title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Just north and south of the Huntington Beach Pier are some well defined sandbars that shift throughout the year with the different swells. Southside of the Pier is often a popular destination during the summer for good surf, but the Northside can be just as well during the winter. Around the Pier it all depends on the swell and the sandbars. Shortboard is your best option for surfing around the Pier.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: South Huntington Beach, also known as Huntington State Beach, is where all the south swells impact the coastline. Huntington State Beach is operated by the State of California, Department of Parks & Recreation, and Huntington State Beach Lifeguards. This beach is very wide with plenty of sand. Sandbars dramatically shift during the spring, summer and fall seasons, thus creating excellent surf conditions with a combination South/West/Northwest swell. Due to the Santa Ana River jetties located at the southernmost end of the beach, large sandbars extend across and upcoast, forcing swells to break extremely fast and hollow. Best seasons for surfing at this beach is the summer and fall. The best option for surfing in this area is a shortboard.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Huntington Beach is also a popular destination for kite surfing, and this sport can be viewed on the beach northwest of the pier.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The Huntington Beach bicycle path stretches for alongside the beach. Concessionaires offer rentals of various bicycles, tandem bicycles, electric bicycles and surreys.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Kayaking and standup paddleboarding is a popular activity in Huntington Harbour. You can enter the harbour from multiple points along PCH north of Warner Ave or from one of the five public "Mother's Beaches" that allows access to the harbour. There are multiple places to rent kayaks and paddleboards as well as duffy boats.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: There are three golf courses in Huntington Beach. Meadowlark Golf Club opened in 1922 located on Warner and Graham, features a par-70, 5,609-yard 18-hole golf course as well as a driving range. Huntington Beach Disc Golf Course opened in 1977 is located in Central Park West, features a par-54 18-hole golf course. The Huntington Club, formerly known as Seacliff Country Club, is a private country club which among other amenities includes an 6,935-yard 18-hole golf course.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Huntington Beach has a large central park, known as Huntington Central Park. Central Park is located between Gothard and Edwards Streets to the east and west, and Slater and Ellis Avenues to the north and south. Dedicated on June 15, 1974, Huntington Central Park is the largest city owned park in Orange County with nearly . The park is vegetated with xeric (low water use) plants, and inhabited by native wildlife. Thick forests encircling the park are supplemented with Australian trees, particularly Blue Gum Eucalyptus, a high water use plant.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The Huntington Beach Public Library is located in Central Park in a notable building designed by Richard Neutra and Dion Neutra. It houses almost a half-million volumes, as well as a theater, gift shop and fountains. The library was founded as a Carnegie library in 1914, and has been continuously supported by the city and local activists, with new buildings and active branches at Banning, Oak View, Main Street, and Graham. The library has significant local historical materials and has a special genealogical reference collection. It is independent of the state and county library systems.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The park is also home to the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center, a facility boarding over 400 horses and operates a full time riding school at all levels. Horse rentals to the public, with guided trail rides through the park is also available.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: There is also an Adventure Playground, or mud pit, available for kids. It opened in 1974 at the bottom of an abandoned sand quarry and moved several years later to its location near the library. When constructed, it was one of the only authentic adventure playgrounds in California. Although renovated during 2020 to 2022, the playground is closed because of drought conditions.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The world's second oldest disc golf course is available in the park, as are two small dining areas, a sports complex for adult use, and the Shipley Nature Center.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The Bolsa Chica State Ecological Reserve is a natural wetland which is over and contains numerous walking trails and scenic routes. The grounds are one of the top birding spots in the US attracting flocks of birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway between North and South America. The wetlands themselves have been connected with the ocean again, in effort to maintain the previous, unaltered conditions.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Huntington Dog Beach is located in the stretch between 21st and Seapoint streets. This is the only area where dogs are allowed on the beach in Huntington Beach. The Orange County Register consistently names Huntington Dog Beach as the best dog park in Orange County. Some popular events that take place at Dog Beach are Surf City Surf Dog and So Cal Corgi Nation Beach Days. Dog Beach is free to the public.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The Preservation Society of Huntington Dog Beach works to keep the beach clean and safe. This 501(c)3 non-profit organization was founded in 1997 and has five volunteers who serve on the board. The mission of the Preservation Society of Huntington Dog Beach is as follows: "to protect and preserve access to the beach for dogs and their people, as well as to promote responsible dog ownership in order to make our canine companions welcome members of society."


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The society receives no public financing as it relies completely on private donations from dog-lovers who value this public good, and it provides many valuable services that minimize the impact of the negative externalities caused by dog waste and unfriendly dogs. Doggie waste bags are provided for free (over 3,000 are used per day during the summer) and dog owners are encouraged to immediately dispose of their dog's waste in one of the many trash cans provided. Additionally, the society organizes a beach cleanup every Sunday. To keep visitors safe, aggressive dogs are not allowed and dogs must be kept under control at all times.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The society also creates positive externalities by providing the public with valuable information on their website, including rules to keep dogs safe, tips for introducing dogs to the beach for the first time, warnings about the danger of dogs drinking ocean water, and information about nearby RV parking and dog-friendly hotels. Prospective visitors should be aware of the policy regarding leashes: "Under existing city ordinance, dogs must remain leashed. However, for the past several years only unleashed, potentially dangerous dogs have been cited or removed." One important exception is that leashes are always required when entering and exiting the park to ensure safety near PCH.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The Huntington Beach Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Huntington Beach, California. In addition to fire services, the HBFD also provides medical transport via a fleet of five ambulances. Each ambulance is staffed by two three-year limited term EMTs and the department transports over 10,000 patients annually.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The Huntington Beach Fire Department was formed as an organization in 1909 with 20 volunteers. John Tinsley, became the first fire chief. The first fire engine was a 1923 Seagrave purchased in 1922.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The Marine Safety Division of the HBFD is responsible for patrolling the of shoreline along Huntington Beach and Sunset Beach. The staffing levels vary from just five Marine Safety Officers during the offseason (October to March) to as many as 65 during the summer. The division staffs 30 lifeguard towers along the beach as well as "Tower Zero" on the Huntington Beach Pier. Members of the Marine Safety division have a wide array of equipment available for their use including 10 Toyota Tacoma patrol trucks, 3 Toyota Tundra patrol trucks, search and rescue SCUBA gear, 3 29-foot Crystaliner twin-engine rescue vessels, 3 Yamaha Waverunners, rigid-hulled inflatable boats and all-terrain vehicles.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The Huntington Beach Fire Department staffs 4-person engines and trucks. All engines are ALS-level staffing with a Fire Captain, Fire Engineer, and two Firefighter Paramedics. Trucks are BLS-level with a Fire Captain, Fire Engineer, and two Firefighter EMT's. USAR 42 is cross-staffed with Truck 42 personnel. HazMat 46 is cross-staffed with Engine 46 personnel. ET41, ET42, ET45, and ET46 are 24-hour ambulances. ET241, ET242, and ET244 are 14-hour ambulances, that only operate during the daytime hours.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: In the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Huntington Beach is in the First District, represented by Andrew Do.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: In the California State Senate, Huntington Beach is split between two senate districts, represented by Democrat Tom Umberg and Democrat Dave Min. In the California State Assembly, it is split between , and .


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 18, 2020, Huntington Beach has 123,048 registered voters. Of those, 49,490 (40%) are registered Republicans, 37,531 (31%) are registered Democrats, and 31,490 (29%) have declined to state a political party/are American Independents/Green.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Huntington Beach is the home of Golden West College, which offers two-year associates of arts degrees and transfer programs to four-year universities.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The city has four elementary school districts: Huntington Beach City School District with 9 schools and Ocean View School District with 15. A small part of the city is also served by the Fountain Valley School District and Westminster School District.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The city was featured in the TruTV series "Ocean Force: Huntington Beach". The city is mentioned in the Beach Boys song "Surfin' Safari", Jan and Dean's "Surf Route 101", and "Surfer Joe" by The Surfaris.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Live cameras are set up at the Huntington Beach Pier and shown on screens at the California-themed Hollister apparel stores. The store pays the city for the cameras, with the money used to fund marine safety equipment. The cameras are also used by lifeguards.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The public television station KOCE-TV operates from the Golden West College campus, in conjunction with the Golden West College Media Arts program.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Huntington Beach has 1,121 lane miles of public streets and includes facilities managed by Caltrans which supports a balanced transportation system use of all types of vehicular, transit, bicycle and pedestrian activity.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Interstate 405 (I-405) runs through the northeastern part of the city with interchanges at Magnolia Street and Beach Boulevard (SR 39); however, most of the city has no immediate access to a freeway. Discussions of long-term planning about extending State Route 57 to I-405 or possibly extending further to Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach were rejected by the city in 2005.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Most Huntington Beach households have at least one car. In 2015, only 2.6 percent of Huntington Beach households lacked a car, which decreased slightly to 2.2 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Huntington Beach averaged fully two cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Fire protection in Huntington Beach is provided by the Huntington Beach Fire Department. Law enforcement is provided by the Huntington Beach Police Department. Huntington Beach Marine Safety Officers and its seasonal lifeguards are recognized as some of the best in the world with a top-notch safety record. It has an active Community Emergency Response Team training program, that trains citizens as Disaster Service Workers certified by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a part of a free program run by the fire department's Office of Emergency Services.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Emergency services are also provided at State Beach locations. Peace Officers and lifeguards can be found at Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beach. Such services consist of aquatic rescues, boat rescues, first aid and law enforcement. All services are provided by the State of California, Dept. Parks & Recreation.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: In 1926, the Santa Ana River dam failed, and flash-flooded its entire delta. The southern oceanic terminus of this delta is now a settled area of Huntington Beach. The distant dam is still functional, but silting up, which is expected to reduce its storage volume, and therefore its effectiveness at flood-prevention. The flood and dam-endangered areas are protected by a levee, but lenders require expensive flood insurance in the delta. There have been serious discussions to eliminate the need for flood insurance and this requirement has already been waived in some areas and may one day no longer be considered a credible threat.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Since it is a seaside city, Huntington Beach has had tsunami warnings, storm surge (its pier has been rebuilt three times), sewage spills, tornadoes and waterspouts. The cold offshore current prevents hurricanes. The Pier that was rebuilt in the 1990s was engineered to withstand severe storms or earthquakes.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Large fractions of the settled delta are in soil liquefaction zones above known active faults. Most of the local faults are named after city streets.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Many residents (and even city hall) live within sight and sound of active oil extraction and drilling operations. These occasionally spew oil, causing expensive clean-ups. Large parts of the developed land have been contaminated by heavy metals from the water separated from oil.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: The local oil has such extreme mercury contamination that metallic mercury is regularly drained from oil pipelines and equipment. Oil operations increase when the price of oil rises. Some oil fields have been approved for development. The worst-polluted areas have been reclaimed as parks. At least one Superfund site, too contaminated to be a park, is at the junction of Magnolia and Hamilton streets, near Edison High School. On October 2, 2021, an oil spill occurred after a pipe burst, sending oil into the ocean and on the beach. The nearby Talbert Wetlands were affected, and the Pacific Airshow had to cancel the planned show for that day to prevent further damage.


title: Huntington Beach, California

text: Huntington Beach has the following sister city relationships, according to the Huntington Beach Sister City Association:


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Inverted sugar syrup, also called invert syrup, invert sugar, simple syrup, sugar syrup, sugar water, bar syrup, syrup USP, or sucrose inversion, is a syrup mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, that is made by hydrolytic saccharification of the disaccharide sucrose. This mixture's optical rotation is opposite to that of the original sugar, which is why it is called an "invert" sugar.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: It is sweeter than table sugar, and foods that contain invert sugar retain moisture better and crystallize less easily than do those that use table sugar instead. Bakers, who call it "invert syrup", may use it more than other sweeteners.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Inverted sugar syrup can be made without acids or enzymes by heating it up alone: two parts granulated sugar and one part water, simmered for five to seven minutes, will be partly inverted.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: The amount of water can be increased to increase the time it takes to reach the desired final temperature, and increasing the time increases the amount of inversion that occurs. In general, higher final temperatures result in thicker syrups, and lower final temperatures, in thinner ones.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Commercially prepared enzyme-catalyzed solutions are inverted at . The optimum pH for inversion is 5.0. Invertase is added at a rate of about 0.15% of the syrup's weight, and inversion time will be about 8 hours. When completed the syrup temperature is raised to inactivate the invertase, but the syrup is concentrated in a vacuum evaporator to preserve color.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Though inverted sugar syrup can be made by heating table sugar in water alone, the reaction can be sped up by adding lemon juice, cream of tartar, or other catalysts, often without changing the flavor noticeably. Common sugar can be inverted quickly by mixing sugar and citric acid or cream of tartar at a ratio of about 1000:1 by weight and adding water. If lemon juice which is about five percent citric acid by weight is used instead then the ratio becomes 50:1. Such a mixture, heated to and added to another food, prevents crystallization without tasting sour.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Commercially prepared hydrochloric-acid catalyzed solutions may be inverted at the relatively low temperature of . The optimum pH for acid-catalyzed inversion is 2.15. As the inversion temperature is increased, the inversion time decreases. They are then given a pH neutralization when the desired level of inversion is reached.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: In confectionery and candy making, cream of tartar is commonly used as the acidulant, with typical amounts in the range of 0.15–0.25% of the sugar's weight. The use of cream of tartar imparts a honey-like flavor to the syrup. After the inversion is completed, it may be neutralized with baking soda using a weight of 45% of the cream of tartar's weight.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: All constituent sugars (sucrose, glucose, and fructose) support fermentation, so invert sugar solutions of any composition can be fermented.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Syrup is used to feed microbiological life, which requires oxygen found in the water. For example, kombucha is produced by fermenting inverted sugar syrup with tea using a "symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast" (SCOBY), and yeast in winemaking is used for ethanol fermentation. Cold water can hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water, but granulated sugar does not dissolve easily in cold water.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Water in a container with wide bottom surface area improves the solubility of the sucrose, which only has to be mixed a few times periodically to form a homogeneous solution. Also, a mixer or blender may be used to rotate the sugar, in turns, if necessary.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Table sugar (sucrose) is converted to invert sugar by hydrolysis. Heating a mixture or solution of table sugar and water breaks the chemical bond that links together the two simple-sugar components.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Once a sucrose solution has had some of its sucrose turned into glucose and fructose the solution is no longer said to be pure. The gradual decrease in purity of a sucrose solution as it is hydrolyzed affects a chemical property of the solution called optical rotation that can be used to figure out how much of the sucrose has been hydrolyzed and therefore whether the solution has been inverted or not.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Plane polarized light can be shone through a sucrose solution as it is heated up for hydrolysis. Such light has an 'angle' that can be measured using a tool called a polarimeter. When such light is shone through a solution of pure sucrose it comes out the other side with a different angle than when it entered, which is proportional to both the concentration of the sugar and the length of the path of light through the solution; its angle is therefore said to be 'rotated' and how many degrees the angle has changed (the degree of its rotation or its 'optical rotation') is given a letter name, formula_1 (alpha). When the rotation between the angle the light has when it enters and when it exits is in the clockwise direction, the light is said to be 'rotated right' and formula_1 is given to have a "positive" angle such as 64°. When the rotation between the angle the light has when it enters and when it exits is in the counterclockwise direction, the light is said to be 'rotated left' and formula_1 is given a "negative" angle such as −39°.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: When plane polarized light enters and exits a solution of "pure" sucrose its angle is rotated 66.5° (clockwise or to the right). As the sucrose is heated up and hydrolyzed the amount of glucose and fructose in the mixture increases and the optical rotation decreases. After formula_1 passes zero and becomes a negative optical rotation, meaning that the rotation between the angle the light has when it enters and when it exits is in the counter clockwise direction, it is said that the optical rotation has 'inverted' its direction. This leads to the definition of an 'inversion point' as the per cent amount sucrose that has to be hydrolyzed before formula_1 equals zero. Any solution which has passed the inversion point (and therefore has a negative value of formula_1) is said to be 'inverted'.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: As the shapes of the molecules ('chemical structures') of sucrose, glucose, and fructose are all asymmetrical the three sugars come in several different forms, called stereoisomers. The existence of these forms is what gives rise to these chemicals' optical properties. When plane polarized light passes through a pure solution of one of these "forms" of one of the sugars it is thought to hit and 'glance off' certain asymmetrical chemical bonds within the molecule of that form of that sugar. Because those particular bonds (which in cyclic sugars like sucrose, glucose, and fructose include an anomeric bond) are different in each form of the sugar, each form rotates the light to a different degree.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: When any one form of a sugar is purified and put in water, it rapidly takes other forms of the same sugar. This means that a solution of a pure sugar normally has all of its stereoisomers present in the solution in different amounts which usually do not change much. This has an 'averaging' effect on all of the optical rotation angles (formula_1 values) of the different forms of the sugar and leads to the pure sugar solution having its own 'total' optical rotation, which is called its 'specific rotation' or 'observed specific rotation' and which is written as formula_8.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: In the circumstance of 20 °C, the specific optical rotation of sucrose is known to be 66.6°, glucose is 52.2°, and fructose is −92.4°.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Water molecules do not have chirality, therefore they do not have any effect on the measurement of optical rotation. When plane polarized light enters a body of pure water its angle is no different than when it exits. Thus, for water, formula_8 = 0°. Chemicals that, like water, have specific rotations that equal zero degrees are called 'optically inactive' chemicals and like water, they do not need to be considered when calculating optical rotation, outside of the concentration and path length.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: The overall optical rotation of a mixture of chemicals can be calculated if the proportion of the amount of each chemical in the solution is known. If there are formula_10-many optically active different chemicals ('chemical species') in a solution and the molar concentration (the number of moles of each chemical per liter of liquid solution) of each chemical in the solution is known and written as formula_11 (where formula_12 is a number used to identify the chemical species); and if each species has a specific rotation (the optical rotation of that chemical were it made as a pure solution) written as formula_13, then the mixture has the overall optical rotationformula_14Where formula_15 is the mole fraction of the formula_16 species.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Assuming no extra chemical products are formed by accident (that is, there are no side reactions) a completely hydrolyzed sucrose solution no longer has any sucrose and is a half-and-half mixture of glucose and fructose. This solution has the optical rotation


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: If a sucrose solution has been partly hydrolyzed, then it contains sucrose, glucose and fructose and its optical rotation angle depends on the relative amounts of each for the solution;formula_18Where formula_19, formula_20, and formula_21 stand for sucrose, glucose, and fructose.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: The particular values of formula_22 do not need to be known to make use of this equation as the inversion point (per cent amount of sucrose that must be hydrolyzed before the solution is inverted) can be calculated from the specific rotation angles of the pure sugars. The reaction stoichiometry (the fact that hydrolyzing one sucrose molecule makes one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule) shows that when a solution begins with formula_23 moles of sucrose and no glucose nor fructose and formula_24 moles of sucrose are then hydrolyzed the resulting solution has formula_25 moles of sucrose, formula_24 moles of glucose and formula_24 moles of fructose. The total number of moles of sugars in the solution is therefore formula_28and the reaction progress (per cent completion of the hydrolysis reaction) equals formula_29. It can be shown that the solution's optical rotation angle is a function of (explicitly depends on) this per cent reaction progress. When the quantity formula_30 is written as formula_31 and the reaction is formula_32 done, the optical rotation angle is


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: By definition, formula_1 equals zero degrees at the 'inversion point'; to find the inversion point, therefore, alpha is set equal to zero and the equation is manipulated to find formula_31. This givesformula_36Thus it is found that a sucrose solution is inverted once at least formula_37 of the sucrose has been hydrolyzed into glucose and fructose.


title: Inverted sugar syrup

text: Holding a sucrose solution at temperatures of hydrolyzes no more than about 85% of its sucrose. Finding formula_1 when r = 0.85 shows that the optical rotation of the solution after hydrolysis is done is −12.7° this reaction is said to invert the sugar because its final optical rotation is less than zero. A polarimeter can be used to figure out when the inversion is done by detecting whether the optical rotation of the solution at an earlier time in its hydrolysis reaction equals −12.7°.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: The story deals with bachelor brothers Phil and George, who live on a ranch in Montana, and the events following George's marriage. Phil looks with disdain at George's new wife, Rose, and her son Pete, after which dramatic events begin to unfold.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: In 2021 the novel was adapted into a film of the same name which went on to be nominated for several Oscars and renewed interest in the novel.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: In 1925 in Montana bachelor brothers Phil and George Burbank run the family ranch together after their parents retire to Salt Lake City. Phil is an incredibly gifted man who is talented in all aspects of his life and is highly educated but chooses to live as a rough rancher. George is his less notable younger brother.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: While driving their cattle into the small town of Beech, Phil offends the widow Rose Gordon, a local business woman and hotelier, when he makes a cruel comment towards her teenage son, Peter, calling him a sissy. When George goes to pay the bill he finds Rose weeping and he begins to visit her to make amends. Hearing of this Phil writes to his mother hoping to break the two up. Instead George announces they have secretly wed.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: Phil takes an instant dislike to Rose, believing her to be a conniving gold digger. He does all he can to make life unpleasant for Rose who struggles to adjust to her new life.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: Peter temporarily takes up residence in a small town for schooling but is brought back to the Burbank family ranch during summer break. He approves of his mother's relationship with George but immediately finds himself antagonized by Phil after he accidentally stumbles across Phil naked in a private pond he uses for bathing.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: Rose begins to drink to cope with blinding headaches she develops because of the tense living situation between her and Phil. When she makes a final attempt to make peace with Phil by asking him why he dislikes her he reveals that he knows about her drinking. The confrontation is heard by Peter.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: After Phil witnesses Peter being humiliated by the fellow ranchers but choosing to ignore their jeers he decides to take Peter under his wing in order to pry him away from Rose. Phil, however, unwittingly becomes enthralled by Peter and comes to admire him. After Rose sells Burbank hides, Phil becomes enraged with her as he planned to use the hides to braid a rope for Peter. Peter offers to let Phil use a hide he has saved in order to finish the work and Phil is overcome by the gesture, privately admitting to himself he is sexually attracted to Peter, an attraction he felt only once before with his mentor Bronco Henry.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: Shortly after Phil takes ill and dies. Strangely the Burbank family becomes more closely knit after this. Rose stops drinking and invites George's parents down for Christmas. Peter is elated that his mother is happy at last and reflects that this was always meant to be as his father's suicide and his own action of giving Phil a hide tainted with anthrax has paved the way for her to be content.


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: Michelle Nijhuis from "Literary Hub" writes about the reception of the book: "Though published to critical acclaim, Thomas Savage's 1967 novel, "The Power of the Dog", sold poorly and was largely forgotten until its republication in 2001, after which it began to be appreciated as a regional classic". She describes the novel as "spare, chilling, and finely crafted, and while its action feels as fated as a Greek epic, it still manages to shock".


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: In her afterword to the book, author Annie Proulx describes "The Power of the Dog" as a "literary artwork" and an influence on her works like "Brokeback Mountain".


title: The Power of the Dog (Savage novel)

text: The book was adapted into a 2021 film of the same name written and directed by Jane Campion. She described that she was not able to put it down and afterwards kept thinking about it: "When I made a move to find out who had the rights, that's when I knew it had got me. I needed to do it." The film stays generally close to the book.


title: Chris Candido

text: Christopher Barrett Candito (March 21, 1972 – April 28, 2005) was an American professional wrestler. Candito is best remembered for his tenures with promotions such as World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Smoky Mountain Wrestling, where he performed under the ring name Chris Candido, as well as for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Skip, one-half of the tag team The Bodydonnas. For much of his career, he performed alongside his real-life partner, Tammy "Sunny" Sytch, who acted as his valet.


title: Chris Candido

text: In the course of his career, Candito held professional wrestling championships such as the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, WWF World Tag Team Championship, ECW World Tag Team Championship and WCW Cruiserweight Championship. At the time of his passing, he was the reigning NWA Midwest Heavyweight Champion.


title: Chris Candido

text: Candito was the grandson of "Popeye" Chuck Richards, a wrestler for the World Wide Wrestling Federation, as the WWF was known prior to 1979. He started training at age 14 with Larry Sharpe and wrestled for Sharpe's World Wrestling Association.


title: Chris Candido

text: While attending Red Bank Catholic High School, he met and fell in love with Tammy Lynn Sytch, and the two began a lifelong relationship. Sytch would later become his valet.


title: Chris Candido

text: As a teenager, Candito and his friend Jonathan Rechner began working for independent professional wrestling promotions in New Jersey, setting up the wrestling rings. Candito and Rechner trained to wrestle at Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory in Bellmawr, New Jersey, with Candito making his debut in 1986.


title: Chris Candido

text: In 1993, Candito began wrestling as Chris Candido for Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW), where he formed a stable called "The Suicide Blonds" with Johnny Hotbody and Chris Michaels. Wrestling under the Freebird Rule, the Suicide Blondes trio had two stints as the ECW Tag Team Champions in April and May 1993, first defeating Tony Stetson and Larry Winters and then losing the titles to The Super Destroyers, only to regain them the same evening. They vacated the ECW Tag Team Championship in July 1993 when Candido left the promotion.


title: Chris Candido

text: In 1992, Candido and Sytch (billed as "Tamara Fytch") were signed by Jim Cornette for his Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) promotion.


title: Chris Candido

text: Between September and November 1993, Candido won the SMW United States Junior Heavyweight Championship on three occasions, trading the title with Bobby Blaze. He went on to win the SMW Beat the Champ Television Championship in December 1993 and again in July 1994.


title: Chris Candido

text: In 1994, Candido formed a tag team with Brian Lee, with Fytch managing the duo. On April 23, 1994, Candido and Lee defeated The Rock 'n' Roll Express to win the SMW Tag Team Championship. They held the titles until August 5, 1994, when they lost to The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Candido and Lee regained the titles the next day, but lost them for a second and final time on August 8, 1994. Following the second loss, Fytch fired Lee and began exclusively managing Candido.


title: Chris Candido

text: On November 19, 1994, Candido won a 10-man tournament, defeating Al Snow, Dirty White Boy, and Tracy Smothers to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, which had been won and immediately vacated by Shane Douglas and ECW that August. Candido's reign came at a time when exposure for the National Wrestling Alliance was limited, as there was no national television outlet for the organization's remaining affiliates. His title defense matches were mostly held in SMW and on the independent circuit. Candido dropped the title to Dan Severn on February 24, 1995.


title: Chris Candido

text: In late 1994, Candido formed a tag team with Boo Bradley (a parody of the "To Kill a Mockingbird" character Boo Radley). At "Christmas Chaos" on December 28, 1994, Candido attacked Bradley after they lost a bout to Tracy Smothers and Cactus Jack. In a controversial angle, Fytch kidnapped Bradley's pet cat, Boots, and brought a bag supposedly containing the cat to the ring, which Candido then leg dropped, (kayfabe) killing Boots. The angle led to a feud between Candido and Radley, which culminated in a loser leaves town dog collar match at "Sunday Bloody Sunday II" on February 26, 1995 that was won by Bradley. This marked Candido's final appearance in SMW before he and Fytch joined the World Wrestling Federation.


title: Chris Candido

text: In 1995, Candido and Sytch were signed by the World Wrestling Federation, with Candido renamed "Skip" and Sytch renamed "Sunny". Debuting on WWF television in May 1995, the duo were given the gimmick of a pair of arrogant fitness gurus who would mock their opponents and members of the audience for being unfit, with Candido performing push-ups during his matches.


title: Chris Candido

text: In July 1995, Candido began feuding with Barry Horowitz, a career jobber, after Horowitz scored an upset victory over him on an episode of "WWF Wrestling Challenge" using a roll-up while Candido performed push-ups. Candido faced Horowitz in a bout at SummerSlam on August 27, 1995, with Horowitz once again defeating Candido.


title: Chris Candido

text: In late-1995, the portly Rad Radford joined Candido as a "Bodydonna in training". At Survivor Series on November 19, 1995, "The Bodydonnas" (Candido, Tom Prichard, Radford and The 1-2-3 Kid) teamed together to defeat "The Underdogs" (Horowitz, Hakushi, Bob Holly and Marty Jannetty), with Skip personally eliminating Bob Holly with a schoolboy rollup. On the December 23, 1995 episode of "WWF Superstars of Wrestling", Sunny "fired" Radford after he and Candido lost to WWF World Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns. On the January 6, 1996 episode of "WWF Superstars of Wrestling", Candido defeated Radford with the assistance of Prichard, who had been repackaged as Candido's cousin, "Zip". Skip and Zip began teaming together as The Bodydonnas, with Sunny as their manager.


title: Chris Candido

text: On January 21, 1996 at the Royal Rumble, The Bodydonnas unsuccessfully challenged The Smoking Gunns for the WWF World Tag Team Championship. In February 1996, The Smoking Gunns forfeited the WWF World Tag Team Championship after Billy Gunn sustained a neck injury. The Bodydonnas won a tournament for the vacant titles, defeating The Godwinns on March 31, 1996 in the finals of the WrestleMania XII pre-show, after Sunny ran interference. They held the titles until May 19, 1996, when they were defeated by The Godwinns. Following their loss, Sunny left The Bodydonnas and briefly aligned herself with The Godwinns before joining The Smoking Gunns.


title: Chris Candido

text: Following the departure of Sunny, The Bodydonnas would eventually turn face, and announced that they were seeking a new manager. At King of the Ring on June 23, 1996, they introduced their new manager, the transvestite "Cloudy" (portrayed by Candido's friend Jimmy Shoulders aka James Haney), who was never acknowledged to be such on television.


title: Chris Candido

text: In late-1996, Candido left the WWF and rejoined Eastern Championship Wrestling, which had since been renamed Extreme Championship Wrestling. Candido had also suffered from backstage politics during his stint with the WWF, as Sunny, his real life girlfriend, would begin having an affair with Shawn Michaels, who used the influence he held to demote Candido down the card.


title: Chris Candido

text: After leaving the WWF, Candido returned to ECW at High Incident in October 1996. He became part of the revived Triple Threat stable alongside Shane Douglas. While in the Triple Threat with the nickname "No Gimmicks Needed", he developed a rivalry with fellow member Lance Storm, who was soon replaced by Bam Bam Bigelow. However, Candido teamed with Storm to win the ECW Tag Team Championship on December 5, 1997 at Better Than Ever, from Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon. Despite being a reluctant team who hated each other, Candido and Storm had a lengthy championship run. The duo held the titles for approximately six months until they lost them on June 26, 1998, to Sabu and Rob Van Dam.


title: Chris Candido

text: In March 2000, Candido debuted in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He immediately began competing in the cruiserweight division, winning the vacant WCW Cruiserweight Championship in a six-way match at Spring Stampede on April 16, 2000 by pinning The Artist with assistance from the debuting Tammy Lynn Sytch. On the following episode of "WCW Monday Nitro", Candido and Sytch defeated The Artist and his valet Paisley in a mixed tag team match. At Slamboree, Candido successfully defended his title against The Artist. His reign lasted until May 15, 2000 when he and Sytch faced Crowbar and Daffney in a mixed tag team match with Candido's title on the line, with Daffney pinning Sytch to become the new Cruiserweight Champion.


title: Chris Candido

text: In June 2000, Candido briefly aligned himself with The New Blood before reforming the Triple Threat with Shane Douglas and Bam Bam Bigelow. He left WCW later that month.


title: Chris Candido

text: Candido had two runs with Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW). The first was in 2000, and he won the XPW World Heavyweight Championship before leaving for WCW. The second run was from late 2002 until the company's final show in 2003. Also Candido and Tammy Sytch wrestled in Puerto Rico for the World Wrestling Council in 2003 feuding with Primo Colon and in addition held the WWC World Television title.


title: Chris Candido

text: Candido debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in January 2005, when Candido faced AJ Styles in a losing effort. On the January 14 episode of "Impact!", Candido lost to Dustin Rhodes. On the Final Resolution preshow, Candido defeated Cassidy Riley. On the January 28 episode of "Impact!", Candido defeated Sonny Siaki. On the February 11 episode of "Impact", Candido lost to Diamond Dallas Page. On the February 18 episode of "Impact!", Candido defeated Shark Boy and Chris Sabin in a Triple Threat match. On the February 25 episode of "Impact!", Candido lost to Elix Skipper. On the March 4 episode of "Impact!", Candido and The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens) defeated Elix Skipper, Petey Williams, and Mikey Batts in a six-man tag team match. At the Destination X preshow, Candido and Andy Douglas defeated Lex Lovett and Buck Quartermain. On the March 18 episode of "Impact!", Candido and The Naturals lost to Dustin Rhodes and America's Most Wanted. Candido competed in his final match at Lockdown when he and Lance Hoyt faced Apolo and Sonny Siaki in a losing effort. During the match, Candido broke his leg when Siaki landed on it after a flying dropkick early in the match. The injury would lead to Candido dying of acute pneumonia on April 28, 2005. His last performance was taped to air later in the week, as he was featured on an episode of "TNA Impact!" after his death, using a wheelchair, where he helped The Naturals win the NWA World Tag Team Championships.


title: Chris Candido

text: At Lockdown on April 24, 2005, Candido fractured both his tibia and fibula and dislocated his ankle during a steel cage match with Lance Hoyt against Apolo and Sonny Siaki. He underwent surgery the next day to have titanium plates and screws inserted into his leg. He was at the following "Impact!" tapings managing The Naturals to defeat America's Most Wanted to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship.


title: Chris Candido

text: On April 28, 2005, Candido felt ill and his condition worsened during the day. He collapsed in the evening and was rushed to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was diagnosed with pneumonia. Doctors drained his lungs, but Candido died soon afterwards. He was 33 years old. His brother Johnny reported that Candido died due to a blood clot, a complication from surgery. In a 2016 interview, Johnny would reveal that Chris did not die from a blood clot, but rather acute pneumonia. This death had a profound effect on fellow wrestlers such as CM Punk, who in 2014 voiced his concern over the possibility of a post-elbow surgery clot similar to what had erroneously been believed to have killed Candido.


title: Chris Candido

text: TNA subsequently held the Chris Candido Memorial Tag Team Tournament in his honor in late 2005. In 2009, he was inducted into the Hardcore Hall of Fame.


title: Dear White People (TV series)

text: Dear White People is an American comedy-drama television series on Netflix that follows several black college students at an Ivy League institution (the fictional Winchester University), touching on issues surrounding modern American race relations through a progressive lens. It is based on the 2014 film of the same name. The film's writer and director, Justin Simien, returned to write and direct episodes of the series. This series stars Logan Browning, Brandon P. Bell, DeRon Horton, and Antoinette Robertson. With a few exceptions, generally season finales, each episode focuses on one particular character. The series premiered on April 28, 2017. On October 2, 2019, the series was renewed for its fourth and final season, which was released on September 22, 2021.


title: Dear White People (TV series)

text: Netflix initially ordered ten 30-minute episodes from Simien and Lionsgate, which distributed the film. TV writer Yvette Lee Bowser, creator of "Living Single", joined the series as showrunner and executive producer. The first season was released on April 28, 2017. On June 30, 2017, Netflix renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on May 4, 2018. On June 21, 2018, the series was renewed for a third season, which was released on August 2, 2019. On October 2, 2019, the series was renewed for a fourth and final season. Simien promoted longtime series writer Jaclyn Moore to co-showrunner for this concluding chapter, which features a significant musical element. The final season was released on September 22, 2021.


title: Dear White People (TV series)

text: The initial trailer for the TV show attracted some angry responses, with the series being accused by some Twitter users of being racist towards white people; they called for a boycott of Netflix. The YouTube trailer for the series received more dislikes than likes. Series creator Justin Simien responded positively to the backlash, saying it reiterated the point of the series and brought more attention to it as well. Lead actress Logan Browning noted that many of the critics who gave the show rave reviews were white.


title: Dear White People (TV series)

text: Actor Jeremy Tardy announced he would not be returning for the fourth season, citing racism allegations against Lionsgate. Specifically, Tardy and fellow actors were presented unequal pay and negotiation powers for their fourth-season roles.


title: Dear White People (TV series)

text: The series has been met with critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, season one has a "Certified Fresh" 95% approval rating based on 55 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 8.69/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Timely, provocative, and sharply written, "Dear White People" is an entertaining blend of social commentary and incisive humor." On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 21 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Peter Debruge, writing for "Variety", praised the show's writing, directing, social commentary, and cast. "The New York Times" praised the show's examination of concerns such as appropriation, assimilation, and conflict.


title: Dear White People (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, season two holds an approval rating of 100% based on 32 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 9.35/10. The website's critics consensus reads, ""Dear White People"s endearing excellence returns, but with an added layer of emotional maturity that enhances the show's powerful, relevant meditations on race relations in America." On Metacritic, the second season has a score of 89 out of 100, based on 7 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Dear White People (TV series)

text: The third season has a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critics consensus states, "Though at times it vamps more than it grows, "Dear White People" third season still excels thanks to its continued willingness to confront tough social issues with comedic grace." On Metacritic, the third season has a score of 78 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Liana Liberato

text: Liana Daine Liberato (born August 20, 1995) is an American actress. She played the younger version of the female lead in the 2014 film "The Best of Me" and starred in the drama films "The Last Sin Eater" (2007) and "Trust" (2010), the thriller films "Trespass" (2011) and "Erased" (2012), and the horrors "Haunt" (2013) and "The Beach House" (2019). In 2017, she was part of the ensemble cast of the drama "Novitiate" and in 2018 she starred in the comedy "Banana Split".


title: Liana Liberato

text: From 2018 to 2019, Liberato starred in the leading role on the Hulu thriller series "Light as a Feather" as McKenna Brady, for which she received two nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Digital Daytime Drama Series (2019) and Outstanding Principal Performance in a Daytime Program (2020).


title: Liana Liberato

text: In 2005, Liberato made her acting debut in the television series "Cold Case" and has appeared on "Sons of Anarchy", "". She also made an appearance in the music video for Miley Cyrus's song, "7 Things". The following year she appeared in the fourth season of "House", and was featured in the June issue of "The New York Times Magazine". In 2007, Liberato obtained the leading role in the 20th Century Fox adventure film "The Last Sin Eater".


title: Liana Liberato

text: 2010 found Liberato starring in the film "Trust". Her performance, praised by Roger Ebert in his review of the film, won her the Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the 46th Chicago International Film Festival. In June, she was cast in the film "Trespass". She played Kim in "If I Stay" and the younger version of the female lead in the 2014 film "The Best of Me". In 2014, Liberato was named one of the best actors under the age of 20 by IndieWire.


title: President of Israel

text: The president of the State of Israel (, or ) is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely a ceremonial role, with executive power vested in the cabinet led by the prime minister. The incumbent president is Isaac Herzog, who took office on 7 July 2021. Presidents are elected by the Knesset for a single seven-year term.


title: President of Israel

text: The President of Israel is elected by an absolute majority in the Knesset, by secret ballot. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of votes in the first or second round of voting, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated in each subsequent round, if needed until only two remain. From 1949 to 2000, the president was elected for a five-year term, and was allowed to serve up to two terms in office. Since 2000, the president serves a single seven-year term.


title: President of Israel

text: Any Israeli resident citizen is eligible to run for president. The office falls vacant upon completion of a term, death, resignation, or the decision of three-quarters of the Knesset to remove the president on grounds of misconduct or incapacity. Presidential tenure is not keyed to that of the Knesset, in order to assure continuity in government and the non-partisan character of the office. There is no vice president in the Israeli governmental system. If the president is temporarily incapacitated, or leaves office, the speaker of the Knesset becomes acting president.


title: President of Israel

text: The first presidential election took place on 16 February 1949, and the winner was Chaim Weizmann. The second took place in 1951, as at the time presidential terms were linked to the length of the Knesset term (the first Knesset lasted only two years). Another election took place the following year after Weizmann's death.


title: President of Israel

text: Since then, elections have been held in 1957, 1962, 1963 (an early election following Yitzhak Ben-Zvi's death), 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2007, and 2014. Six elections (1951, 1957, 1962, 1968, 1978, and 1988) have taken place with no opposition candidate, although a vote was still held.


title: President of Israel

text: The powers of the President of Israel are generally equivalent to those held by heads of state in other parliamentary democracies and are largely dictated by Basic Law: The Presidency, which was passed in 1964. The Basic Law: The Government also includes sections on the powers of the president with reference to the government. The president signs every law (except those that pertain to the president's powers) and international or bilateral treaties approved by the Knesset. In addition, the president endorses the credentials of ambassadors and receives the credentials of foreign diplomats, appoints the Governor of the Bank of Israel, the State Comptroller upon recommendation of the Knesset House Committee, members of the Council on Higher Education, the National Academy of Science, the Broadcasting Authority, the Authority to Rehabilitate Prisoners, the Chief Rabbinical Council, the Wolf Foundation, the president of Magen David Adom, the president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and ceremonially appoints the Prime Minister. The president also has the power to pardon or commute the sentences of both soldiers and civilians, and ceremonially appoints judges to courts, including the Supreme Court, after appointment by the Judicial Selection Committee.


title: President of Israel

text: In addition, paragraph 29a of "The Government" basic law also states that the president must consent to the dissolution of the Knesset at the request of the Prime Minister when the government has lost its majority and can therefore no longer function effectively.


title: President of Israel

text: Unlike most presidents in parliamentary republics, the President of Israel is not even the "nominal" chief executive. explicitly vests executive power in the Government (as the Cabinet is officially called). Presidential powers are usually exercised based on the recommendation of appropriate government ministers.


title: President of Israel

text: The president's most important role, in practice, is to help lead the process of forming a government. Israel's electoral system and fractured political landscape make it all but impossible for one party to govern alone, let alone win an outright majority of Knesset seats. After each election, the president consults with party leaders to determine who is most likely to command a majority in the Knesset.


title: President of Israel

text: The president awards the Israel Prize on Yom Ha'atzmaut and the Wolf Prize. The president also serves as the main speaker at the opening ceremonies of the half-yearly Knesset conference, as well as at the annual official ceremonies for Yom Hazikaron and Yom HaShoah.


title: President of Israel

text: Most Israeli presidents were involved in national politics or Zionist activities before taking office. Some were also distinguished in other fields. For example, Chaim Weizmann was a leading research chemist who founded the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot; Zalman Shazar was an author, poet, and journalist; and Chaim Herzog was a military leader, attorney, and diplomat.


title: President of Israel

text: The first Israeli presidents were born in the former Russian Empire. The first native-born president, as well as the first with a Sephardi background, was Yitzhak Navon. The first president with a Western European background was Chaim Herzog, who originally came from Belfast, United Kingdom. The first president with a Mizrahi background was Moshe Katsav, who was born in Iran.


title: President of Israel

text: All Israeli presidents from Yitzhak Ben-Zvi to Ezer Weizman were members of, or associated with, the Labor Party and its predecessors, and have been considered politically moderate. Moshe Katsav was the first Likud president. These tendencies were especially significant in the April 1978 election of Labor's Yitzhak Navon, following the inability of the governing Likud coalition to elect its candidate to the presidency. Israeli observers believed that, in counterbalance to Prime Minister Menachem Begin's polarizing leadership, Navon, the country's first president of Sephardi origin, provided Israel with unifying symbolic leadership at a time of great political controversy and upheaval. In 1983, Navon decided to re-enter Labor politics after five years of non-partisan service as president, and Chaim Herzog (previously head of military intelligence and Ambassador of Israel to the United Nations) succeeded him as Israel's sixth president. Likud's Moshe Katsav's victory over Labor's Shimon Peres in 2000 (by secret ballot) was an upset.


title: President of Israel

text: Albert Einstein, a Jew, but not an Israeli citizen, was offered the presidency in 1952, but turned it down, stating: "I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it. All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions." Ehud Olmert was reported to be considering offering the presidency to another non-Israeli, Elie Wiesel, but he was said to be "very not interested".


title: Operation Opera

text: Operation Opera (), also known as Operation Babylon, was a surprise airstrike conducted by the Israeli Air Force on 7 June 1981, which destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor located southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. The Israeli operation came after Iran's partially successful Operation Scorch Sword had caused minor damage to the same nuclear facility a year prior, with the damage having been subsequently repaired by French technicians. Operation Opera, and related Israeli government statements following it, established the Begin Doctrine, which explicitly stated the strike was not an anomaly, but instead "a precedent for every future government in Israel". Israel's counter-proliferation preventive strike added another dimension to its existing policy of deliberate ambiguity, as it related to the nuclear weapons capability of other states in the region.


title: Operation Opera

text: In 1976, Iraq purchased an "Osiris"-class nuclear reactor from France. While Iraq and France maintained that the reactor, named "Osirak" by the French, was intended for peaceful scientific research, the Israelis viewed the reactor with suspicion, believing it was designed to make nuclear weapons that could escalate the ongoing Arab–Israeli conflict. On 7 June 1981, a flight of Israeli Air Force F-16A fighter aircraft, with an escort of F-15As, bombed the "Osirak" reactor deep inside Iraq. Israel called the operation an act of self-defense, saying that the reactor had "less than a month to go" before "it might have become critical." The airstrike reportedly killed ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian. The attack took place about three weeks before the 1981 Israeli legislative elections for the Knesset.


title: Operation Opera

text: At the time of its occurrence, the attack was met with sharp international criticism, including in the United States, and Israel was rebuked by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in two separate resolutions. Media reactions were also negative: "Israel's sneak attack ... was an act of inexcusable and short-sighted aggression", wrote the "New York Times", while the "Los Angeles Times" called it "state-sponsored terrorism". The destruction of Iraq's "Osirak" reactor has been cited as an example of a preventive strike in contemporary scholarship on international law. The efficacy of the attack is debated by historians, who acknowledge that it brought Iraq back from the brink of nuclear capability but drove its weapons program underground and cemented Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's future ambitions for acquiring nuclear weapons.


title: Operation Opera

text: Iraq had established a nuclear program sometime in the 1960s, and in the mid-1970s looked to expand it through the acquisition of a nuclear reactor. After failing to convince the French Government to sell them a gas cooled graphite moderated plutonium-producing reactor and reprocessing plant, and likewise failing to convince the Italian government to sell them a Cirene reactor, the Iraqi government convinced the French government to sell them an Osiris-class research reactor. The purchase also included a smaller accompanying Isis-type reactor, the sale of 72 kilograms of 93% enriched uranium and the training of personnel. The total cost has been given as $300 million. In November 1975, the countries signed a nuclear cooperation agreement and in 1976, the sale of the reactor was finalized.


title: Operation Opera

text: Construction for the 40-megawatt light-water nuclear reactor began in 1979 at the Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Center near Baghdad. The main reactor was dubbed "Osirak" (Osiraq) by the French, blending the name of Iraq with that of the reactor class. Iraq named the main reactor "Tammuz 1" (Arabic: تموز) and the smaller "Tammuz 2". Tammuz was the Babylonian month when the Ba'ath party had come to power in 1968. On 6 April 1979, Israeli agents sabotaged the Osirak reactor awaiting shipment to Iraq at La Seyne-sur-Mer in France. On 14 June 1980, Mossad agents assassinated Yahya El Mashad, an Egyptian nuclear scientist who headed the Iraqi nuclear program, in a hotel in Paris. In July 1980, Iraq received from France a shipment of approximately 12.5 kilograms of highly enriched uranium fuel to be used in the reactor. The shipment was the first of a planned six deliveries totalling 72 kilograms. It was reportedly stipulated in the purchase agreement that no more than two HEU fuel loadings, 24 kilograms, could be in Iraq at any time.


title: Operation Opera

text: Iraq and France claimed that the Iraqi reactor was intended for peaceful scientific research. Agreements between France and Iraq excluded military use. The American private intelligence agency STRATFOR wrote in 2007 that the uranium-fueled reactor "was believed to be on the verge of producing plutonium for a weapons program". In a 2003 speech, Richard Wilson, a professor of physics at Harvard University who visually inspected the partially damaged reactor in December 1982, said that "to collect enough plutonium [for a nuclear weapon] using "Osirak" would've taken decades, not years". In 2005, Wilson further commented in "The Atlantic": "The Osirak reactor that was bombed by Israel in June 1981 was explicitly designed by the French engineer Yves Girard to be unsuitable for making bombs. That was obvious to me on my 1982 visit". Elsewhere Wilson has stated that contrary to claims that the bombing of the Iraqi Osirak reactor delayed Iraq's nuclear bomb program, the Iraqi nuclear program before 1981 was peaceful, and the Osirak reactor was not only unsuited to making bombs but was under intensive safeguards.


title: Operation Opera

text: In an interview in 2012, Wilson again emphasised: "The Iraqis couldn't have been developing a nuclear weapon at Osirak. I challenge any scientist in the world to show me how they could have done so."


title: Operation Opera

text: Iraq was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, placing its reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In October 1981, the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" published excerpts from the testimony of Roger Richter, a former IAEA inspector who described the weaknesses of the agency's nuclear safeguards to the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Richter testified that only part of Iraq's nuclear installation was under safeguard and that the most sensitive facilities were not even subject to safeguards. IAEA's Director-General Sigvard Eklund issued a rebuttal saying that Richter had never inspected "Osirak" and had never been assigned to inspect facilities in the Middle East. Eklund claimed that the safeguards procedures were effective and that they were supplemented by precautionary measures taken by the nuclear suppliers. Anthony Fainberg, a physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, disputed Richter's claim that a fuel processing program for the manufacturing of nuclear weapons could have been conducted secretly. Fainberg wrote that there was barely enough fuel on the site to make one bomb, and that the presence of hundreds of foreign technicians would have made it impossible for the Iraqis to take the necessary steps without being discovered.


title: Operation Opera

text: In Israel, discussions on which strategy to adopt in response to the Iraqi reactor development were taking place as early as Yitzhak Rabin's first term in office (1974–1977). Reportedly, planning and training for the operation began during this time. After Menachem Begin became Prime Minister in 1977 the preparations intensified; Begin authorized the building of a full-scale model of the Iraqi reactor which Israeli pilots could practice bombing. Three Israeli pilots died in accidents while training for the mission.


title: Operation Opera

text: Israel's Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan initiated diplomatic negotiations with France, the United States and Italy (Israel maintained that some Italian firms acted as suppliers and sub-contractors) over the matter but failed to obtain assurances that the reactor program would be halted. In addition Israel was not able to convince the French governments of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterrand to cease aiding the Iraqi nuclear program. Saddam Hussein consistently maintained that "Osirak" was intended for peaceful purposes. Begin considered the diplomatic options fruitless, and worried that prolonging the decision to attack would lead to a fatal inability to act in response to the perceived threat. According to Karl P. Mueller, in the spring of 1979, Begin had reached the conclusion that an anticipatory attack was necessary.


title: Operation Opera

text: Anthony Cordesman writes that Israel conducted a series of clandestine operations to halt construction or destroy the reactor. In April 1979, Israeli agents in France allegedly planted a bomb that destroyed the reactor's first set of core structures while they were awaiting shipment to Iraq. In June 1980, Israeli agents are said to have assassinated Yehia El-Mashad, an Egyptian atomic scientist working on the Iraqi nuclear program. It has also been claimed that Israel bombed several of the French and Italian companies it suspected of working on the project, and sent threatening letters to top officials and technicians. Following the bombing in April 1979, France inserted a clause in its agreement with Iraq saying that French personnel would have to supervise the "Osirak" reactor on-site for a period of ten years.


title: Operation Opera

text: Iran attacked and damaged the site on 30 September 1980, with two F-4 Phantoms, shortly after the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War. At the onset of the war, Yehoshua Saguy, director of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, publicly urged the Iranians to bomb the reactor. The attack was the first on a nuclear reactor and only the third on a nuclear facility in history. It was also the first instance of a preventive attack on a nuclear reactor which aimed to forestall the development of a nuclear weapon.


title: Operation Opera

text: Due to last minute Iranian concerns that the reactor had been already fueled and could release radioactive fallout if hit, they did not attack the actual reactor dome, but the control room, research/centrifuge facilities, and the adjacent buildings. The targets were struck and the buildings were damaged, along with the plant cooling mechanisms. Two other F-4s simultaneously hit Baghdad's main power plant, knocking the city's electricity out for nearly two days. The Iraqis denied any major damage. The French and Italian technicians promptly left Iraq, and nearly withdrew from the project, but some later returned in February 1981 and began to repair the damage.


title: Operation Opera

text: Trita Parsi, in the book "Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States", writes that a senior Israeli official met with a representative of the Ayatollah Khomeini in France one month prior to the Israeli attack. The source of the assertion is Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli government employee. At the alleged meeting, the Iranians explained details of their 1980 attack on the site, and agreed to let Israeli planes land at an Iranian airfield in Tabriz in the case of an emergency. While the new Iranian government was officially hostile to Israel, due to both nations having a common enemy (Iraq), and Iranian fears that the Iraqis would create an atomic bomb to use on them, they clandestinely worked with Israel to forestall such a development.


title: Operation Opera

text: The distance between Israeli military bases and the reactor site was significant—over . The Israeli planes would have to violate Jordanian and/or Saudi airspace in a covert flight over foreign territory, making mid-air refueling unfeasible. The Israelis eventually concluded that a squadron of heavily fueled and heavily armed F-16As, with a group of F-15As to provide air cover and fighter support, could perform a surgical strike to eliminate the reactor site without having to refuel.


title: Operation Opera

text: The decision to go through with the operation was hotly contested within Begin's government. Ariel Sharon, a member of the Security Cabinet, later said that he was among those who advocated bombing the reactor. Dayan, Defense Minister (until late 1980) Ezer Weizman and Deputy Prime Minister Yigael Yadin were among those opposed. According to Mueller, "the principal difference between the hawks and doves on this issue lay in their estimation of the likely international political costs of an air strike". Shai Feldman specifies that "[those opposed] feared that the operation would derail the fragile Israeli-Egyptian peace process, fuel Arab anxieties about Israel's profile in the region, and damage Israel-French relations". Begin and his supporters, including Sharon, were far less pessimistic than their opponents about the political fallout. Yehoshua Saguy argued for continued efforts in trying to find a non-military solution as it would take the Iraqis five to ten years to produce the material necessary for a nuclear weapon. In the end, Begin chose to order the attack based on a worst-case estimate where a weapon could be created in one to two years time.


title: Operation Opera

text: Prime Minister Begin defended the timing of the bombing stating that a later attack, after the reactor had become operational, could cause lethal radioactive contamination doses to reach all the way to Baghdad. An analysis by Warren Donnelly of the United States Congressional Research Service concluded that "it would be most unlikely for an attack with conventional bombs upon the reactor when operating to have caused lethal exposures to radioactivity in Baghdad, although some people at the reactor site might receive some exposure". This was similarly the conclusion of Herbert Goldstein of Columbia University using IAEA release factors, the lethal contamination would be confined to a close proximity to the reactor and small amounts of radiation would be detectable in Baghdad under the assumption that winds were blowing in that direction.


title: Operation Opera

text: In October 1980, Mossad reported to Begin that the "Osirak" reactor would be fueled and operational by June 1981. This assessment was significantly aided by reconnaissance photos supplied by the United States, specifically using the KH-11 KENNEN satellite. French technicians installing the reactor later said it was scheduled to become operational only by the end of 1981. Nonetheless, in October 1980, the Israeli cabinet (with Dayan absent) finally voted 10–6 in favor of launching the attack.


title: Operation Opera

text: After the approval for Operation Opera, the Israelis began to plan their mission against Osirak. The basic procedure for the airstrike had been formulated as early as 1979. However, the Israelis needed photographic intelligence about the layout of the plant. That task allegedly fell to the Iranians. Rather than carrying out a follow up air raid after their September attack, on 30 November 1980, an Iranian F-4 Phantom reconnaissance jet took pictures of the Osirak reactor. The photographs were allegedly placed in a top-secret metal container, and certain elements of the Iranian military delivered them to the Israelis. With these photographs, the Israelis began to plan out Operation Opera.


title: Operation Opera

text: A team of Israeli pilots using A-4 Skyhawk aircraft began practicing over the Mediterranean Sea for the raid. The Israelis shortly afterwards received their first agreed delivery of F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft (the first batch was originally earmarked for Iran, but because of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Israeli Air Force received theirs ahead of schedule). The new F-16s would be used for the raid. Israeli F-4 Phantoms also ran reconnaissance missions over areas of southern and western Iraq. While the Iraqi Air Force was busy fighting the Iranians, on one occasion, an Iraqi MiG-21 chased an Israeli F-4; the Iraqi jet ran out of fuel and the pilot was forced to eject. However, in their missions, the Israelis discovered a blind area on Iraqi radar, on the border with Saudi Arabia. While the Iraqis were aware of the blind area, they did not remedy the problem because they did not expect a war with Saudi Arabia.


title: Operation Opera

text: The Iraqi Air Force was a potential threat to the Israelis (as the MiG-21 interception showed) and it somewhat deterred Israel from attacking yet. However, Israel had an advantage in that Iraq was preoccupied fighting Iran. On 4 April 1981, the Iranian Air Force launched a major attack on Iraq's H-3 airbase in the western part of the country (near Jordan and Israel). Eight Iranian F-4 Phantoms carried out the long range bombing mission and struck the airbase. Iran claimed that 48 Iraqi aircraft were destroyed, although US intelligence concluded that 27 aircraft were destroyed and 11 others damaged (some beyond repair). Among the aircraft hit were two Tu-22 Blinder and three Tu-16 Badger strategic bombers (which could have been used to retaliate against Israel in the event of an attack). The attack was a severe blow to Iraqi airpower, and largely gave Iran air superiority over Iraq. Israeli reconnaissance planes had been monitoring Iraq during the attack, and observed that the Iraqi Air Force had been severely degraded and their retaliatory capacity had been weakened.


title: Operation Opera

text: Yehuda Zvi Blum, in a speech to the United Nations Security Council following the attack, claimed that the operation was launched on a Sunday afternoon under the assumption that workers present on the site, including foreign experts employed at the reactor, would have left. Notwithstanding this precaution, there were hundreds of French workers and other nationals at the plant at the time of the raid.


title: Operation Opera

text: The attack squadron consisted of eight F-16As, each with two unguided Mark-84 delay-action bombs. A flight of six F-15As was assigned to the operation to provide fighter support. The F-16 pilots were Ze'ev Raz, Amos Yadlin, Dobbi Yaffe, Hagai Katz, Amir Nachumi, Iftach Spector, Relik Shafir, and Ilan Ramon. Raz led the attack and was later decorated by the Chief of Staff for his leadership. Ramon, who was the youngest pilot to participate in the operation, later became the first Israeli astronaut and died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster.


title: Operation Opera

text: The operation started on 7 June 1981, at 15:55 local time (12:55 GMT). The Israeli planes left Etzion Airbase, flying unchallenged in Jordanian and Saudi airspace. To avoid detection, the Israeli pilots conversed in Saudi-accented Arabic while in Jordanian airspace and told Jordanian air controllers that they were a Saudi patrol that had gone off course. While flying over Saudi Arabia, they pretended to be Jordanians, using Jordanian radio signals and formations. The Israeli planes were so heavily loaded that the external fuel tanks that had been mounted on the planes were exhausted in-flight. The tanks were jettisoned over the Saudi desert.


title: Operation Opera

text: King Hussein of Jordan, vacationing in the Gulf of Aqaba, witnessed the planes overfly his yacht, and noticed their Israeli markings. Taking into account the location, heading, and armament of the jets, Hussein quickly deduced the Iraqi reactor to be the most probable target. Hussein immediately contacted his government and ordered a warning to be sent to the Iraqis. However, due to a communication failure the message was never received and the Israeli planes entered Iraqi airspace undetected. Upon reaching Iraqi airspace, the squadron split up, with two of the F-15s forming close escort to the F-16 squadron, and the remaining F-15s dispersing into Iraqi airspace as a diversion and ready back-up. The attack squadron descended to over the Iraqi desert, attempting to fly under the radar of the Iraqi defences.


title: Operation Opera

text: At 18:35 local time (14:35 GMT), from the "Osirak" reactor complex, the F-16 formation climbed to and went into a 35-degree dive at , aimed at the reactor complex. At , the F-16s began releasing the Mark 84 bombs in pairs, at 5-second intervals. At least eight of the sixteen released bombs struck the containment dome of the reactor. It was later revealed that half an hour before the Israeli planes arrived, a group of Iraqi soldiers manning anti-aircraft defenses had left their posts for an afternoon meal, turning off their radars. The Israeli planes were still intercepted by Iraqi defenses but managed to evade the remaining anti-aircraft fire. The squadron climbed to high altitude and started their return to Israel. The attack lasted less than two minutes.


title: Operation Opera

text: International response at the United Nations took two paths. The United Nations Security Council issued a unanimous and almost immediate response on 19 June 1981, following eight meetings and statements from Iraq and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Security Council Resolution 487 strongly condemned the attack as a "clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct" and called on Israel to refrain from such attacks in the future; the Council recognised the right of Iraq to "establish programmes of technological and nuclear development" and called for Israel to join Iraq within the "IAEA safeguards regime" of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The council also stated its consideration that Iraq was "entitled to appropriate redress for the destruction it has suffered." The United States voted for the resolution and suspended the delivery of four F-16 aircraft to Israel, but blocked punitive action by the UN. The suspension on the delivery of the aircraft was lifted two months later.


title: Operation Opera

text: The UN General Assembly followed the Security Council with Resolution No. 36/27 on 13 November 1981, expressing deep alarm and condemning Israel over the "premeditated and unprecedented act of aggression," and demanding that Israel pay prompt and adequate compensation for the damage and loss of life it had caused. The resolution also solemnly warned Israel to refrain from taking such measures in the future.


title: Operation Opera

text: Debate prior to passage of the UN resolution reflected member states' differing positions on issues such as nuclear proliferation in the region and the appropriateness and justifiability of Israel's actions. The Iraqi representative stated that "the motives behind the Israeli attack were to cover up Israel's possession of nuclear weapons and, more importantly, the determination not to allow the Arab nation to acquire scientific or technical knowledge." Syria requested condemnation not only of Israel for terrorism against Arab peoples, but also of the United States, "which continue[s] to provide Israel with instruments of destruction as part of its strategic alliance."


title: Operation Opera

text: The representative of France stated that the sole purpose of the reactor was scientific research. Agreements between France and Iraq excluded military use. The United Kingdom said it did not believe Iraq had the capacity to manufacture fissionable materials for nuclear weapons. The IAEA Director-General confirmed that inspections of the nuclear research reactors near Baghdad revealed no non-compliance with the safeguards agreement.


title: Operation Opera

text: The IAEA's Board of Governors convened on 9–12 June and condemned Israel's action. The Board further asked that the prospect of suspending Israel's privileges and rights of membership be considered at the next General Conference held by the organization. On 26 September 1981, the IAEA Conference condemned the attack and voted to suspend all technical assistance to Israel. A draft resolution was introduced to expel Israel from the IAEA, but the proposition was defeated. The United States argued that the attack was not a violation of the IAEA Statute and that punitive action against Israel would do great harm to the IAEA and the non-proliferation regime.


title: Operation Opera

text: The attack was strongly criticized around the world, including in the United States. Privately, President Reagan wrote in his journal on the day of the attack, "I swear I believe Armageddon is near," adding of Begin's decision, "He should have told us & the French, we could have done something to remove the threat." Jonathan Steele, writing in "The Guardian", described the reaction:


title: Operation Opera

text: Ten Iraqi soldiers and one French civilian were killed in the attack. The civilian killed was engineer Damien Chaussepied, variously described as 24 or 25 years old, who was an employee of Air Liquide and the French governmental agency CEA. In 1981, Israel agreed to pay restitution to Chaussepied's family.


title: Operation Opera

text: Iraq said it would rebuild the facility and France agreed, in principle, to aid in the reconstruction. Because of a mix of factors, including the Iran–Iraq War, international pressure and Iraqi payment problems, negotiations broke down in 1984 and France withdrew from the project. The "Osirak" facility remained in its damaged state until the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when it was completely destroyed by subsequent coalition air strikes by the United States Air Force, one of them being the Package Q Strike. During the war, 100 out of 120 members of the Knesset signed a letter of appreciation to Menachem Begin, thanking him for ordering the attack on "Osirak". In July 1991, Begin, in a rare interview granted to Israel Army Radio, claimed that the Gulf War, and especially the Iraqi Scud missile attacks on Israel during that war, vindicated his decision to bomb the reactor.


title: Operation Opera

text: In response to their failures to prevent the "Osirak" attack (and the earlier H-3 attack), Saddam Hussein ordered the execution of the head of Iraq's Western Air Defense Zone, Colonel Fakhri Hussein Jaber and all officers under his command above the rank of major. In addition, 23 other Iraqi pilots and officers were imprisoned.


title: Operation Opera

text: The attack took place approximately three weeks before the Israeli legislative election of 1981. Opposition leader Shimon Peres criticized the operation as a political ploy, which did not go over well with the electorate. Dan Perry writes that "the "Osirak" bombing—and Peres's poor political judgement in criticizing it—were crucial in turning the tide of what initially had seemed to be a hopeless election campaign for Likud". Begin responded to Peres's accusation at a Likud rally: "Jews, you have known me for forty years, since I lived in the Hassidoff neighborhood of Petah Tikva to fight for the Jewish people (a reference to Begin's incognito days in the Irgun). Would I send Jewish boys to risk death—or captivity worse than death, because those barbarians would have tortured our boys horribly—for elections?" On 30 June, Likud was reelected over Peres's Alignment party, winning by just one seat in the Knesset.


title: Operation Opera

text: The US government had been caught completely off-guard by the attack. A former senior official in US intelligence told Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman that the failure to detect preparations for the attack was perceived as a grave intelligence failure within the US intelligence community, and that it led to a special team within US intelligence being set up to investigate the failure to detect preparations for an operation of this magnitude within the Israeli Air Force, military intelligence, the Mossad, and political system.


title: Operation Opera

text: In 2009, the Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki demanded that Israel compensate Iraq for the destruction of the reactor. An Iraqi official asserted that Iraq's right to redress is supported by Resolution 487 adopted by the United Nations Security Council in response to the attack. In early 2010, "The Siasat Daily", citing an unnamed Iraqi parliament member, reported that Iraqi officials had received word from the UN Secretariat that the Iraqi government is entitled to seek compensation from Israel for damage caused by the attack.


title: Operation Opera

text: Israel claims that the attack impeded Iraq's nuclear ambitions by at least ten years. In an interview in 2005, Bill Clinton expressed support for the attack: "everybody talks about what the Israelis did at Osiraq, in 1981, which, I think, in retrospect, was a really good thing. You know, it kept Saddam from developing nuclear power." Louis René Beres wrote in 1995 that "[h]ad it not been for the brilliant raid at Osiraq, Saddam's forces might have been equipped with atomic warheads in 1991."


title: Operation Opera

text: In 2010, squad leader Ze'ev Raz said of the operation: "There was no doubt in the mind of the decision makers that we couldn't take a chance. We knew that the Iraqis could do exactly what we did in Dimona."


title: Operation Opera

text: Charles R. H. Tripp, in an interview for the 25th anniversary of the attack, described the bombing of "Osirak" as a variation of Israeli military doctrine beginning with the premiership of David Ben-Gurion, "advocating devastating pre-emptive strikes on Arab enemies." Tripp asserted, "the "Osirak" attack is an illegal way to behave—Resolution 487 established that—but it is an understandable way to behave if you are the Israeli military-security establishment."


title: Operation Opera

text: Following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, American forces captured a number of documents detailing conversations that Saddam Hussein had with his inner sanctum. In a 1982 conversation Hussein stated that, "Once Iraq walks out victorious [over Iran], there will not be any Israel." Of Israel's anti-Iraqi endeavors, Saddam noted, "Technically, they [the Israelis] are right in all of their attempts to harm Iraq."


title: Operation Opera

text: Tom Moriarty, a military intelligence analyst for the United States Air Force, wrote in 2004 that Israel had "gambled that the strike would be within Iraq's threshold of tolerance." Moriarty argues that Iraq, already in the midst of a war with Iran, would not start a war with Israel at the same time and that its "threshold of tolerance was higher than normal."


title: Operation Opera

text: Joseph Cirincione, then director of non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in 2006:


title: Operation Opera

text: By contrast, Iraqi researchers have stated that the Iraqi nuclear program simply went underground, diversified, and expanded. Khidir Hamza, an Iraqi nuclear scientist, made the following statement in an interview on CNN's "Crossfire" in 2003:


title: Operation Opera

text: Similarly, the Iraqi nuclear scientist Imad Khadduri wrote in 2003 that the bombing of "Osirak" convinced the Iraqi leadership to initiate a full-fledged nuclear weapons program. United States Secretary of Defense William Perry stated in 1997 that Iraq refocused its nuclear weapons effort on producing highly enriched uranium after the raid. Its interest in acquiring plutonium as fissile material for weapons continued, but at a lower priority.


title: Operation Opera

text: In the Duelfer Report, released by the Iraq Survey Group in 2004, it is stated that the Iraqi nuclear program "expanded considerably" with the purchase of the French reactor in 1976, and that "Israel's bombing of Iraq's "Osirak" nuclear reactor spurred Saddam to build up Iraq's military to confront Israel in the early 1980s."


title: Operation Opera

text: Richard K. Betts wrote that "there is no evidence that Israel's destruction of Osirak delayed Iraq's nuclear weapons program. The attack may actually have accelerated it." Dan Reiter has repeatedly said that the attack was a dangerous failure: the bombed reactor had nothing to do with weapons research, while "the attack may have actually increased Saddam's commitment to acquiring weapons." In 2011, and basing herself on new Iraqi sources, Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer said that the attack: "...triggered a covert nuclear weapons program that did not previously exist ... a decade later Iraq stood on the threshold of a nuclear weapons capability. This case suggests that preventive attacks can increase the long-term proliferation risk posed by the targeted state." Elsewhere, she wrote:


title: Operation Opera

text: Following Desert Storm, Dick Cheney thanked the Israeli mission commander for the "outstanding job he did on the Iraqi nuclear program in 1981". While many scholars debate the value of the bombing, Iraq did not possess nuclear weapons at the outbreak of the Gulf War, and, according to Cheney, the bombing made Desert Storm easier.


title: Operation Opera

text: The second use of the Begin Doctrine was Operation Orchard in 2007, an Israeli airstrike on a purported Syrian nuclear target. Like in Operation Opera, the same types of aircraft were involved, although their roles were reversed with the F-15Is carrying bombs while the F-16Is provided escort.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Vijay Singh ( ; born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "The Big Fijian", is a Fijian professional golfer. He has won 34 events on the PGA Tour, including three major championships: one Masters title (2000) and two PGA Championships (1998, 2004). He is the first person of South Asian descent to win a major championship. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2006.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Singh reached world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking for 32 weeks in 2004 and 2005. Vijay was the 12th man to reach the world No. 1 ranking and was the only new world No. 1 in the 2000s decade. Singh was the leading PGA Tour money winner in 2003, 2004 and 2008. He also captured the FedEx Cup in 2008.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Singh recollected to reporters about his childhood: "When we were kids we couldn't afford golf balls so we had to make do with coconuts. My father used to say, 'Little Vijay, golf balls don't fall off trees you know,' so I found some that did!" Growing up, he played snooker, cricket, football, and the island's most popular sport, rugby. He is the son of Mohan Singh, an airplane technician who also taught golf. Growing up, he admired the swing of Tom Weiskopf, using it as an early model for his own.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Two years after turning professional, Singh won the 1984 Malaysian PGA Championship. However, his career was plunged into crisis after he was suspended from the Asia Golf Circuit in 1985 over allegations he doctored his scorecard. It was alleged that he lowered his score from one over to one under in order to make the cut, but Singh denies this, saying that in any case, it should only have resulted in disqualification from the event rather than a ban. After investigation by the Tour of this and other alleged violations proved true, John Bender, Asian PGA Tour president, issued Singh a lifetime ban on Asian PGA Tour play.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Singh felt he had been more harshly treated because the marker was "the son of a VIP in the Indonesian PGA." He then took a job at the Keningau Club in Sabah, Malaysia, before his move to the Miri Golf Club in Sarawak. While this was a period of hardship for him, he continued to gain experience. He saved the money he needed to resurrect his career and began to re-enter tournaments. In 1988 he teamed up with a sponsor, Red Baron, which funded a trip to Africa to compete on the now-defunct Safari Circuit where he captured his first event, the 1988 Nigerian Open, locals cheered him loudly. At the end of that year he entered the European Tour Qualifying school for the second consecutive year, and was successful on this occasion.


title: Vijay Singh

text: In 1989, Singh won his first European Tour title at the Volvo Open Championship in Italy and finished 24th on the European Tour Order of Merit, putting his early struggles firmly behind him. He won four times in 1989, at the Volvo Open di Firenze, Ivory Coast Open, Nigerian Open and Zimbabwe Open. He also finished tied for 23rd at The Open Championship. He won on the European Tour again in 1990 and did so twice in 1992. He also won several tournaments in Asia and Africa in this period.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Singh entered the PGA Tour in 1993, winning his first PGA Tour event, the Buick Classic in a playoff over Mark Wiebe. That victory led to his being named the 1993 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. After being hampered with back and neck problems in 1994, he came back to win the Buick Classic again in 1995 as well as the Phoenix Open. After playing well in 1996 (but with no victories), he won both the Memorial Tournament and the Buick Open in 1997.


title: Vijay Singh

text: In 1998, Singh was victorious at the PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, playing a 70-66-67-68 over the four days (the 66 tied a course record) and earning him his first Major title. He followed this up by winning The Masters in 2000, with a three-stroke victory over Ernie Els.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Singh did not win on the PGA Tour in 2001, but finished the year with a Tour-best 14 top-10 finishes and was fourth on the money list with $3,440,829 for the year. In 2002, he won at the Shell Houston Open at TPC at The Woodlands, setting a new tournament 72-hole scoring record with a 266, and at the Tour Championship, winning by two strokes over Charles Howell III.


title: Vijay Singh

text: 2003 proved to be a very successful year for Singh. He won four tournaments, had 18 top-10 finishes and was the PGA Tour's money leader (and had the second-highest single-season total in PGA Tour history) with $7,573,907, beating Tiger Woods by $900,494, though Singh played 27 tournaments compared to Woods' 18 tournaments. Singh also tied a 9-hole scoring record at the U.S. Open with a 29 on the back nine of his second round. His victories came at the Phoenix Open, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the John Deere Classic and the FUNAI Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort. He narrowly lost the vote for the PGA of America's Player of the Year to Tiger Woods.


title: Vijay Singh

text: However, the 2003 season was also spotted with controversy involving Singh surrounding the year's event at the Bank of America Colonial. LPGA star Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play at a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias at the 1945 Los Angeles Open. Surrounding this fervor, Singh was misquoted as having said that Sörenstam "didn't belong" on the men's tour and that he would not play if he were paired with her. What he actually said is that he would not be paired with her because his playing partner was being selected from the past champion's pool. Singh later clarified, "There are guys out there trying to make a living. It's not a ladies' tour. If she wants to play, she should—or any other woman for that matter—if they want to play the man's tour, they should qualify and play like everybody else."


title: Vijay Singh

text: Singh began 2004 by winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at −16 and winning $954,000 in prize money. This was his first win on tour in 2004 and his 16th all-time on the PGA Tour. It was his 12th consecutive top-10 finish, which is two shy of Jack Nicklaus' all-time record.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Singh won the final major of 2004, winning the PGA Championship, his third major, in a three-hole aggregate playoff over Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco. Singh was the leader by one shot over Leonard going into the final round, but made no birdies in the final round, finishing regulation at 67-68-69-76=280. His final round of 76 was the highest winning score by a major champion since 1955. The playoff was a tense affair, and Singh's birdie on the first playoff hole, his first birdie of the day, proved to be the difference.


title: Vijay Singh

text: On 6 September 2004 (Labor Day), Singh won the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Massachusetts. With the win, he overtook Tiger Woods at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking, ending Woods' streak of 264 weeks at the top of the golf world.


title: Vijay Singh

text: Singh finished the 2004 season with a career-best nine victories, 18 top-10s, and a record $10,905,166 in earnings and was named the PGA Tour's and PGA of America's Player of the Year. The former award is decided by a vote of active PGA Tour players.