To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Sept 19, 1999 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 08:42:12 +0000

From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>

8:00 PM Eastern

 A&E - IT'S ONLY TALK: THE REAL STORY OF AMERICA'S TALK SHOWS
    - Interviews with Art Linkletter, Charles Perez, Dick
   Cavett, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Ed McMahon, Jenny Jones, Jerry
   Springer, Joan Rivers, Montel Williams.(CC)(TVPG)

9:00

 ABC - IS AMERICA NO. 1? WITH JOHN STOSSEL - John Stossel
   compares America with life in other countries, including
   Calcutta, Hong Kong.(CC)

10:00

 CNN - THE NEW GOLD RUSH - Silicon Valley entrepreneurship
   has risks and rewards.(CC)

--- BPR

BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Weekend News Today items (9/18/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 09:02:22 +0000

From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>

Palestinians to insist on Jerusalem deal

Weekend News Today
By Staff Writer
Source: Yahoo! AP

Sat Sep 18,1999 -- Palestinian negotiators will insist on reaching
agreements with Israel on thorny issues such as Jerusalem's status and
the return of Palestinian refugees in a final peace accord, the new
chief Palestinian negotiator said Saturday. Yasser Abed Rabbo, who was
appointed last week to lead negotiations with Israel on a final peace
agreement, said that the Palestinians will not accept leaving any
so-called final status issues to later stages of the negotiations.
Israel has said it will never relinquish sovereignty over east
Jerusalem, which it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. The
Palestinians claim that Jerusalem should be the capital of a future
Palestinian state. The two sides have until February to draft a
framework for a final peace deal and until next September to sign the
final agreement.

Barak Fears Violence If Peace Talks Fail

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: IsraelWire

Sat Sep 18,1999 -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned Saturday
that if talks with the Palestinians to find a final peace deal failed,
there could be widespread violence in the region. If there was no
agreement, a situation similar to that in the Balkans could emerge,
Barak said in an advance copy of an interview in the news magazine
Spiegel. ``Then the countdown to a new round of violence would begin.
Let us bring this matter to an end, no matter how tough it is. We have
to decide whether we want to live in constant readiness for war or
whether we want to secure peace,'' Barak said. The Israeli leader and
the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat met in secret Friday to
discuss negotiations on a final peace deal for the region. The talks,
aimed at reaching a lasting peace agreement within a year, have yet to
begin. The two sides could come up with a peace deal inside six
months, Barak said. Barak, who visits Germany for talks with
Chancellor Gerhard Schroder Tuesday, said that he was not prepared to
compromise on four key points. He said Jerusalem must remain Israel's
capital and its settlement blocs in the West Bank must remain under
its control. Palestinians insist East Jerusalem is the capital of
their future state. There could be no return to the borders of before
the 1967 Middle East war, Barak said, and he ruled out the return of
Palestinian refugees. "Separating the two peoples is the key to
peace," Barak said. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still live
in semi-permanent exile, their numbers swollen in the wake of
successive Arab-Israeli wars and many are crowded into impoverished
refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Barak was confident talks
with Syria would soon get under way and he was ready at any time to
either travel to Damascus or to welcome Syrian President Hafez
al-Assad to Jerusalem for talks. Barak was full of praise for the
Syrian president. "It was he who built up the modern Syria practically
with his own ten fingers and under his leadership Syria has become
what it is today." Israel would stick to its plan to withdraw troops
from occupied south Lebanon and they would be out of the area by July
next year, Barak said. There would be strong efforts by Arab
extremists to try and scupper the talks. "We have to be ready to use
all the means at our disposal to fight back and we have to expect that
from Arafat too," he said. In his talks with Schroeder next week,
Barak wanted to see how Germany could support the peace process in the
Middle East. Germany had a new role in the world and German
reunification had been a "symbol for the victory of freedom."

Jordan's King Abdullah calls Jerusalem 'occupied'

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: IsraelWire

Sat Sep 18,1999 -- In a magazine interview released on Friday,
Jordan's King Abdullah stated, "Jerusalem is occupied and it should be
returned to the Palestinian people." According to the Jordan Times,
the king did not specify if he was referring to the entire city of
eastern Jerusalem, the portion of the city that was liberated in the
June 1967 Six Day War. "We believe that the Palestinian issue is the
core of the conflict in the Middle East, and the desired peace cannot
be achieved without a just settlement of this issue," said King
Abdullah.

Syria takes stand on talks with Israel

Weekend News Today
By Kelly Pagatpatan
Source: Reuters

Sat Sep 18,1999 -- Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said after
talks with French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday that any peace
talks with Israel should take up at the point they had reached before
break-off in 1996. "Our views concur to a very large degree on the
importance of establishing a general and balanced peace, and a restart
to talks on the Syrian and Lebanese aspects where they stopped," the
Syrian envoy said. "But we would like to have confirmation that they
will indeed restart where they halted," he told reporters after a
90-minute meeting where he also delivered a letter to Chirac from
Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Damascus says late Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin had pledged to withdraw from the Golan Heights
to a line pre-dating the 1967 Middle East war. The Syrian meeting
precedes visits to Paris by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak next
Wednesday and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat three days later, in
the wake of the annual U.N. General Assembly in the United States.

Prodi's latestet changes in EU executive moving fast

Weekend News Today
By Kelly Pagatpatan
Source: Reuters

Sat Sep 18,1999 -- Romano Prodi's new European Union executive held
its first official meeting on Saturday and immediately launched a
major restructuring of its departments. "The (European Commission)
today adopted the biggest restructuring of the Commission's
services...in recent times," Neil Kinnock, a Commission vice-president
in charge of reform, told a news conference. Kinnock, a Briton, said
this was only the start of the far-reaching reform pledged by Prodi to
set the European Commission on a new footing after months of crisis.
"We have started a period of continuous change," Prodi, a former
Italian prime minister, told reporters on Saturday. Prodi's
Commission, which was approved by the European Parliament on Wednesday
and sworn in on Friday, approved plans to streamline Commission
departments, improve management and redirect staff to areas where they
were needed. In a sign of a more U.S.-style approach to news
briefings, Prodi's spokesman Ricardo Levi has had the table used by
his predecessor replaced with lecterns fitted with computer screens.
East Timor and the recent Greek earthquake were also discussed at
Saturday's meeting but no decisions were taken. "We've got to
demonstrate that we've made a fresh start, that the EU has once again
a strong executive and that it is strong precisely because it's more
accountable than we've been in the past," External Relations
Commissioner Chris Patten told Reuters as he arrived for the meeting.
Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, said foreign policy
challenges confronting the Commission included turning the EU's hopes
for a common foreign and security policy into reality and helping
shape a better future for the Balkans. He said other priorities
included forging a good relationship with Russia and the newly
independent states and working for a "harmonious" relationship with
the United States, where a series of trade disputes have caused
friction this year.

Russian bombers intrude on U.S. airspace near Alaska

Weekend News Today
By Kelly Pagatpatan
Source: Reuters

Fri Sep 17,1999 -- Two Russian bombers approached the Alaska coastline
this week for the first time in six years, but were turned back after
U.S. jets were dispatched to the area, officials said on Friday. The
Russian Bear H Bombers were spotted on Thursday at 4:10 p.m. Alaska
Daylight Time (0010 GMT Friday) in the "outer defence identification
zone," about 200 miles (320 km) off the coast of Alaska and 625 miles
(1,000 km) from Anchorage, said a spokesman at the North American
Aerospace Defence Command Regional Air Operations Centre at Elmendorf
Air Force Base. The Russian jets remained in international air space
the entire time, said Major Les Kodlick. But their entry into the
identification zone triggered the dispatch of U.S. jet fighters to
positively identify the aircraft. The F-15s came within 90 miles (140
km) of the Russian aircraft before the Bear bombers turned away and
continued travelling in international airspace. "The important thing
is that we're prepared to meet any threat," Kodlick said. U.S.
officials did not know why the Russian bombers approached U.S. air
space, he said.

Israel-Turkey naval maneuvers delayed

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Jerusalem Post

Fri Sep 17,1999 -- Joint naval maneuvers with Turkey have been
postponed until late December, defense sources said yesterday. There
were reports that Jordan, which had attended the previous joint sea
maneuvers in January 1998 as observers, had decided to shun this
year's exercises. But Israeli defense officials could not confirm
this. They noted that Jordan had recently held joint search and rescue
maneuvers with the Israel Navy in the Gulf of Akaba. The maneuvers,
dubbed Reliant Mermaid II, are to include vessels from the American,
Israeli, and Turkish fleets. The search and rescue exercise was
originally to be held in late summer off the coast of Turkey, but they
were delayed until October. Now it has been postponed again until the
end of the year. No reason was given for the postponement. Turkish
diplomatic sources said that even the new date may be premature, since
Turkey does not want to raise the wrath of the Arab League, which
Turkey needs to help it raise money for reconstruction following last
month's earthquake. The Arab League has criticized the maneuvers and
the growing military alliance between Israel and Turkey.

Jordan, Hamas reach agreement

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: Arabic News

Fri Sep 17,1999 -- Well-informed sources in Kuwait said that an
agreement was recently reached between the Jordanian authorities and
the Hamas movement that provides for permitting the return of the
three leaders of the Hamas movement from Tehran to Amman, but under
preconditions. The sources added that among these preconditions is
that Mousa Abu Marzouk be appointed as the chairman of the Hamas
movement's political bureau instead of Khaled Mashaal, due to Abu
Marzouk's positive relations with Amman, Cairo and the PA, while
Mashaal is considered as an ally for the Iranian trend. The sources
stated that among the conditions set out for the return of the three
leaders to Jordan is stopping any media attacks against the PA from
Jordan, abstaining from convening central meetings for the movement in
Amman and abstaining from opening offices for the movement in the
houses of its members. The director of the Jordanian intelligence,
Samih al-Batteikhi, who accompanied King Abdullah on his Tuesday visit
to Lebanon, had briefed the Lebanese security on the atmosphere of
what is taking place and warned against transferring the movement's
"weight" to Beirut. The sources added that during the visit of the
Jordanian king to Beirut a meeting was held for Lebanese parties and
groups at the headquarters of the Hizbullah Party, and the main topic
dealt with the participants in the meeting condemning the pursuit of
Hamas members in Jordan. Members of the Lebanese security forces
suddenly stormed into the location of the meeting, an act which was
explained as a clear message for all.

US report on Israel and Y2K

Weekend News Today
By Andra Brack
Source: IsraelWire

Fri Sep 17,1999 -- The following is a portion of a report prepared by
the State Department of the United States on September 14, 1999:
Israel appears to be prepared to deal with the Y2K problem.
Nonetheless, there is a moderate risk of potential disruption in key
sectors, including telecommunications and electric power. Israel is
one of the most information-technology-intensive countries in the
Middle East and leads the region in mobile phone usage, for example,
and ground stations for mobile communications may be vulnerable to
Y2K-related disruptions. In the "West Bank" (Judea and Samaria) and
Gaza, it appears that there also is a moderate risk of potential
disruption in key sectors, including telecommunications and electric
power. Basic services in the "West Bank" and Gaza are dependent on
Israeli networks and are likely to experience any service disruption
that may affect the Israeli population. US citizens traveling to or
residing in Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza in late 1999 or early 2000
should be aware of potential difficulties. It is difficult to predict
the severity or duration of Y2K-related disruptions. US citizens in
Israel should take practical precautions, anticipate the potential for
disruption to their daily activities, and be prepared to cope with the
impact of such disruptions.

via: bible_prophecy-news@onelist.com

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - King Abdullah meets Pope
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 09:14:44 +0000

From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>

Jordan's King Abdullah to meet Pope John Paul on
Saturday in Vatican

Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse

AMMAN, Sept 15 (AFP) - Jordan's King Abdullah II will hold talks with
Pope John Paul II later this week, officials said here on Wednesday.

They king will go to the Vatican on Friday and will be received the
following day by the pontiff, they told AFP.

Talks between King Abdullah, who ascended the throne following his
father's death in February, and the pope are expected to focus on the
latest developments in the Middle East and the pope's planned
millennium pilgrimage to the region they said.

The visit was originally scheduled for June 4 but the monarch
postponed it because of other commitments.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Vatican releases indulgence manual
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 09:17:15 +0000

From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>

Vatican Releases Indulgence Manual

Copyright 1999 by The Associated Press
Sept 17, 1999

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican on Friday issued an updated manual on
indulgences, offering new ways of winning forgiveness for Catholics
who courageously manifest their faith.

Vatican officials also insisted that the new attention on indulgences
-- the forgiveness of sins through good works -- shouldn't harm
recently improved relations with the Lutheran church, whose founder,
Martin Luther, rebelled against abuses in granting indulgences.

The new manual, last updated in 1986, was published in Latin and will
be soon translated into modern languages.

Last year, Pope John Paul II issued a decree upholding a 700-year-old
tradition of celebrating church anniversary years by offering
indulgences. The pope has declared 2000 a holy year.

The new manual incorporates John Paul's directives on indulgences,
including advice that individuals can do penance by such simple acts
as giving up smoking for a day.

But it also stresses actions in which Catholics set good examples.

For example, ``a factory worker, surrounded by colleagues cursing and
using off-color language, courageously makes the sign of the cross,''
said Monsignor Luigi De Magistris, a Vatican official who is an expert
on indulgences.

Besides helping those in need or depriving oneself of something
spontaneously, indulgences can also be won by giving ``public
testimony of one's faith in certain circumstances of daily life,''
said another Vatican official, Monsignor Dario Rezza.

The cardinal in charge of indulgence policy, William Wakefield Baum,
was asked if this new attention to indulgences could hurt relations
with Lutherans.

Next month, Catholics and Lutherans are expected to sign an agreement
aimed at resolving a doctrinal debate at the heart of the 16th-century
Protestant Reformation, which split Western Christianity.

The agreement contains compromise language on ``justification,'' or
how humanity achieves salvation. For Lutherans, salvation depends on
God's grace; for Catholics, good works also figure in.

``I'm convinced that exposition of true Catholic doctrine on
indulgences is a great contribution to ecumenical dialogue,''
especially with Lutherans, the cardinal said.

In June, some Lutherans said they wouldn't back the agreement, with
one Lutheran official in the United States saying he was troubled by
John Paul's decree last year on indulgences.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Vatican to reveal St. Peter's after facelift
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 09:19:48 +0000

From: "Moza" <moza@butterfly.mv.com>

Vatican to reveal St. Peter's after facelift

Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse

VATICAN CITY, Sept 17 (AFP) - The true colors of Saint Peter's
Basilica at the Vatican will once again shine through on Saturday when
workers dismantle the scaffolding set up two years ago for what some
are calling the most important marble restoration in art history.

Pope John Paul II will officially inaugurate the refurbishment of the
facade on Christendom's most famous church, where popes and emperors
have been crowned over the centuries, on September 30.

Fireworks and a light show will kick off the celebration of the new
facade, followed by an orchestral Te Deum by the Santa Cecilia
Accademia directed by the South Korean conductor Chung Myung-Whun.

The event, a prelude to the Vatican's Jubilee 2000 festivities, will
be televised live.

Designed some 400 years ago by the Renaissance architect Carlo
Maderno, the newly buffed 6,000-square-meter (65,000-square-foot)
marble facade boasts a sand-colored sheen and a rainbow of rejuvenated
colors.

"The facade will now appear as Maderno had originally planned," said
Daniele Pergolizi, who supervised each stage of the restoration
effort, which was based on careful study of both period materials and
historical documentation.

Standing 45 meters (150 feet) high and 114 meters (376 feet) wide, the
basilica's facade has an area about the size of a football field.

Workers used radars and sophisticated tools to clean and restore the
colors that had been covered with centuries of pollution and grime.

In the process, they uncovered deep red and light green hues adorning
the balcony and window on the loggia from which the pope gives his
traditional Christmas blessing each year.

Red was the loggia's original color, said Daniela Viglione, a manager
at the Italian firm Eni, which funded the refurbishment.

"We found a 17th-century painting with the colorful facade," Viglione
said.

"In that zone, we limited ourselves to cleaning the facade," she
added.

According to historical documents, Maderno, accused of not following
Michaelangelo's original design for the dome, used hundreds of
paintbrushes to color the marble with river sand and brick powder.

Eni, Italy's state-owned energy firm, provided both scientific
know-how and more than 4.6 million euros (4.8 million dollars) in
funding for the project.

Restoration workers cleaned the basilica's columns -- built by
Gianlorenzo Bernini between 1656 and 1667 -- a site to behold for the
more than four million visitors expected to make a pilgrimage next
year.

Workers removed some 50,000 stucco supports put up in the 1980s that
had blackened over time. They also installed an electric system
designed to keep the birds at bay, revamped the gutter system, and
built a new lighting system to illuminate the baroque edifice.

The basilica, the work of five architects -- Bramante, Michelangelo,
Giacomo della Porta, Maderno and Bernini -- was consecrated in 1626
after more than a century of construction.

It houses, among other treasures, Michelangelo's Pieta sculpture of
the Virgin Mary holding Jesus.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Misc news items
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 08:50:07 -0500

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

 EU-US TRADE PACT SIMILAR TO NAFTA CONSIDERED
September 16, 1999

UPI reported: "The North American Free Trade Agreement between
the United States, Mexico and Canada was enacted in 1994 after years
of passionate debates echoing from Capitol Hill to America's corporate
boardrooms and factory floors. Now the fights over NAFTA's impact
on jobs are largely forgotten. But the framework of a similar yet more
significant free-trade agreement is being shaped by the European
Union and major economic powers of the Americas, including the
United States and Mexico-Technical details of trans-Atlantic
agreements to end tariffs, export-import taxes and regulatory trade
barriers for goods and services valued at more than $1 trillion a year
are being hammered out by trade ministers for the various parties. The
pace of the activity which began in the early 1990s has increased on
several fronts...Last spring, in a speech at Columbia Law School in
New York supporting free trade, U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce
David Aaron said, "Our economies have grown so close together that
I sometimes visualize them as finely meshed gears." Aaron
acknowledged some issues, such as a recent flap over bananas, can
disrupt EU-U.S. trade relations, But he continued, "The fact is, the
U.S. and Europe are united - bonded - both by a shared cultural
heritage and profoundly similar political and economic interests." The
Commerce Department says the U.S. and EU have enjoyed a near-even
balance of trade since 1993, even as trade grows. The two entities are
the world's largest trading partners in goods and services..."

UN ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS WARNING September 16, 1999

The BBC reported: "The United Nations is warning that time is
running out to stop worldwide environmental damage and says it is
already too late to prevent irreversible harm to ecosystems like tropical
forests.The findings come in the end-of-century review of the UN
Environmental Program (UNEP), called Global Environment Outlook
2000, which sees a number of 'full-scale emergencies' on the horizon.
These include severe water shortages that will get steadily worse,
reduced agricultural productivity through the loss of topsoil, and
unwanted growth of vegetation along sea-coasts and of algae at sea,
caused by the heavy application of fertilizers. GEO-2000's key finding
is stark: 'The continued poverty of the majority of the planet's
inhabitants and excessive consumption by the minority are the two
major causes of environmental degradation,' says the report. The
report recommends that the developed world must cut its use of
natural resources by 90% to give the rest of the world a chance of
emerging from poverty. But the destruction of tropical rainforests has
already gone too far to prevent irreversible damage and it is too late to
regain the planet's former bio-diversity, the report finds..."

U.S. DECLASSIFIES DOCUMENTS TO SUPPORT ITS EFFORTS TO
PROSECUTE SADDAM HUSSEIN AS A WAR CRIMINAL
September 16, 1999

CNN reported: "Newly declassified U.S. intelligence photographs offer
new glimpses of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's campaign against
his own people and the special treatment given to those loyal to him.
The satellite surveillance pictures were released on Monday as the
Clinton administration issued a scathing report in its ongoing
campaign to remove Hussein. Washington also said it sought to
establish an international tribunal to prosecute the Iraqi leader and
senior aides as war criminals..."

PC COMPUTING MAGAZINE COLUMNIST PREDICTS THE
INEVITABILITY OF IMPLANTABLE MICROCHIPS IN HUMANS
September 15, 1999

Opinion columnist Paul Somerson's article "Inside Job" in the coming
October issue of PC Computing magazine reiterates the litany of
examples of the uses and potential uses for bio-implantable microchips
in humans. He concludes by saying, "How will they convince people
to implant these chips? First, they'll hype the convenience of leaving
your keys, credit cards, and money at home. Then they'll automate
everything from cash registers to tollbooths so if you're chipped you
can zip through in a digital carpool lane. Me, I'll wait."

via: pre-trib-news <pretribnews@listbot.com>

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - A Good Career Move
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 08:50:07 -0500

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

=====================================
A Good Career Move
By Daniel Pipes, Jerusalem Post
September 7, 1999
=====================================

Edward Said, the famous Palestinian intellectual, it turns out, was
actually raised in Egypt. So out goes his oft-repeated claim about the
nasty Israelis expelling him from his "beautiful old house" in
Jerusalem; he was living at the time in a luxurious apartment in Cairo.

Said had long presented his own story as a symbol of the Palestinian
tragedy; learning that he found himself in Jerusalem only when
visiting relatives certainly takes some of the edge off his story.

Unexpected on its own, this dissimulation takes on additional meaning
when it is seen as part of a pattern. Remarkably, at least two other very
prominent Arabs born in Egypt, have falsely claimed to be Palestinian.
 The first of them was the 1930s version of Said - a Christian Arab who
mastered Western ways so well and wrote a book so influential (The
Arab Awakening, 1938) that he singlehandedly changed European
and American attitudes toward Arabs.

His name was George Antonius and he was born in Alexandria in 1891
to a Greek Orthodox family of Lebanese origin. Like Said, he attended
the most prestigious school in his home town and went off to the
West for his higher education. In 1921 he settled in Jerusalem and
became an administrator in the British Mandate for Palestine and, in
the words of his biographer, "came to regard himself as a Palestinian"
and "acquired Palestinian citizenship."

On leaving British employ in 1930, Antonius demonstrated his new
loyalties by becoming informal adviser to Haj Amin al-Husseini, mufti
of Jerusalem and the Palestinians' political leader. At the all-important
London Conference of 1939, Antonius served as a key member of the
Palestinian delegation. In short, he abandoned his Egyptian-Lebanese
identity to became Palestinian. In the words of Fouad Ajami, he gave
"the struggle between Arab and Jew all his loyalty."

The second Egyptian-turned-Palestinian is even better known.

On countless occasions, Yasser Arafat has regaled listeners about his
Jerusalem birth and childhood. He fondly recalls his birthplace in a
stone house abutting the Western Wall, then how he lived with his
Uncle Sa'ud in Jerusalem.

Like Said, Arafat presents himself as a victim of Zionism - someone
who lost his wordly belongings and his place in the world due to
Israel's coming me into existence. But in fact, as two intrepid French
biographers, Christophe Boltanski and Jihan El-Tahri revealed a few
years, ago (in their 1997 book, Les sept vies de Yasser Arafat), "Mr.
Palestine was born on the shores of the Nile."

The French researchers tell an amusing story of discovery. They went
to the University of Cairo and innocently asked for the registration of
one Muhammad Abd ar-Ra'uf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husayni at the
School of Civil Engineering in 1956.

This, Arafat's birth name, means nothing to the Egyptian clerk, who
"sits down behind a rickety wooden table, almost completely hidden
by the pile of dusty files bound in black leather" and "blows off a
layer of grime in a most professional way," then hands over the
records. In a blue ink faded by time, the researchers find that their
man, living at 24A Baron Empain Street, Heliopolis, "was born on
August 4, 1929, in Cairo."

With this information in hand, they dashed over to the State Registry
and found Arafat's actual birth certificate, which confirms the date and
place.

Arafat then lived in Cairo until the age of 28 and identified as an
Egyptian. His first political affiliation was an Egyptian student
organization closed to Palestinians. He fought for an Egyptian group
against Israel in 1948-49 and subsequently served in the Egyptian
military. He first traveled to Moscow, in 1968, on an Egyptian
passport.

Arafat all his life has spoken Arabic like an Egyptian, something that
has sometimes impeded his career; on first encountering him in 1967, a
biographer recounts, "West Bankers did not like his Egyptian accent
and ways and found them alien."

How is it that three men raised in Egypt decided at various points in
the 20th century - the 1920s, 1950s, 1970s - to become Palestinians?

The answer probably lies in the fact that for a politically ambitious
activist, Palestinian politics has far more to offer than Egypt's.

An intellectual can raise his profile much higher; where would Said be
today were he advocating Egyptian causes? And a politician finds the
path to power far more open; had Arafat made Egypt his life's work, he
might today be a retired deputy from that country's rubber-stamp
parliament.

Being Palestinian, in other words, is a good career move.

(The writer is director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum
and author of 'Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and
Where It Comes From.')

=================================
 L I K U D B U L L E T I N
 Issue 3, September 17, 1999
=================================

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Daywatch news items (9/17/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 08:50:07 -0500

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- The Missouri legislature passed the
"Infant's Protection Act" Thursday despite a veto by the
state's governor. The law, passed by a more than two-thirds
vote by the state senate, makes it a felony to kill a born
or partially born baby. Opponents of the law have promised
to challenge it in court. Governor Mel Carnahan called the
law an unconstitutional attack on a woman's right to an
abortion.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, asserting executive
privilege, refused to provide information subpoenaed by
Congress about his offer of clemency to 16 radical Puerto
Rican nationalists Thursday. His decision infuriated House
Republicans who wanted to know what went into the
president's thinking about a decision that has entangled
his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton -- who is a likely
candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York, where many
Puerto Ricans live.

Copyright, AccuWeather Inc., 1999

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The House Judiciary Committee completed
its work on two pro-life measures on Tuesday and voted to
present them to the entire House of Representatives. The
first measure clarifies that it is legal to dispense,
distribute, or administer a controlled substance even if
the use of such a substance may increase the risk of
death. The Committee also approved a measure establishing
criminal penalties for anyone who causes harm to an unborn
child through a violent attack upon its mother.
Full Story: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3422.htm

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Presidential hopefuls are being
criticized for allegedly seeking to further their campaign
efforts by talking about their Christian faith. Their
comments fail to take into account the 'vast diversity' of
American religious belief, said Welton Gaddy, executive
director of the Interfaith Alliance.
Full Story: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3423.htm

MOSCOW -- A Russian Christian leader has called on
Christians around the world to join him for a day of prayer
this September 19, partially in response to recent acts of
terrorism in Moscow. Pastor Igor Nikki Nikitin, who pastors
a church in St. Petersburg and is a leader of the
Association of Christian Churches of Russia, has issued an
impassioned plea to Christians in the West to join him.
Full Story: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3424.htm

LONDON -- A report commissioned by the Church of England
that reportedly recommends that divorcees be allowed to
remarry in the church, with its blessing, is allegedly
being blocked at the highest level by church officials. The
Church of England's newspaper, The Church Times, is
reporting that the House of Bishops is blocking the
publication of the report in its current form.
Full Story: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3425.htm

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Yeltsin decrees education about Christianity
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 08:50:07 -0500

From: moza@butterfly.mv.com

Millions of Russia's schoolchildren will learn about Jesus Christ
because of a presidential decree. President Boris Yeltsin has mandated
that all branches of government make plans to celebrate 2,000 years of
Christianity, Campus Crusade for Christ said. The ministry wants to
help Russian schools do that by providing an educational package
about Christianity, and is raising funds for the project. ...Campus
Crusade is preparing packets for distribution to each of the nation's
67,000 schools. Each one contain three 60-minute audiotapes of the
Jesus film, learning exercises for various ages, and discussion
questions to help understand the life and message of Jesus. A copy of
Yeltsin's decree and a letter from the minister of education
accompanies the packages. Campus Crusade plans to send three
packages -- two in Russian and one in English -- to each school.
"Millions of students will find out about the God Who loves them and
has a plan for their lives," Campus Crusade's Bill Bright said.

http://www.religiontoday.com
Sept 17, 1999

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - What's New at BPR?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 18:17:35 -0500

From: owner-bpr@philologos.org

Bible Prophecy Research
Additions and updates made since Sep 7, 1999
Issue #32
September 19, 1999
=========================

Hi folks...

We have a couple of new and very interesting files for you to
take a look at. Moza has updated her file on the path of the
August eclipse. In addition, the site has made some changes I
hope you'll like.

Here's what's new:

> Added: 5760/Tower of Babel
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Misc_Studies/ms-039.htm

"The [Jewish] readings from the book of Deuteronomy are said
'to correspond to what will happen in each one hundred years of
the sixth millennium--ten [portions] corresponding to ten
periods of one hundred years.'

"The seventh of these 10 portions from Deuteronomy corresponds
to the years 5600-5700 of the Jewish calendar and 1840-1940 of
our calendar...The portion read is Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8. This
portion ended 'in the middle of WWII and includes curses for
straying from the Torah, describing in explicit detail what can
be construed as a Holocaust.'

"This year the eighth portion is read on the Sabbath right
before Rosh Hashanah 5760. It corresponds to the years 5700-5800
on the Jewish calendar and 1940-2040 on our calendar..."

----------

> Added: The Astronomical Book of Revelation
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Sky_Signs/ss-012a.htm

The excerpt below is from an introductory piece of a very
interesting ongoing study by Cori Ander, a BPR newsletter
subscriber:

"Many researchers have found awesome things in the stars,
confirming the handiwork of the Creator. Researchers such as
E.W. Bullinger have pioneered studies that have been a spring-
board for this writer, but pieces were still missing. Bullinger
noted a similarity between Sagittarius and one of the four
horsemen. "What if they were all there?" I thought. Around this
same time, I thought of the verses describing the Heavens being
rolled up as a scroll. I had a planisphere (i.e. star map) in my
hand; I rolled it up and discovered something remarkable. The
quest had begun. Three days later, I was satisfied to have
located all four horsemen in the stars, and, with growing
excitement, began to understand that all of the symbols
described in the Book of Revelation were in the stars."

-------

And here's what's updated:

> Updated: Mark
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/m-002a.htm

> Updated: August 11, 1999 Eclipse Path
http://www.mv.com/ipusers/butterfly/eclipse/eclipse2.htm

This particular file is located at Moza's site (BPR's sister
site). Please check out the interesting update that examines a
possible connection between the path of the eclipse and
Freemasonry:

"Early last month we sent out info on the cities where the
eclipse was going to be total. It was mentioned that the eclipse
seemed to be going on a tour of Gothic cathedrals in Europe. On
further research it seems that almost every town/city had either
a cathedral, castle or some medieval fortification such as a
tower..."

==============

MISC SITE INFO

The Philologos Online Bookstore has had a facelift. First of
all, the name has been changed to "The BPR Reference Guide." The
previous name gave the impression that we were in the business
of selling books, which we're not. We just like talking about
them. In addition to book reviews, we've also added software
and video sections, listing our favorites in both categories. So
check us out and let us know what you think.

http://philologos.org/guide/

==============

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Unlocking The Mysteries of Revelation: Using the Keys of the
Feasts of the Lord by
Marilyn Mineer, Ginger Carlton

Paperback - 232 pages
0 edition (April 1, 1999)
Carlton/Mineer Publishing
ISBN: 0966867807

Book Description: An exciting look into the events of Jesus'
Second Coming, a subject of much interest at this time of the
coming millenium. Just as the Spring Feast of Passover was
prophetic of the First Coming of Jesus, God provided in the Fall
Feasts clues to Jesus' Second Coming. Viewed in the light of
Jesus, the Feasts of the Lord are not so many strange rituals
that the Jewish people observed back in the Old Testament. They
are connecting points to other revelations in His Word, as well
as the evidence that the Word is Divine in its authorship. Each
part fits perfectly into the other and they all point to Him in
whom the love of God was manifested. It is our goal to provide
you with an understanding of the Feasts and with this
information we will take you into the book of Revelation where
you will begin to see the fulfillment of Jesus' work through the
Feasts.

From the Back Cover: If the grotesque beasts and utter
destruction cause your stomach to swim and all the angels flying
about make your head buzz, this study on the Revelation of Jesus
Christ recorded by John is the book for you.

This text will bring clear understanding for both the casual
and serious scholar. It will also bring surprising answers to
questions you may have never thought to ask:

Why didn't Jesus know the day of his return?
What did Jesus really mean when he said, "It is finished"?
Why the lake of fire?
What's being served at the Wedding Supper?

While arguments about the time of the rapture and the identity
of the beast have been focused upon by many, the glorious
message of this Revelation has been largely ignored.

We are confident when you complete this study, the last book of
the Bible will become a familiar favorite.

BPR Comments: I have several books and commentaries related to
Revelation in my library. The authors of every one of them
approach this book of the Bible with a specific rapture scenario
in mind (i.e., pre-, mid-, or post-trib). Some commentators,
unfortunately, will arrange, re-arrange, pre-arrange, twist and
manipulate the various verses of Revelation to fit their basic
rapture scenario. The authors of Unlocking the Mysteries of
Revelation have put aside such scenarios and opinions and have
allowed the Feasts of the Lord to direct their study of
Scripture. As the Spring Feasts were completely and perfectly
fulfilled by Jesus with His First Coming, it is logical to
conclude that the same will occur with the Fall Feasts at
Christ's Second Coming. It is this avenue that Unlocking the
Mysteries of Revelation explores.

The authors first provide background material on the tabernacle
and the spring and fall feasts. In Chapter 3, a
"Passover/Resurrection Chart" is presented that is accompanied
by one of the clearest and best explanations dealing with the
specific day of the week that Christ was crucified on that I
have ever read. This is followed by two very informative and
interesting chapters: Marriage & Adultery and Kingship. With
the information that these chapters provide, it is the authors'
intent to give their readers a basic understanding of the Feasts
that will hopefully lead to greater insight into the book of
Revelation -- insight that will "unlock" passages of Scripture
that may have been a "mystery" before.

The book is in large format that allows readers to jot down
personal notes and information. In addition to this, there are
"key" and "lock" symbols in the margins -- an interesting and
unique feature that highlight important words or concepts.

If you are looking for specific answers to problematic passages
in Revelation from the authors, you will be disappointed. As
stated in the Introduction, the goal of Unlocking the Mysteries
of Revelation is not to provide quick answers to such questions,
but to point the readers in the right direction by providing the
necessary tools for further study. It is specifically this
concept that makes this particular book stand out from all the
others that focus on Revelation. So if you are looking for a
new approach to your study of the last Book of the Bible, then
Unlocking the Mysteries of Revelation is for you.

For more info and a Table of Contents please see:
http://philologos.org/guide/books/carlton.ginger.1.htm

============
"A Bible that´s falling apart probably belongs to someone who
isn´t." --- Christian Johnson

Have a good couple of weeks!

----------
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owner-bpr@philologs.org

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