To hardline opponents of the pull-out, Mr Sharon is abandoning parts of the Promised Land that God gave to the Jews, a tragedy on a par with the Romans' sacking of Jerusalem or the Nazi Holocaust.

ECONOMIST: “Disengagement” completed | The

In the original Jewish narrative, the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 meant redemption, an escape from the genocidal persecution of the Nazis and a return to the land promised by God (for the religious) or historical precedent (for the secular).

ECONOMIST: Israeli and Palestinian history

Gathering in fields or villages during community festivals, members of the Korean ethnic group in Jilin and other provinces in north-eastern China offer a traditional sacrifice to the God of the Land to pay homage to nature and pray for good fortune and a plentiful harvest.

UNESCO: Culture

The novel alludes to the hopes for redemption in the stories of the Jewish tradition: the journey into the promised land, the coming of the Messiah, the renewal of the covenant between God and his chosen people.

ECONOMIST: New fiction

We're the heirs to a hard-earned history and stewards of a land of God-given beauty.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Pardons White House Turkey

And the President described the monument as a reminder that King's dream of "a land in which all of God's children might come together in a spirit of brotherhood" still beckons.

WHITEHOUSE: Our Top Stories

Whether the fires that again raged across Australia represent folly by man or Acts of God will be debated, but clearly much of the region is pushing its luck with land, water and air practices.

FORBES: Asia Week: India Suffers, Can It Soar Again?

For fifty generations in exile, it was the memory of those Jewish Centurions, manning the barricades that inspired us to keep faith with our traditions, our God, our law, and our land.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Jerusalem, the Eternal Front Line

The United States had been founded by descendants of emigrants from Protestant Britain and Holland who viewed their new land as a "city on a hill" that would initiate the "new Israel" and the Kingdom of God on Earth.

NPR: 'Folly of Empire' Offers Critique of U.S. Imperialism