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

US Diplomat Tells UN Security Council: Iran and Hezbollah at ‘Root of Violence’ in Middle East

The Iranian regime — which “seeks political, military, and territorial advantage through the spread of violence and human misery” — is one of the main causes of conflict in the Middle East, a top American diplomat said on Monday at a UN Security Council session in New York.

“In warzone after warzone, and terrorist act after terrorist act, we find...

Israeli Society

Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart group wins UN Population Award

An Israeli organization that provides life-saving heart treatment to children in developing countries has won a prestigious United Nations award for outstanding contributions to the world’s population.

Save a Child’s Heart was selected to receive the 2018 UN Population Award, the medical charity said in a press statement Monday.

SACH said it was...

Hamas

Presbyterian Church USA blasts ‘apartheid’ Israel at its General Assembly

The Presbyterian Church USA passed several resolutions critical of Israel at its biennial General Assembly.

Among the 11 resolutions on Israel that the assembly dealt with late on Friday was one opposing anti-BDS legislation at the state and federal level, and another referring to Israel as an apartheid state. The assembly also voted against...

Israeli Technology

Israeli cancer treatment takes top prize at MIT

Israelis are responsible for many of the world's most important technological strides in the world of medicine, but could they actually cure cancer?

Well, a team of students at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva seems one step closer after winning first place this week at MIT's most prestigious competition, iGEM 2015, with a new method of...

Israeli Technology

8 Israeli startups make World Economic Forum tech pioneers list

Water-Gen, a startup that transforms air into drinkable water, and seven other Israeli startups, in the fields of self-driving cars, cybersecurity, software, energy and environment, satellite and sensors, were among the 61 companies listed as technology pioneers by the World Economic Forum. Israel had the second largest number of companies on the...

US-Israel Relationship

Netanyahu: US envoys offered ‘complete support’ for handling of Gaza clashes

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he received “complete support” from the US peace team during their meetings over the weekend regarding Israel’s response to clashes on the Gaza border.

Netanyahu met with Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, and peace envoy Jason Greenblatt on Friday and...

Israeli Technology

Israel medical device that helps with patient triage wins counter terror contest

Israeli startup CardioScale Ltd. has won a competition aimed at identifying cutting-edge technologies to help combat terror, beating out 210 entries from around the world.

CardioScale, based in Ganei Tikva, has developed a medical device that allows first responders to accidents or terror scenes to prioritize which patients are in the urgent most...

Hamas

Winds of war: will kite and balloon fires spark a major conflict in Gaza?

Since March 30 over 1,000 hectares of Israeli fields, forests and agricultural land have been ravaged by fires. They were caused not by rockets, bombs or other conventional forms of warfare, but by kites, balloons and inflated condoms lit and launched from the Gaza Strip.

These simple devices, not launched by the deadly Hamas terrorist group but...

Iran

Monitor group: Hezbollah is pulling back from Israel-Syria border, Iran isn’t

A Syrian war monitor group said Thursday that Hezbollah units deployed in Syria were pulling back dozens of kilometers from the Israeli border in response to a request from Russia, but that Iran was refusing to do the same with its forces in the area.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing what it described as “reliable...

US-Israel Relationship

On eve of Israel visit, Greenblatt blasts Hamas, criticizes PA

A day before arriving in Israel for talks, US Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt wrote a blistering Twitter post against Hamas – translated into Arabic and Hebrew – asking how the world can help when “murderous Hamas leaders continue to squander the resources of Gaza.”

Writing that Hamas continues to “fail the Palestinians of Gaza” through arson...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Israel deploys electronic eye to track fire kites and balloons from Gaza

Facing a wave of airborne incendiary attacks from the Gaza Strip, Israel has deployed a system that can spot fire-starting balloons and kites in the sky, track their progress, and then direct firefighters to their landing spots, enabling them to more rapidly extinguish the flames and reduce damage.

Since March 30, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip...

US-Israel Relationship

The ‘Haley effect’

In many Jewish households on Friday nights, parents bless their daughters in the names of our matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. We do so to hold our highest role models to our girls. Lately though, I’ve had the creeping inclination to consider another name to this list of women in whose footsteps I hope my daughter will follow: U.S....

Talking Points

CUFI Talking Points: US Rejects Anti-Israel Bias at the UN Human Rights Council

Yesterday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley formally announced the United States has withdrawn its participation and financial support from the “cesspool” Human Rights Council. In her statement, Ambassador Haley said,

“For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political...

Israeli Technology

Startup Nation unites to find solution to Palestinian terror balloons

The conflict between Israel and Palestinians at the border with Gaza has unleashed a new kind of warfare — helium balloons.

The new arson tactic, with the aim to set fire to vast swaths of grasslands, agricultural fields and nature reserves, follows that of the flame-bearing kites, which have been used since the first few weeks of the start of...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Israel UPDATE

Summary of the Night's Events as of 05:00 AM:

Over the course of the night, approximately 30 launches were identified emanating from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory. Seven launches were intercepted by the IDF's Iron Dome aerial defense system and at least three fell in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier this morning (Wednesday), IAF fighter jets...

US-Israel Relationship

Israel welcomes ‘courageous’ US pullout from UN Human Rights Council

Israel on Tuesday night welcomed an announcement that the United States will withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, praising the move as a “courageous decision against the hypocrisy and the lies” of the international body that UN ambassador Nikki Haley said harbors bias against the Jewish state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the US...

Hamas

Gaza tensions flare: IDF strikes 8 more Hamas targets as rockets barrage south

Tensions flared on Israel’s border with Gaza early Wednesday morning as the IDF carried out a second round of overnight airstrikes on Hamas targets in response to a barrage of rockets fired from the Strip towards Israeli territory.

The IDF said fighter jets struck eight further “terror targets” on three separate Hamas military bases in the south...

US-Israel Relationship

U.S. Announces Its Withdrawal From U.N.’s Human Rights Council

After more than a year of complaints and warnings — some subtle and others a little less so — the Trump administration has announced that the United States is withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley announced the decision in a joint statement to the media...

US-Israel Relationship

Source: US to Withdraw From UN Human Rights Body

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will announce on Tuesday that the United Sates is withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, a Trump administration source told Reuters.

The United States is half-way through a three-year term on the main UN rights body and had long threatened to...

Iran

Iran Regime Rejects Talks With Trump Administration on Ballistic Missile Program

Iran has no plans to extend the range of its missiles since their 2,000-kilometer (1,240-mile) reach is enough to protect the country, the Revolutionary Guards commander said on Tuesday, amid mounting US pressure over Tehran’s missile program.

Iran‘s government again ruled out negotiations with US President Donald Trump over Tehran’s military...