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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Israeli Technology

Israel says Arrow-3 missile shield passes U.S. trials, warns Iran

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s U.S.-backed Arrow-3 ballistic missile shield has passed a series of live interception tests over Alaska, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, casting the achievement as a warning to Iran.

Jointly manufactured by U.S. firm Boeing Co, Arrow-3 is billed as capable of shooting down incoming missiles in...

Issues

Turkey’s Erdogan: Whoever is on Israel’s side, we are against them

“Whoever is on the side of Israel, let everyone know that we are against them,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, according to Iran's Press TV.

Erdogan made the comments as he addressed senior provincial officials from the ruling AKP party in Ankara.

"We do not approve of silence on the state terror that Israel blatantly...

Hamas

Captured Israeli-Arab ISIS fighter: Israel is a democratic state

A captured Arab ISIS fighter in Syria who holds Israeli citizenship has said that living through the Second Intifada and in the West Bank has taught him that Israel "has not done 1% of what Bashar al-Assad has done."

In an interview with BBC Arabic's Feras Kilani, as reported by MEMRI, Sayyaf Sharif Daoud said in a July 16 interview that despite...

US-Israel Relationship

Top Trump diplomat shares plans for future peace accords between Israelis, Palestinians

EXCLUSIVE: Jason Greenblatt spent 20 years as the top real estate lawyer for New York developer Donald Trump. He worked on numerous deals from his office in the gleaming Trump Tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.
But on a summer day this week Greenblatt was in another gleaming skyscraper several blocks away from his old office, this time at the...

Antisemitism

Anti-Semitic tweets lead to CNN employee’s resignation

 

Mohammed Elshamy, 25, said he resigned from the American broadcast network on Thursday

An Egyptian photo editor resigned from CNN this week after it surfaced that he authored a number of anti-Semitic messages uploaded to social media.

Mohammed Elshamy, 25, said he resigned from the American broadcast network on Thursday after an employee...

Israeli Technology

Israel to Begin Gas Exports to Egypt Within Months, Energy Minister Says

Israel will begin natural gas exports to Egypt within four months, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Reuters on Wednesday.

The flow will secure the beginning of a landmark $15 billion export agreement between Delek Drilling and partner Noble Energy with an Egyptian counterpart in what Israeli officials called the most significant deal to emerge...

Antisemitism

Israeli Embassy in Finland attacked for 15th time in past 18 months

 

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli Embassy in Finland has been vandalized by neo-Nazi and far right extremists for at least the 15th time in the last year and a half.

The glass front door of the embassy in Helsinki was shattered over the weekend, and images of swastikas and Adolf Hitler were hung in the entrance to the building, Ynet reported....

Iran

In fresh challenge, defiant Iran tests medium-range missile – report

 

After openly breaching the terms of the nuclear deal, Iran this week also conducted a medium-range ballistic missile test in violation of Security Council resolutions, a report said late Thursday.

The country tested a Shahab-3 missile on Wednesday, the New York Times reported, citing an unnamed US military official.

It was launched from...

Iran

6 Iranians among 9 dead in Israeli strike on Syria, monitor says

Six Iranians fighting for the Syrian regime were among those killed in reported Israeli missile strikes in southern Syria this week, a war monitor said Thursday.

Israeli missiles targeted “military positions and intelligence facilities belonging to Iran and militias” in the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra early on Wednesday, the Syrian...

Archeology

Archaeologists unearth the gate to Goliath’s hometown

 

Monumental Iron Age remains from the ancient Philistine city of Gath, once the home of the legendary biblical giant Goliath, surfaced this summer during excavations by a Bar-Ilan University-led team of archaeologists.

Gath, one of the five cities of the ancient foes of the Israelites, was one of the largest cities in the region in the...

United Nations (UN)

US blocks attempt to condemn Israel at UN over Wadi Hummus demolitions

(July 25, 2019 / JNS) The United States on Wednesday blocked an attempt by several countries to get the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israel’s demolition earlier this week of illegally constructed buildings on the outskirts of eastern Jerusalem, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa circulated a draft statement among...

Antisemitism

US Department of Education out to tackle anti-Semitism

Kenneth L. Marcus was confirmed last summer by the US Senate as assistant secretary for civil rights at the US Department of Education following a contentious nomination battle by Democrats and left-wing and anti-Israel groups. In the job for a year now, his duties include enforcing civil rights laws prohibiting educational institutions from...

Israeli Technology

Israel among world’s top 10 most innovative countries — global index

Switzerland is the world’s most innovative country for a second consecutive year while Israel made the top 10, a global indicator showed Wednesday.

The annual Global Innovation Index — compiled by World Intellectual Property Organization, Cornell University and INSEAD — ranks 129 world economies on 80 parameters including research, technology and...

US-Israel Relationship

Orthodox Jewish woman named cybersecurity chief for US spy agency

An Orthodox Jewish woman whose parents were among the hostages rescued by Israeli commandos from Entebbe Airport has been tapped to head the United States National Security Agency’s new Cybersecurity Directorate.

Anne Neuberger of Baltimore has worked at the NSA for the past decade. She helped establish the US Cyber Command and worked as chief...

Syria

IDF on high alert along northern border following Syria strikes

IDF forces deployed along the nation's northern border were on high alert Thursday following airstrikes in southern Syria overnight Tuesday.

According to the Syrian state news agency's report, the country's air-defense systems were activated against "hostile missiles" launched from the Israeli Golan Heights and Israeli aircraft west of Damascus....

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

House passes resolution condemning global boycott targeting Israel

The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a measure condemning efforts to boycott and economically isolate Israel over its policies toward Palestinians, an explosive global issue that exposed fissures inside the Democratic ranks.

The 398-to-17 vote comes after months of turmoil centering on Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.),...

Hezbollah

‘The Port of Beirut has become the Port of Hezbollah’

(July 24, 2019 / Israel Hayom) Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon on Tuesday presented new evidence to the U.N. Security Council showing how Iran is using civilian transport routes to arm Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

Speaking at the United Nations headquarters just days after Iran seized a British oil tanker and amid...

Iran

Shin Bet: Iranian-led network tried to recruit operatives in Israel

A Syrian-based terrorist network that tried to recruit Israelis and Palestinians on behalf of the Iranian intelligence was uncovered recently, the Shin Bet security agency said on Wednesday.

The network was run by a Syrian figure called Abu Jihad, who together with Iranian officials used fake Facebook profiles to make initial contact with...

Palestinian Authority

Greenblatt: Palestinians have aspiration, not right, to East Jerusalem capital

The forthcoming US peace plan will not be based on “fictions of international consensus” or on international law, the Trump administration’s Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt said Tuesday.

Greenblatt also said that while the Palestinians may aspire to a capital in Jerusalem, they do not have a right to one. “It is true that the PLO and the...

Archeology

Israel: Large staircase of 3,500 year-old Canaanite palace discovered in Upper Galilee

According to the bible, the biggest Canaanite settlement was razed to the ground by Joshua's Israelites

A large, impressive ancient staircase from 3,500 years ago was recently discovered in Israel's Upper Galilee region at an excavation site at Tel Hazor, believed to have been part of the Canaanite kingdom ruled by Hazor, according to the Old...