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.

Israeli Society

Rivlin hosts bar and bat mitzvah children traumatized by terror attacks

‘The people of Israel are with you,’ President Reuven Rivlin tells the children in a moving ceremony.

As a society, we try to prevent children from witnessing tragedy, which is why it is so heartbreaking to see children who have experienced the horrors of terrorism.

Recognizing this, President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday evening hosted his annual...

Hezbollah

German parliament calls for full ban of Hezbollah activities

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's parliament passed a resolution Thursday calling for a national ban on the activities of Hezbollah and for the Lebanese militant group to be put on the European Union's terrorist list.

Mathias Middelberg, the spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in parliament, said the joint resolution was agreed upon with...

US-Israel Relationship

Government confirms it will ban Israel boycotts by councils and public bodies

The Government has confirmed it will proceed with banning local councils from boycotting Israel, as the Conservatives promised in their election manifesto.

"One innovation this speech introduces is we will stop public bodies from taking it upon themselves to boycott goods from other countries to develop their own pseudo-foreign policy against a...

United Nations (UN)

U.N. Adopts Resolution Condemning Iran’s Violations Of Human Rights

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted its 64th Resolution on December 19 against human rights violations in Iran.

Sponsored by Canada, the resolution was adopted with 81 votes for, 30 against, and 70 abstentions.

Prominent Iranian human rights activist Hassan Nayeb Hashem tweeted, “The resolution concerning the situation of human...

United Nations (UN)

In First, Resident of Rocket-Stricken Southern Israel Addresses UN Security Council, Calls for Action Against Hamas

A resident of rocket-stricken southern Israel addressed the UN Security Council on Wednesday, urging it to take action against the Hamas terror group.

Adele Raemer — who lives in Kibbutz Nirim, adjacent to the border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip — was invited to speak at the Security Council’s monthly meeting on the Middle East by US...

Hezbollah

German parliament passes measure urging government to outlaw Hezbollah activity

The German parliament on Thursday passed a resolution calling on the government in Berlin to outlaw activities of the Iranian-backed, Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah.

The nonbinding motion was supported by the two major parties that make up Germany’s ruling coalition, as well as by a small opposition party called FDP, thus passing with...

Antisemitism

Two teenagers charged in anti-Semitic attack on rabbi in London

(December 18, 2019 / JNS) Two teenagers turned themselves into police on Tuesday and were charged allegedly shouted “kill the Jews” before punching a rabbi last month in an anti-Semitic attack in North London.

“Detectives investigating a racially aggravated assault on a 54-year-old man in Stamford Hill have charged two boys,” said Met Police in a...

US-Israel Relationship

Congress passes bill requiring annual scrutiny of PA educational materials

(December 19, 2019 / JNS) The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill which will require the Secretary of State to review Palestinian Authority and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) educational materials on an annual basis.

The Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act (H.R. 2343) was...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

IDF hits Hamas weapon factories in Gaza following rocket attack

(December 19, 2019 / Israel Hayom) Israeli jets struck Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning after several several projectiles were fired from the coastal territory at southern Israel overnight.

The shells were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, according to the Israeli military.

Palestinian media reported that several...

Palestinian Authority

Israel’s arrest of Palestinian terrorist leader highlights ‘extensive overlaps’ between BDS and terror groups

(December 18, 2019 / JNS) The announcement on Wednesday by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency that it has arrested some 50 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) capped off a months-long targeting of the terror group for its role in the deadly terror attack on Aug. 23 that killed an Israeli teenager hiking with her...

US-Israel Relationship

US VP Pence expected to visit Israel for Auschwitz ceremony

US Vice President Mike Pence is expected to visit Israel in January for a ceremony marking 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, local media reported on Wednesday.

The event could even draw other world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron.

There are ongoing talks...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Shin Bet arrests 50 PFLP terrorists, thwarting upcoming attack

Israeli security forces in the West Bank have uncovered and dismantled a 50-person strong terrorist cell believed to behind a string of deadly attacks in the area including the deadly Dolev bombing which claimed the life of a teenage girl, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said Wednesday.

According to the Shin Bet the investigation into the...

Antisemitism

Nearly 60 tombstones discovered vandalized in Jewish cemetery in Slovakia

(December 17, 2019 / JNS) Fifty-nine tombstones at a Jewish cemetery in the northern Slovakian town of Namestovo were vandalized, said police and a group that sought to protect the location on Tuesday.

Slovakia’s Jewish community labeled it “an unprecedented barbaric act.”

Police are investigating the incident at the cemetery, which dates to the...

Hamas

Barkat asks US to sanction Turkey after report of Hamas assassination plot

Likud MK Nir Barkat on Wednesday asked US Ambassador David Friedman for Washington to apply strict sanctions on Turkey in light of a newspaper report that said Turkish authorities are allowing Hamas terrorists to plan attacks on Israel from their territory, including a past plot to assassinate him.

Barkat said in a statement that he had spoken...

Israeli Society

Two-meter high menorah lands at the Western Wall ahead of Hanukkah

The preparations for Hanukkah at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem kicked off on Tuesday with the installation of the traditional massive menorah, which will be lit every night during the holiday.

The menorah is made of bronze, reaches over two meters high and is about two meters wide, according to a statement by The Western Wall...

Iran

Exclusive: Hamas plots attacks on Israel from Turkey as Erdogan turns blind eye

Turkey is allowing senior Hamas operatives to plot attacks against Israel from Istanbul, The Telegraph can disclose, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plays host to the terrorist group’s leaders.

Transcripts of Israeli police interrogations with suspects show that senior Hamas operatives are using Turkey’s largest city to direct operations in...

US-Israel Relationship

Senate passes measure giving $500 million in aid to Israel; sanctions Iran and Assad

(December 17, 2019 / JNS) The U.S. Senate passed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Thursday, which includes U.S.-Israel missile-defense cooperation and up to $25 million for U.S.-Israel counter-unmanned aerial-systems cooperation, as well as sanctioned President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, and its allies Iran and Russia.
...

ISIS

Austrian authorities foil IS-inspired terror attack on Christmas market

VIENNA — Austrian authorities have foiled a plot to carry out a series of terror attacks, including bombing one of Vienna’s Christmas markets, local media reported Monday.

The plot involved three men, including a 24-year-old ringleader who had been influenced by the ideology of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, according to the APA news...

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

New report exposes how BDS movement uses veil of social justice to spread Jew-hatred

(December 16, 2019 / JNS) With anti-Semitism on the rise in the United States and across the world, a new report has just been released that seeks to highlight how the delegitimization campaign against Israel is fueling such incidents.

“The New Anti-Semites: The Radicalization Mechanism of the BDS Movement and the Delegimitization Campaign...

Antisemitism

US State Department offers $1M grant for projects fighting anti-Semitism

The US State Department is offering a $1 million grant to combat anti-Semitism in Europe.

The department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) is partnering with the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism "to counter the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe as manifested through hate crimes such as acts of physical...