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.

Archeology

Temple Mount Sifting Project reboots, aims to salvage ancient temple artifacts

Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Zeev Elkin played show and tell at the June 2 Cabinet meeting this week. To mark Jerusalem Day, a national holiday celebrating the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem, Elkin brought to the Prime Minister’s Office a rare 2,700-year-old First Temple clay sealing impression, fittingly inscribed with the name of...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

IDF nabs Palestinian accused of throwing hammer at Israeli car, injuring driver

Israeli security forces arrested a Palestinian man suspected of throwing a hammer at an Israeli car traveling along a central West Bank highway in April, injuring the driver, the army said Thursday.

Prosecutors filed a “harsh indictment” against the suspect — Ahmad Ibrahim Suleiman Nasrallah — in a military court on Thursday, the Israel Defense...

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

Disturbed’s singer David Draiman slams Roger Waters and ‘his Nazi comrades’ for boycotting Israel

(JTA) — David Draiman, the Jewish singer of the chart-topping hard rock band Disturbed, called Roger Waters “ridiculous” for promoting a cultural boycott of Israel.

Disturbed, which has sold millions of albums, is set to play in Israel for the first time on July 2.

“Boycotting an entire society, an entire people, based on the actions of its...

Hezbollah

Report: Syrian general with ties to Hezbollah, Iran, assassinated

(June 6, 2019 / Israel Hayom) A high-ranking Syrian army commander was assassinated on Tuesday near the city of Sweida in the war-torn country’s southwest, dozens of miles from the border with Israel.

Brig. Gen. Jamal al-Ahmad was gunned down by unknown assailants while touring the sector, the intelligence blog Intelli Times and London-based...

Micro-History

World marks 75 years since D-Day in solemn observances

OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — The five beaches are silent at dawn but forever haunted.

As the sun rose Thursday over the Normandy coastline where thousands of men bled and died 75 years ago, a fast-diminishing number of World War II veterans remembered D-Day, and hoped the world never forgets the sacrifices made to dismantle Nazi tyranny.

The sea...

Hezbollah

German lawmakers set to debate full ban on Hezbollah

According to a draft resolution sponsored by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the Bundestag will debate a non-binding resolution to “examine whether the conditions exist for a ban on Hezbollah as one organization, and, if necessary, to issue such a prohibition and implement it immediately.”

The resolution says the at the Iranian proxy...

Holocaust

YouTube to remove videos denying Holocaust, glorifying Nazism

YouTube announced on Wednesday that it is to remove material that denies the Holocaust or glorifies Nazism.

The move, announced on YouTube’s official blog, marks a new stage in the battle against hate speech, the company said.

In 2017, Google’s video-sharing platform took a tougher stance against supremacist content, limiting actions such as...

Medical Advancement

Israeli discovery could delay Parkinson’s progression

(June 5, 2019 / JNS) Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered a new way to detect a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease which could “significantly delay” the progression of the disease, for which there is currently no cure.

According to the researchers, they have developed a new method for tracking the early stages of the...

Antisemitism

Organization of American States to adopt universal definition of anti-Semitism

(June 4, 2019 / JNS) The secretary general of the Organization of American States, the continental body of Latin American and Northern American states, expressed his commitment on Tuesday for the OAS to adopt the widely accepted definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

“Effectively fighting anti-Semitism...

Archeology

Archaeologists discover city gate from time of King David

After nearly 32 years of excavation in the ancient city of Bethsaida in the Golan Heights' Jordan Park northeast of the Sea of Galilee, a city gate from the time of King David was discovered - opening up a world of new possibilities, opinions and theories about the ancient landscape of the Land of Israel.

According to the chief archaeologist...

Israeli Society

Israel to pay respects to late First Lady Nechama Rivlin

Israel on Wednesday will lay to rest First Lady Nechama Rivlin, wife of President Reuven Rivlin, who passed away at the age of 73.
The president and his family announced her passing on Tuesday morning, thanking Israeli citizens and leaders for their continued prayers as her health remained in difficult condition in recent months. She would have...

Hamas

Hamas claims it tried to attack Iron Dome system

Hamas attempted to fire rockets at Iron Dome missile defense batteries during the recent escalation of tension between Israel and the Gaza Strip in May, a commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades known as Abu Maaz told the organization’s Al Qassam website on Tuesday.

The commander told Al Qassam that the rockets Hamas utilized in the May...

Israeli Technology

New Israeli technology can now freeze cancer cells

An Israeli company based in the northern coastal city of Ceasarea has developed a revolutionary minimal technique to freeze cancerous tumors that only requires a local anesthetic.
It is already treating thousands of women with breast cancer worldwide within hospitals and doctors' offices, including in Japan, Ausralia, Germany and Spain. A clinical...

US-Israel Relationship

US Embassy in Israel will hold annual July 4th celebration for the first time in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The U.S. Embassy in Israel will hold its annual Fourth of July celebration for the first time in Jerusalem.

The event traditionally has been held at the home of the U.S. ambassador in Herzliya. In March, Ambassador David Friedman moved into a residence in a building in western Jerusalem that formerly functioned as a consulate....

Antisemitism

California man who made ‘kill lists’ of Jews pleads guilty to plotting anti-Semitic attacks

(JTA) — A California man who wrote “kill lists” of prominent Jews pleaded guilty to threatening three houses of worship in Orange County.

Nicholas Wesley Rose, 28, of Irvine, was sentenced Friday for carrying a loaded firearm not registered to him and three civil rights counts in relation to making the threats. Other felony charges were dropped.
...

Hamas

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar: If not for Iran’s support, we would not have our missile capabilities

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said in speech that aired last week on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza) that the conflict with Israel will only end with the removal of the occupation from Palestine and with the Palestinians’ return to the “liberated and cleansed” Al-Aqsa mosque. He said that the Palestinians “suckled this spirit” from their mothers, who...

US-Israel Relationship

New York Gov. Cuomo plans summer trip to Israel

(June 3, 2019 / JNS) New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that he will visit Israel this summer.

“As a sign of solidarity, at this time of crisis for the Jewish people, I’m going to be doing another trip to Israel as a trip in solidarity right after the legislative session, and I invite my Jewish colleagues to join us as a sign of...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

After Golan attack, Israel makes it clear to Iran that it cannot hide in Syria

(June 3, 2019 / JNS) No one took responsibility for the firing of two rockets at Israel’s Mount Hermon on Saturday night from Syria, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to view Iran, or one of its proxies, as the prime suspects.

The Iranian radical axis possesses both the ability and the motivation to conduct such an attack.

Israel’s...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Israel seals off last Hezbollah terror tunnel, the largest ever discovered

(June 4, 2019 / JNS) Israel has sealed off the last of several Hezbollah tunnels discovered six months ago burrowing from Lebanon to northern Israel, according to Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus on Monday.

Journalists were shown the entrance to the massive tunnel, which extended some 265 feet—or about 22 stories—below...

Israeli Society

Celebrations staged for Day of Liberation and Rescue from Nazi Germany

Thousands of people around the world took part in ceremonies this year marking the Hebrew date for the end of the Second World War in Europe and the surrender of Nazi Germany.

The Day of Liberation and Rescue as it has been designated in Israel marked 74 years since the end of the war with thousands of people participating in dozens of prayer...