US-Israel Relationship

At CUFI, we believe a strong, secure, and sovereign Israel is key to a strong and secure United States. Israel needs America, and America needs Israel. We are two nations with shared values, defending the same principles, and thus engaged in the same fight against common enemies. On May 14, 1948, the US was the first country to recognize the nascent State of Israel just eleven minutes after Israel declared its independence. Since then, the US has been a friend to Israel, our most critical ally in the Middle East. One of CUFI’s core concerns is to shape and strengthen the US-Israel relationship to the safety and security of both our nations.

US-Israel Relationship

New US ambassador David Friedman arrives in Israel, prays for Trump

The new US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, arrived in the country on Monday to take up his position amid a swirling debate over whether the embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Immediately after arriving, Friedman traveled to Jerusalem, where he went to the Western Wall and offered a prayer for US President Donald Trump

US-Israel Relationship

Israeli UN Ambassador Urges Security Council to ‘Act Immediately’ to End Palestinian Authority Payments to Terrorists

The Security Council must “act immediately” to halt the flow of money from the Palestinian Authority to jailed terrorists, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon declared on Thursday.

“Aid provided by the donor countries to the PA every year ends up funding terrorists who murdered innocent Israelis,” Danon said in a statement.

In a letter sent…

US-Israel Relationship

President Trump ‘still reviewing’ embassy move to Jerusalem – White House

The president has not made a decision yet and is still reviewing that,” Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at the daily press briefing.

Sanders was asked about a report on the Hebrew-language news site NRG that implied Israeli sources were notified Trump had decided against moving the embassy and would sign a waiver in…

US-Israel Relationship

Nikki Haley rolling back UN’s ‘anti-Israel bias,’ Israeli official says

Former S.C. gov. Nikki Haley’s performance so far as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is getting rave reviews from one U.S. ally.

Israel’s justice minister told a New York crowd Sunday that her country is no longer “the United Nations’ punching bag,” now that Haley is representing the United States, according to the Washington Free Beacon….

US-Israel Relationship

US planes to fly in Israeli Air Force exercise this week

American and Israeli pilots will take to the skies for a joint exercise near the southern city of Eilat this week, the army said.

The drill will take place at the Israeli Air Force’s Ovda air base, just north of Eilat.

Ovda is the home of the air force’s Flying Dragon Squadron, also known as the Red Squadron, which plays the role of enemy…

US-Israel Relationship

US military chief to visit Israel, discuss IS, Syria – report

US military head Joseph Dunford will visit Tel Aviv on Monday to meet his Israeli counterparts and discuss fighting the Islamic State on the Jewish state’s borders, according to a report Sunday.

Dunford, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet with IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, according…

US-Israel Relationship

US lawmakers urge recognition of Jerusalem births as in Israel

Dozens of US lawmakers wrote a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week calling on him to change the longstanding policy of refusing to recognize Americans born in Jerusalem as individuals born in Israel.

The State Department has long resisted recognizing Jerusalem as part of Israel in Americans’ birth certificates and other…

US-Israel Relationship

Benjamin Netanyahu “I look forward to talks with Trump to advance peace”

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he looked forward to talking with US President Donald Trump about the best way to advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

He spoke just one day after Trump announced the start of a new peace processduring a joint press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud…

US-Israel Relationship

Ambassador Friedman’s First Stop in Israel the Kotel

WASHINGTON — David Friedman, the new US ambassador to Israel, will make the Western Wall his first official stop when he arrives at his post on May 14, US officials told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

Senior State Department officials confirmed the ambassador would travel to Israel in ten days, but declined to comment on where he will be taking…

US-Israel Relationship

Trump: Ask me in month about moving embassy to Jerusalem

US President Donald Trump refused to confirm reports that he would announce the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during a visit to Israel next month, but hinted Thursday that he may clarify the issue at that time.

On Thursday, Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis (R), who earlier this year led a one-man fact-finding trip to scout…

US-Israel Relationship

All 100 US senators to UN: End ‘unacceptable’ anti-Israel bias

All 100 US senators signed a letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres Thursday demanding an end to the “unacceptable” anti-Israel bias in the international body.

The strongly worded letter, authored by Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and released on Friday, was signed by every member of the US Senate.

US-Israel Relationship

Talks underway for Trump to make first Israel visit in May

Officials in Jerusalem and Washington are in advanced talks to arrange a visit by US President Donald Trump to Israel in May, an Israeli official said Wednesday in what would be Trump’s first ever visit to Israel.

The official confirmed talks were ongoing, but said no date had yet been set.

Israel Radio said the talks had been going on for…

US-Israel Relationship

Trump said bidding to defeat new anti-Israel UNESCO resolution

The Trump administration has reportedly ordered US ambassadors in UNESCO member states to initiate meetings with their host countries’ foreign ministries in a bid to defeat an anti-Israel resolution that is to be debated at the UN cultural organization next week.

The passage last October by 23 votes to 6 of a UNESCO resolution sponsored by Arab…

US-Israel Relationship

President Trump at Holocaust event vows ‘We will confront anti-Semitism’

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump delivered his strongest denunciation of anti-Semitism yet onTuesday, calling Holocaust deniers “accomplice(s) to this horrible evil” and vowing to “confront anti-Semitism.”

In a keynote speech inside the ornate US Capitol rotunda at an annual Holocaust remembrance event organized by the US Holocaust Memorial…

US-Israel Relationship

Allies knew of Holocaust in 1942, 2 years before previously assumed, UN documents prove

Recently released documents show that the Allied forces were aware of the scale of the Holocaust some two years earlier than previously assumed. They did little to stop the deaths or rescue the victims.

The unsealed United Nations files show that the US, UK and Russia knew as early as December 1942 that two million Jews had been massacred and…

US-Israel Relationship

Defense Secretary James Mattis to Visit Israel During Week-Long Middle East Trip Meant to ‘Reaffirm Key US Military Alliances

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis will stop in Israel this coming Friday during a week-long trip to the Middle East.

During his visit — Mattis’ first to the Jewish state since taking over at the Pentagon in January — the retired Marine general will hold meetings with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and…

US-Israel Relationship

When Moses almost parted the Red Sea on the Great Seal of the United States

If Ben Franklin had his way, the Great Seal of the United States might have featured Moses instead of a bald eagle.

Moses was one of several Hebrew prophets admired by the Puritans who created the early American colonies, and the revolutionaries who led those colonies to independence. This reverence is part of a provocative new book by Yale…

US-Israel Relationship

Palestinian men convicted of killing American tourist in Israel charged in US

Two Palestinian men convicted in Israel of murdering a U.S. citizen who was hiking near an Israeli archaeological site could face prosecution in the United States if they’re ever released from an Israeli prison.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement Thursday that Ayad Fatafta and Kifah Ghanimat each face a…