- Welcome to The 700 Club.
For today's top headlines,
let's go over to the CBN News Desk.
- Gordon this could be ahistoric moment in Israel
the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's term
as the country's longestserving Prime Minister,
Sunday, Naftali Bennett announced
he will join another Israelipolitician Yair Lapid,
to form a wide rangingcoalition government,
made up of people with differing views.
But there are questions
about whether such a governmentwill be able to survive.
Chris Mitchell brings usthe story from Jerusalem.
- [Chris] Naftali Bennett,a right wing former ally
of Netanyahu,
told the Nation thatthe proposed coalition,
would bring unity backto Israeli politics.
- [Translator] A government like this
will succeed only if wework together as a group.
Not I, but we, we will bring back the we,
that was Israel secret weapon
since the day of its establishment.
All parties are invitedto join the government.
For the government to succeed,
we all need all partners in negotiations,
and after that to show restraint.
- [Chris] Minutes afterBennet's announcement,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
warned the new governmentwould put Israel in danger.
- [Translator] I call on thethe members who were elected
with the right winning votes.
I call on those who have aconscience and who have a path
go on with this path.
Don't establish a leftist government.
A government like this is a danger
to the security of Israel,
and is also a danger tothe future of the state.
- [Chris] According to the agreement
between Bennett and Lapid,
they would rotate theoffice of Prime Minister
with Bennett going first.
Lapid is considered a keyfigure of the secular left.
While Bennett is more of aleader of the religious right.
They have until Wednesdayto finalize the deal
with parties from the right, center, left,
along with the supportof an Arab Islamic Party.
This is the so-called change block,
in order to oust Prime Minister Netanyahu.
- When you have a rightwing and a left wing party,
that is coming together,not based on issues,
but based on trying to get ridof a particular personality,
that results in a fairlyunstable government,
in generally they don't last very long.
So, there's a good chance
that they will be moreelections in Israel,
before you get to themidterm elections in the US.
- [Chris] Political analyst, Elie Pieprz
says if Lapid and Bennett
succeed in forming a newgovernment, it will be tested.
- Israel's enemies will belooking for Israel's weaknesses,
looking for weaknesses ina coalition government,
that is really not based on very much,
very easily to knockdown this house of cards.
So it is something that willencourage Israel distractors,
Israel enemies in the world,
to try to take advantageof this new weakness.
- Any new government will facea set of daunting challenges
Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran's nuclear program,
internal tension between Jews and Arabs,
and the rise of antisemitismaround the world.
Along with the US administration
not nearly as friendly as the last one.
It's why Pieprz and others say,
it's a vital time to be prayingfor the peace of Jerusalem.
Chris Mitchell, CBN News, Jerusalem.
- Back here at home, Americais marking Memorial Day,
it's annual day
to remember those who gavetheir lives for their country.
And Americans have beenon the go this weekend,
traveling like they haven't
since before the COVID pandemic began.
Because now there are fewer cases,
increased vaccinations anddeclining restrictions.
Heather Sells has the story.
- [Heather] Americans havestayed at home for over a year,
but no more.
This Memorial Day weekend,
more than 37 million aretraveling up 60% from last year.
- I remember last year it was like empty,
now it's, all seats are full.
- Brings a sense of freedom,
and just to get out again.
- So, I haven't been home in two years,
so, whatever I gotta do to get home,
I'm gonna do it to get home.
- [Heather] One key reasonpeople are out and about
they are clearly less anxious.
A new Yahoo News poll Friday,
shows only 15% of Americans arevery worried about COVID-19.
They're feeling safer in partbecause of plummeting cases.
The daily number is down nearly70% in the last six weeks.
Plus, Americans are getting vaccinated.
Over half have received at least one shot,
helping to drive that,
the recent eligibilityof 12 to 15 year olds.
- The real game changerhas been the vaccine.
- [Heather] with Americans more confident,
the airlines are gearingup for a busy summer.
- 2020 obviously became theworst year we've ever had.
Now 20 21 is right here in the middle
and regrowing back towards 2019 levels.
- [Heather] What's also helping big cities
like Chicago and New York
and big states likeMassachusetts and Minnesota,
lifting COVID restrictions.
One plot twist this weekend,
some downright cold weather
in parts of the Northeastand Mid-Atlantic.
- It is absolutely disappointing.
- [Heather] But temperatures are expected
to start climbing againtoday in many places.
(bugle music)
Across the country Americansare remembering those who died
while serving their country,
from Watertown Massachusettsto Sacramento, California
- Every year, the VFW organizes,putting crosses and flags
on the graves of veterans
to honor those who haveserved in the military.
- [Heather] People areenjoying get togethers
that are long overdue andhoping to put COVID-19
in the rear view mirror as summer begins.
Heather Sells CBN News.
- President Biden marked hisfirst Memorial Day weekend
as Commander In Chief
by honoring those who sacrificethemselves for the Nation.
The President made his annual appearance,
at the commemoration inNew Castle, Delaware.
Not far from his home.
The president alsoremembered his late son Beau,
who served in the National Guard in Iraq
and died from cancer six years earlier
to the day of the President's speech.
- Because as a nation,we must always remember
always remember, youmust remember the price
that was paid for our liberties,
we must remember the debt, weowe those who have paid it.
The families left behind,
my heart is torn in half by the grief,
the communities, we're never whole again.
Beau didn't die in the line of duty,
but he was serving
at Delaware National Guardunit in Iraq for a year.
That was one of the proudestthings he did in his life.
- Biden has attended the ceremony
nearly every year for decades.
Turning now to Washingtonand the Museum of the Bible
where they're observing this Memorial Day
in their own special way.
Jenna Browder brings us that story.
- There is a lot to see hereat the Museum of the Bible
and in line with Memorial Day,
there are several Bibles thataccompanied soldiers into war.
They tell powerful stories.
- This is our Bible in America gallery,
where we talk aboutthe impact of the Bible
from the pilgrims all theway down to the present day.
- Meet Dr. Jeffrey Kloha
the museum's Chief Curatorial Officer.
- We have several objects
that relate to really bothsides in the civil war
and how the Bible was a sourceof comfort and encouragement
to soldiers on both sideson a personal level.
- [Jenna] In this particular case,
items belonging to George Room,
who served on one of the firstAfrican-American regiments.
- He's posed in his military uniform,
so pretty cool,
that we have all fromone individual like that.
- It's neat to put a faceto someone's artifact.
- There's the guy in 1864 whois using this Bible, right?
- There's also a veryfamous piece of Americana.
- The "Battle Hymn of the Republic"
was civil war song.
It was written by Julia Ward Howe.
- [Jenna] Is that her right there?
- [Dr. Jeffrey] That's her there, yeah.
And she wrote this actuallyjust about a mile away
from here at the Willard Hotel.
- A song she wrote to bolster the troops.
- And partly she says to replace
the less than pious songsthat they were singing right?
- Behind the scenes,
Jeff takes us beneath the museum
where they keep even more wartime Bibles.
This letter written by PresidentWoodrow Wilson in 1917.
Encouraging soldiers to read the Bible.
- This proclamation
would be printed insidethese little pocket Bibles,
which would be distributed to soldiers.
- [Jenna] And then there's this one.
- Yeah, a little bit of character.
Now, this is a Civil War era Bible,
and it's actually in German.
- [Jenna] What's unique about it?
- See that stain there?
That's almost certainly, bloodthat ended up on the Bible,
and left the stain from the Civil War.
So again, it shows the cost of war,
and the price people paidto maintain our freedom.
- [Jenna] One Bible isparticularly special to Jeff.
- Yeah this one, I threw in here,
now this is not actuallyin the museum collection,
it was owned by my grandfather,
John Flack, who servedin the Second World War.
- Jeff's grandfather foughtin the Battle of the Bulge.
- This was given to him by his pastor.
It's a leather cover, andyou can tell it's quite worn,
he must've carried it allover in his battle gear.
- [Jenna] Back upstairs,more one of a kind Bibles,
including those donatedby past presidents.
A President Donald Trump, andthe museum's newest edition,
a Bible from President Jimmy Carter.
Received just a few weeks ago.
- Inside the front cover
is the name and phone numberof the Sunday school teacher
from First Baptist Church here in DC.
And we know from presidential archives
that he attended that church60 times during his presidency.
- And if you can't make it to the museum,
several of these Bibles arefeatured on the museum's website
just go to the Collections Taband you can find them there.
in Washington, Jenna Browder, CBN News.
- America honors those whodefend it and have died for it.
But even before it was a Nation,
soldiers were gatheringto take up the cause
of the American coloniesagainst their British overlords.
Yet they would be led by men
whose first businesswasn't war, but prayer.
Paul Strand tells us
their first comingtogether in Philadelphia
and how it was under God.
- Feeling the lash of British oppression,
colonial representatives
first met at Philadelphia'sCarpenters' Hall in 1774.
But no one was sure how tobegin a Continental Congress.
Firebrand Samuel Adams
jumped in with a controversial proposal.
- Let's open in prayer,
Isn't that amazing, America is opened up
with a proposal for prayer
and it begins with the debate over prayer.
We can pray.
- [Paul] Because Historian Peter Lillback
points out they were Catholics,
or protestants from a widearray of denominations.
- [Peter] They never prayed together,
they all thought they werefrom different religions.
They thought we're biblical orwe're true, and they're not.
- [Paul] Adams was a congregationalist
basically a Puritan like thosewho under Oliver Cromwell
fought a vicious civil waragainst England's Anglicans.
- [Peter] And the Puritanshad chopped off the head
of the Head of the Anglican Church,
he's called Charles The First The King.
- [Paul] But Adams made arevolutionary statement.
- I can pray with any man
who loves his God and loves his country.
So here he is a congregationalist
and he says I hearthere's just such a man,
over in that church, overthere, the Anglican Church.
- [Paul] He proposedhis pastor Jacob Duche,
open the Congress in prayer.
- It was at that moment
that Samuel Adams created theAmerican Ecumenical Spirit
we're in the public square,
we can walk over ourdenominational boundaries.
Literally, if you will,he stepped over the isle.
- [Paul] Duche came,
but all dressed up andfancy priestly robes.
- He came in his full pontificals,
which meant he was really decked out,
with the very things the Puritans hated.
- [Paul] He held the AnglicanBook of Common Prayer,
which Puritans loath.
But then Duche began the reading,
set long ago for that day in the book.
With a possible war looming,
the Congress felt it was atotally prophetic moment,
As the reading was from Psalm 35.
About being loyal to anelder who suddenly betrays.
- That we had been loyalto the mother country,
and they're turningagainst us and harming us.
- [Paul] It startedout, fight against them,
that fight against me.
John Adams wrote his wife.
- So you would havethought in God's providence
that was put into the Book of Common
for just for this day for us.
- [Paul] Duche's prayer,
then ask God for freedom fromthe rod of America's oppressor
and ended in the name of Jesus Christ.
- It's quite a remarkable moment
that, that's where theAmerican story began in prayer,
as opposite sides came together
for a greater good in the name of Christ.
- [Paul] Paul strand, CBN News
Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia.
