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Next week, Congress will finally return to Washington, and to be blunt,
we have expectations. We expect our leaders to ensure Israel has what
she needs to bring down Hamas and bring the hostages home. We expect our
leaders not to play politics with the safety and security of our closest
ally in the world. In short, we expect Congress to do what most
Americans and most members of Congress want to do: stand with Israel.

**Actions, Not Words**

In November, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer both expressed their personal, rock-solid commitment to standing
with Israel. Their words were unambiguous.

"Let me be very clear, the United States stands unequivocally with our
neighbor, our friend, our ally: Israel," Johnson said.

"Even in its darkest days, the United States has always stood with
Israel and we will do everything to see that that never, ever
changes," Schumer said.

Beautiful words. And we've no doubt these two distinguished gentlemen
meant every one of them. Yet, Israel aid is being held up by partisan
bickering over unrelated policies.

During that same speech, Speaker Johnson said, "There are a few issues
in Washington that can so easily bring together leaders of both parties
in both chambers but the survival of the state of Israel and our people
unites us together."

Again, beautiful words. But not enough.

CUFI's staffers and lay-leaders are in churches all across the country
every week and what they're seeing in the field is palpable
frustration with Congressional Leadership over the failure to provide
Israel with the support she needs - especially as the Israelis are
weeks away from running out of the necessary funding to continue to
acquire the means to protect their people.

**Justice Delivered**

In June of 2014, three Israeli boys, Eyal Yifrach (19), Gilad Shaar
(16), and Naftali Fraenkel (16), were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas
terrorists. Salih al-Arouri, the child-murderer behind that monstrous
plot as well as numerous other terror attacks, was killed earlier this
week alongside several of his colleagues while the group met in Beirut.
As one analyst noted, the Israelis were looking for him "like the
Americans were looking for Bin Laden."

Al-Arouri was a critical node atop Hamas leadership both politically and
militarily. While he was Hamas's number two man politically, he
commanded terrorist activities in the West Bank as one of the founders
of its barbaric Al-Qassam Brigades. Notably, he was harbored by the
Turkish Government for many years as he galivanted around the world
building support for killing Israelis as the key interlocuter between
Hamas, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Hezbollah.

At the time of his death al-Arouri had been designated as a terrorist by
the U.S. Treasury Department for nearly a decade and had a $5M bounty on
his head by the U.S. Justice Department. In short, Israel delivered a
major blow against a Hamas monster for whom justice was long overdue.

Hezbollah, the terrorist-army that effectively controls Lebanon, has
vowed revenge because the targeted assassination took place in
Hezbollah-controlled territory (i.e. Lebanon). For its part, Israel is
bracing for whatever Hezbollah is preparing to throw at them, and likely
hoping American support for the Jewish state comes in time to deter
Hezbollah and Iran from expanding the war (or at least in time for
Israel to defend against any onslaught).

**The Battles in the Americas**

** **

Speaking of the war expanding, news broke earlier this week that
Argentina arrested Lebanese and Syrian nationals for planning to bomb
the Pan American Maccabi Games, an international Jewish sporting event
currently taking place in Buenos Aires.

Given the nationalities of the terrorists, as well as Hezbollah's
history of attacking the Jewish community of Argentina, it is very
likely this will be revealed to have been yet another Iran-backed
Hezbollah terror plot.

This comes on the heels of another Iranian terror plot aimed at
America's water system. In early December, Iran-backed hackers
attacked multiple small, public water and utility authorities. Full
details of the attack are unknown, but it appears the authorities caught
the problems the hackers created in time.  

However, just this week, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure
Security Agency plainly stated that Iran's terrorist-hackers are
"actively targeting and compromising" American facilities that use a
particular Israeli computer system, often used by water service
providers, but also used by companies in the energy, food and healthcare
sectors.

Longtime readers will recall that in 2021, CUFI advocated in support of
the U.S-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act, which
President Biden signed into law as part of that year's annual defense
authorization bill. Obviously, more needs to be done, but advancing
policy and taking action matters.

So, we end where we began: Congressional Leaders must get their houses
in order. There is a war going on. It's a battle between good and
evil, between democracy and tyranny, and yet, as you read this, Congress
is on vacation. Time to get back to work.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund

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CUFI Action Fund, 2000 Duke Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA 22314, United States