title: Rhythm

text: John Miller has argued that West African music is based on the tension between rhythms, polyrhythms created by the simultaneous sounding of two or more different rhythms, generally one dominant rhythm interacting with one or more independent competing rhythms. These often oppose or complement each other and the dominant rhythm. Moral values underpin a musical system based on repetition of relatively simple patterns that meet at distant cross-rhythmic intervals and on call-and-response form. Collective utterances such as proverbs or lineages appear either in phrases translated into "drum talk" or in the words of songs. People expect musicians to stimulate participation by reacting to people dancing. Appreciation of musicians is related to the effectiveness of their upholding community values.


title: Rhythm

text: Indian music has also been passed on orally. Tabla players would learn to speak complex rhythm patterns and phrases before attempting to play them. Sheila Chandra, an English pop singer of Indian descent, made performances based on her singing these patterns. In Indian classical music, the Tala of a composition is the rhythmic pattern over which the whole piece is structured.


title: Rhythm

text: In the 20th century, composers like Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich wrote more rhythmically complex music using odd meters, and techniques such as phasing and additive rhythm. At the same time, modernists such as Olivier Messiaen and his pupils used increased complexity to disrupt the sense of a regular beat, leading eventually to the widespread use of irrational rhythms in New Complexity. This use may be explained by a comment of John Cage's where he notes that regular rhythms cause sounds to be heard as a group rather than individually; the irregular rhythms highlight the rapidly changing pitch relationships that would otherwise be subsumed into irrelevant rhythmic groupings. La Monte Young also wrote music in which the sense of a regular beat is absent because the music consists only of long sustained tones (drones). In the 1930s, Henry Cowell wrote music involving multiple simultaneous periodic rhythms and collaborated with Leon Theremin to invent the rhythmicon, the first electronic rhythm machine, in order to perform them. Similarly, Conlon Nancarrow wrote for the player piano.


title: Rhythm

text: In linguistics, rhythm or isochrony is one of the three aspects of prosody, along with stress and intonation. Languages can be categorized according to whether they are syllable-timed, mora-timed, or stress-timed. Speakers of syllable-timed languages such as Spanish and Cantonese put roughly equal time on each syllable; in contrast, speakers of stressed-timed languages such as English and Mandarin Chinese put roughly equal time lags between stressed syllables, with the timing of the unstressed syllables in between them being adjusted to accommodate the stress timing.


title: Rhythm

text: Narmour describes three categories of prosodic rules that create rhythmic successions that are additive (same duration repeated), cumulative (short-long), or countercumulative (long-short). Cumulation is associated with closure or relaxation, countercumulation with openness or tension, while additive rhythms are open-ended and repetitive. Richard Middleton points out this method cannot account for syncopation and suggests the concept of transformation.


title: Christopher Backus

text: Christopher Paul Backus (born October 30, 1981) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. Backus made his television debut in NBC's "Will & Grace", followed by landing roles in "The O.C.", "Life on Mars", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "Sons of Anarchy", "The Mentalist," "Perception," and "The Last Templar". He also appeared in films such as "Redline" starring Eddie Griffin and "3 Days Gone" directed by Scott McCullough.


title: Christopher Backus

text: Backus was born in Mission Viejo, California, but was raised in Kansas City, Kansas. His mother, Teryl Backus, is a retired colonel in the United States Marine Corps, and his father, Terry Backus, was a lawyer who died when Christopher was a child. He has one sister, Michele.


title: Christopher Backus

text: Backus moved with friend Rob McElhenney from New York City to Los Angeles during pilot season of 2003. Shortly after arriving, Backus landed his first role in "Benjamin Splits", while McElhenney developed the sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". After landing supporting roles in NBC's hit show "Will & Grace" and Fox's "The O.C.", Backus starred opposite Dominique Swain in Nick Vallelonga's "All In". He returned to television in Malik Bader's "HUGE" in which he portrayed a struggling frontman of an indie rock band. He starred in "3 Days Gone" along with Patrick J. Adams, "Nothing Personal" with Paz de la Huerta, and "Elevator" with John Getz and Anita Briem.


title: Christopher Backus

text: Backus returned to television to play the leader of the Weather Underground in ABC's period drama "Life on Mars", then he reteamed with director Nick Vallelonga on a western with Michael Biehn and James Russo, "Yellow Rock".


title: Christopher Backus

text: In 2011, the feature film "Union Square", co-written and directed by the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award Winner, Nancy Savoca, was premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In it, Backus appears alongside Mira Sorvino, Patti Lupone, Tammy Blanchard, Mike Doyle, and Michael Rispoli.


title: Christopher Backus

text: Backus was set to direct a thriller titled "The Sessionist", but dropped out of the project due to creative differences.


title: Christopher Backus

text: Backus met Mira Sorvino at a friend's charades party in August 2003. On June 11, 2004, they married in a private civil ceremony at the Santa Barbara, California, courthouse, then later had a hilltop ceremony in Capri, Italy. The couple have four children.


title: Paula Malcomson

text: Paula Malcomson (born 1 June 1970) is a Northern Irish actress. She is sometimes credited as Paula Williams. She is known as Trixie in "Deadwood" (2004-2006), Maureen Ashby in "Sons of Anarchy" (2010), and as Abby Donovan in "Ray Donovan" (2013-2017).


title: Paula Malcomson

text: Malcomson starred as Trixie in the HBO series "Deadwood" and Colleen in ABC's "Lost". She played the role of Amanda Graystone in the "Battlestar Galactica" spin-off series "Caprica", on the Sci Fi Channel, as well as the role of Maureen Ashby on the FX Series "Sons of Anarchy". She played the long-suffering Abby Donovan, wife of the title character in the Showtime series "Ray Donovan".


title: Paula Malcomson

text: In March 2011, Malcomson guest starred in the "Fringe" episode "Stowaway". She played Mrs. Everdeen in the film adaptation of "The Hunger Games", mother of the main character Katniss Everdeen.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: Lip Sync Battle is an American musical reality competition television series that premiered on April 2, 2015, on the American cable network Spike, later known as Paramount Network. The show is based on an idea by Stephen Merchant and John Krasinski, in which celebrities battle each other with lip sync performances. The idea was introduced as a recurring segment on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and later "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," before being developed into a separate show.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: The premiere episode was the highest-rated premiere in Spike's history. "Lip Sync Battle" has been a hit show for the network. The series' success has led to the creation of various international adaptations. In August 2018, the show was renewed for a fifth season which premiered on January 17, 2019.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: On September 22, 2020, it was announced that the series would move to another ViacomCBS network as part of the Paramount Network's now-scrapped planned shift to films. However, no new home for the program has been announced since then.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: "Lip Sync Battle" debuted on Spike on April 2, 2015. It is produced by John Krasinski and Stephen Merchant and hosted by rapper and actor LL Cool J. Model Chrissy Teigen serves as color commentator.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: The show is a spin-off of a segment first introduced on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Merchant, Krasinski and Emily Blunt, were brainstorming ideas for Krasinski's upcoming appearance on "Late Night" when the idea took shape. Jimmy Fallon then developed it into a recurring segment on his show. The game pits two celebrities against each other in a lip syncing battle for two rounds. The audience votes for the winner, who receives a Lip Sync Battle belt reminiscent of the WCW Television Championship title belt.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: In 2014, Merchant, Krasinski and Fallon pitched the show to NBC, who passed on it. NBC's cable channels USA Network and Bravo also passed. The competition series was eventually picked up by Spike, which was then rebranding. "Part of what I wanted to do with "Lip Sync Battle" is increase co-viewing, but also add diversity to the network," said network president Kevin Kay.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: "Lip Sync Battle" has been a major success for Spike. Its series premiere drew 2.2 million viewers, the channel's highest-rated non-scripted premiere. Kay described the show as "a television and viral rock star for Spike." The show was renewed for a second season of 20 episodes on April 22, 2015.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: In January 2016, the network renewed the series for a third season consisting of another 20 episodes. ""Lip Sync Battle" is a multiplatform pop-culture phenomenon that has played an integral role in delivering a new and broader audience to Spike," Kay said.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: In July 2016, the show received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Structured Reality Program category.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: In 2017, it was announced that the show would air a live hour-long special ("Lip Sync Battle Live: A Michael Jackson Celebration") on January 18, 2018, to coincide with the relaunch of Spike as the Paramount Network. Neil Patrick Harris, Taraji P. Henson and Hailee Steinfeld were announced as the first set of performers for the Michael Jackson-themed special, which originated from the Dolby Theatre and included a presentation from Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas residency "".


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: On August 22, 2018, the show was renewed for a fifth season consisting of 12 episodes that premiered on January 17, 2019.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: Josef Adalian in "Vulture" said that "Lip Sync Battle" is "looking like a legitimate hit, both on TV and online." He also added that the show's creators "opted not to impose artificial demographic targets. They also went out of their way not to futz up the very simple premise that worked so well on Fallon’s late-night shows." Amy Amatangelo of "The Hollywood Reporter" said that the debut of the show "had moments of great fun," although she added that the series "still seems like it is better suited as an interlude on "The Tonight Show"," and that "some things are better in small doses." Adelle Platon of "Vibe" wrote that the show "is a welcome break from other singing shows crowding primetime," also adding that "with the in-house crowd serving as judges, the spirit of competition between both parties makes it a fun-for-all". Emily Yahr from "The Washington Post" was more negative towards the show by saying that "taking out all the spontaneity and replacing it with the cheesy-slick production values of an "American Idol" group medley, "Lip Sync Battle" will probably wear out its welcome soon."


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: The series premiere of "Lip Sync Battle" delivered 2.2 million total viewers via Nielsen ratings, including a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is the most important to advertisers. The episode notched the largest viewership for an unscripted series debut in the network's history and the largest average audience in the slot in more than eight years. The total audience for the first several episodes of the show, including DVR replays and multiple reruns, has climbed past 15 million television viewers. Spike has also stated that various performance clips from the first three half-hour episodes of the show had already generated nearly 100 million online streams, as of April 2015.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: In Australia, the series premiere scored 1.124 million viewers in preliminary overnight viewership, making it the fourth most-watched program on free-to-air television for the evening. The second episode the following week scored 1.087 million preliminary overnight viewers and was ranked the fifth-highest-rated program on free-to-air television of the night. This success has led to suggestions by commentators that a local adaption could be imminent.


title: Lip Sync Battle

text: A one-hour special, hosted by Sarah Hyland, aired on Nickelodeon on December 11, 2016 (followed by a repeat airing on Spike on December 14). In March 2017, a series order was announced for the kid-centered spinoff. In August 2017, it was announced that Nick Cannon would be replacing Sarah Hyland as the host and that JoJo Siwa would be joining him as his sidekick on "Lip Sync Battle Shorties", which premiered in early 2018.


title: Black September

text: Black September (; "Aylūl Al-Aswad"), also known as the Jordanian Civil War, was a conflict fought in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), under the leadership of King Hussein, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, primarily between 16 and 27 September 1970, with certain aspects of the conflict continuing until 17 July 1971.


title: Black September

text: After Jordan lost control of the West Bank to Israel in 1967, Palestinian fighters known as fedayeen moved their bases to Jordan and stepped up their attacks on Israel and Israeli-occupied territories. One Israeli retaliation on a PLO camp based in Karameh, a Jordanian town along the border with the West Bank, developed into a full-scale battle. The perceived joint Jordanian-Palestinian victory against Israel during the 1968 Battle of Karameh led to an upsurge in Arab support for the fedayeen in Jordan, in both new recruits and financial aid. The PLO's strength in Jordan grew, and by the beginning of 1970, groups within the PLO had begun openly calling for the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy.


title: Black September

text: Acting as a state within a state, the fedayeen disregarded local laws and regulations, and even attempted to assassinate King Hussein twice—leading to violent confrontations between them and the Jordanian Army in June 1970. Hussein wanted to oust them from the country, but hesitated to strike because he did not want his enemies to use it against him by equating Palestinian fighters with civilians. PLO actions in Jordan culminated in the Dawson's Field hijackings incident of 6 September, in which the PFLP hijacked three civilian aircraft and forced their landing in Zarqa, taking foreign nationals as hostages, and later blowing up the planes in front of international press. Hussein saw this as the last straw, and ordered the army to take action.


title: Black September

text: On 17 September, the Jordanian Army surrounded cities with significant PLO presence including Amman and Irbid, and began shelling Palestinian refugee camps where the fedayeen were established. The next day, forces from the Syrian Army, with Palestine Liberation Army markings, intervened in support of the fedayeen and advanced towards Irbid which the fedayeen had occupied and declared to be a "liberated" city. On 22 September, the Syrians withdrew from Irbid after the Jordanians launched an air-ground offensive that inflicted heavy losses on the Syrians. Mounting pressure by Arab countries (such as Iraq) led Hussein to halt the fighting. On 13 October he signed an agreement with Arafat to regulate the fedayeen's presence in Jordan. However, the Jordanian military attacked again in January 1971 and the fedayeen were driven out of the cities, one by one, until 2,000 fedayeen surrendered after being surrounded in a forest near Ajloun on 17 July, marking the end of the conflict.


title: Black September

text: Jordan allowed the fedayeen to leave for Lebanon via Syria, and the fedayeen later participated in the 1975 Lebanese Civil War. The Black September Organization was founded after the conflict to carry out reprisals against Jordanian authorities, and the organization's first noted attack was the assassination of Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi Tal in 1971 who had commanded parts of the operations that expelled the fedayeen. The organization then shifted to attacking Israeli targets, including the highly publicized Munich massacre of Israeli athletes. Even though Black September did not reflect a Jordanian-Palestinian divide, as there were Palestinians and Jordanians on both sides of the conflict, it paved the way for such a divide subsequently.


title: Black September

text: After Jordan annexed the West Bank in 1950, it conferred its citizenship on the West Bank Palestinians. The combined population of the West Bank and Jordan consisted of two-thirds Palestinians (one-third in the West Bank and one-third in the East Bank) and one-third Jordanians. Jordan provided Palestinians with seats amounting to half the parliament and Palestinians enjoyed equal opportunities in all sectors of the state. This demographic change influenced Jordanian politics.


title: Black September

text: King Hussein considered that the Palestinian problem would remain the country's overriding national security issue; he feared an independent West Bank under PLO administration would threaten the autonomy of his Hashemite kingdom. The Palestinian factions were supported variously by many Arab governments, most notably Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who gave them political support.


title: Black September

text: The Palestinian nationalist organization Fatah started organizing cross-border attacks against Israel in January 1965, often drawing severe Israeli reprisals upon Jordan. The Samu Incident launched by Israel on 13 November 1966 was one such reprisal, after three Israeli soldiers were killed by a Fatah landmine. The Israeli assault on the Jordanian controlled West Bank town of As-Samu inflicted heavy casualties on Jordan. Israeli writer Avi Shlaim argued that Israel's disproportionate retaliation exacted revenge on the wrong party, as Israeli leaders knew from their interaction with Hussein that he was doing everything he could to prevent such attacks. Hussein, who felt he had been betrayed by the Israelis, drew fierce local criticism because of this incident. It is thought that this contributed to his decision to join Egypt and Syria's war against Israel in 1967. In June 1967 Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan during the Six-Day War.


title: Black September

text: After Jordan lost the West Bank, Fatah under the PLO stepped up their guerrilla attacks against Israel from Jordanian soil, making the border town of Karameh their headquarters. On 18 March 1968, an Israeli school bus was blown up by a mine near Be'er Ora in the Arava, killing two adults and wounding ten children—the 38th Fatah operation in little more than three months. On 21 March, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) units entered Jordan and launched a reprisal attack on Karameh that developed into a full-scale battle that lasted a day. The PLO suffered some 200 casualties and another 150 taken prisoner; 40–84 Jordanian soldiers were also killed. Israeli losses stood at around 30 killed and 69–161 wounded, and they also left behind several vehicles.


title: Black September

text: Both sides declared victory: Israel had fulfilled its objective of destroying the Karameh camp, but failed to capture Arafat, while Jordan and the PLO had exacted relatively heavy Israeli casualties. Although the Palestinians had limited success in inflicting Israeli casualties, King Hussein let them take the credit. The fedayeen used the battle's wide acclaim and recognition in the Arab world to establish their national claims. The Karameh operation also highlighted the vulnerability of bases close to the Jordan River, so the PLO moved them farther into the mountains. Further Israeli attacks targeted Palestinian militants residing among the Jordanian civilian population, giving rise to friction between Jordanians and guerrillas.


title: Black September

text: Palestinians and Arabs generally considered the battle a psychological victory over the IDF, which had been seen as "invincible" until then, and recruitment into guerilla units soared. Fatah reported that 5,000 volunteers had applied to join within 48 hours of the events at Karameh. By late March, there were nearly 20,000 fedayeen in Jordan. Iraq and Syria offered training programs for several thousand guerrillas. The Persian Gulf states, led by Kuwait, raised money for them through a 5% tax on the salaries of their tens of thousands of resident Palestinian workers, and a fund drive in Lebanon raised $500,000 from Beirut alone. The Palestinian organizations also began to guarantee a lifetime support for the families of all guerrillas killed in action. Within a year after the battle, Fatah had branches in about eighty countries. After the battle, Fatah gained control of the PLO in Egypt.


title: Black September

text: Palestinian fedayeen from Syria and Lebanon started to converge on Jordan, mostly in Amman. In Palestinian enclaves and refugee camps in Jordan, the police and army were losing their authority. The Wehdat and Al-Hussein refugee camps came to be referred as "independent republics" and the fedayeen established administrative autonomy by establishing local government under the control of uniformed PLO militants—setting up checkpoints and attempting to extort "taxes" from civilians.


title: Black September

text: In early November 1968, the Jordanian army attacked a fedayeen group named "Al-Nasr" (meaning victory) after the group had attacked Jordanian police. Not all Palestinians were supportive of Al-Nasr's actions, but the Jordanian response was meant to send a message that there would be consequences for challenging the government's authority. Immediately after the incident, a seven-point agreement was reached between King Hussein and Palestinian organizations, that restrained unlawful and illegal fedayeen behavior against the Jordanian government.


title: Black September

text: The PLO would not live up to the agreement, and came to be seen more and more as a state within a state in Jordan. Fatah's Yasser Arafat replaced Ahmad Shukeiri as the PLO's leader in February 1969. Discipline in the different Palestinian groups was poor, and the PLO had no central power to control the different groups. A situation developed of fedayeen groups rapidly spawning, merging, and splintering, sometimes trying to behave radically in order to attract recruits. Hussein went to the United States in March 1969 for talks with Richard Nixon, the new American president. He argued for Israel's adherence to United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, in which it was required to return territories it had occupied in 1967 in return for peace. Palestinian factions were suspicious of Hussein, as this meant the withdrawal of his policy of forceful resistance towards Israel, and these suspicions were further heightened by Washington's claim that Hussein would be able to liquidate the fedayeen movement in his country upon resolution of the conflict.


title: Black September

text: Fatah favored not intervening in the internal affairs of other Arab countries. However, although it assumed the leadership of the PLO, more radical left-wing Palestinian movements refused to abide by that policy. By 1970, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) led by George Habash and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) led by Nayef Hawatmeh, began to openly question the legitimacy of the Hashemite monarchy, and called for its overthrow and replacement with a revolutionary regime. Other radical groups included the Syrian Ba'ath's As-Sa'iqa, and the Iraqi Ba'ath's Arab Liberation Front: these saw Hussein as "a puppet of Western imperialism", " a reactionary", and "a Zionist tool". They claimed that the road to Tel Aviv passed through Amman, which they sought to transform into the Hanoi of Arabia. They also stirred up conservative and religious feelings with provocative anti-religious statements and actions, such as putting up Marxist and Leninist slogans on mosque walls.


title: Black September

text: According to Shlaim, their growing power was accompanied by growing arrogance and insolence. He quotes an observer describing the PLO in Jordan,


title: Black September

text: Palestinians claimed there were numerous agents provocateurs from Jordanian or other security services present among the fedayeen, deliberately trying to upset political relations and provide justification for a crackdown. There were frequent kidnappings and acts of violence against civilians: Chief of the Jordanian Royal Court (and subsequently Prime Minister) Zaid al-Rifai claimed that in one extreme instance "the fedayeen killed a soldier, beheaded him, and played football with his head in the area where he used to live".


title: Black September

text: The situation placed Hussein in a severe dilemma: if he used force to oust the fedayeen, he would alienate himself from the Palestinians in the country and the Arab World. However, if he refused to act to strike back at the fedayeen, he would lose the respect of Jordanians, and more seriously, that of the army, the backbone of the regime, which already started to pressure Hussein to act against them. In February 1970, King Hussein visited Egyptian President Nasser in Cairo, and won his support for taking a tougher stance against the fedayeen. Nasser also agreed to influence the fedayeen to desist from undermining Hussein's regime. Upon his return, he published a ten-point edict restricting activities of the Palestinian organizations, which included prohibition of the following: carrying arms publicly, storing ammunitions in villages, and holding demonstrations and meetings without prior governmental consent. The fedayeen reacted violently to these efforts aimed at curbing their power, which led Hussein to freeze the new regulation; he also acquiesced to fedayeen demands of dismissing the perceived anti-Palestinian interior minister Muhammad Al-Kailani. Hussein's policy of giving concessions to the fedayeen was to gain time, but Western newspapers started floating sensationalized stories that Hussein was losing control over Jordan and that he might abdicate soon.


title: Black September

text: Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who were openly supporting the fedayeen, sent Jordan financial subsidies, placing Hussein in a difficult position. Hussein saw no external forces to support him other than the United States and Israel, but that would act as fuel for fedayeen propaganda against him. On 17 February 1970, the American embassy in Tel Aviv relayed three questions from Hussein to Israel asking about Israel's stance if Jordan chose to confront the fedayeen. Israel replied positively to Hussein, and committed that they would not take advantage if Jordan withdrew its troops from the borders for a potential confrontation.


title: Black September

text: Israeli artillery and airforce attacked Irbid on 3 June as reprisal for a fedayeen attack on Beit Shean, killing one soldier, as well as killing seven and injuring twenty-six civilians. The Jordanian army retaliated and shelled Tiberias for the first time in 22 years; Hussein ordered the shelling but realized it was the start of a dangerous cycle of violence. Consequently, he requested, through the American embassy in Amman, a ceasefire with the Israelis to buy time so that he could take strong measures against the fedayeen. The message to Israel stated that "the Jordanian government was doing everything it could to prevent fedayeen rocket attacks on Israel. King deeply regrets the rocket attacks. Jordan Army under orders to shoot to kill any fedayeen attempting to fire rockets and fedayeen leaders had been told again evening of 3 June that violators would be shot on sight". Israel accepted Hussein's request following pressure from the Americans.


title: Black September

text: In the summer of 1970, the Jordanian army was on the verge of losing its patience with the fedayeen. After a provocation from the fedayeen, a tank battalion moved from the Jordan Valley without orders from Amman, intending to retaliate against them. It took the personal intervention of the King and that of the 3rd Armored Division commander Sharif Shaker, who blocked the road with their cars, to stop its onslaught.


title: Black September

text: Fighting broke out again between the fedayeen and the army in Zarqa on 7 June. Two days later, the fedayeen opened fire on the General Intelligence Directorate's ("mukhabarat") headquarters. Hussein went to visit the "mukhabarat" headquarters after the incident, but his motorcade came under heavy fedayeen fire, killing one of his guards. Bedouin units of the army retaliated for the assassination attempt against their king by shelling Al-Wehdat and Al-Hussein camps, which escalated into a conflict that lasted three days. An Israeli army meeting deliberated on events in Jordan; according to the director of Israel's Military Intelligence, there were around 2,000 fedayeen in Amman armed with mortars and Katyusha rockets. Hussein's advisors were divided: some were urging him to finish the job, while others were calling for restraint as victory could only be accomplished at the cost of thousands of lives, which to them was unacceptable. Hussein halted the fighting, and the three-day conflict's toll was around 300 dead and 700 wounded, including civilians.


title: Black September

text: A ceasefire was announced by Hussein and Arafat, but the PFLP did not abide by it. It immediately held around 68 foreign nationals hostage in two Amman hotels, threatening to blow them up with the buildings if Sharif Shaker and Sharif Nasser were not dismissed and the Special Forces unit disbanded. Arafat did not agree with the PFLP, but had to play along as he feared public opinion. Hussein compromised and reduced tensions by appointing Mashour Haditha Al-Jazy, who was considered a moderate general, as army chief of staff, and Abdelmunim Al-Rifai as prime minister, who in turn included six Palestinians as ministers in his government. Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's security advisor, gave the following assessment of the events in Jordan:


title: Black September

text: June 1970 became one of the most uncertain periods for the Hashemite monarchy in Jordan, as most foreign diplomats believed that events favored the fedayeen, and that the downfall of the monarchy was just a matter of time. Although Hussein was confident, members of his family started to wonder for how long the situation would last. 72-year-old Prince Zeid bin Hussein – the only son of Hussein bin Ali (Sharif of Mecca) that did not become a king – was visiting Amman in June and stayed with Hussein in the royal palace. He saw Hussein's management of the affair, and before he left, told his son that he thought Hussein to be the "most genuine, able and courageous Hashemite he had ever met", as well as "the greatest leader among all the Hashemite kings".


title: Black September

text: Another ceasefire agreement was signed between Hussein and Arafat on 10 July. It recognized and legitimized fedayeen presence in Jordan, and established a committee to monitor fedayeen conduct. The American-sponsored Rogers Plan for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict was publicized in July—based on Security Council Resolution 242. Nasser and Hussein accepted the plan, but Arafat rejected it on 26 July, claiming that it was a device to liquidate his movement. The PFLP and DFLP were more uncompromising, vehemently rejecting the plan and denouncing Nasser and Hussein. Meanwhile, a ceasefire was reached between Egypt and Israel on 7 August, formally ending the War of Attrition. On 15 August, Arafat was alleged to have said that "we have decided to convert Jordan into a cemetery for all conspirators—Amman shall be the Hanoi of the revolution." Paradoxically, Arafat had cautioned Habash and Hawatmeh, the respective leaders of the PFLP and the DFLP, from provoking the regime, as it enjoyed military superiority and could terminate their existence in Jordan at any time. But his calls went unheeded, and they started to call more openly for the overthrow of the Hashemites as a "prelude to the launching of a popular war for the liberation of Palestine". Another engagement between the army and the fedayeen occurred at the end of August, after the fedayeen ambushed army vehicles and staged an armed attack on the capital's post office.


title: Black September

text: Hussein's motorcade came under fire on 1 September for the second time in three months, triggering clashes between the army and the fedayeen in Amman up until 6 September. On 6 September, three planes were hijacked by the PFLP: SwissAir and TWA jets that landed at Azraq, Jordan, and a Pan Am jet that was flown to Cairo and immediately blown up after passengers were deplaned. The two jets that landed in Jordan had 310 passengers; the PFLP threatened to blow them up if fedayeen from European and Israeli prisons were not released. On 9 September, a third plane was hijacked to Jordan: a BOAC flight from Bahrain with 115 passengers was diverted to Zarqa. The PFLP announced that the hijackings were intended "to bring special attention to the Palestinian problem". After 371 hostages were removed, the planes were dramatically blown up in front of international press on 12 September. However, 54 hostages were kept by the organization for around two weeks. Arab regimes and Arafat were not pleased with the hijackings; the latter considered them to have caused more harm to the Palestinian issue. But Arafat could not dissociate himself from the hijackings, again because of Arab public opinion.


title: Black September

text: Al-Jazy, the perceived pro-Palestinian newly appointed army chief of staff, resigned on 9 September in the midst of the hijacking crisis, and was replaced by Habis Majali, who was brought in from retirement. Natheer Rasheed, the intelligence director who had been appointed a month earlier, claimed that Al-Jazy was paid 200,000 Jordanian dinars, and that his resignation letter was written by the PLO. Shlaim claims that the prelude consisted of three stages: "conciliation, containment and confrontation". He argues that Hussein was patient so that he could demonstrate that he had done everything he could to avoid bloodshed, and that confrontation only came after all other options had been exhausted, and after public opinion (both international and local) had tipped against the fedayeen.


title: Black September

text: On the evening of 15 September, Hussein called in his advisors for an emergency meeting at his Al-Hummar residence on the western outskirts of Amman. Amer Khammash, Habis Majali, Sharif Shaker, Wasfi Tal, and Zaid al-Rifai were among those who were present; for some time they had been urging Hussein to sort out the fedayeen. The army generals estimated that it would take two or three days for the army to push the fedayeen out of major cities. Hussein dismissed the civilian government the following day and appointed Muhammad Daoud, a Palestinian loyalist to head a military government, thereby declaring martial law. Other Palestinians in the military government included figures like Adnan Abu Oudeh, an officer in the "mukhabarat". Abu Oudeh later asked Hussein what the most difficult decision was that he had to make, to which the king replied: "The decision to recapture my capital."


title: Black September

text: On 17 September, the 60th Armoured Brigade entered the capital Amman from different directions and shelled the Wehdat and Hussein refugee camps where the fedayeen were based with tanks, artillery and mortars. The fedayeen put up a stiff resistance as they were well prepared, and the fighting lasted the next ten days without break. Simultaneously, the army surrounded and attacked other fedayeen-controlled cities including: Irbid, Jerash, Al-Salt and Zarqa. The three days estimated by Hussein's generals could not be achieved, and the ensuing stalemate led Arab countries to step up pressure on Hussein to halt the fighting.


title: Black September

text: Jordan feared foreign intervention in the events in support of the fedayeen; this soon materialized on 18 September after a force from Syria with Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) markings marched towards Irbid, which the fedayeen had declared a "liberated" city. The 40th Armoured Brigade managed to block the Syrian forces' advance after heavy fighting. A second, much larger, Syrian incursion occurred on the same day: it consisted of two armored and one mechanized infantry brigades of the 5th Infantry Division, and around 300 tanks. Although the Syrian tanks had PLA markings, the troops were Syrian Army regulars. Syria issued no statement regarding the situation, but it is believed that the purpose of its intervention was to help the fedayeen overthrow the monarchy. Another tentative explanation is that the Syrians wanted to create a haven for the fedayeen in northern Jordan, from where they could negotiate with Hussein.


title: Black September

text: There were also concerns of Iraqi interference. A 17,000-man 3rd Armoured Division of the Iraqi Army had remained in eastern Jordan since after the 1967 Six-Day War. The Iraqi government sympathized with the Palestinians, but it was unclear whether the division would get involved in the conflict in favor of the fedayeen. Thus, the Jordanian 99th Brigade had to be detailed to monitor the Iraqis.


title: Black September

text: David Raab, one of the plane hijacking hostages, described the initial military actions of Black September:


title: Black September

text: Hussein arranged a cabinet meeting on the evening of the Syrian incursion, leaving them to decide if Jordan should seek foreign intervention. Two sides emerged from the meeting; one group of ministers favored military intervention from the United Kingdom or the United States, while the other group argued that it was an Arab affair that ought to be dealt with internally. The former group prevailed as Jordan was facing an existential threat. Britain refused to interfere militarily for fear of getting involved in a region-wide conflict; arguments such as "Jordan as it is is not a viable country" emerged. The British cabinet then decided to relay the Hussein's request to the Americans. Nixon and Kissinger were receptive to Hussein's request. Nixon ordered the U.S. Navy's 6th Fleet to be positioned off the coast of Israel, near Jordan. By 19–20 September, the U.S. Navy had concentrated a powerful force in the Eastern Mediterranean. Its official mission was to protect American interests in the region and to respond to the capture of about 54 British, German, and U.S. citizens in Jordan by PLO forces. Later, declassified documents showed that Hussein called an American official at 3 a.m. to request American intervention. "Situation deteriorating dangerously following Syrian massive invasion", Hussein was quoted. "I request immediate physical intervention both land and air... to safeguard sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Jordan. Immediate air strikes on invading forces from any quarter plus air cover are imperative."


title: Black September

text: On 22 September, Hussein ordered the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) to attack the Syrian forces. A joint air-ground offensive proved successful, contributing to the success was the Syrian Air Force's abstention from joining. This has been attributed to power struggles within the Syrian Ba'athist government between Syrian Assistant Regional Secretary Salah Jadid and Syrian Air Force commander Hafez Al-Assad. Al-Assad claimed power after a coup on 13 November. Iraqi impartiality was attributed to Iraqi general Hardan Al-Tikriti's commitment to Hussein not to interfere—he was assassinated a year later for this. It is thought that the rivalry between the Iraqi and Syrian Ba'ath Party was the real reason for Iraqi non-involvement.


title: Black September

text: The airstrikes inflicted heavy losses on the Syrians, and on the late afternoon of 22 September, the Syrian 5th Division began to retreat. A meeting of the Israeli Cabinet on that day was divided on whether or not to intervene in Jordan. King Hussein requested Israeli air support against Syrian forces via the British Embassy in Amman. Israel reluctantly intervened by sending fighter jets to overfly the already retreating Syrian units in a show of support to King Hussein but without engaging. Israeli military commanders had prepared a contingency plan to occupy Jordanian territory–including the Gilead Heights, Karak and Aqaba–in case the country disintegrated and there was a land-grab by its Iraqi, Syrian and Saudi Arabian neighbors.


title: Black September

text: After successes against the Syrian forces, the Jordanian Army steadily shelled the fedayeen's headquarters in Amman, and threatened to also attack them in other regions of the country. The Palestinians suffered heavy losses, and some of their commanders were captured. On the other hand, in the Jordanian army there were around 300 defections, including ranking officers such as Mahmoud Da'as. Hussein agreed to a cease-fire after Arab media started accusing him of massacring the Palestinians. Jordanian Prime Minister Muhammad Daoud defected to Libya after being pressured by President Muammar Al-Gaddafi, while the former was in Egypt representing Jordan at an emergency Arab League summit. Hussein himself decided to fly to Cairo on 26 September, where he was met with hostility from Arab leaders. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser led the first emergency Arab League summit in Cairo on 21 September. Arafat's speech drew sympathy from attending Arab leaders. Other heads of state took sides against Hussein, among them Muammar Gaddafi, who mocked him and his schizophrenic father King Talal. On 27 September, Hussein and Arafat signed an agreement brokered by Egyptian President Nasser. Nasser died the following day of a heart attack.


title: Black September

text: The Jordanian army regained control of key cities and intersections in the country before accepting the ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt's Nasser. Hussein appointed a Palestinian, Ahmad Toukan, as prime minister, instructing him to "bandage the wounds". In the period following the ceasefire, Hussein publicly revealed that the Jordanian army had uncovered around 360 underground PLO bases in Amman, and that Jordan held 20,000 detainees, among whom were "Chinese advisors".


title: Black September

text: The head of a Pakistani training mission to Jordan, Brigadier Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (later Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan), was involved on the Jordanian side. Zia had been stationed in Amman for three years prior to Black September. During the events, according to CIA official Jack O'Connell, Zia was dispatched by Hussein north to assess Syria's military capabilities. The Pakistani commander reported back to Hussein, recommending the deployment of a RJAF squadron to the region. O'Connell also said that Zia personally led Jordanian troops during the battles.


title: Black September

text: Two Iranian leftist guerilla organizations, the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG) and the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), were involved in the conflict against Jordan. Their "collaboration with the PLO was particularly close, and members of both movements even fought side by side in Jordan during the events of Black September and trained together in Fatah camps in Lebanon". On 3 August 1972, PMOI operatives bombed the Jordanian embassy in Tehran during King Hussein's state visit as an act of "revenge" for the events of Black September.


title: Black September

text: Arafat claimed that the Jordanian army killed 25,000 Palestinians—other estimates put the number at between 2,000 and 3,400. The Syrian invasion attempt ended with 120 tanks lost, and around 600 Syrian casualties. Jordanian soldiers suffered around 537 dead.


title: Black September

text: Another agreement, called the Amman agreement, was signed between Hussein and Arafat on 13 October. It mandated that the fedayeen respect Jordanian sovereignty and desist from wearing uniforms or bearing arms in public. However it contained a clause requiring that Jordan recognize the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinians; Wasfi Tal rejected this clause. Habash and Hawatmeh continued their attacks on the monarchy in spite of the Amman agreement. Hussein appointed Tal to form a government. Tal was seen as anti-Palestinian, however he had made pro-Palestinian gestures during his previous two tenures as prime minister. Tal viewed Arafat with suspicion as he considered that the PLO concentrated its efforts against the Jordanian state rather than against Israel. On one occasion, Tal lost his temper and shouted at Arafat "You are a liar; you don't want to fight Israel!". Shlaim describes Tal as a more uncompromising figure than Hussein, and very popular with the army.


title: Black September

text: Clashes between the army, and the PFLP and DFLP, ensued after Tal was instated. Tal launched an offensive against fedayeen bases along the Amman-Jerash road in January 1971, and the army drove them out of Irbid in March. In April, Tal ordered the PLO to relocate all its bases from Amman to the forests between Ajloun and Jerash. The fedayeen initially resisted, but they were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. In July, the army surrounded the last remaining 2,000 fedayeen from the Ajloun-Jerash area. The fedayeen finally surrendered and were allowed to leave to Syria, some 200 fighters preferred to cross the Jordan River to surrender to Israeli forces rather than to the Jordanians. At a 17 July press conference, Hussein declared that Jordanian sovereignty had been completely restored, and that there "was no problem now".


title: Black September

text: In the wake of the conflict, the new civilian government of Tal began a wide-scale purge of the government's bureaucracy and military, freeing them from any supporters of the guerrillas. This effectively meant that large numbers of Palestinian officers, bureaucrats and even some Jordanians were expelled from their jobs. This was accompanied by a war by Tal on the newspapers and massive arrests of the government against the "saboteurs". Many newspapers were closed, their permits withdrawn and their editors rejected. Even though the conflict was not a result of a Jordanian-Palestinian divide as there were Palestinians and Jordanians on both sides of the conflict, but rather paved the way for the divide. Ali Kassay further elaborated: Hussein's resilience in the face of the joint Palestinian-Syrian challenge impressed both the West and Israel. Nixon ordered $10 million in aid to be delivered to Jordan, and another $30 million requested from Congress.


title: Black September

text: The Black September Organization was established by Fatah members in 1971 for reprisal operations and international strikes after the September events. On 28 November 1971, four of the group's members assassinated Prime Minister Wasfi Tal in the lobby of the Sheraton Cairo Hotel in Egypt while he was attending an Arab League summit. The group would go on to perform other strikes against Jordan, and against Israeli and Western citizens and property outside of the Middle East, such as the Munich massacre against Israeli athletes in 1972. The Black September Organization was later disbanded in 1973–1974 as the PLO sought to exploit the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and pursue a diplomatic strategy. Fatah has always publicly denied its responsibility for Black September operations, but by the 2000s, some high-ranking Fatah and Black September officials acknowledged the relationship.


title: Black September

text: In the September fighting, the PLO lost its main base of operations. Fighters were driven to Southern Lebanon where they regrouped. The enlarged PLO presence in Lebanon and the intensification of fighting on the Israeli–Lebanese border stirred up internal unrest in Lebanon, where the PLO fighters added dramatically to the weight of the Lebanese National Movement, a coalition of Muslims, Arab nationalists and leftists who opposed the rightist, Maronite-dominated government. These developments helped precipitate the Lebanese Civil War, in which the PLO would ultimately be expelled to Tunisia.


title: Teriyaki

text: Teriyaki (kanji: 照り焼き) is a cooking technique used in Japanese cuisine in which foods are broiled or grilled with a glaze of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar.


title: Teriyaki

text: Fish – yellowtail, marlin, skipjack tuna, salmon, trout, and mackerel – is mainly used in Japan, while white and red meat – chicken, pork, lamb, and beef – is more often used in the West. Other ingredients sometimes used in Japan include squid, hamburger steak, and meatballs.


title: Teriyaki

text: The word "teriyaki" derives from the noun , which refers to a shine or luster given by the sugar content in the , and , which refers to the cooking method of grilling or broiling. Traditionally the meat is dipped in or brushed with sauce several times during cooking. Teriyaki was invented by Japanese chefs in the 1600s.


title: Teriyaki

text: The is traditionally made by mixing and heating soy sauce, sake (or mirin), and sugar (or honey). The sauce is boiled and reduced to the desired thickness, then used to marinate meat, which is then grilled or broiled. Sometimes ginger is added and the final dish may be garnished with spring onions. (see tare).


title: Teriyaki

text: A is a variety of hamburger either topped with teriyaki sauce or with the sauce worked into the ground meat patty. "Teriyaki stir-fry" refers to stir frying meat or vegetables in teriyaki sauce.


title: Teriyaki

text: In North America, any dish made with a teriyaki-like sauce is described using the word teriyaki. This often even includes those using foreign alternatives to "sake" or "mirin", such as wine, or with added ingredients, such as sesame or garlic (uncommon in traditional Japanese cuisine). The sauce used for teriyaki is generally sweet, although it can also be spicy. Pineapple juice is sometimes used, as it not only provides sweetness but also bromelain enzymes that help tenderize the meat. Grilling meat first and pouring the sauce on afterwards or using sweet sauce as a marinade are other non-traditional methods of cooking teriyaki. Teriyaki sauce is sometimes put on chicken wings or used as a dipping sauce.


title: Teriyaki

text: In the city of Seattle, Washington, a large teriyaki culture emerged in the 1990s. , there were over 83 restaurants in the city with "teriyaki" in their name. It has been described as the city's signature cuisine by some outlets, noting its widespread adoption as a form of fast food.


title: Teriyaki

text: The first standalone teriyaki restaurant, Toshi's Teriyaki, opened in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle in 1976. The restaurant's low-cost chicken and beef skewers in teriyaki sauce inspired other restaurants in the area. Toshi's later expanded into a chain with 17 locations in the Seattle area by 1996.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The city is located at the tip of an escarpment that is both the northwestern edge of the Eritrean Highlands and the Great Rift Valley in neighbouring Ethiopia. In 2017, the city was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its well-preserved modernist architecture. The site of Asmera was first settled in 800 BC with a population ranging from 100 to 1,000. The city was then founded in the 12th century AD after four separate villages unified to live together peacefully after long periods of conflict. Under Italian rule the city of Asmara was made capital of Eritrea in the last years of the 19th century.


title: Asmara

text: Giving the Pre-Axumite archaeological evidence found in Asmara around Sembel Called the Ona culture, Asmara's history go back to 800 BCE and according to Eritrean Tigrinya oral traditional history, there were four clans living in the Asmera area on the Kebessa Plateau: the Gheza Gurtom, the Gheza Shelele, the Gheza Serenser and Gheza Asmae. These villages were frequently attacked by clans from the low land and from the rulers of "seger mereb melash" (which now is a Tigray region in Ethiopia), until the women of each clan decided that to defeat their common enemy and preserve peace the four clans must unite. The men accepted, hence the name "Arbate Asmera". Arbate Asmera literally means, in the Tigrinya language, "the four (feminine plural) made them unite". Eventually Arbate was dropped and it has been called Asmera which means "they [feminine, thus referring to the women] made them unite". There is still a district called Arbaete Asmara in the Administrations of Asmara. It is now called the Italianized version of the word Asmara. The westernized version of the name is used by a majority of non-Eritreans, while the multilingual inhabitants of Eritrea and neighboring peoples remain loyal to the original pronunciation, Asmera.


title: Asmara

text: The missionary Remedius Prutky passed through Asmara in 1751, and described in his memoirs that a church built there by Jesuit priests 130 years before was still intact.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara, a small village in the nineteenth century, started to grow quickly when it was occupied by Italy in 1889. Governor Ferdinando Martini made it the capital city of Italian Eritrea in 1897.


title: Asmara

text: In the early 20th century, the Eritrean Railway was built to the coast, passing through the town of Ghinda, under the direction of Carlo Cavanna. In both 1913 and 1915 the city suffered only slight damage in large earthquakes.


title: Asmara

text: A large Italian community developed the city. According to the 1939 census, Asmara had a population of 98,000, of whom 53,000 were Italian. Only 75,000 Italians lived in all of Eritrea, thus making the capital city by far their largest centre. (Compare this to the Italian colonization of Libya, where the settler population, albeit larger, was more dispersed.)


title: Asmara

text: The capital acquired an Italian architectural look. Europeans used Asmara "to experiment with radical new designs". By the late 1930s, Asmara was called "Piccola Roma" (Little Rome). Journalist John Gunther noted in 1955 that "the Italians built [Asmara] well, like Tripoli, with handsome wide streets, ornate public buildings, and even such refinements of civilization as a modern sewage system ... [Asmara] gives the impression of being a pleasant enough small city in Calabria, or even Umbria. Nowadays more than 400 buildings are of Italian origin, and many shops still have Italian names (e.g., "Bar Vittoria", "Pasticceria moderna", "Casa del formaggio", and "Ferramenta").


title: Asmara

text: The Kingdom of Italy invested in the industrial development of Asmara (and surrounding areas of Eritrea), but the beginning of World War II brought this to a halt.


title: Asmara

text: UNESCO made Asmara a World Heritage Site in July 2017, saying "It is an exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context".


title: Asmara

text: In 1952, the United Nations resolved to federate the former colony under Ethiopian rule. During the Federation, Asmara was no longer the capital city. The capital was now Addis Ababa, over to the south. The national language of the city was therefore replaced from the Tigrinya language to the Ethiopian Amharic language. In 1961, Emperor Haile Selassie I ended the "federal" arrangement and declared the territory to be the 14th province of the Ethiopian Empire. Ethiopia's biggest ally was the United States. The city was home to the US Army's Kagnew Station installation from 1943 until 1977. The Eritrean War of Independence began in 1961 and ended in 1991, resulting in the independence of Eritrea. Asmara was left relatively undamaged throughout the war, as were the majority of highland regions. After independence, Asmara again became the capital of Eritrea.


title: Asmara

text: The city lies at an elevation of above sea level. It lies on north–south trending highlands known as the Eritrean Highlands, an extension of the Ethiopian Highlands. The temperate central portion, where Asmera lies, is situated on a rocky highland plateau, which separates the western lowlands from the eastern coastal plains. The lands that surround Asmara are very fertile, especially those to the south towards the Debub Region of Eritrea. The highlands that Asmera is located in fall away to reveal the eastern lowlands, characterized by the searing heat and humidity of the Eritrean salt pans, lapped by the Red Sea. To the west of the plateau stretches a vast semi-arid hilly terrain continuing all the way towards the border with Sudan through the Gash-Barka Region.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara has a semi-arid climate. It is dry for 185 days a year with an average humidity of 51% and an UV-index of 6.


title: Asmara

text: It has warm, but not hot summers and mild winters. Due to its altitude, temperatures are relatively mild for a city located not particularly far from the hotter surroundings in the country. This climate is characteristic of rainy, wet seasons and dry seasons. Asmara averages about of precipitation annually. Frost, however, is extremely rare in the city. The long dry season of the year extends from June until September. The short rainy season occurs from March until April. On average, about 60% of Asmara's annual precipitation is seen during the months of July and August. In contrast, December to February are typically Asmara's driest months, where on average only of precipitation falls in the three months combined. Due to variable rainfall, Asmara's climate is also characterized by drought. Several prolonged droughts in this region have occurred beginning in the 1960s and have recurred each decade since then. During periods of drought, temperatures are high and little rainfall occurs. As temperatures in a region increase, the rate of evaporation of water from the soil also increases. These combined processes result in the desertification of the soil. In order to obtain nutrient rich and moist soil for farming purposes, populations rely on deforestation to make use of the underlying ground. The most serious environmental issues Asmara faces are deforestation and desertification. Other issues Asmara faces are soil erosion and overgrazing. All of these environmental issues produce soil degradation.


title: Asmara

text: The city is home to the Eritrean National Museum. The city is often the starting point of the Tour of Eritrea cycling competition.


title: Asmara

text: The city is known for its early 20th-century buildings, including the Art Deco Cinema Impero (opened in 1937 and considered by the experts one of the world's finest examples of Art Déco style building), Cubist Africa Pension, eclectic Eritrean Orthodox Enda Mariam Cathedral and former Opera House, the futurist Fiat Tagliero Building, the neo-Romanesque Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Asmara, and the neoclassical Governor's Palace. The city is adorned by Italian colonial villas and mansions, one prominent example being the World Bank Building. Most of central Asmara was built between 1935 and 1941, so the Italians effectively managed to build almost an entire city in just six years. At this time, the dictator Benito Mussolini had great plans for a second Roman Empire in Africa. War cut this short, but his injection of funds created the Asmara of today, which supposedly was to be a symbol to the colonial fascism during that period of time.


title: Asmara

text: The city shows off most early 20th-century architectural styles. Some buildings are neo-Romanesque, such as the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, some villas are built in a late Victorian style. Art Deco influences are found throughout the city. Essences of Cubism can be found on the Africa Pension Building, and on a small collection of buildings. The Fiat Tagliero Building shows almost the height of futurism, just as it was coming into big fashion in Italy.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara is known to be an exceptionally modern city, not only because of its architecture, but Asmara also had more traffic lights than Rome did when the city was being built. The city incorporates many features of a planned city.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara has wide streets, restaurants, piazzas (town squares), bars and cafes while many of the boulevards are lined with palms trees. The Italian inspired food and culture is very present and was introduced during Italian Eritrea. Countless restaurants and cafes, serve high quality espresso, cappuccinos and lattes, as well as gelato parlours and restaurants with Italian Eritrean cuisine. Common dishes served from the Italian Eritrean cuisine are 'Pasta al Sugo e Berbere', which means "pasta with tomato sauce and berbere" (spice), "lasagna" and "cotoletta alla milanese" (milano cutlet).


title: Asmara

text: Asmara was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2017, becoming the first modernist city anywhere to be listed in its entirety. The inscription taking place during the 41st World Heritage Committee Session.


title: Asmara

text: The city has thousands of Art Deco, futurist, modernist, and rationalist buildings, constructed during the period of Italian Eritrea. The city, nicknamed ""La piccola Roma"" ("Little Rome"), is located over 2,000 meters above sea level, and was an ideal spot for construction due to the relatively cool climate; architects used a combination of both Italian and local materials.


title: Asmara

text: Some notable buildings include the Fiat Tagliero Building, Bar Zilli, opera houses, hotels, and cinemas, such as the Cinema Impero.


title: Asmara

text: The Historic Center of Asmara was placed on the World Monuments Fund's 2006 Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. The listing was designed to bring more attention to the city to save the center from decay and redevelopment and to promote restoration.


title: Asmara

text: Following CARP (a World Bank initiative on Cultural Heritage), the European Union Delegation in Asmara has engaged into a Heritage Project pertaining to building's restoration and archive management. Launched in 2010 the EU/Eritrea Cultural Project was expected to be completed in 2014 (Pierre Couté – Edward Denison, Project Design Report, EUD Asmara 2009).


title: Asmara

text: Four big landmarks of the city are the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and the Kidane Mehret Cathedral of the Catholic faith (the former of Latin and the latter of Coptic rite), the Enda Mariam Cathedral of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and the Al Khulafa Al Rashiudin Mosque of the Islamic faith. Christians and Muslims have lived peacefully together in Asmara for centuries. The religious majority in Asmara are Orthodox Christians. The population in the Central Region is 89 percent Christian (almost 84 percent Orthodox, 4 percent Roman Catholic, and more than 1 percent Protestant) and 5 percent Muslim.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara is also the see of the archbishop of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which became autocephalous in 1993. The archbishop was elevated in 1998 to the rank of Patriarchate of Eritrea, on a par with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.


title: Asmara

text: Eritrean Airlines, the Eritrean Telecommunications Corporation, and other companies are headquartered in the city. The country's national television station Eri-TV has many studios located in various areas in the capital.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara Brewery, built 1939 under the name of Melotti, is located in the city and employs 600 people. The brewery produces Asmara beer and other beverages like rum and gin. The brewery also owns and operates as a sponsor of the local football team Asmara Brewery FC, also named "Asmara Birra" (translated "Asmara Beer").


title: Asmara

text: After Eritrean independence, the roads of Asmara underwent extensive construction projects. Old roads were renovated and new highways were also built. There are five primary roads out of Asmara.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara International Airport serves the city with many international flights. Massawa International Airport is an alternative airport nearby.


title: Asmara

text: As of 1999, there is a total of 317 kilometres of (narrow gauge) rail line in Eritrea. The Eritrean Railway was built between 1887 and 1932. Badly damaged during WWII and in later fighting, it was closed section by section, with the final closure coming in 1978. After independence, a rebuilding effort commenced, and the first rebuilt section was reopened in 2003. As of 2009, the section from Asmara to Massawa was fully rebuilt and available for service.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara has always been a national centre of education, and is home to many elementary and high schools. Since 1958, it has been the home of the University of Asmara. In 2006, following the opening of a university at Mai Nefhi, the University of Asmara was shut down. During the period of Ethiopian Federation and annexation, the university was also linked with what was then the nation's largest tertiary institution, Addis Ababa University.


title: Asmara

text: Asmara is divided into 13 districts or administrative areas. These districts are subdivided into North, North-West, North-East, South-East, South-West, East, West and Central areas. The thirteen districts (or "Neous Zobas") are:


title: Anil Kapoor filmography

text: Anil Kapoor is an Indian actor and producer and has appeared in more than 100 Hindi films, as well as international films and television series. His career has spanned almost 40 years as an actor, and as a producer since 2005.


title: Anil Kapoor filmography

text: Kapoor was born in Mumbai to film producer Surinder Kapoor and appeared in his first film with a small role in the Umesh Mehra's romance "Hamare Tumhare" (1979). He made his debut film and then starred as a lead actor in the 1980 Telugu film, "Vamsa Vruksham" directed by Bapu. He was supposed to be launched in Hindi with "Kahan Kahan Se Guzar Gaya", but the film was delayed. He then made his Kannada film debut with Mani Ratnam's "Pallavi Anu Pallavi" (1983). Anil Kapoor got recognition for his lead role in film " Woh Saat Din" as Prem Partap Patiaale Waale in 1983. He received his first Filmfare Award, in the Best Supporting Actor category, for his role in Yash Chopra's "Mashaal" (1984). Kapoor earned his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in N. Chandra's "Tezaab" (1988) and another for his performance in Indra Kumar's "Beta" (1992). Kapoor subsequently starred in many other critically and commercially successful films, including "Meri Jung" (1985), "Karma" (1986), "Janbaaz" (1986), "Aap Ke Saath" (1986), "Mr. India" (1987), "Ghar Ho To Aisa" (1990), "Awaargi" (1990), "Benaam Badsha" (1991), and "Virasat" (1997), for which he won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor; "Taal" (1999), for which he won his second Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award; "Pukar" (2000), which earned him a National Film Award for Best Actor; "No Entry" (2005) and "Dil Dhadakne Do" (2015) for which he won his third Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. Kapoor has starred in more than a 100 films.


title: Anil Kapoor filmography

text: Kapoor's first role in an international film was in Danny Boyle's Academy Award-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire," for which he shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. His performance in the eighth season of the action series "24" generated rave reviews from the American press. Globally, Kapoor is one of the most recognized Indian film actors.


title: Land of Israel

text: The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Israel (disambiguation)). The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as "from Dan to Beersheba", and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt" (1 Kings 8:65, 1 Chronicles 13:5 and 2 Chronicles 7:8).


title: Land of Israel

text: These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of established historical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms, including the United Kingdom of Israel, the two kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, the Hasmonean Kingdom, and the Herodian kingdom. At their heights, these realms ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries.


title: Land of Israel

text: Jewish religious belief defines the land as where Jewish religious law prevailed and excludes territory where it was not applied. It holds that the area is a God-given inheritance of the Jewish people based on the Torah, particularly the books of Genesis and Exodus, as well as on the later Prophets. According to the Book of Genesis, the land was first promised by God to Abram's descendants; the text is explicit that this is a covenant between God and Abram for his descendants. Abram's name was later changed to Abraham, with the promise refined to pass through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This belief is not shared by most adherents of replacement theology (or supersessionism), who hold the view that the Old Testament prophecies were superseded by the coming of Jesus, a view often repudiated by Christian Zionists as a theological error. Evangelical Zionists variously claim that Israel has title to the land by divine right, or by a theological, historical and moral grounding of attachment to the land unique to Jews (James Parkes). The idea that ancient religious texts can be warrant or divine right for a modern claim has often been challenged, and Israeli courts have rejected land claims based on religious motivations.


title: Land of Israel

text: During the League of Nations mandate period (19201948) the term "Eretz Yisrael" or the "Land of Israel" was part of the official Hebrew name of Mandatory Palestine. Official Hebrew documents used the Hebrew transliteration of the word "Palestine" פלשתינה (Palestina) followed always by the two initial letters of "Eretz Yisrael", א״י Aleph-Yod.


title: Land of Israel

text: The Land of Israel concept has been evoked by the founders of the State of Israel. It often surfaces in political debates on the status of the West Bank, referred to in official Israeli discourse as the Judea and Samaria Area, from the names of the two historical Jewish kingdoms.


title: Land of Israel

text: The term "Land of Israel" is a direct translation of the Hebrew phrase ("Eretz Yisrael"), which occasionally occurs in the Bible, and is first mentioned in the Tanakh in , following the Exodus, when the Israelite tribes were already in the Land of Canaan. The words are used sparsely in the Bible: King David is ordered to gather 'strangers to the land of Israel' ("hag-gêrîm 'ăšer, bə’ereṣ yiśrā’êl") for building purposes (), and the same phrasing is used in reference to King Solomon's census of all of the 'strangers in the Land of Israel' (). Ezekiel, though generally preferring the phrase 'soil of Israel' ("admat yiśrā’êl"), employs "eretz Israel" twice, respectively at and .


title: Land of Israel

text: According to Martin Noth, the term is not an "authentic and original name for this land", but instead serves as "a somewhat flexible description of the area which the Israelite tribes had their settlements". According to Anita Shapira, the term "Eretz Yisrael" was a holy term, vague as far as the exact boundaries of the territories are concerned but clearly defining ownership. The sanctity of the land ("kedushat ha-aretz") developed rich associations in rabbinical thought, where it assumes a highly symbolic and mythological status infused with promise, though always connected to a geographical location. Nur Masalha argues that the biblical boundaries are "entirely fictitious", and bore simply religious connotations in Diaspora Judaism, with the term only coming into ascendency with the rise of Zionism.


title: Land of Israel

text: The Hebrew Bible provides three specific sets of borders for the "Promised Land", each with a different purpose. Neither of the terms "Promised Land" (Ha'Aretz HaMuvtahat) or "Land of Israel" are used in these passages: , and use the term "the land" (ha'aretz), as does in which it is promised explicitly to "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... and to their descendants after them," whilst describes the "Land of Canaan" (Eretz Kna'an) which is allocated to nine and half of the twelve Israelite tribes after the Exodus. The expression "Land of Israel" is first used in a later book, . It is defined in detail in the exilic Book of Ezekiel as a land where both the twelve tribes and the "strangers in (their) midst", can claim inheritance. The name "Israel" first appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name given by God to the patriarch Jacob (). Deriving from the name "Israel", other designations that came to be associated with the Jewish people have included the "Children of Israel" or "Israelite".


title: Land of Israel

text: The term 'Land of Israel' (γῆ Ἰσραήλ) occurs in one episode in the New Testament (), where, according to Shlomo Sand, it bears the unusual sense of 'the area surrounding Jerusalem'. The section in which it appears was written as a parallel to the earlier Book of Exodus.


title: Land of Israel

text: describes what are known as "Borders of the Land" ("Gevulot Ha-aretz"), which in Jewish tradition defines the extent of the land promised to the descendants of Abraham, through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. The passage describes the area as the land of the ten named ancient peoples then living there.


title: Land of Israel

text: More precise geographical borders are given in , which describes borders as marked by the Red Sea (see debate below), the "Sea of the Philistines" "i.e.", the Mediterranean, and the "River", the Euphrates), the traditional furthest extent of the Kingdom of David.


title: Land of Israel

text: Genesis gives the border with Egypt as "Nahar Mitzrayim" – "nahar" in Hebrew denotes a river or stream, as opposed to a "wadi".


title: Land of Israel

text: A slightly more detailed definition is given in , which describes the borders as "from the sea of reeds (Red Sea) to the Sea of the Philistines (Mediterranean sea) and from the desert to the Euphrates River", though the Hebrew text of the Bible uses the name, "the River", to refer to the Euphrates.


title: Land of Israel

text: Only the "Red Sea" (Exodus 23:31) and the Euphrates are mentioned to define the southern and eastern borders of the full land promised to the Israelites. The "Red Sea" corresponding to Hebrew "Yam Suf" was understood in ancient times to be the Erythraean Sea, as reflected in the Septuagint translation. Although the English name "Red Sea" is derived from this name ("Erythraean" derives from the Greek for red), the term denoted all the waters surrounding Arabia—including the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, not merely the sea lying to the west of Arabia bearing this name in modern English. Thus, the entire Arabian peninsula lies within the borders described. Modern maps depicting the region take a reticent view and often leave the southern and eastern borders vaguely defined. The borders of the land to be conquered given in Numbers have a precisely defined eastern border which included the Arabah and Jordan.


title: Land of Israel

text: describes the land allocated to the Israelite tribes after the Exodus. The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh received land east of the Jordan as explained in . provides a detailed description of the borders of the land to be conquered west of the Jordan for the remaining tribes. The region is called "the Land of Canaan" ("Eretz Kna'an") in and the borders are known in Jewish tradition as the "borders for those coming out of Egypt". These borders are again mentioned in , and .


title: Land of Israel

text: According to the Hebrew Bible, Canaan was the son of Ham who with his descendants had seized the land from the descendants of Shem according to the Book of Jubilees. Jewish tradition thus refers to the region as Canaan during the period between the Flood and the Israelite settlement. Eliezer Schweid sees Canaan as a geographical name, and Israel the spiritual name of the land. He writes: "The uniqueness of the Land of Israel is thus "geo-theological" and not merely climatic. This is the land which faces the entrance of the spiritual world, that sphere of existence that lies beyond the physical world known to us through our senses. This is the key to the land's unique status with regard to prophecy and prayer, and also with regard to the commandments". Thus, the renaming of this landmarks a change in religious status, the origin of the Holy Land concept. uses the term Canaan strictly for the land west of the Jordan, but Land of Israel is used in Jewish tradition to denote the entire land of the Israelites. The English expression "Promised Land" can denote either the land promised to Abraham in Genesis or the land of Canaan, although the latter meaning is more common.


title: Land of Israel

text: The border with Egypt is given as the "Nachal Mitzrayim" (Brook of Egypt) in Numbers, as well as in Deuteronomy and Ezekiel. Jewish tradition (as expressed in the commentaries of Rashi and Yehuda Halevi, as well as the Aramaic Targums) understand this as referring to the Nile; more precisely the Pelusian branch of the Nile Delta according to Halevi—a view supported by Egyptian and Assyrian texts. Saadia Gaon identified it as the "Wadi of El-Arish", referring to the biblical Sukkot near Faiyum. Kaftor Vaferech placed it in the same region, which approximates the location of the former Pelusian branch of the Nile. 19th century Bible commentaries understood the identification as a reference to the Wadi of the coastal locality called El-Arish. Easton's, however, notes a local tradition that the course of the river had changed and there was once a branch of the Nile where today there is a wadi. Biblical minimalists have suggested that the Besor is intended.


title: Land of Israel

text: Deuteronomy 19:8 indicates a certain fluidity of the borders of the promised land when it refers to the possibility that God would "enlarge your borders." This expansion of territory means that Israel would receive "all the land he promised to give to your fathers", which implies that the settlement actually fell short of what was promised. According to Jacob Milgrom, Deuteronomy refers to a more utopian map of the promised land, whose eastern border is the wilderness rather than the Jordan.


title: Land of Israel

text: Paul R. Williamson notes that a "close examination of the relevant promissory texts" supports a "wider interpretation of the promised land" in which it is not "restricted absolutely to one geographical locale". He argues that "the map of the promised land was never seen permanently fixed, but was subject to at least some degree of expansion and redefinition."


title: Land of Israel

text: On David's instructions, Joab undertakes a census of Israel and Judah, travelling in an anti-clockwise direction from Gad to Gilead to Dan, then west to Sidon and Tyre, south to the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites, to southern Judah and then returning to Jerusalem. Biblical commentator Alexander Kirkpatrick notes that the cities of Tyre and Sidon were "never occupied by the Israelites, and we must suppose either that the region traversed by the enumerators is defined as reaching up to though not including [them], or that these cities were actually visited in order to take a census of Israelites resident in them."


title: Land of Israel

text: provides a definition of borders of land in which the twelve tribes of Israel will live during the final redemption, at the end of days. The borders of the land described by the text in Ezekiel include the northern border of modern Lebanon, eastwards (the way of Hethlon) to Zedad and Hazar-enan in modern Syria; south by southwest to the area of Busra on the Syrian border (area of Hauran in Ezekiel); follows the Jordan River between the West Bank and the land of Gilead to Tamar (Ein Gedi) on the western shore of the Dead Sea; From Tamar to Meribah Kadesh (Kadesh Barnea), then along the Brook of Egypt (see debate below) to the Mediterranean Sea. The territory defined by these borders is divided into twelve strips, one for each of the twelve tribes.


title: Land of Israel

text: Hence, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47 define different but similar borders which include the whole of contemporary Lebanon, both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and Israel, except for the South Negev and Eilat. Small parts of Syria are also included.


title: Land of Israel

text: The common biblical phrase used to refer to the territories actually settled by the Israelites (as opposed to military conquests) is "from Dan to Beersheba" (or its variant "from Beersheba to Dan"), which occurs many times in the Bible.


title: Land of Israel

text: The 12 tribes of Israel are divided in 1 Kings 11. In the chapter, King Solomon's sins lead to Israelites forfeiting 10 of the 12 tribes:


title: Land of Israel

text: According to Menachem Lorberbaum,In Rabbinic tradition, the land of Israel consecrated by the returning exiles was significantly different in it(s?) boundaries from both the prescribed biblical borders and the actual borders of the pre-Exilic kingdoms. It ranged roughly from Acre in the north to Ashkelon in the south along the Mediterranean, and included Galilee and the Golan. Yet there was no settlement in Samaria.


title: Land of Israel

text: According to Jewish religious law (halakha), some laws only apply to Jews living in the Land of Israel and some areas in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria (which are thought to be part of biblical Israel). These include agricultural laws such as the Shmita (Sabbatical year); tithing laws such as the Maaser Rishon (Levite Tithe), Maaser sheni, and Maaser ani (poor tithe); charitable practices during farming, such as pe'ah; and laws regarding taxation. One popular source lists 26 of the 613 mitzvot as contingent upon the Land of Israel.


title: Land of Israel

text: Many of the religious laws which applied in ancient times are applied in the modern State of Israel; others have not been revived, since the State of Israel does not adhere to traditional Jewish law. However, certain parts of the current territory of the State of Israel, such as the Arabah, are considered by some religious authorities to be outside the Land of Israel for purposes of Jewish law. According to these authorities, the religious laws do not apply there.


title: Land of Israel

text: According to some Jewish religious authorities, every Jew has an obligation to dwell in the Land of Israel and may not leave except for specifically permitted reasons (e.g., to get married).


title: Land of Israel

text: There are also many laws dealing with how to treat the land. The laws apply to all Jews, and the giving of the land itself in the covenant, applies to all Jews, including converts.


title: Land of Israel

text: Traditional religious Jewish interpretation, and that of most Christian commentators, define Abraham's descendants only as Abraham's seed through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Johann Friedrich Karl Keil is less clear, as he states that the covenant is through Isaac, but also notes that Ishmael's descendants, generally the Arabs, have held much of that land through time.


title: Land of Israel

text: The Land of Israel concept has been evoked by the founders of the State of Israel. It often surfaces in political debates on the status of the West Bank, which is referred to in official Israeli discourse as Judea and Samaria, from the names of the two historical Israelite and Judean kingdoms. These debates frequently invoke religious principles, despite the little weight these principles typically carry in Israeli secular politics.


title: Land of Israel

text: Ideas about the need for Jewish control of the land of Israel have been propounded by figures such as Yitzhak Ginsburg, who has written about the historical entitlement that Jews have to the whole Land of Israel. Ginsburgh's ideas about the need for Jewish control over the land has some popularity within contemporary West Bank settlements. However, there are also strong backlashes from the Jewish community regarding these ideas.


title: Land of Israel

text: The Satmar Hasidic community in particular denounces any geographic or political establishment of Israel, deeming this establishment has directly interfering with God's plan for Jewish redemption. Joel Teitelbaum was a foremost figure in this denouncement, calling the Land and State of Israel a vehicle for idol worship, as well as a smokescreen for Satan's workings.


title: Land of Israel

text: During the early 5th century, Saint Augustine of Hippo argued in his "City of God" that the earthly or "carnal" kingdom of Israel achieved its peak during the reigns of David and his son Solomon. He goes on to say however, that this possession was conditional: "...the Hebrew nation should remain in the same land by the succession of posterity in an unshaken state even to the end of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the Lord its God."


title: Land of Israel

text: He goes on to say that the failure of the Hebrew nation to adhere to this condition resulted in its revocation and the making of a second covenant and cites : "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make for the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah, a new testament: not according to the testament that I settled for their fathers in the day when I laid hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my testament, and I regarded them not, says the Lord."


title: Land of Israel

text: Augustine concludes that this other promise, revealed in the New Testament, was about to be fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ: "I will give my laws in their mind, and will write them upon their hearts, and I will see to them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people". Notwithstanding this doctrine stated by Augustine and also by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (Ch. 11), the phenomenon of Christian Zionism is widely noted today, especially among evangelical Protestants. Other Protestant groups and churches reject Christian Zionism on various grounds.


title: Land of Israel

text: Jewish religious tradition does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities. Nonetheless, during two millennia of exile and with a continuous yet small Jewish presence in the land, a strong sense of bondedness exists throughout this tradition, expressed in terms of people-hood; from the very beginning, this concept was identified with that ancestral biblical land or, to use the traditional religious and modern Hebrew term, "Eretz Yisrael". Religiously and culturally the area was seen broadly as a land of destiny, and always with hope for some form of redemption and return. It was later seen as a national home and refuge, intimately related to that traditional sense of people-hood, and meant to show continuity that this land was always seen as central to Jewish life, in theory if not in practice.


title: Land of Israel

text: Having already used another religious term of great importance, Zion (Jerusalem), to coin the name of their movement, being associated with the return to Zion. The term was considered appropriate for the secular Jewish political movement of Zionism to adopt at the turn of the 20th century; it was used to refer to their proposed national homeland in the area then controlled by the Ottoman Empire. As originally stated, "The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by law." Different geographic and political definitions for the "Land of Israel" later developed among competing Zionist ideologies during their nationalist struggle. These differences relate to the importance of the idea and its land, as well as the internationally recognized borders of the State of Israel and the Jewish State's secure and democratic existence. Many current governments, politicians and commentators question these differences.


title: Land of Israel

text: The Biblical concept of Eretz Israel, and its re-establishment as a state in the modern era, was a basic tenet of the original Zionist program. This program however, saw little success until the British commitment to "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" in the Balfour Declaration. Chaim Weizmann, as leader of the Zionist delegation, at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference presented a Zionist Statement on 3 February. Among other things, he presented a plan for development together with a map of the proposed homeland. The statement noted the Jewish historical connection with "Palestine". It also declared the Zionists' proposed borders and resources "essential for the necessary economic foundation of the country" including "the control of its rivers and their headwaters". These borders included present day Israel and the occupied territories, western Jordan, southwestern Syria and southern Lebanon "in the vicinity south of Sidon". The subsequent British occupation and British acceptance of the July 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, advanced the Zionist cause.


title: Land of Israel

text: Early in the deliberations toward British civilian administration, two fundamental decisions were taken, which bear upon the status of the Jews as a nation; the first was the recognition of Hebrew as an official language, along with English and Arabic, and the second concerned the Hebrew name of the country.


title: Land of Israel

text: In 1920, the Jewish members of the first High Commissioner's advisory council objected to the Hebrew transliteration of the word "Palestine" פלשתינה ("Palestina") on the ground that the traditional name was ארץ ישראל ("Eretz Yisrael"), but the Arab members would not agree to this designation, which in their view, had political significance. The High Commissioner Herbert Samuel, himself a Zionist, decided that the Hebrew transliteration should be used, followed always by the two initial letters of "Eretz Yisrael," א״י "Aleph-Yod":


title: Land of Israel

text: He was aware that there was no other name in the Hebrew language for this land except 'Eretz-Israel'. At the same time he thought that if 'Eretz-Israel' only were used, it might not be regarded by the outside world as a correct rendering of the word 'Palestine', and in the case of passports or certificates of nationality, it might perhaps give rise to difficulties, so it was decided to print 'Palestine' in Hebrew letters and to add after it the letters 'Aleph' 'Yod', which constitute a recognised abbreviation of the Hebrew name. His Excellency still thought that this was a good compromise. Dr. Salem wanted to omit 'Aleph' 'Yod' and Mr. Yellin wanted to omit 'Palestine'. The right solution would be to retain both." "—Minutes of the meeting on November 9, 1920."


title: Land of Israel

text: The compromise was later noted as among Arab grievances before the League's Permanent Mandate Commission. During the Mandate, the name "Eretz Yisrael" (abbreviated א״י "Aleph-Yod"), was part of the official name for the territory, when written in Hebrew. These official names for Palestine were minted on the Mandate coins and early stamps (pictured) in English, Hebrew "(פלשתינה (א״י" ("Palestina E"Y") and Arabic ("فلسطين"). Consequently, in 20th-century political usage, the term "Land of Israel" usually denotes only those parts of the land which came under the British mandate.


title: Land of Israel

text: On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181(II)) recommending "to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union." The Resolution contained a plan to partition Palestine into "Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem."


title: Land of Israel

text: On 14 May 1948, the day the British Mandate over Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved a proclamation, in which it declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel."


title: Land of Israel

text: When Israel was founded in 1948, the majority Israeli Labor Party leadership, which governed for three decades after independence, accepted the partition of Mandatory Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states as a pragmatic solution to the political and demographic issues of the territory, with the description "Land of Israel" applying to the territory of the State of Israel within the Green Line. The then opposition revisionists, who evolved into today's Likud party, however, regarded the rightful Land of Israel as "Eretz Yisrael Ha-Shlema" (literally, the whole Land of Israel), which came to be referred to as Greater Israel. Joel Greenberg, writing in "The New York Times" relates subsequent events this way:The seed was sown in 1977, when Menachem Begin of Likud brought his party to power for the first time in a stunning election victory over Labor. A decade before, in the 1967 war, Israeli troops had in effect undone the partition accepted in 1948 by overrunning the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ever since, Mr. Begin had preached undying loyalty to what he called Judea and Samaria (the West Bank lands) and promoted Jewish settlement there. But he did not annex the West Bank and Gaza to Israel after he took office, reflecting a recognition that absorbing the Palestinians could turn Israel it into a binational state instead of a Jewish one.


title: Land of Israel

text: Following the Six-Day War in 1967, the 1977 elections and the Oslo Accords, the term Eretz Israel became increasingly associated with right-wing expansionist groups who sought to conform the borders of the State of Israel with the biblical "Eretz Yisrael".


title: Land of Israel

text: Early government usage of the term, following Israel's establishment, continued the historical link and possible Zionist intentions. In 1951–2 David Ben-Gurion wrote "Only now, after seventy years of pioneer striving, have we reached the beginning of independence in a part of our small country." Soon afterwards he wrote "It has already been said that when the State was established it held only six percent of the Jewish people remaining alive after the Nazi cataclysm. It must now be said that it has been established in only a portion of the Land of Israel. Even those who are dubious as to the restoration of the historical frontiers, as fixed and crystallised and given from the beginning of time, will hardly deny the anomaly of the boundaries of the new State." The 1955 Israeli government year-book said, "It is called the 'State of Israel' because it is part of the Land of Israel and not merely a Jewish State. The creation of the new State by no means derogates from the scope of historical Eretz Israel".


title: Land of Israel

text: Herut and Gush Emunim were among the first Israeli political parties basing their land policies on the Biblical narrative discussed above. They attracted attention following the capture of additional territory in the 1967 Six-Day War. They argue that the West Bank should be annexed permanently to Israel for both ideological and religious reasons. This position is in conflict with the basic "land for peace" settlement formula included in UN242. The Likud party, in the platform it maintained until prior to the 2013 elections, had proclaimed its support for maintaining Jewish settlement communities in the West Bank and Gaza, as the territory is considered part of the historical land of Israel. In her 2009 bid for Prime Minister, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni used the expression, noting, "we need to give up parts of the Land of Israel", in exchange for peace with the Palestinians and to maintain Israel as a Jewish state; this drew a clear distinction with the position of her Likud rival and winner, Benjamin Netanyahu. However, soon after winning the 2009 elections, Netanyahu delivered an address at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University that was broadcast live in Israel and across parts of the Arab world, on the topic of the Middle East peace process. He endorsed for the first time the notion of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, while asserting the right to a sovereign state in Israel arises from the land being "the homeland of the Jewish people".


title: Land of Israel

text: The Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace, signed in 1993, led to the establishment of an agreed border between the two nations, and subsequently the state of Israel has no territorial claims in the parts of the historic Land of Israel lying east of the Jordan river.


title: Land of Israel

text: Yom HaAliyah (Aliyah Day, ) is an Israeli national holiday celebrated annually on the tenth of the Hebrew month of Nisan to commemorate the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into the Land of Israel while carrying the Ark of the Covenant.


title: Land of Israel

text: According to Palestinian historian Nur Masalha, "Eretz Israel" was a religious concept which was turned by Zionists into a political doctrine in order to emphasize an exclusive Jewish right of possession regardless of the Arab presence. Masalha wrote that the Zionist movement has not given up on an expansive definition of the territory, including Jordan and more, even though political pragmatism has engendered a focus on the region west of the Jordan River.