Mostly on use of definite article - either OK?

Hi. Please help me with these. Please answer these questions.

1. I think either with the definite article "the" and without is correct. What do you think? Let us pretend the letters "ZZZ" represent a company.

(The) Final approval of the transaction was given by ZZZ upon (the) recommendation of its committee.

2. In Esther 8:17 of the New International Version of the Bible, it is written:

In every province and in every city, wherever the edict of the king went, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.

Could a person have put the definite article "the" before the word "fear" in the last line and be considered grammatical?

3. I think either with the definite article "the" and without is correct. What do you think?

(sentence in a lesson plan)

(The) Class will be divided into groups and perform the routine that has been taught.

4. In Answers.com, the entry for the phrase "collateral damage" was this. Do you think we would be correct grammatically to say "Unintended damage, injury, or death caused by an action, especially unintended civilian casualties caused by a military operation."?

n.

Unintended damage, injuries, or deaths caused by an action, especially unintended civilian casualties caused by a military operation.