At CUFI, we are focused on several key issues with the goal of defending Israel’s strength, security, and sovereignty.
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12/17/2020
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla lit the Hanukkah candles at a virtual ceremony organized by the Israeli embassy in Washington on Wednesday evening, just days after his pharmaceutical corporation received the final go-ahead to distribute its coronavirus vaccine across the US.
Introducing Bourla, Ambassador Ron Dermer pointed out that the...
CUFI Coffee Break
Lesson 45
A four-year period of violence and terrorism broke out on December 8, 1987 after rumors spread in Gaza that Israel had killed four Palestinians in retaliation for an Israeli who had been stabbed to death. Huge riots soon broke out among the Palestinians, and each additional death added fuel to the fire. In the eyes of...
12/16/2020
A bipartisan bill to elevate the status of the U.S. special envoy on anti-Semitism overwhelmingly passed in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) reintroduced the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act in January 2019. Although the bill passed the U.S. House Representatives that same month, the...
12/17/2020
Turkey's top diplomat says Ankara to slap retaliatory restrictions on Washington
Turkey will not cancel its acquisition of Russian-made S-400 air defense batteries over US sanctions, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday.
The top Turkish diplomat also said that Ankara will retaliate with tit-for-tat measures against...
12/17/2020
British MP Ian Paisley Jr. delivered a shocking presentation last week during a House of Commons debate, saying the American government does not share military intelligence with Qatar, where the US has a huge military base, because the Gulf monarchy is aligned with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“Some of the reading in that report...
12/17/2020
Iranian regime intelligence agents arrested the brother and father of Navid Afkari, the champion Greco-Roman wrestler who was illegally executed by the regime in September for his participation in a protest against the clerical system of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
According to a Thursday report on the website of IranWire, “A...
12/15/2020
Israel’s Missile Defense Organization and the US Missile Defense Agency have successfully completed an unprecedented, historic test designed to confront multiple threats using a multitiered system. Nothing like this has ever been reported to have been done before, and it represents a response to the latest threats emerging in the...
12/16/2020
Abu Dhabi Securities exchange (ADX) and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, the ADX and TASE announced in a joint statement.
This is the first time an Arab exchange has entered into a commercial relationship with the State of Israel, according to the statement. The MOU aims to...
12/15/2020
Parents and students at a Jewish school in Long Island, New York, were left deeply shaken on Monday after hackers using the name “K-ke Slayer” defaced the institution’s website with Nazi imagery and antisemitic invective.
Shortly after 4 p.m. on Monday afternoon, visitors to the website of the Great Neck North Shore Hebrew Academy...
12/16/2020
Turkey has in the last few weeks sought to use media connections abroad to push narratives about how it wants reconciliation with Israel, even as its own media pushes extremist anti-Israel comments. One commentator, according to T24 Turkish media, said that Turkey could “enter Tel Aviv in 48 hours.” He claimed, “we are not like the...
12/15/2020
Iron Dome system upgrade not only includes short-range rockets and mortars but also drones, cruise missiles.
Israel's Defense Ministry in conjunction with the United States Missile Defense Agency (USMDA) announced Tuesday a successful series of intercept tests of an advanced version of the David's Sling Weapon System.
The Israel...
12/13/2020
Trailblazing change, Morocco on Sunday announced that its schools will soon begin teaching Jewish history and culture as part of the official curriculum — a first in the region and in the North African country, where Islam is the state religion.
The decision follows King Mohammed VI of Morocco’s decision to normalize relations...
12/14/2020
Iranian intelligence officers were involved in Bob Levinson's abduction and detention,' FBI director says
The United States for the first time accused Iran of direct involvement in the "probable death" of former FBI agent Bob Levinson, who vanished 13 years ago, and imposed sanctions on two intelligence agents.
Releasing the...
12/14/2020
A delegation from both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain took part Monday evening in the central menorah lighting at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, in a ceremony described by the site’s chief rabbi as a “Hanukkah miracle.”
The group was made up of social activists and opinion leaders from the Gulf countries, visiting Israel as...
12/13/2020
Israeli airline El Al is planning to operate at least one daily flight to Morocco, Israeli business daily Globes reported on Friday.
The report came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announcedthat the North African country had agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel.
Until now, Israelis have had to...
12/14/2020
Jerusalem’s Old City can now add another global feather to its cap: The archeological tunneling to explore and excavate its history has just won worldwide recognition by the International Tunneling and Underground Space Association (ITA).
Coming in at first place in the “Oddities of the Underground” category in the ITA’s sixth...
12/14/2020
The Trump administration announced on Monday that it has imposed sanctions on Turkey for acquiring a Russian missile-defense system.
The United States sanctioned Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) in accordance with the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) of 2017 for receiving the S-400...
12/14/2020
The U.S. Congress passed a $741 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the 2021 fiscal year last week that includes the continuation of American assistance to Israel for missile-defense programs and other initiatives.
The Pentagon blueprint, which will need an appropriations bill to fund it, passed the U.S. House of...
12/13/2020
The visit comes just weeks ahead of US VP Mike Pence's trip to the Jewish state on January 13
"We shouldn't go back to business as usual with Iran," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted in a press briefing with US National Security Adviser Robert C. O'Brien that was held in Jerusalem on Sunday.
As US President-elect...
12/13/2020
Fakhrizadeh was killed on a major road outside Tehran in late November in a bomb and gun attack
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday posthumously awarded a prestigious military decoration to top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated last month, state television reported.
Fakhrizadeh was...
