ISSUES

At CUFI, we are focused on several key issues with the goal of defending Israel’s strength, security, and sovereignty.

If you want to keep up with all things Israel, sign up for CUFI’s Daily Briefing – our daily news roundup created exclusively for CUFI members. Every morning, Monday through Friday, receive an email with some of the top headlines in the news so you are always informed and ready to debunk lies with the truth.

Antisemitism

Fountain in California Dedicated to Holocaust Survivors Smashed

A fountain dedicated to Holocaust survivors that also was used for ritual hand-washing inside a California cemetery was toppled and smashed. 

Police are investigating the incident at Santa Rosa Memorial Park to determine if it was a hate crime, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported. The vandalism occurred on Sunday night or Monday morning.

A...

Terrorism

EU Pulls Funding for Palestinian NGO Refusing to Disavow Terror

The European Union has pulled funding from a Palestinian NGO after the organization refused to sign an anti-terror clause in the funding contract.

On Friday, the EU wrote to the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights to inform them that €1.7 million in funding for a three-year project, titled 'Mobilizing for Justice in...

Hamas

Israel Thwarts Hamas Arms Shipment to the Gaza Strip

Israeli naval forces thwarted a major arms shipment to the Gaza Strip by sea in a secret operation several weeks ago, the Israel Defense Forces revealed on Wednesday.

In what the IDF called “a significant operational achievement,” Muhammad Bachar, one of the two terrorists on board the boat and a key figure who has been actively involved in...

Syria

US Slaps Sweeping Sanctions on Syria in New Pressure Campaign

The US introduced sanctions Wednesday against dozens of individuals in Syria, including Asma al-Assad, the powerful wife of the country's President Bashar al-Assad.
"We anticipate many more sanctions and we will not stop until Assad and his regime stop their needless, brutal war against the Syrian people," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a...

In The News

UAE Foreign Minister Says Abu Dhabi, Israel ‘Can Actually Work Together’

As relations between Jerusalem and its Arab neighbors reportedly grow closer behind the scenes, UAE's Foreign Minister Dr Anwar Gargash said that his country and Israel "can actually work together" despite ongoing political differences.
The foreign minister made the overture during a historic conversation with the American Jewish Committee (AJC)...

Hezbollah

Lebanon: Hezbollah Chief Threatens Violence For Those Calling For Group’s Disarmament

"Our weapons will remain in our hands and we will not starve, we will kill you,” Nasrallah proclaims

If forced to choose between disarmament and starvation, Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist group will pick arms -- and use them against those urging it to give up its weapons, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed late on Tuesday.
In a televised...

In The News

Petition Against Freeing Murderers of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl Gets Over 10,000 Signatures

A petition being circulated urging Pakistani leaders not to free the killers of Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl has over 10,000 signatures and was praised by the murdered journalist’s father on Tuesday.

Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002 while on assignment for The Wall Street Journal. He was beheaded by his kidnappers shortly after...

Syria

Ahead of New Sanctions, US Pledges Assad Will Not Secure ‘Military Victory’

The United States on Tuesday warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he will never secure a full victory and must reach a political compromise, on the eve of stinging new sanctions.
The war-torn nation has seen an intensifying economic crisis and on Wednesday the Caesar Act takes effect, a US law that targets companies that deal with...

Iran

German Intel Report Lays Bare Iran’s Attempts to Obtain Nuclear Proliferation Technology

Iran remains bent on developing the deadliest weapons on the planet, according to a German intelligence service report released Monday.

In a section titled “Proliferation,” the 181-page Baden-Württemberg state intelligence agency document reviewed by Fox News states that Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and Syria are "still pursuing" such efforts....

Israeli Technology

Building an Innovation Ecosystem in the Desert

Beersheba is positioning itself as a new innovation ecosystem alongside Tel Aviv, Prof. Dan Blumberg, vice president of Regional and Industrial Development at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) said Tuesday.

Speaking at the CyberTech Live C4I and Cyber Event, he spoke of the collaboration between the IDF, industry, academia, and local...

Antisemitism

Jewish Cemetery in Poland Vandalized with Spray-Paint

A wall of the Jewish cemetery in Tarnow, a city in southern Poland, was spray-painted with the letters “AJ,” likely meaning “Anti-Jude,” or anti-Jewish.

The wall’s Star of David was painted over as well. Police are investigating; there are no suspects.

According to the cemetery keeper, Adam Bartosz, because the wall is brick, removing the...

In The News

Christians Help 1,000 Jews Immigrate to Israel Since Start of Coronavirus

A new flight bearing 57 new immigrants from the former Soviet Union arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport Tuesday morning, the latest in the ongoing efforts of organizations involved in aliyah to keep new olim coming despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The flight was organized by the Jewish Agency and paid for by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem,...

Iran

Released From Iranian Prison, U.S. Student Xiyue Wang Says He Was Held As A ‘Hostage’

Until his release in December, American student Xiyue Wang spent more than three years behind bars in Iran — not because Iranian authorities hoped to glean any information from him, he says, but because they believed he would be useful in their negotiations with the U.S.

Wang, a U.S. citizen and graduate student at Princeton University, was...

Antisemitism

Argentine Journalist Slammed for Bracketing ‘Zionism’ With ‘Nazism’ and ‘Stalinism’

An Argentine journalist was under fire on Monday for an article in which he bracketed Nazism with Zionism — a few days after the Argentine government formally adopted a definition of antisemitism that rejects such a comparison as antisemitic.

In an article for La Gaceta de Tucumán — a newspaper serving Argentina’s northwestern province of Tucumán...

Terrorism

Gaza Rocket Strikes Southern Israel, IDF Retaliates Against Hamas Targets

Israel struck several Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday night after a rocket launched from the coastal enclave fell in Israeli territory, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

“In response to the rocket that was fired from Gaza into Israel earlier this evening, our fighter jets and tanks just targeted underground Hamas infrastructure...

Antisemitism

Antisemitic Vandals Hang Sheet Spray-Painted With ‘Vulgar Insults’ Over Holocaust Memorial in Nashville

A memorial to the Holocaust at a Jewish community center in Nashville, Tennessee, was defaced over the weekend with white supremacist symbols and antisemitic insults.

Local media reported that on Saturday, the memorial at the Gordon Jewish Community Center in west Nashville had been covered with a white bed sheet spray-painted with what witnesses...

Hamas

Report: Two Al-Qaeda Commanders Killed in Syria Drone Strike

A drone strike in northwestern Syria on Sunday evening killed two senior commanders from a group linked with Al-Qaeda, according to a Syrian opposition war-monitoring group.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the attack, on a vehicle in Idlib province, was carried out by a drone belonging to the U.S.-led coalition.
...

Iran

Iran Edging Closer to Nuclear Bomb, Israeli Defense Officials Assess – Report

Israeli defense officials believe Iran hasn’t increased the pace of its nuclear enrichment in recent months, but nevertheless could be just two years from producing an atomic weapon, a report said Sunday.

The Walla news site quoted the unnamed senior officials as saying Jerusalem estimates the Islamic Republic continues to enrich uranium at a...

US-Israel Relationship

On US President’s Birthday, Israel Okays Building Plans For ‘Trump Heights’

An Israeli cabinet minister on Sunday said the government approved plans to build a new village on the Golan Heights named after US President Donald Trump.

Settlements Minister Tzipi Hotovely wrote on Facebook that her ministry will start preparations for Ramat Trump — Hebrew for “Trump Heights” — to house 300 families.

Israel captured the Golan...

Syria

Drone Strike in Syria Kills Two Jihadist Leaders: Monitor

A drone attack in northwestern Syria killed two commanders of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group on Sunday, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack on Syria's last major rebel bastion of Idlib could have been carried out by the United States.
But a spokesman for the US-led international coalition battling jihadists in...