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