As war rages in the Gaza Strip, antisemitism is reaching fever pitch here throughout the world, and the Pentagon has announced a new operation to confront Iran-backed Houthi terrorists’ attacks on
international shipping.
We Are the Antidote to Antisemitism
Over the weekend, nearly 200 synagogues and Jewish institutions throughout the United States received bomb and death threats. The threats are part of a months long increase in a wide variety of antisemitic activities aimed at Jewish houses of worship, communal institutions, pro-Israel students on campus and Jewish Americans across the country.
According to the Anti-Defamation League’s preliminary statistics, there has been a nearly 400% increase in antisemitism in the U.S. since the 10/7 Hamas Massacre of more than 1,200 innocent Israelis.
Such antisemitism is not limited to the U.S. In fact, institutionally, the most despicable displays of antisemitism, consistently come from the United Nations, where the Security Council will once again try to advance a resolution aimed at stopping Israel from wiping Hamas off the face of the earth.
What the antisemites both here in the U.S. and around the world – be they terrorists from Hamas, bigots in Congress or diplomats who’ve sold their souls to Iran – fail to understand is that the Jewish people aren’t going anywhere. Israelis will fight until their mission is complete. They will bring the hostages home and they will vanquish Hamas regardless of how the UN Secretary General or posh European diplomats feel about it.
Likewise, our American Jewish neighbors are not alone. We stand with them in the town square on Capitol Hill. We stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters in good times and bad. And when American Jewish leaders go to their elected officials and ask for support, millions of Evangelicals have their backs in the heartland.
Congress Passes NDAA
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Congress passed a bill! That’s right, for those keeping score at home, Congress did the absolute bare minimum this past week and finally advanced the annual National Defense Authorization Act. As its name suggests, this legislation is central to American defense policy.
CUFI Action Fund Chairwoman Sandra Parker had this to say about the legislation’s advance, “Congress dropped the ball on the emergency supplemental to Israel, but we have confidence that with strong leadership, that legislation will advance. We are deeply grateful to Chairman Reed (D-RI), Ranking Member Wicker (R-MS), Chairman Rogers (R-AL), and Ranking Member Smith (D-WA), for displaying the leadership necessary to move vital, bipartisan legislation, like the NDAA.”
The CUFI Action Fund supported several pro-Israel provisions in the NDAA, including but not limited to:
· authorizing U.S. support of Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defense System (Sec. 1665)
· extending U.S.-Israel anti-tunnel cooperation (Sec. 1252);
· increasing authorizations for U.S.-Israel cooperation to counter drones (Sec. 1253);
· modifying authorization of U.S.-Israel cooperation on directed energies (Sec. 1254);
· ensuring the Israel-based war reserves stockpile is properly equipped to handle a variety of threats through 2027 (Sec. 1255);
· requiring a report from the Department of Defense examining whether or not any products sold at commissaries were produced by companies engaged in a boycott of Israel (Sec. 1258); and
· establishing an integrated Middle East maritime capability with U.S. partners in the region, including Israel (Sec. 1261).
House of Representatives Heads Home, Senate to Follow
As the above suggests, pro-Israel Americans are deeply frustrated with the Congressional disfunction that has led to Israel waging a war for its survival without Congress, thus far, advancing any tangible support for the Jewish state to the President’s desk.
The House of Representatives adjourned until January 9th of next year, with the Senate soon to do, more or less, the same without coming to an agreement on how to move forward the Israel emergency supplemental. Let’s be clear: the longer Congress dithers the more precarious Israel’s position becomes, both in terms of armaments and the increasing perception amongst Israel’s adversaries that this is an opening for a wider conflagration.
Despite Congress’s meager functionality, the Executive Branch (for better and worse) remains fully engaged in the war.
On the one hand, the U.S. has projected power throughout the region, which likely helped prevent/delay the war’s escalation. In addition, the Pentagon is putting together an operation to address the Iran-back Houthi terrorists’ steady drumbeat of attacks on shipping around the Gulf of Aiden and random lobbing of missiles at Western targets.
On the other hand, the Biden Administration has expressed, quite publicly, its desire to see Israel wrap up major military operations in the next few weeks. Spoiler Alert: It’s not that simple, and the American military knows that horrible truth all too well.
If Israel is to ensure another 10/7 massacre can never happen again, it’ll take more than a few weeks. And we would hope the Biden administration would understand that – especially given the length of time the U.S. spent in Afghanistan and needed to deliver justice to Osama Bin-Laden.
And it’s on this last point that we seek to end. The common theme throughout this week’s update is simple: the Israelis are going to do what they need to do in order to win. They’ll listen to their American counterparts, and they’ll sit politely as European diplomats lecture Israelis on how to defeat terrorists. However, when it’s all said and done, Israel’s mission (and ours) will be unimpacted by the pronouncements of those who simultaneously condemn and reap the protection of Israel’s battle against the barbaric terrorists who slaughtered her citizens (and would happily do the same to ours).
Sincerely,
The CUFI Action Fund Team
|
