From the moment Israel launched its counteroffensive against Hamas following the 10/7 Massacre, Israeli leaders of all stripes cautioned that the war would last many months. In this edition of the Action Update, we’ll give a brief overview of where things stand and where we expect them to go.  

Gaza

Nearly 250 Israeli soldiers have been killed since ground operations in Gaza began. During this time, Israel has vanquished Hamas as a viable military presence in northern Gaza and significantly degraded the terrorist organization in southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Yunis. And there were reports Monday that Israel had eliminated the third highest ranking official in Hamas’s military wing – one of the three primary masterminds of the 10/7 Massacre. Israel also eliminated Hamas’s top military operative outside of Gaza, Salah Al-Arouri, in early January in Lebanon along with other Hamas terrorists.

The prevailing military and intelligence consensus is that Hamas leadership and the bulk of their remaining fighting forces are now largely huddled in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which sits along the Egyptian border.

Washington

If Israel is to bring the hostages home and eliminate Hamas, the IDF will have to enter Rafah in force. President Biden has expressed opposition to this, calling it a redline. As we know, for this administration – at least when it comes to adversaries – redlines tend to be written in pencil.

Nonetheless, Israeli blood continues to be spilled in Gaza, and on top of Congress’s failure to provide Israel with the emergency supplemental package, now the Biden administration is putting significant diplomatic pressure on Jerusalem to effectively stop short of wiping Hamas out and bringing home Israelis and Americans held hostage.

The White House’s position on Israel’s operations in Israel is driven, they claim, out of concern for the Palestinian civilian population. Concern for the well-being of the innocent is certainly no vice. In fact, it is laudable. That is why Israel has done everything in its power, more than any other nation in such a circumstance, to protect and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Jerusalem has also made clear that it would look to remove civilians in the way of operations in Rafah as it did in Northern Gaza.  

And when President Biden announced, during the State of the Union, plans to build a floating pier to provide additional humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, Israel not only did not object but made clear that they have been working with the U.S. government on this plan. While many questions remain about the U.S. presence and how aid will reach civilians and not terror groups or gangs looking to make a quick buck, the fact of the matter remains that the blame for any suffering taking place in Gaza falls squarely on the shoulders of Hamas and their backers.

Tehran

The current war in Gaza, as well as the more than 1,000 attacks against Israel emanating from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and additional attacks from the Houthis in Yemen, would not be happening without Iran’s money, weapons and training.

As some readers will no doubt recall, during the 2023 CUFI Summit, we lobbied in support of the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act. This legislation would sanction entities, such as Chinese ports which are the largest offenders, that aid Iran’s illicit oil sales – which recently reached a 5-year high with 1.3 million barrels of oil a day sold, largely to China, resulting in tens of billions in revenue.

That legislation passed the House in November and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-MD) last week announced that his committee is expected to advance the legislation in the coming weeks. Once signed into law and implemented, this bill should put a nice-sized dent in Tehran’s cash flow.

Hell on Earth

Last week, the United Nations envoy focused on addressing instances of sexual violence, released a report saying there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Hamas committed “sexual torture” amongst other horrific atrocities.

Given that the barbarians filmed their savagery and broadcast it publicly, we might have used more conclusory language. Moreover, given the volume of unsubstantiated allegations regularly thrown at Israel by the UN, the report is ultimately a begrudging acknowledgment by the UN of the horrors we all already knew had taken place.

Israel believes 130 hostages remain in Hamas captivity; 130 human beings continuing to endure the horrors the UN resentfully conceded occurred on that darkest of days.

As we reported last week, there is a deal on the table that all parties – save, of course, Hamas – believe is more than reasonable and would see the women, elderly, wounded, and most vulnerable Israeli and American hostages released.

This war has numerous facets and fronts, and we are working tirelessly to fight on each one. But we cannot do that without your support. The 2024 CUFI Washington Summit is just a few months away, and we need you there.

The 2023 Summit catapulted the SHIP Act forward, and we are soon to see the fruits of those labors. At this year’s Summit, we must do the same for those policies that will enable Israel to vanquish all the terrorists on her border, forever.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team