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.

In The News

Report: Iran trains Shia militia proxies in Iraq to wage war on US

Iranian proxies in Iraq are training  for war against the US and will continue to fire rockets at US forces in Iraq until the US leaves, a new report says. Iranian-backed militias such as Asaib Ah al-Haq, Kataib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization have also been using “extreme measures to quell protesters, including opening fire on demonstrators,”...

In The News

12 pro-Iran fighters said killed in Syria strikes attributed to Israel

Twelve pro-Iranian fighters were killed in strikes against several targets near Damascus in the predawn hours of Thursday morning, which Syrian state media blamed on Israel, according to a Britain-based monitoring group.
Syrian state news agency SANA claimed the country’s air defenses downed a number of missiles during the strikes. Defense...

In The News

Kindergarten staffers scramble kids to escape suspected Gaza balloon bomb

In a video posted to social media, staff at a kindergarten in the south of the country rushed children to safety on Wednesday as they spotted a suspected bomb-carrying balloon from the Gaza Strip floating toward their play area.
The footage, which was reportedly filmed in an unnamed community near the city of Kiryat Gat, shows an airborne object...

In The News

Khamenei calls for Palestinian jihad on Israel after Trump peace plan

Palestinians start a war against Israel, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in response to the Trump administration's peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians in a tweet on Wednesday.The "remedy" for the plan is "bold resistance by the Palestinian nation and groups in order to force out the Zionist enemy and the US through jihad," Khamenei...

In The News

Israel and UAE discuss anti-Iran cooperation at secret White House meeting

The White House hosted a secret trilateral meeting in December between the U.S., Israel and the UAE on coordination against Iran, Israeli and U.S. officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: The meeting, which took place on Dec. 17, is one in a series of steps from the Trump administration to facilitate closer ties between Israel and the Arab states. It...

In The News

Palestinians push UN Security Council to condemn Trump plan, Israel

The Palestinian Authority began promoting a UN Security Council resolution to condemn US President Donald Trump’s peace plan and Israel on Wednesday.The move came a day before Trump’s Special Adviser Jared Kushner was expected to present the plan to the Security Council and less than a week before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas...

In The News

Eden Alene, of Ethiopian descent, will represent Israel at Eurovision

Eden Alene became the first Israeli of Ethiopian descent chosen to represent Israel at Eurovision when she won The Next Star for Eurovision 2020 competition Tuesday night. “I’m so happy and incredibly emotional, I wanted this so much,” she said in an interview with Channel 12’s Nadav Bornstein following her victory. "It is a great honor for me....

In The News

Iran’s US victims need more than just applause

Last night, as President Trump’s guest in the House gallery, I had the singular honor of representing more than a thousand families of fallen and wounded service members for a portion of the State of the Union that briefly bridged our deep political divide.
I watched Republicans and Democrats recognize the sacrifice of the many Americans whose...

In The News

IDF says navy thwarted weapons smuggling attempt to Hamas commandos from Sinai

Israel some three months ago thwarted an attempt to smuggle weapons from Sinai into the Gaza Strip via the sea, the military announced Tuesday.

The army said the navy, aided by the Shin Bet security agency, stopped weapons intended for Hamas as they were being ferried in on a boat.

It did not provide a date for the operation or details on what...

In The News

Iran to execute Amir Rahimpour, convicted of spying for the CIA

Iran’s top court has confirmed a death sentence for a man convicted of spying for the CIA and trying to pass on information about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said Amir Rahimpour would be executed soon.

“Amir Rahimpour, who was a CIA spy and got big pay and tried to present part of Iran’s...

In The News

Netanyahu meets Sudan’s leader, countries to move toward normalization

Israel and Sudan will work to upgrade their diplomatic relations, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Uganda on Monday.

The prime minister and Sudan’s leader, Chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, met on Monday for two hours in Entebbe, Uganda, at the invitation of Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta...

In The News

Israel’s flag flies on the International Space Station

The Israeli flag is now a fixture on the International Space Station (ISS) thanks to a new anti-radiation suit developed in Israel that finally touched down on the ISS last week along with its wearer, American astronaut Jessica Meir, whose father is Israeli.

The suit, which was developed by the American-Israeli company StemRad in collaboration...

In The News

Israeli counter-drone company to provide system to FBI and US military

D-Fend Solutions, an Israeli counter-drone solution provider, has been selected by the United States’ Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to provide the EnforceAir c-UAS system as the core Radio Frequency system to be integrated into a counter-drone system.EnforceAir c-UAS is an advanced autonomous system that automatically and passively detects,...

In The News

Senior commander in Iran’s Quds Force reported killed in Aleppo battle

A top commander in Iran’s Quds Force who was close to its slain leader, Qassem Soleimani, has died in battle in Syria, according to multiple reports in Iranian and Arab media.

Asghar Pashapour, a senior member of the Revolutionary Guards’ extraterritorial force, was killed Sunday in battle with Syrian opposition forces in Aleppo, the reports...

In The News

IDF reinforces Iron Dome batteries in the South

The IDF will reinforce Iron Dome batteries in Israel’s southern region over concerns that terror groups in the Gaza Strip will continue to launch rockets.According to Walla News, the defense establishment is concerned that under pressure from Iran, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) will exploit the situation in the Gaza Strip and continue to fire...

In The News

Revealed: In First Temple era, another massive temple was in use near Jerusalem

Solomon’s Temple on the Jerusalem Temple Mount was likely not the only site of centralized worship in the Holy Land region of Judah, according to research newly published in the Biblical Archaeology Review by a team of archaeologists from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

A massive Iron Age II temple complex, which stood...

In The News

Iran’s Quds Force to work with Hamas, Islamic Jihad against Trump deal

The new leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Forces phoned Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s Ziad Nakhaleh to stress Iran’s support for opposition to the American “Deal of the Century” plan. The plan was announced on January 28 and Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani is now moving to bolster Palestinian...

In The News

Mom tells of moment she fell with baby when rushing for shelter in rocket attack

A mother has told of how she used her body to protect her newborn baby as she fell while rushing to a bomb shelter during a rocket attack on Sderot last week.

The three-week-old girl was hospitalized with moderate head injuries after the incident on the stairs in the family home.

“I realized within seconds that I was going to fall forward with...

In The News

Arab League foreign ministers reject Trump peace plan

The foreign ministers of the member states of the Arab League unanimously adopted a resolution on Saturday rejecting the Trump Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and said that "it does not satisfy the minimum of the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people."
Why it matters: The Trump administration was counting on a coalition of Arab countries...

Archeology

Ancient ‘royal estate’ that served biblical kings unearthed in Israel

Archaeologists uncovered a gigantic complex in northern Israel that they think once served as a rural estate for ancient kings of biblical fame.
The stunning building is in Horvat Tevet, an ancient site just outside modern-day Afula. About 2,900 years ago, archaeologists say, the structure served as a key place for Israelite officials to collect...