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.

Iran

Iran says it will further breach nuclear deal in one month unless Europeans act

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran told European powers on Monday it would further reduce compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal in about a month’s time if they were still failing to protect it from crippling U.S. sanctions, reimposed after Washington exited the deal.

European signatories to the deal have so far been helpless to prevent U.S. President Donald...

Iran

Senior Iranian commander: The Islamic republic is on Israel’s borders

Iran’s front has extended to the Mediterranean Sea and the borders of Israel, a senior Iranian commander said on Monday.

“Our defensive depth has stretched to the Mediterranean Sea and our front has extended to the borders of the Zionist regime ,” Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brig.-Gen. Mehdi Rabbani was quoted by Iran’s Fars...

Iran

UK joins US Strait of Hormuz mission; Iran slams sanctions

TEHRAN, Iran — Britain said Monday that it would join a U.S.-led naval security mission in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran’s seizure of merchant vessels has raised tensions with the West. Earlier, Iran’s foreign minister lambasted recent U.S. financial sanctions against him, calling the move a “failure” for diplomacy.
Iranian Foreign Minister...

Iran

Trump Administration Imposes Sanctions on Iran’s Top Diplomat

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took the unusual step on Wednesday of placing sanctions on Iran’s foreign minister, essentially cutting off the clearest avenue for talks with Iran by punishing the man who negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Senior administration officials described the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif — an...

Terrorism

Yemen officials: Al-Qaida kills at least 20 at military camp

Al-Qaida militants targeted a military camp in Yemen's southern Abyan province, killing at least 20 troops and setting off hours-long clashes that lasted into early morning Friday, Yemeni officials and tribal leaders said.

The attack began around midnight, with militants firing rocket propelled grenades at the camp belonging to members of a...

Hamas

Report: Israel believes Hamas, Iran agreed on Gaza front in case of northern war

Israeli intelligence officials believe Hamas and Iran have come to an agreement for the Gaza-based terror group to open a war front against Israel from the southern coastal Strip in the event of conflict breaking out with Iran’s allies on the Jewish state’s northern border, according to a report Wednesday.

The Haaretz daily quoted a senior...

Syria

Netanyahu appears to confirm Israeli missile fire at Syrian Golan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to confirm on Thursday that Israel was behind a reported missile attack earlier in the day in the Quneitra region in Syria.

“We’re defending ourselves at all times,” Netanyahu said at a national memorial ceremony for Ze’ev Jabotinsky, a Zionist thinker who is the intellectual forebear to Netanyahu’s...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Arrow 3 test: Those in charge of Israel’s security are ‘wide awake’

High above the clear blue skies of the Alaskan horizon this week, bright flashes of light and a rumbling sound disturbed the serenity. The conflict between Israel and Iran reaches far and wide.

The pristine calm was the unlikely setting for a test of Israel’s explosive safety net intercepting mock Iranian ballistic missiles.

Israel’s successful...

Hamas

Top UNRWA officials accused of sexual misconduct, other ‘serious ethical abuses’

An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organization faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts.

The allegations included in the confidential report by the agency’s ethics department are now being scrutinized by UN...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

IDF drilling on evacuating communities close to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula

The IDF has drilled on evacuating communities along the Gaza border, and for the first time, evacuating communities close to the Egyptian border during a large-scale military exercise in southern Israel.

According to reports, the communities which were simulated to be evacuated during the drill included Shlomit, Yated, Avshalom, Yevul, Holit,...

Palestinian Authority

Fatah: PA has begun ‘gradual disengagement’ from Israel

The Palestinian Authority announced on Monday that all government employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will again receive only 60% of their salaries by next week due to the ongoing financial crisis the PA is facing.

The employees have been receiving 50-60% of their salaries for the past few months. The authority says that it’s unable to pay...

Iran

Iran vows to restart activities at Arak heavy water facility

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization on Sunday told Iranian lawmakers that the country will restart activities at the Arak heavy water facility, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported, citing a lawmaker who was at the meeting.

Ali Akbar Salehi attended a parliamentary session to discuss recent developments in the 2015 nuclear deal,...

United Nations (UN)

Switzerland suspends funding to UN agency for Palestinians after damning report

Switzerland on Tuesday said it was suspending funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants after an ethics report revealed alleged mismanagement and abuse of authority at the agency’s highest levels.

The internal report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s own ethics department, a copy of which was seen by...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Israel said to hit Iranian sites in Iraq, expanding strikes on missile shipments

Israel has expanded its operations against Iranian targets to Iraq, where Air Force jets have struck twice in ten days, a report said Tuesday morning.

Israel commonly conducts strikes in Syrian territory, targeting Iranian missile shipments meant for Lebanese terror group Hezbollah to use against the Jewish state, but strikes in Iraq by Israel...

Israeli Technology

Israel says Arrow-3 missile shield passes U.S. trials, warns Iran

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s U.S.-backed Arrow-3 ballistic missile shield has passed a series of live interception tests over Alaska, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, casting the achievement as a warning to Iran.

Jointly manufactured by U.S. firm Boeing Co, Arrow-3 is billed as capable of shooting down incoming missiles in...

Issues

Turkey’s Erdogan: Whoever is on Israel’s side, we are against them

“Whoever is on the side of Israel, let everyone know that we are against them,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, according to Iran's Press TV.

Erdogan made the comments as he addressed senior provincial officials from the ruling AKP party in Ankara.

"We do not approve of silence on the state terror that Israel blatantly...

Hamas

Captured Israeli-Arab ISIS fighter: Israel is a democratic state

A captured Arab ISIS fighter in Syria who holds Israeli citizenship has said that living through the Second Intifada and in the West Bank has taught him that Israel "has not done 1% of what Bashar al-Assad has done."

In an interview with BBC Arabic's Feras Kilani, as reported by MEMRI, Sayyaf Sharif Daoud said in a July 16 interview that despite...

US-Israel Relationship

Top Trump diplomat shares plans for future peace accords between Israelis, Palestinians

EXCLUSIVE: Jason Greenblatt spent 20 years as the top real estate lawyer for New York developer Donald Trump. He worked on numerous deals from his office in the gleaming Trump Tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.
But on a summer day this week Greenblatt was in another gleaming skyscraper several blocks away from his old office, this time at the...

Antisemitism

Anti-Semitic tweets lead to CNN employee’s resignation

 

Mohammed Elshamy, 25, said he resigned from the American broadcast network on Thursday

An Egyptian photo editor resigned from CNN this week after it surfaced that he authored a number of anti-Semitic messages uploaded to social media.

Mohammed Elshamy, 25, said he resigned from the American broadcast network on Thursday after an employee...

Israeli Technology

Israel to Begin Gas Exports to Egypt Within Months, Energy Minister Says

Israel will begin natural gas exports to Egypt within four months, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Reuters on Wednesday.

The flow will secure the beginning of a landmark $15 billion export agreement between Delek Drilling and partner Noble Energy with an Egyptian counterpart in what Israeli officials called the most significant deal to emerge...