I like being in step with the latest news. We think that this is something that our modern world has given us, because of modern technology; the internet, TV, movies, newspapers and what not else. But this isn't really true.
People in past ages, before all the modern means of communication spent a lot of time on the roads. I don't mean travelling from home to work. I mean people spent a lot of time travelling on roads that connected countries and cities with one another.News was passed from city to city, country to country, personally, by word of mouth.
International travelers would pass through towns and villages, because they needed fresh horses or camels or food and rest for themselves and so chatted and passed on the news they carried from the distant land they came from.People lived next to international highways so that they could buy and sell goods that they produced to the passing merchants. Goods and news moved from one city to another and everyone was involved.
For example Joseph's brothers knew that Egypt had food to sell, because they'd heard about it from travelers and traders on their way from Egypt to Canaan.
There are many examples in the Bible and other history book, but i'm sure you get my point.
Today hardly anyone travels from one country to another by road. International travel is by air or if it is by road, it's by fast motor ways that don't pass through towns, the result is that people today don't meet foreigners as much as people in ancient times did.
I've maintain that Israel has an important role to play in world politics. Now two news items that prove to me that this is really happening appeared yesterday on the same page in the free Hebrew daily ישראל היום (Israel Today, not to be confused with the pro-Israel magazine of the same name)
The first item, above, is entitled "on Wednesday Netanyahu and Putin will meet in Russia. This is the 2nd time this year that the two are meeting. Obviously they have something important to say to each other and it shows more involvement by Israel in world politics.
The 2nd item, above, is headed "Security Summit in a homely atmosphere". This is an amazing event, because it shows all of Israel's top echelon security leaders meeting with Herbert McMaster, the chief security adviser of the the USA and Jason Greenwalt, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East. It again shows Israel's involvement in world politics. First they all met in McMaster's home then they met again in the white house.