In this week’s edition of the Action Update, we start with Hezbollah setting up camp inside Israeli territory. From there, we’ll move to the latest effort to disrupt the UN’s anti-Israel obsession, and, attempting to return to an old tradition, we’ll end with some positive news out of our nation’s capital.

Hezbollah Sets Up Camp Inside Israel

In what is the geo-political equivalent of a game of chicken (albeit suicidal in the terrorists’ case), the Lebanese-based, Iran-backed terrorist-army Hezbollah, set up some tents in Israel’s north near an eight square mile area known as the Shebaa Farms.

Lebanon claims this land belongs to them, but there’s an internationally recognized border – called the blue line - separating Israeli from Lebanese territory and even the UN has acknowledged the territory in question is Israeli.

Along this border, Israel has a security fence, but that fence is inside Israeli territory by a few meters. So, what Hezbollah has done is set up a small encampment right there on the border, inside Israeli territory. Israel is trying to deal with the issue diplomatically, but all options are on the table (and when Jerusalem says that they actually mean it).

Pardon our bluntness, but everyone knows this ends in one of two ways. Either Israel’s efforts to end this diplomatically through the UN work, or they don’t, and the terrorist will be removed by Israeli military forces. No true democracy would allow a terrorist entity to setup shop inside their borders. Nonetheless, if this does come to a head and force is deemed necessary, we have every confidence Israel will (of course) succeed in winning the battle, and we are equally confident the media will then falsely portray Israel as the aggressor.

Key Congressional Committee Hits Back at UN’s Anti-Israel Bias

As Action Update readers know, every year, Congress advances a foreign operations appropriations bill that contains a host of important funding, including annual U.S. aid to Israel. This bill also (often) includes funding for the UN. But (!) Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), the chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs has had enough of the UN’s obscene attitude towards Israel, so when the legislation in question came out of his subcommittee, it excluded funding for the UN’s general budget.

Diaz-Balart succinctly explained his position in a recent hearing, “Israel is routinely attacked and undermined across the entire U.N. system, while the world’s worst human rights abusers remain, frankly, relatively untouched.” And just as important, Diaz-Balart made clear that “The bill provides unwavering support of our democratic ally, Israel, and fully funds the United States-Israel Memorandum of Understanding by providing $3.3 billion in security assistance.  It also takes bold, new action to definitively address the anti-Israel bias at the United Nations and anti-Israel actions at the International Court of Justice.”

The Congressman is right, and we applaud his strong and righteous position. We likewise welcome the limitations and outright prohibitions the bill includes on a host of UN-related matters including the Biden administration’s attempt to rejoin UNESCO, the UN’s obscene and absurd Commission of Inquiry into Israeli military actions, and the UN’s preeminent anti-Israel program: UNRWA (which the Biden administration is funding to the tune of well over $200 million).

NDAA Moves Forward with Key Pro-Israel Provisions

The one annual policy bill Congress has consistently advanced for more than six decades is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). And this bill regularly includes key CUFI priorities. For example, last year’s bill, which usually lands on the President’s desk in the winter of each year, included the DEFEND Act, a 2022 CUFI Summit legislative agenda item.

This year is no different, with several high-priority pro-Israel provisions included in the current draft of the legislation, which just advanced out of the House Armed Services Committee.

This year’s legislation includes support for U.S. - Israel missile defense cooperation, an authorization of funds for the U.S. and Israel to jointly work on countering unmanned aerial systems, joint research and development of so-called future warfare issues such as cybersecurity and AI, and prioritizes training Israeli pilots on the KC-46, a midair refueling aircraft the Israelis have put on order that would likely be a key component of any effort to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Finally, the current draft of the NDAA also includes the MARITIME Act which mandates that the Department of Defense, “seek to build upon the historic opportunities created by the Abraham Accords and the incorporation of Israel into the area of responsibility of the United States Central Command to develop a Middle East integrated maritime domain awareness and interdiction capability.”

By now, we imagine our readers have rightly concluded that there are real, dangerous challenges in front of us, but, likewise, we are making important advances in ensuring Israel has the means to defend herself, and the U.S. remains positively engaged in the region.

With the CUFI Summit only a few weeks away, these challenges and efforts bring into stark relief the importance of being there, with CUFI, in Washington to ensure the policies we’ve discussed above, as well as many others, advance through Congress and are signed into law.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team