.
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin says 2018 was a record year for incoming tourism, with over 4 million visitors arriving in Israel. Jerusalem was the most visited city in the country, followed by Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea region, and Tiberias.
It is Benjamin Netanyahu's ability to recognize distant threats that would have been catastrophic for Israel had they not been handled in time that has kept him in power for over 10 years.
