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.

Hamas

EU court upholds freeze on Hamas funds, keeps group on terror blacklist

A European Union court on Wednesday upheld a freeze on Hamas funds as it rejected the Palestinian group’s appeal against its EU listing as a terrorist organization.

The General Court’s ruling amounted to the latest rejection of Hamas’s efforts to be struck from an EU blacklist created in 2001 based on a UN resolution following the 9/11 attacks in...

Antisemitism

Belgian mayor defends carnival float featuring Jews with money and a rat

JTA — The mayor of the Belgian city whose annual parade featured puppets of Jews and a rat atop money bags has defended the display, telling local media that “In Aalst it should be allowed.”

Mayor Christoph D’Haese defended Sunday’s float at the Aalst carnival from passionate condemnations by Jewish groups and disapproval by international...

Israeli Society

Israel ranked world’s 8th most powerful country; no longer in Top 10 ‘movers’

An international survey published Monday ranked Israel as the eighth most powerful nation in the world for the third consecutive year, narrowly ahead of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The annual survey by US News & World Report was based on the answers of more than 21,000 people from four regions.

Israel was ranked 29th...

US-Israel Relationship

Here’s Why the U.S. Just Deployed a Powerful THAAD Missile Defense System in Israel

The U.S. has deployed a highly advanced missile defense system in Israel for the first time, the American and Israeli militaries announced Monday, reflecting their shared concerns about Iran’s development of powerful missiles.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, as a...

US-Israel Relationship

Israel Air Force delegation returns from two-week drill in the U.S.

An Israeli Air Force delegation from the 103rd Elephants Squadron has recently returned from two weeks of exercises at the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center (AATTC), its first time going there in over a decade.

Led by IAF Lt.-Col. Het, the delegation included 60 troops and two Samson Hercules C-130J transport planes.

The two-week long...

US-Israel Relationship

Trump calls controversial Omar comments ‘a dark day for Israel’

President Donald Trump said Monday that Rep. Ilhan Omar's suggestion that pro-Israel lawmakers have an allegiance to a foreign country marks a "dark day for Israel," piling onto the Minnesota freshman ahead of her second formal rebuke by the House in recent weeks.

“Representative Ilhan Omar is again under fire for her terrible comments concerning...

Israeli Technology

Israeli spacecraft snaps Earth ‘selfie’ with flag from 23,000 miles away

The Beresheet spacecraft on Tuesday sent back a photo taken with its “selfie camera,” in which the Israeli flag can be seen 37,600 kilometers (23,000 miles) above Earth.

A plaque installed on the outside of the lunar lander depicts Israel’s national flag as well as the phrases “Am Yisrael Chai” (the people of Israel live) and “Small country, big...

US-Israel Relationship

House Dems to vote on resolution in response to Omar’s latest Israel remarks

The House will vote Wednesday on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in response to freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) latest controversial comments about the U.S.-Israel relationship, a senior Democratic aide said Monday.
Staffs from the offices of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Foreign Affairs Committee...

Holocaust

Vatican to open archives on WWII-era pope accused of silence on Holocaust

Declaring that the church “isn’t afraid of history,” Pope Francis said Monday he has decided to open up the Vatican archives on World War II-era pope Pius XII, who has been criticized by Jews for staying silent on the Holocaust.

Francis told officials and personnel of the Vatican Secret Archives that the archive would be open to researchers...

Hamas

CUFI Standing With Mizrahi Jews for the Cause of Israel

For two days in June of 1941, as a ten-year-old Iraqi Jewish boy, Joseph Samuels, witnessed first-hand one of the most violent pogroms of the Holocaust in Baghdad by angry Muslim mobs who destroyed and looted Jewish homes and businesses as well as killed, beat and raped thousands of Jews without the authorities intervening. Today that pogrom is...

Incitement

Op-ed in official PA daily calls US peace envoy a ‘mongoloid’

An opinion piece published in the Palestinian Authority’s official newspaper called US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace envoy a “mongoloid,” a pejorative term for someone who has Down syndrome, drawing a sharp rebuke from the American ambassador to Israel.

The column by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, which appeared in Sunday’s edition of Al-Hayat...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

IDF helicopters pound Hamas positions in response to explosive balloon

IDF attack helicopters hit two positions of the Hamas terror group in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday in response to an explosive device that was carried into Israel by balloons launched from the Palestinian enclave, the army said.

It was Israel’s fourth retaliatory airstrike against the terror group in the past three days.

On Sunday night an...

Terrorism

Two soldiers wounded in West Bank car-ramming; 2 attackers killed

Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in a predawn car-ramming attack in the northern West Bank on Monday, one of them seriously, the army said. The force opened fire on the three occupants of the vehicle, killing two and wounding the third.

The ramming occurred at approximately 3:30 a.m. near the village of N’ima, northwest of Ramallah. The army...

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

Texas blacklists Airbnb over West Bank settlement boycott

The state of Texas has blacklisted the global vacation rental company Airbnb over its boycott of West Bank settlements.

“We welcome this decision very much and we hope that it will be emulated by other states and other countries in the world,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said on Saturday night.

On Friday, the Texas Comptroller of...

Event Recaps

Feb. 13th San Antonio, TX Why Israel Event

Event Recaps

Feb. 20th Oxford, FL Spanish Why Israel Event

Event Recaps

Feb. 10th Houston, TX Why Israel Event

Event Recaps

Feb. 21st Gainesville, FL Bilingual Why Israel Event

Event Recaps

Feb. 11 Houston, TX CUFI Dinner

Event Recaps

Feb. 17th Richfield, MN Why Israel Event