A New Perspective on Constantine

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – After saying that no Israeli officials would attend the Bahrain peace conference on June 25-26, which is set to unveil the economic portion of the Trump administration’s answer to Middle East peace, the White House has invited former Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Yoav Mordechai, the Times of Israel reported Tuesday.

Mordechai, whose branch of government headed liaisons between Israel and the Palestinians, is the only Israeli official on record to attend so far, as senior Trump administration officials said political figures were originally disbarred from the conference “to make it as apolitical as possible.”

The conference, advertised last month in the Bahrain Mirror under the heading “Peace to Prosperity,” is being helmed by senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, with business leaders from United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco scheduled to attend.

In a CNN commentary Sunday Greenblatt called the effort “a pivotal opportunity to convene government, civil society, and business leaders to share ideas, discuss strategies, and galvanize support for potential economic investments,” saying the attendees were “leaders who recognize the region deserves the opportunity that can only be unlocked with a peace agreement.”

Israeli Channel 13 News originally reported Monday that a White House source said Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and other Israeli government officials would not be attending.

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Israel is holding its first drills with US-purchased F-35 fighter jets this week, in a large-scale exercise designed to simulate a war with northern adversaries Hezbollah, Syria, and Russia.

Beginning on Sunday, the exercise, which marshals the full array of Israeli Air Force (IAF) technology, will last until Wednesday and span the Golan Heights, Jordan Rift Valley, Upper Galilee, Nahariyya and the Sea of Galilee.

“We are training at very high intensity with a challenging, thinking enemy that possesses technology beyond what currently exists in the arena,” a senior IAF officer told the Times of Israel Tuesday, as the exercise anticipates country-wide missile barrages and interface with advanced technologies like the Russian S-400 missile defense system.

Most telling perhaps was the exercise’s inclusion of a scenario involving a war on three fronts, one in Gaza Strip, one in Lebanon, and one in Syria: Three areas that serve as the base of operations for the Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and Fadl al-Abbas (LAFA) Iranian terror proxies respectively.

Israel’s last northern war was with Hezbollah in 2006’s Second Lebanon war, in which 165 Israelis, and more than 600 Hezbollah fighters, were killed, and which ended with a tenuous UN-brokered ceasefire.

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – China is seeking to deter the US from its current Iran policy, Reuters reports.

Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi upbraided the Trump administration Tuesday for its “extreme pressure methods” against the Iranian regime, saying the economic sanctions designed to bring Iran to heel regarding its pursuit of nuclear arms and proxy activities could open a “Pandora’s box” in the Middle East.

“Any unilateral behavior has no basis in international law. Not only will it not resolve the problem, it will only create an even greater crisis,” said Yi in Beijing after meeting with Syria’s foreign minister.

China suffered perhaps the greatest blow on May 1st when the Trump administration implemented sanctions on Iran’s oil industry geared toward bringing its oil exports to zero, revoking six months of waivers that had allowed China and seven other countries to continue to purchase Iranian oil without penalties.

Last year, Reuters reports that China purchased 585,400 barrels of Iranian oil per day, making it Iran’s foremost crude oil customer.

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(Worthy News) – A squadron of American F-15E Strike Eagles arrived in United Arab Emirates on Thursday as part of reinforcements against the Iranian threat as announced last month by the Pentagon.

President Trump announced the additional military presence in the Middle East last month, saying additional 1,500 troops will be sent together with a squadron of U.S. Air Force jets.

The arrival of the U.S. jets on Thursday coincided with an attack on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, an attack that the U.S. says was perpetrated by the Iranian regime.

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(Worthy News) – Americans gave less to charity in 2018 than a year earlier, following changes in the tax law and fourth-quarter declines in the stock market, according to a new report.

Charitable giving by individuals America fell 1.1% to $292 billion in 2018 compared with 2017, according to Giving USA. Because giving by foundations and companies increased, total giving in the U.S. increased slightly, by 0.7%, to $428 billion.

The decline in giving by individuals comes after the new Republican-backed tax law, which took effect in 2018, reduced the tax incentives of giving for many households. The law signed by President Donald Trump doubled the standard deduction for families to $24,000, meaning far fewer households itemized and took a deduction for charity. [ Source: CNBC (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – China’s maritime early warning radar system is immune to “radar killer” missiles and is capable of detecting stealth aircraft, according to its developer in a recent interview with media.

The maritime radar system, developed by a team led by Chinese academician Liu Yongtan, can detect naval and aerial hostiles hundreds of kilometers away under any weather condition.

It features high frequency electromagnetic waves that have long wavelengths and wide beams, Liu said in an interview with the Naval and Merchant Ships magazine published this month. [ Source: Global Times (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Iranian missiles are capable of carrying out precision strikes on aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami said Tuesday in an interview with Iranian state television.

“Ballistic missile technology has improved and changed the balance of power in the Middle East,” Salami added.

Salami’s remarks come on the heels of a US announcement that it would be sending another 1,000 troops to the Middle East in response to the ongoing crisis with Iran. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Next week’s meeting in Jerusalem between the national security advisers of Israel, the United States, and Russia is “very important for the stability of the Middle East during these turbulent times,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

Speaking at a memorial ceremony in Jaffa for the victims of the Altalena, Netanyahu asserted that the tripartite meeting testifies strongly to Israel’s standing today among the nations.

The meeting that is scheduled to take place from June 24-26, was first proposed by Netanyahu at the Kremlin in February, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin discussing Iran’s presence in Syria. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The top members of the Senate Appropriations Committee have struck a deal on President Trump’s request for more funding tied to the U.S.-Mexico border after weeks of stalemate, two aides confirmed to The Hill.

The deal — worked out between Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the top Democrat on the panel — would provide Trump more than $4.5 billion for the border funding package.

The agreement will be marked up in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, and is expected to get a vote on the Senate floor before lawmakers leave for the July 4th recess next week. [ Source: The Hill (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A record 71 million people have been displaced worldwide from war, persecution and other violence, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday, an increase of more than 2 million from last year and an overall total that would amount to the world’s 20th most populous country.

The annual “Global Trends” report released by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees counts the number of the world’s refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people at the end of 2018, in some cases following decades of living away from home.

The figures, coming on the eve of World Refugee Day on Thursday, are bound to add fuel to a debate at the intersection of international law, human rights and domestic politics, especially the movement in some countries, including the U.S., against immigrants and refugees. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

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