A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – The Zionist Union and Meretz took moves on Wednesday to prepare for an early election, in light of the breakneck developments in corruption scandals involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a letter to Zionist Union MKs, party leader Avi Gabbay wrote on Tuesday night: “The events of the last two days and recent hours make very clear: The Netanyahu era is over. We must prepare for an election soon.”

“The criminal house of cards the prime minister built in recent years – corrupting the civil service, harming the rule of law, threatening freedom of the press and, more than all else, dividing Israeli society – is crashing on him and around him,” he added. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A Venezuelan evangelical pastor who is running for president said on Wednesday that religious leaders have earned the right to enter politics in Latin America due to the failure of politicians in the region, where Protestant candidates are on the rise.

Javier Bertucci said in an interview on Wednesday that his promise to restore “values” lost during the OPEC country’s economic crisis would be enough to defeat President Nicolas Maduro in the April 22 vote, which the opposition coalition is boycotting on accusations that the election is rigged.

“If anyone deserves it, it’s us, because we’ve been there for many years, we’ve been there with the poor, with the needy,” said Bertucci, founder of the Maranatha Church in the central state of Carabobo. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A Venezuelan evangelical pastor who is running for president said on Wednesday that religious leaders have earned the right to enter politics in Latin America due to the failure of politicians in the region, where Protestant candidates are on the rise.

Javier Bertucci said in an interview on Wednesday that his promise to restore “values” lost during the OPEC country’s economic crisis would be enough to defeat President Nicolas Maduro in the April 22 vote, which the opposition coalition is boycotting on accusations that the election is rigged.

“If anyone deserves it, it’s us, because we’ve been there for many years, we’ve been there with the poor, with the needy,” said Bertucci, founder of the Maranatha Church in the central state of Carabobo. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A week after the massacre at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead, the sheriff in charge of investigating the shooting has ordered deputies to carry rifles on school grounds “from this point forward.”

“Our deputies who are qualified and trained will be carrying rifles on school grounds from this point forward,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said during a news conference Wednesday — one week after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Israel said the policy was implemented Wednesday morning and deputies will be required to keep their rifles locked in their police vehicle when they are not being carried. [ Source: NBC News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – In a speech to US Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday his country’s elite military intelligence unit had prevented the bombing of an “Australian airliner.”

“The Israeli intelligence services thwarted the downing of an Australian plane, an unimaginable slaughter,” the Israeli leader told delegates.

“This would have caused a major disruption in global air transport, and this is only one of dozens of terrorist attacks we have foiled around the world,” Netanyahu said, without giving any other details. [ Source: Deutche Welle (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Trump administration waived key sanctions on Iran’s main propaganda network last month, causing outrage among Iranian dissidents and administration insiders who tracked the effort to a little known Obama-era side deal with Iran that bars these sanctions from being implemented, according to multiple sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

The Trump administration, in an unpublicized move, waived sanctions on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB, a satellite service that disseminates propaganda across Iran and routinely censors content. Iranian dissidents who took to the streets in a renewed wave of protests had called on the Trump administration to sanction the IRIB in a bid to prevent the Iranian regime from crushing the latest protests.

While the Trump administration had initially promised to issue new sanctions on the IRIB, the State Department blocked the effort due to a little-known agreement reached between the Obama administration and Iran during the sensitive negotiations that led to the landmark nuclear agreement. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem a “dangerous” development in a speech before the United Nations, then walked out before U.S. envoy Nikki Haley retorted that “we will not chase after you.”

Abbas, who renewed his call for an international conference this year to seek a Mideast accord, has vowed not to meet with U.S. officials until the Jerusalem embassy decision is reversed.

“To solve the Palestine question, it is essential to establish a multilateral international mechanism emanating from an international conference,” Abbas said, adding he hoped “to find a way out of the stalemate and crisis we are in.”

However, he finished his address with a warning — which others may read as a threat — of violence unless the U.S. restores funds that were cut to the UN Relief and Works Agency, which administers to millions of Palestinian refugees. [ Source: Bloomberg (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Nigerian army rescued about 80 girls abducted by Boko Haram militants in a raid at a school on Wednesday.

The girls were rescued at a border town between Borno and Yobe and were taken to the Geidam Army Base to undergo medical checks, CNN reported.

Mohammed Alamin, the commissioner of education for Yobe state, said the school will be visited to check names off a list in order to confirm the exact number of girls rescued. [ Source: UPI (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Iran and Israel are on a collision course over Tehran’s expanding footprint in Syria, raising the odds of a direct clash between the region’s two military heavyweights that could quickly draw in other combatants.

With Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, Iran’s most potent military ally, emboldened by their success in upholding Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israel is growing more and more wary of being attacked by missiles not just from southern Lebanon but also from inside Syria.

Israel has been sporadically bombing Hezbollah positions in Syria for the past three years. But the situation reached new heights this month when what Israel said was an Iranian armed stealth drone was intercepted and downed over Israel and an Israeli F-16 fighter jet was in turn shot down by anti-aircraft fire from inside Syria during a retaliatory airstrike. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]