A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – With the ink on the reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas not yet dry, with the mutual declarations of “real reconciliation on behalf of Palestinian national strength” still reverberating in the background, the first signs of division over the implementation of understandings began to surface over the weekend.

In response to reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is demanding Hamas relinquish its weapons as a condition for lifting the sanctions he imposed on the group, and reports in the Egyptian press that the head of Egyptian intelligence, Khaled Fawzy, relayed a message to Abbas that Hamas will not agree to discuss the demand, senior Hamas representatives said over the weekend that the terrorist group will not accept any dictates or conditions that include dismantling its military wing.

Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas member, said in an interview with the Lebanese-based Al-Mayadeen network that only armed struggle against Israel will lead to results. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of a THAAD anti-missile defense system to Saudi Arabia at an estimated cost of $15 billion, the Pentagon said on Friday, citing Iran among regional threats.

The approval opens the way for Saudi Arabia to purchase 44 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launchers and 360 missiles, as well as fire control stations and radars.

“This sale furthers U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, and supports the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of Iranian and other regional threats,” the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation agency said in a statement. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – As in-fighting consumes the British government, Europeans have stepped up quiet preparations for a possible collapse of Brexit talks that could see Britain crash out of the EU without a deal 18 months from now.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU counterparts still see the “no-deal scenario” she threatened them with as most unlikely, as they think it would hurt Britain much more than the continent.

But after her faltering party conference last week and ahead of important meetings in Brussels over the next fortnight, diplomats and officials there and in big member states said they have been putting renewed focus on contingency planning for a legal limbo in March 2019 and urging businesses to do the same. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Astonishingly, for three years U.S. government bureaucrats have refused to help endangered religious minority communities like Christians and Yazidis survive the genocide ISIS began in 2014. These communities stand on the brink of extinction.

As a witness from Iraq testified at a congressional hearing I chaired Tuesday (Oct. 3) — the 10th hearing I have convened on the atrocities — “foreign aid decisions will determine whether Christianity and religious pluralism will survive in Iraq at all.”

The U.S. Agency for International Development is reviewing a proposal from the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee to repair 6,800 religious minority homes damaged or destroyed by ISIS on the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq. [ Source: Christian Headlines (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Determined to finally solve illegal immigration, the White House submitted a 70-point enforcement plan to Congress Sunday proposing the stiffest reforms ever offered by an administration — including a massive rewrite of the law in order to eliminate loopholes illegal immigrants have exploited to gain a foothold in the U.S.

The plans, seen by The Washington Times, include President Trump’s calls for a border wall, more deportation agents, a crackdown on sanctuary cities and stricter limits to chain migration — all issues the White House says need to be part of any bill Congress passes to legalize illegal immigrant “Dreamers” currently protected by the Obama-era deportation amnesty known as DACA.

But the plans break serious new ground on the legal front, giving federal agents more leeway to deny illegal immigrants at the border, to arrest and hold them when they’re spotted in the interior, and to deport them more speedily. The goal, the White House said, is to ensure major changes to border security, interior enforcement and the legal immigration system. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]