As Congress enters its second week of the annual Easter/Passover recess, we are heavily focused - and rightfully so - on the uptick in terror within Israel. In this week’s Action Update, we’ll discuss the multi-front offensive that Iran and its terrorist proxies are waging against Israel, the current status of the Iranian protest movement, and the latest from Turkey.
Israel Contending with Multi-Front Attack Unless you’ve been completely ignoring the news out of the Middle East for the past two weeks, you’re aware of at least some of what Israel has faced in recent days. To sum up, rioters barricaded themselves in the Temple Mount, and Israel’s efforts to end that situation resulted in the rioters attacking Israeli police. Hamas has fired rockets from both Gaza and Lebanon into Israel, and the Israelis have responded. Likewise, a Syrian-based Iranian drone was shot down as it entered Israeli airspace, and the Israelis responded to that as well. For the most part, these riots and attacks did not achieve their worst goals, though they have dramatically increased tension in the region.
Worse yet, in recent days, Palestinian terror attacks have taken the lives of several people including a mother and her two daughters who were killed while driving down the road in Judea and Samaria, and an Italian tourist in Tel Aviv.
Israel is seeking to do what it can to restore deterrence against its adversaries and calm in the holy city of Jerusalem. While on Sunday, Jewish worshippers were allowed on the Temple Mount, Israeli police will prevent them from ascending the plateau during the final ten days of Ramadan. In addition, Jerusalem’s military responses to the terror attacks emanating from the north, east and west, indicate that Israel, while not seeking a fight, is – as it always has been – fully prepared to defend its citizens, even in the face of what has effectively become a multi-front Iranian-backed offensive against the Jewish state.
Tehran Backing Terrorists at Home as Well Despite the mainstream media largely ignoring what’s going on in Iran, anti-regime protests have been taking place for more than 200 days. The valiant effort to end Tehran’s tyranny has resulted in more than 750 Iranian citizens killed, and another 30,000 (yes, you read that correctly) arrested by the regime. Nonetheless, the people there have not given up; unfortunately, neither has the government.
One item that hasn’t been covered widely in the press concerns mysterious mass-poisonings of Iranian school girls (yes, you read that correctly as well). This has been going on for several months and has touched the lives of thousands of Iranians. Increasingly, these events, which center around all-girls schools, are believed by some to be chemical attacks. According to reports, there have been seven more such attacks in recent days. The regime says it is investigating the matter.
We suggest the Mullahs find the closest mirror and arrest that guy. The regime are not fans of women (in fact they just barred any women not wearing a Hijab from getting on the metro). And they are not fond of the Kurds who live in Iran – and that is the region where the most recent spate of poisonings took place. So again, if the regime really wants to put a stop to this horror, they likely should tell whichever terrorist-government consortium was tasked with this unfathomably evil plot to stand down.
Hope for Turkey? On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi. During the call, Erdogan said, “the Islamic world should be united against Israel’s attacks in Palestine.” Two days later, Erdogan called Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to let Herzog know he was concerned about the tensions in the region.
As this series of events indicates, Erdogan excels at talking out of both sides of his mouth. The glimmer of positive news is that the Turkish people know this, and maybe (just maybe) will end Erdogan’s two-decade rule in the coming months. Al-Monitor is reporting that Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Turkey’s leading opposition candidate for the May 14th Turkish Presidential elections “is in a neck-and-neck race with Erdogan, according to opinion polls, with some surveys putting him in the lead.”
Now, we should bear in mind that if Erdogan looks like he’s going to lose, or outright loses, the election, that doesn’t mean he’ll give a statesmanlike concession speech and there will be a peaceful transition of power. But as it stands, on May 14th the Turkish people will go to the polls for both their presidential and parliamentary elections and there is some reason to hope things turn around and Ankara returns to the Western fold.
We try to keep our Action Updates relatively short, but this week that wasn’t possible. The common theme across the Middle East is that evil is on the march, and good is seeking to hold the line and reverse the enemies’ gains. And when Congress returns from their two-week break, we’ll be there on Capitol Hill trying to aid all those in the Middle East fighting the good fight.
Sincerely, The CUFI Action Fund Team |
