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.

Hezbollah

Israel’s Navy trains for Hezbollah attack on offshore infrastructures

Israel’s navy successfully completed a complex training program last week led by a flotilla of missile boats, including both defensive and offensive attacks at sea, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced Wednesday.

In the first part of the training, a drone believed to be posing a threat similar to that of a missile on a gas rig was successfully...

Iran

Netanyahu says Iran’s new uranium enrichment drive is aimed at destroying Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that a newly announced plan by Iran to increase its nuclear enrichment capacity was aimed at producing nuclear weapons to be used against Israel.

“Two days ago, Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, stated his intention to destroy the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on social...

Iran

Iran’s top leader vows tenfold response to any attack

Iran’s top leader said Monday that anyone who fires one missile at his country “will be hit by 10” in response, but dismissed fears of war as “propaganda” by the West.

Tensions have soared since the US withdrew from the landmark 2015 nuclear accord, and vowed to restore sanctions unless Iran meets a list of strict demands.

In a speech, Supreme...

Syria

Shin Bet says it thwarted plot to assassinate prime minister, Jerusalem mayor

Israeli forces arrested an East Jerusalem man suspected of planning to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat earlier this year, on orders from a Syria-based terrorist group, the Shin Bet security service revealed on Tuesday.

The main suspect, 30-year-old Arab Israeli Muhammad Jamal Rashdeh, was arrested on...

US-Israel Relationship

US envoy to reporters: ‘Keep your mouths shut’ on criticizing Israel over Gaza

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attacked the media on Monday over what he said was a failure to fairly cover deadly protests on the Gaza border over the past months, advising reporters to “keep your mouths shut” unless they know better than Israel how to deal with the demonstrations.

Some criticism of Israel may be legitimate, Friedman...

Hamas

Israel rushes relief to volcano-struck Guatemala

Israel said Monday it would send emergency aid money to Guatemala after a deadly volcanic eruption left at least 25 people dead and cities covered in ash.

The Foreign Ministry said it was sending $10,000 to the country. The money is to go toward buying medicine, food and blankets for those affected.

There was no immediate word on whether Israel...

Hamas

Trump Appoints Gary Bauer of CUFI for US Commission on Religious Freedom

US President Donald Trump has appointed Gary Bauer, the Washington director of the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Action Fund, to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Bauer, an avowed Christian activist who formerly served in the Reagan administration, said he was “deeply honored and humbled” by the appointment.

“We have...

US-Israel Relationship

UN ‘Hopelessly Biased Against Israel’ Says Haley, as US Vetoes Security Council Resolution on Gaza Violence

The majority of the 15 states on the UN Security Council were “willing to blame Israel, but unwilling to blame Hamas, for violence in Gaza,” the American Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said on Friday after the US vetoed a Kuwait-sponsored resolution that urged the deployment of an international force to the West Bank and Gaza.

“It is now...

Iran

U.S. considers deploying defense system amid concern over Iranian threat

BERLIN - The US military has held preliminary discussions about moving a powerful missile defense system to Germany to boost European defenses, according to two sources familiar with the issue, a move that experts said could trigger fresh tensions with Moscow.

The tentative proposal to send the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system...

Israeli Technology

Israeli researchers say they have found a way to curb growth of cancer cells

A group of Israeli  researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has developed a new molecule that they say inhibits the growth of cancer cells and also reprograms them to be noncancerous.

The new treatment is based on inhibiting the production of a protein, the voltage-dependent anion-selective channel 1 (VDAC1), highly increased levels of...

Iran

The inhumanity of Hamas’ human shields

Recently, I had the opportunity to lead a congressional delegation to Jerusalem for the opening of the U.S. embassy. During our visit, The Jerusalem Post front page was “Promises Made, Promises Kept,” with a picture of President Trump. Sadly, while the United States was keeping its promise to Israel and the American people, Hamas terrorists were...

Iran

Top IDF officer: Iran may use Gaza terrorists again to distract from Syria

A top commander in the Israeli army said Thursday that if Iran finds itself in trouble in Syria, it could again mobilize its ally in Gaza, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), to attack Israel as a distraction.

The senior officer in the IDF’s Southern Command, in a briefing to Israeli journalists, also said Hamas and PIJ had improved their combat...

Syria

We’ll hit Iran anywhere in Syria, Netanyahu says

Israel plans to act against Iran anywhere in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, as Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman prepare to fly to Moscow for talks about removing Iran and its proxy armies from Syria.

“We will continue to act against intention to establish a military presence in Syria opposite us, not just opposite the...

US-Israel Relationship

Haley calls Security Council response to Gazan volleys ‘outrageous’

WASHINGTON -- Nikki Haley, US President Donald Trump's envoy to the UN, tore into the organization on Wednesday for what she characterized as a lackadaisical response to the firing of over 70 rockets on Israel from Gaza the day before.

Claiming a double standard, and questioning why Israeli military actions against Hamas, recognized as a...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

IDF general: Gaza terror groups ‘deeply deterred,’ not interested in war

The head of the IDF’s Southern Command declared Wednesday that terror groups in the Gaza Strip were “very deeply deterred” by the air force’s aerial bombardment against dozens of targets in the coastal enclave on Tuesday afternoon and pre-dawn Wednesday.

“I think Hamas and the other terror groups in the Gaza Strip are very deeply deterred, and...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Netanyahu: Israel dealt Gaza terror groups ‘harshest blow in years’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday Israel’s military had delivered the “harshest blow” in years to Gaza terrorist groups, which he said are inspired by Iran, in his first comments on the most serious flare-up since the 2014 war.

“Since yesterday the IDF has strongly retaliated against the firing from the Gaza Strip and has hit...

Hamas

Dozens of rockets and shells fired into Israel overnight, several intercepted

Thousands of Israelis spent the night in bomb shelters as terrorist in the Gaza Strip fired some 40 rockets and mortar shells at communities near the coastal enclave early Wednesday, with several of them being intercepted by Iron Dome. There were no reports of injuries.

The IDF said that rockets and shells were fired at the Eshkol, Sha’ar Hanegev...

Khamenie Haniya
Iran

Army says some rockets, mortars fired from Gaza were made in Iran

Some of the dozens of mortars and rockets fired into Israel by Gaza-based terrorists on Tuesday were made in Iran and smuggled into the Strip, the army said.

In a statement, the army said that during the day more than 70 mortars and rockets were fired, with many intercepted. “Among the munitions fired at Israel were also rockets manufactured in...

Talking Points

CUFI Talking Points: More rockets fired into Israel over the past 24 hours than during past 3 years

As of right now, at least 70 mortars have been fired into Israel from Gaza in the last 24 hours and the situation continues to grow more serious. The current mortar attack is the largest assault on Israeli civilians since the 2014 Gaza war.
Early this morning, as Israelis were just waking up and taking their children to school, they found...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

IDF hits back after Gazan missile barrages strike South

The IDF struck dozens of targets belonging to Islamic Jihad and Hamas across the length of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, after several mortar and rocket barrages were fired at Israeli communities.

In a major escalation, Islamic Jihad launched close to 100 projectiles at towns near the Gaza border; two exploded in towns in the Eshkol region,...