Modern though it may seem, the question of who wrote the Hebrew scriptures is actually discussed in ancient Jewish sources; in fact, the talmudic rabbis were well aware that books might have been written first in one form and then redacted by later editors. The standard account appears in the Babylonian Talmud, but an alternate version associated with the Masoretes, 10th-century scribes in northern Israel who preserved the old manuscripts of the Bible, appears in (among other places) a fragment found in the Cairo Geniza. Kim Phillips speculates as to which version might be the original:

Last week, Russia negotiated a ceasefire between the Syrian government and rebel forces in the city of Daraa, where the initial protests that sparked the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began. The agreement ended a 75-day assault on the city, located near the country’s southwestern border, by Russian, Iranian, and Syrian forces. Jonathan Spyer explains the significance of these events: