Word: strengthened
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...since Benedict's election, his relations with Jews--although similar in broad outline to John Paul's--have been plagued by mixed messages that have caused critics to wonder whether he has botched the opportunity to redress past shortcomings and strengthen the church's ties to the Jewish people. Like John Paul, Benedict came of age in one of the Holocaust's European slaughterhouses, and many expected that the Bavarian, like the Pole, could turn his somber history into a special authority for combatting anti-Semitism and pursuing the pro-Jewish reforms the church enacted at the Second Vatican Council...
...documentation that comes with the film is first rate. It will be very helpful for educational purposes. It may even strengthen the hand of peacemakers...
...Still, the Iranian back-channel message came at an important moment in U.S.-Iranian relations. Washington is pursuing a new policy of engagement with Iran and has tried to reassure the mullahs that its diplomatic overtures are sincere. It is trying to strengthen the hand of Iranian moderates who want to pursue diplomacy and undermine hard-liners who want to maintain hostile relations with the West. The Saberi case offered an opportunity to do both. (Read "Talking to Iran - or Talking...
...Iranian pragmatists over hard-liners - and the U.S. may find a benefit in reciprocating. Releasing the detained Iranians could build trust for talks between Washington and Tehran on security issues in Afghanistan and Iraq and also on the thorny issue of Iran's nuclear program. And it could strengthen the hand of the Iranian pragmatists who sent the signal through the European diplomatic channel...
North Korea's rocket launch of April 5, the U.N. Security Council vote to condemn the launch and strengthen sanctions, and the North's decision of April 14 to pull out of the six-party talks have thrown a monkey wrench into prospects for a negotiated resolution of Pyongyang's nuclear-weapon and missile programs. On the surface it appears that North Korea is again embarked on a threatening course; it has vowed to continue work on its contested weapons programs. But on closer examination, the North's weapons tests always occur at times of insecurity. Its tough posturing belies...