Size of Israel

In the past week I hiked from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea. It took about 4 days of hiking to cross from the East to the West of Israel. The views were beautiful and it truly payed off to see the ocean at the end. I came to the realization while walking, Israel is so small. I already knew it of course, but walking from one sea to another in about 4 days is insane. Israel has so much publicity and yet it is so small, half the size of Maine. How can one little state get so much attention, positive but mostly negative.