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.

Antisemitism

There were 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents in 2018, ADL finds

(JTA) — Last year saw the third-highest number of anti-Semitic incidents since 1979, despite a decrease from the previous year, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.

Though the 1,879 incidents in 2018 dropped from the 1,986 incidents in 2017, according to the ADL’s annual survey of incidents released Tuesday, the number of...

Antisemitism

New York Times acknowledges publishing cartoon with ‘anti-Semitic tropes’

(JTA) — The New York Times acknowledged that it published in its international print edition a political cartoon that “included anti-Semitic tropes.”

The cartoon showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a guide dog (a dachshund) wearing a Star of David collar and leading President Donald Trump, who is wearing a black kippah.

“The...

Hamas

Reducing reliance on Russia, Poland considers purchase of Israeli gas

Polish state-controlled energy company PGNiG is considering the purchase of Israeli natural gas as it seeks to reduce its dependence on key Russian supplier, Gazprom.

"We want to be the company at the crossroads of North-South and East-West... we need something to the south," PGNiG chief executive Piotr Wozniak told Reuters last week.

So we are...

Holocaust

Thousands mourn revered Israeli rabbi and Holocaust survivor

Thousands attended the funeral Sunday for a revered Israeli rabbi and Holocaust survivor known for his especially brutal treatment at the hands of the Nazis and his efforts to memorialise the genocide's victims.
Menahem Mendel Taub, a Hassidic rabbi, died at the age of 96 in Jerusalem on Sunday, drawing tributes from Israeli Prime Minister...

US-Israel Relationship

UMass students file emergency motion to block anti-Israel event

April 26, 2019 / JNS) Students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst filed an emergency motion on Thursday asking a Massachusetts court to block an upcoming event featuring several anti-Israel speakers that is being sponsored by university departments.

The May 4 event, titled “Not Backing Down: Israel, Free Speech & the Battle for...

Antisemitism

Israeli film festival in UK hits back at boycott campaign

The Seret Festival, a celebration of Israeli film and television, kicked off on Monday in six cities across the UK, despite attempts to organize a boycott of the event.

The two-week long festival is bringing more than two dozen Israeli productions to movie theaters in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brighton and Cambridge. Last week, days before the...

US-Israel Relationship

US shooting renews debate on anti-Semitism and its political response

WASHINGTON — The latest shooting at a US synagogue heightened the sense of alarm Sunday of a rise in anti-Semitism, despite President Donald Trump avowal to overcome the “evil” of hatred.

A 60-year-old woman, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, was killed and three people were wounded when a gunman burst into the synagogue in the southern Californian town of...

Event Recaps

April 22 – Bronx, NY – Why Israel Spanish

Event Recaps

April 22 – Farmington, NM – Pastor’s Meeting

Event Recaps

April 19 – Portland, OR – Why Israel

Holocaust

Discovery Channel and PBS to air Holocaust documentaries for Yom Hashoah

JTA — Alan Moskin served in Patton’s 3rd Army as it liberated the Mauthausen concentration camp. The experience, he said in an unintentional wordplay, was “tattooed right here on my heart, on my soul.”

He didn’t share what he saw — not with his parents or siblings, not his wife and children — until 50 years after he came home. But when he finally...

US-Israel Relationship

Congress members call for Israeli visitors to have easier entry into U.S.

Two Congress members called on the Department of Homeland Security to admit Israel into a program that allows some of its visitors expedited entry into the United States.

Reps. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., and Brian Mast, R-Fla., sent a letter Wednesday to the acting Homeland Security secretary, Kevin McAleenan, urging him to admit the Jewish state into...

Hamas

Crypto terror financing: Hamas shifts tactics in bitcoin fundraising

LONDON/JERUSALEM - The armed wing of Hamas is using increasingly complex methods of raising funds via bitcoin, researchers say, highlighting the difficulties regulators face in tracking cryptocurrency financing of outfits designated by some as terrorist groups.

The Gaza-based Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, which is proscribed by the United...

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

Federal judge blocks enforcement of anti-BDS law in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge has blocked enforcement of a Texas law that requires contractors to certify that they don’t support a boycott of Israel.

In a 56-page opinion filed Thursday, US District Judge Robert Pitman of Austin said boycotts are protected free speech, declaring the law fails to serve a compelling state interest.

The American...

Iran

Turkey Says It’s Pushing Back Against Trump’s Iran Sanctions

Turkey is working on a mechanism to avert U.S. sanctions designed to halt trade with Iran, risking another showdown with Washington as it joins a group of nations determined to keep buying oil from the Islamic Republic.

The Turkish trade ministry and its counterpart in Iran are attempting to maintain the flow of goods between the two countries as...

Hamas

Report: UNIFIL instructed to boost, expand patrols in south Lebanon

United Nations forces in southern Lebanon have been instructed to boost and expand their patrols recently to new areas in a bid to better monitor Hezbollah weaponry, Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar reported Friday.

The report by the newspaper, which has ties to the Iran-backed terror group, had no outside confirmation.

Al-Akhbar claimed the recent...

United Nations (UN)

UN confirms 3rd Hezbollah tunnel crossed border into Israel, violating ceasefire

A UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon Thursday confirmed that a tunnel discovered earlier this year by Israel had crossed the Lebanese-Israeli border, in the third such breach of a ceasefire resolution.

Israel in January accused the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah of having dug what it described as the deepest, “longest and most...

US-Israel Relationship

US slaps new sanctions on Hezbollah-linked businessmen, firms

The US Treasury Department increased its sanctions on the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah on Wednesday by targeting two individuals and three entities, for allegedly having helped it evade existing sanctions.

In a release on its website, the department said it targeted Belgium-based Wael Bazzi “for acting for or on behalf of his father and...

Israel Defense Force (IDF)

Lebanon’s minister threatens to strike Ben-Gurion Airport in future war

Lebanon’s Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab has warned that the Lebanese military would strike Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport if Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport were struck in a future conflict.

“If ‘Israel’ bombards our airport, we will bombard its airport; if it strikes our oil facilities, we will strike its oil facilities,” he was...

Palestinian Authority

Convicted Palestinian terrorist obtained US citizenship

A Palestinian terrorist convicted of attempting to bomb an Israeli bus managed to obtain US citizenship, according to a report from CNN.

This would apparently be the second time a convicted terrorist became a US citizen after the 9/11 attacks. In 2017, Rasmeah Odeh was convicted of illegaly obtaining US citizenship, after lying about her...