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POPSTablet ignites debate on messiah and resurrection "This should shake our basic view of Christianity," he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. "Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."
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POPSIsrael 'has 150 nuclear weapons' Most experts estimate that Israel has between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads, largely based on information leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper in the 1980s by Mordechai Vanunu, a former worker at the country's Dimona nuclear reactor. The US, a key ally of Israel, has in general followed the country's policy of "nuclear ambiguity", neither confirming or denying the existence of its assumed arsenal.
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POPS"Messiah" of The Washington Times A long but interesting feature, based on John Gorenfeld's book, "Bad Moon Rising: How Reverend Moon Created the Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom."
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POPSMoshe Dayan's antiquities on sale Dayan, whose interest in archaeology stemmed from the bond he felt to the Bible, as was reflected in the title of his book "Living with the Bible," began collecting antiquities in the 1950s. Over 30 years he collected some 1,000 artifacts and placed them in the yard of his home, one of the largest private antiquities collections in the country. In 1968, Dayan was seriously injured during an excavation he was conducting at Yazur near Ramle. But he continued his efforts and did not shrink from taking advantage of his position to further his collection. During his terms as general, chief of staff and defense minister, he often used those under his command to collect artifacts.
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POPSBush's Iraq Plan: Goading Iran Into War Still, the European Union understands that the tidal waves of a regional war in the Middle East will reach Europe much sooner than they reach U.S. shores. Whether Europe will stand up for its own values and security and against Bush's war plans, however, remains to be seen. Here, Tehran's offers are likely not inconsequential.
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POPSRemember: Saddam Was Our Man NY Times OpEd from March 14, 2003. The United States also sent arms to the new regime, weapons later used against the same Kurdish insurgents the United States had backed against Kassem and then abandoned. Soon, Western corporations like Mobil, Bechtel and British Petroleum were doing business with Baghdad -- for American firms, their first major involvement in Iraq. This history is known to many in the Middle East and Europe, though few Americans are acquainted with it, much less understand it. Yet these interventions help explain why United States policy is viewed with some cynicism abroad. George W. Bush is not the first American president to seek regime change in Iraq. Mr. Bush and his advisers are following a familiar pattern.
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POPSHelp! Peacemongers! After six major wars and several minor ones, we may be inclined to suspect that the price in blood and money is too heavy, and - more importantly - that it does not bring victory, but multiplies the burdens on Israeli society.
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POPSTurkey in vote on Lebanon troops According to the polls, 80 percent of the public is against sending troops to Lebanon. At the moment I post this, the parliament is discussing the subject and in less than a few hours, the vote will begin. A "yes" decision is expected tonight, with the support of AKP represantatives' votes.
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POPSLebanon: The 33-Day War Nasrallah defined the practical position of his movement as such: to abide by the ceasefire; to fully cooperate with "all that can facilitate the return of our displaced and refugee people to their homes, to their houses, and all that can facilitate humanitarian and rescue operations." He did so while expressing the readiness of his movement to continue the legitimate fight against the Israeli army as long as it remains in Lebanese territory, though he offered to respect the 1996 agreement whereby operations of both sides would be restricted to military targets and spare civilians. In this regard, Nasrallah stressed that his movement started shelling northern Israel only as a reaction to Israel's bombing of Lebanon after the July 12 operation, and that Israel was to be blamed for extending the war to the civilians in the first place.
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POPSWashington’s interests in Israel’s war Even those who continue to support Israel’s war against Hezbollah agree that it is failing to achieve one of its main goals—to rally the Lebanese against Hezbollah. “Strategic bombing has been a failed military concept for ninety years, and yet air forces all over the world keep on doing it,” John Arquilla, a defense analyst at the Naval Postgraduate School, told me.
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POPSThe Generals' War Who loses from this war? The people of Lebanon and northern Israel, of course, and maybe - one day - the rest of us. The civilians in the Israeli government, perhaps including Ehud Olmert. But not Hizbullah, who are now proclaimed as heroes in Muslim nations across the Middle East. Not Bush or Blair, for whom every attack by terrorists - even those motivated by opposition to their policies - is a further vindication of their war on terror. And not the Israeli Defence Forces. Faced with emboldened enemies, they can demand more resources and greater powers. The generals did not intend to lose, but even this disaster has done them no harm. It has made the Israeli people less secure, and therefore more inclined to vote for those who promise to defend them.