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 initiates online fundraising campaign to encourage youth to resist

Lebanon’s Mayadeen TV aired a report in March about an online campaign in Gaza to encourage support for the “resistance,” namely Hamas. The reporter, Lana Shahin, said that the campaign, which was launched by Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, strives to use modern and secure methods, and briefly discussed the Brigades’ cryptocurrency...

Kushner to visit Israel ahead of US peace plan rollout — report

US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is planning to visit Israel ahead of US peace conference in Bahrain next month, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

US and Israeli officials are in advanced stages of the planning of the visit, that could come as early as next week.

Kan says Kushner will meet with Prime...

FLAMING GAZA BALLOONS THREATEN TO IGNITE VIOLENCE

laming Gaza balloons ignited fires throughout the South on Thursday, threatening to break the fragile informal truce between Israel and Hamas in advance of anticipated border riots on Friday.
Under the terms of the truce believed to be in play between the IDF and Hamas, the weekly Gaza border riots must remain peaceful.

The organizers of the...

US embassy move has produced lasting gains

The first anniversary of the U.S. embassy’s move to Jerusalem sparked multiple articles in the Israeli press declaring it a failure for both U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. From the left-wing Haaretz to the centrist Times of Israel, headlines trumpeted the fact that only one minor country, Guatemala, has followed...

UCLA guest lecturer compares Zionists to white supremacists

(May 22, 2019 / JNS) A guest lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, last week labeled Zionists as white supremacists, reported Jewish Journal on Tuesday.

A Jewish student in the class, Shayna Lavi, recalled to the Journal that San Francisco State University Arab and Muslim ethnicities’ professor Rabab Abdulhadi, told the some 100...

UN opens exhibit to celebrate 40 years of peace deal between Israel-Egypt

The UN held a special celebration to celebrate 40 years since the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

The event, held this week, was a joint initiative by Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon and the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. In attendance was US Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt and the...

Man sentenced to three years in prison for vandalism at Indiana synagogue

(May 22, 2019 / JNS) A 21-year-old man was sentenced on Monday to three years in prison for vandalizing a synagogue last year in Carmel, Ind.

Nolan Brewer pleaded guilty to the federal hate crime for spray-painting a large Nazi flag and Nazi iron crosses outside Congregation Shaarey Tefilla in July 2018. The vandalism, which Brewer’s wife helped...

The top 12 ways Israel is feeding the world

As the global population expands and natural resources dwindle, food security is a critical concern. Smart solutions for more efficient farming, hardier crops, alternative sources of nutrition and safer food packaging and storage are essential.

No other single country—certainly not one as young and as tiny as Israel—has contributed more...

Feds: New Jersey man aided Hamas, threatened to kill Israel supporters

A 20-year-old New Jersey man sought to aid the Hamas terror group and threatened to “shoot everybody” at an unspecified pro-Israel demonstration, federal authorities said Wednesday.

Jonathan Xie was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, making false statements and transmitting a threat in...

US and Israel call for end of UNRWA, the UN agency that oversees Palestinians

(May 22, 2019 / JNS) The United States and Israel on Wednesday called for UNRWA, the U.N. agency that oversees the Palestinian refugees, to cease operations.

“We need an additional $1.2 billion for our activities in 2019. We don’t believe the future of Palestine refugees should be framed in decades of UNRWA,” said Pierre Krähenbühl, the UNRWA...

Israelis rush to aid Venezuelan refugees in Colombia

Israeli humanitarian aid agency IsraAID reports that it has dispatched an emergency response team to the city of Cúcuta, on Colombia’s border with Venezuela, which is a flashpoint in the ongoing Venezuelan displacement crisis.

Thousands cross the Simon Bolivar Bridge from Venezuela into Cúcuta every day seeking relief from the continued economic...

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer wins truth award

(May 22, 2019 / JNS) Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer will be recognized for his public statements in defense of Israel by the American non-profit organization Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) at a gala dinner next month.

The Emet Award celebration will take place in New York City on June 2....

More than 13 million documents from Nazi concentration camps posted online

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The International Tracing Service in Germany has published online more than 13 million documents from Nazi concentration camps with information on more than 2.2 million people.

The effort to put the archive online was undertaken in partnership with the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

The tracing service, based in...

San Diego State center apologizes for using photo of Palestinian terrorist

(JTA) — The Women’s Resource Center at San Diego State University has apologized for including on its weekly newsletter an image of a female Palestinian terrorist holding a gun.

The image was part of the May 8 newsletter sent to the center’s email list, according to the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Aztec. The apology was sent May 14...

Former Israeli security adviser: Iran wants ‘to annihilate’ Israel, Hamas doesn’t want a ‘solution’

(May 21, 2019 / JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former national security advisor talked about regional challenges facing Israel’s security at an event in New York City last week organized by Friends of European Leadership Network (ELNET).

Brig. Gen. Jacob Nagel, a current visiting professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of...

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said he supports move of US Embassy to Jerusalem. Pro-Palestinian groups are calling him out.

(JTA) — Pro-Palestinian groups have called on Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to retract his statement saying he supports the move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Garcetti, a Democrat, made the statement last week in Jerusalem while leading a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee Project...

In Belarus, anti-Semitism erupts when Jews open eatery near Stalin-era gravesite

MINSK, Belarus (JTA) — The new roadside restaurant near gas station No. 65 here looks more like an army base than a fancy eatery.

Surrounded by a tall fence with surveillance cameras, its only gate has two uniformed guards. They interview and then keep a watchful eye on drivers who enter the large parking lot of “Let’s Go Eat,” the cheerfully...

Iran quadruples low-enriched uranium production

Semi-official news agencies in Iran reported on Monday that the country has quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium amid tensions with the US over an unraveling atomic accord.

The Fars and Tasnim news agencies both reported that the production is of uranium enriched only to the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal with world...

Germany to return papers of Kafka’s friend Max Brod to Israel

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German police on Tuesday will hand over to Israel thousands of stolen papers and manuscripts belonging to Max Brod, the friend and literary executor of Czech writer Franz Kafka.

Brod, who died in Tel Aviv in 1968, is primarily responsible for Kafka’s success as one of the 20th century’s most influential writers, having...

Lifesaving solution for MDA wins ‘Great Minds’ hackathon at Jerusalem tech college

(May 20, 2019 / JNS) More than 80 Jerusalem College of Technology students from Israel and 23 countries gathered at the college’s Machon Lev campus and worked around the clock last Wednesday evening through Friday morning as part of the its third-annual “Great Minds” men’s hackathon.

The winning team, consisting of Brazilians Daniel Vofchuk,...