ISSUES

At CUFI, we are focused on several key issues with the goal of defending Israel’s strength, security, and sovereignty.

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Israel Defense Force (IDF)

IDF nears completion of new Gaza border fortifications

Israel is nearing completion of new defense works being constructed on the Gaza border in response to weekly border riots, threats from anti-tank missiles and other terror attacks, according to a Channel 13 report broadcast on Wednesday.

The project includes defenses against missiles and improved sniper posts, which have been better fortified,...

Archeology

5,000-year-old NYC-style metropolis uncovered in Northern Israel

The ruins of a 5,000-year-old megalopolis were uncovered in northern Israel, the Antiquities Authority announced on Sunday.

The ruins were exposed in a major excavation project in the Ein Assur site near Harish. The city was the largest in the area during the Bronze Age with about 6,000 people inhabiting it, a huge number at the time.

“About the...

Hamas

Netanyahu ‘strongly condemns’ Turkish invasion of Syria, offers aid to Kurds

Prime minister warns against ‘ethnic cleansing’ of minority in northern Syria, does not mention decision by US president that paved way for offensive.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denounced Turkey’s invasion of Kurdish-controlled areas of northeastern Syria and said Israel was prepared to offer humanitarian aid to the Kurds in...

Antisemitism

Germany shooting latest indication of increasing anti-Semitism worldwide

The shooting that left two dead and several injured in Halle, Germany, on Wednesday — when Jews celebrated Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for their faith — has shined a spotlight on the worldwide rise of anti-Semitic incidents.

The attack in Germany, where investigators are pursuing anti-Semitic motives after the assailant shot at the...

Antisemitism

Rabbi discovers swastika, anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled on Canadian synagogue

(October 8, 2019 / JNS) A Canadian synagogue was vandalized late last week with anti-Semitic graffiti.

Beth Jacob Synagogue Rabbi Hillel Lavery-Yisraeli discovered the vandalism—a swastika and the word “Jews” crossed out—on Saturday upon arriving at the Hamilton, Ontario, building.

“It was very hard for me, harder than I expected,” he told CBC....

Medical Advancement

Team of Israeli doctors fly to Cyprus to save woman’s life

(October 8, 2019 / JNS) A team of four Israeli heart specialists traveled to a hospital in Cyprus with life-saving technology to save a woman who was suffering cardiac issues following childbirth, the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer revealed on Facebook on Sunday.

The Medical Center said a 29-year-old woman from Nicosia, Cyprus, suffered “a...

Israeli Society

Golda Meir’s Yom Kippur letter to bereaved families has been discovered

JERUSALEM — A letter of condolence to bereaved Israeli families written by then-Prime Minister Golda Meir on the eve of the Yom Kippur War has been discovered.

In the years following the establishment of the Jewish state, it was customary for the prime minister to have contact with the families of killed soldiers, including sending letters for...

Antisemitism

Two killed in apparent attack on synagogue in Germany

Shooting takes place just as Jews observe the holiest day of the Jewish calendary, Yom Kippur, in eastern city of Halle. A hand grenade was also thrown into a Jewish cemetery nearby.

Two people were killed in a shooting in the eastern German city of Halle on Wednesday outside a synagogue, as Jews observed the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur.
...

Palestinian Authority

Palestinians to resume taking Israeli collected tax money

PA stopped taking money because of dispute with Israel over stipends paid to families of Palestinian terrorists, but souring financial situation and increasing instability force Ramallah to reconsider its policies.

The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) will once again accept tax revenues collected on its behalf by Israel, after rejecting...

Terrorism

After Paris attack, Macron vows ‘unrelenting fight’ against Islamist terror

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed an “unrelenting fight” against Islamist terror on Tuesday as he paid tribute to the four Paris police staff stabbed to death last week by a radicalized colleague.

“We will wage an unrelenting fight in the face of Islamist terrorism,” Macron told a ceremony at the police headquarters where the attack took...

Hamas

1,200 IDF soldiers race ahead of Yom Kippur Brigade’s 50th anniversary

Fifty years after its founding and on the eve of Yom Kippur, 1,200 soldiers and officers of the IDF’s 188th “Barak” (Lightning) Armored Brigade participated in the second annual 188-km. run from Haifa to the Golan Heights, where the brigade defended the country against the invading Syrian Arab Army in 1973.

“It’s a special date, which is the 50th...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Israel, bracing for Iranian assault, studies recent attack on Saudi oil facility

Israel’s defense establishment is analyzing last month’s strike on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, which is being blamed on Iran, to learn how to protect the country from a possible similar assault, Hebrew media reported Monday.

The September 14 combined drone and cruise missile barrage on two facilities knocked out half of the kingdom’s oil...

Hamas

Israel shuts down for Yom Kippur

Israel shut down on Tuesday evening for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

All flights in and out of Ben Gurion airport ceased at 1:35 p.m.. The airport will reopen Wednesday night with arrivals starting at 9:30 p.m., while departures will resume at 11:30 p.m. Border crossings also shut just after...

US-Israel Relationship

ZILBERMAN: The U.S. Is Enabling Turkey’s Adversarial Behavior

A statement attributed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan goes like this: “Democracy is like a bus, when you arrive at your destination, you step off.” We know that Erdogan long ago stepped away from democratic norms, particularly after the failed coup of July 2016, which accelerated domestic repression and Ankara’s pivot to the East....

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Explosive detonated near West Bank IDF position, 2nd device neutralized

An explosive device was detonated next to an Israel Defense Forces position near the town of Beit Ummar in the West Bank on Friday evening, the military said in a statement.

A second device was discovered at the army post and was neutralized by sappers.

There were no reports of any injuries in the primary explosion but there was damage to the...

Iran

Iran unveils kit to convert artillery rockets into guided missiles

The Iranian military says it has produced a new conversion kit to upgrade artillery rockets to surface-to-surface missiles, technology that Israel has accused Tehran of attempting to deliver to the Hezbollah terror group.

The Iranians unveiled the new guidance system upgrade, called Labeik, at an event Thursday at which a number of new military...

Palestinian Authority

PA wipes Peace Agreement form schoolbooks, encouraging incitement and intolerance

The Palestinian Authority has removed any mention of past agreements with Israel from their school textbooks, with the exception of the Oslo Accords, which are mentioned in far less detail than in previous editions of the schoolbooks, according to a new report by Yedioth Aharonot.

The new curriculum, which has been progressively implemented...

Terrorism

Arabs hurl firebombs, burn tires as Jews pray at Joseph’s Tomb before Yom Kippur

(October 7, 2019 / JNS) Dozens of Palestinians rioted on Sunday night following the pilgrimage of some 1,000 Jews, under Israeli security escort, to the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem/Nablus to pray. The rioters threw firebombs and burning tires at security personnel.

Israeli security forces responded with riot dispersal methods.

There were no...

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

Australian Parliament MPS pledge to classify BDS as antisemitic

Leading Austrian lawmakers have vowed they will declare the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign targeting Israel as antisemitic during the next legislative session.

“We hope that words will be followed by deeds and that... there will soon be a parliamentary resolution,” wrote the organization Jewish-Austrian Students, which hosted the...

US-Israel Relationship

US Ambassador Friedman at Evangelical rally: ‘Jerusalem literally keeps us safe’

Shared values and a common history, not soldiers and weapons, guarantee a nation’s security, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said Sunday.

Addressing a rally of pro-Israel Evangelicals, Friedman hailed the recently inaugurated Pilgrimage Road, a new archaeological site in Jerusalem’s City of David, which lies underneath the Palestinian...