Water is essential for life and the trigger for this book was the growing threat to uninterrupted, good quality water to large concentrations of population.These threats include natural and man-made, whether accidental or terrorism-related. Israel in particular is acutely aware of the risks of terror, including to its water supply and it is not surprising that the initiative for a NATO workshop, the outcome of which is presented here, came from this country.This book arose from the three-day NATO Advanced Workshop entitled 'Supply of Water to Cities in Emergency Situations' organized by ICTAF at Tel-Aviv University and The University of Thessaly, Department of Planning and Regional Development.

Tibat Marqe is a collection of midrashic compositions, which, in the main, rewrites the Pentateuch, expanding its sometimes laconic presentation of events and precepts. Most of it aims at providing the reader with theological, didactic and philosophical teachings, artistically associated with the passages of the Torah. Here and there poetic pieces are embedded into its otherwise prosaic text. Tibat Marqe is attributed to the 4th century scholar, philosopher and poet, Marqe. This publication of Tibat Marqe follows the monumental Hebrew edition of Ze'ev Ben-Hayyim, Tibat Marqe, a Collection of Samaritan Midrashim (Jerusalem 1988), based on a 16th century manuscript. Though he recognized the precedence of an earlier manuscript, dated to the 14th century, Ben-Hayyim was compelled to prefer the former, given the fragmentary state of the latter. He printed its fragments in parallel with the younger one, to which his annotations and discussions chiefly pertain. With the recent discovery of a great portion of the missing parts of the 14th century manuscript, this edition endeavors to present the older form of the composition. The present book may be relevant to people interested in literature,language, religion, and Samaritan studies.

Water is essential for life and the trigger for this book is in the increasing threats to uninterrupted, good quality water to large concentrations of population, which include natural and manmade, the latter including accidental and, unfortunately, also intentional. Israel in particular is aware of the risks of terror, including to its water supply and it is not surprising that the initiative for a NATO workshop, the outcome of which is presented here, came from this country.

This book reflects the outcome of a three day NATO Advanced Workshop entitled 'Supply of Water to Cities in Emergency Situations' organized by ICTAF at Tel-Aviv University and The University of Thessaly, Department of Planning and Regional Development and sponsored by the NATO Security through Science programme. Some 35 experts from 14 countries from Europe, the Middle East and Asia assembled in Tel-Aviv for this event.

The 20 papers presented and the discussions which took place throughout the workshop illuminate a broad spectrum of problems and of concerns to the orderly water supply in the different participating countries ranging from floods, through contamination due to deteriorated infrastructure and to a surprisingly low concern related to intentional terror-related threats. We find insufficient preparedness in many countries to cope with severe disruption of water supply.

We expect publicity and discussion to raise the level of awareness of relevant decision makers worldwide to this essential issue and to encourage development and implementation of procedures and means for combating the threat.