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Happy New Year! For our DC readers, and all others able to take a little
time off these past couple of weeks, welcome back. As is often the case
in our line of work (and we're sure many others), you take a little
time off and there's a pile of things to go through on your desk. So,
this week, we're going around the region to let you know where things
stand - and perhaps where we're headed - in 2022.

Iran

As the world's leading state sponsor of terror and one of the most
oppressive regimes on the planet, we're kicking off with Iran this
week. Monday marked the two-year anniversary of the US dispatching
Iran's chief terror strategist, Qasem Soleimani, from this earth. With
the exception of a few, relatively minor acts of computer hacking, the
Iranians didn't mark the anniversary with anything too strategically
dramatic.

The same day of the anniversary, Iran nuclear talks started up again in
Vienna. Everyone with an ounce of objectivity remains quite pessimistic.
And if you want to know where the Israelis' heads are at, this is what
Israel's Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, had to say, "Israel has
capabilities, some of which the world, and even some experts in the
field, cannot even imagine. And Israel will protect itself against the
Iranian threat... Israel will do whatever it needs to do to protect its
security. And we don't need anybody's permission for that. That's
been the case since the first day we established this state."

We hope it doesn't come to what the Foreign Minister is implying might
need to happen, but it seems clear that Israel can and will do what is
necessary to protect their people (and the free world) from a nuclear
Iran.

Turkey

Turkey's President, Recep Tayip Erdogan, has been in power since 2003
and in that time, he's orchestrated a massive deterioration in
Ankara's relations with the West. This war-like footing has enabled
him to consolidate power and advance an Islamist agenda both inside and
outside his nation's borders. He's made friends with Hamas while
pushing aside longtime allies like the US and Israel.

Quite predictably, the primary consequence of Erdogan radical and
megalomaniacal approach to governance is that his country and his people
are suffering. The value of the Lira, Turkey's currency, dropped 5% on
Monday. And in the past year, Turkey's inflation rate stood at just
over 36%.

Part of Turkey's turn from free nation to pariah state has involved
Russia and Iran. None of this should come as a surprise, and while we
are pleased the US has at times reacted with strength to Turkey's
malignant activities by, for example, pushing them out of the F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter program and imposing sanctions, more needs to be done.

In case you missed it, in early November, our colleague Boris Zilberman,
authored an op-ed for Newsweek

assessing the current state of US policy towards Ankara and laying out
clear measures for addressing Turkey's current stance in a meaningful
way noting, "The Biden administration should make use of the tools
afforded by Congress. It should target Ankara's UAV sector, heavily
condition any potential sale of U.S. F-16s and heed the counsel of
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to
expand existing U.S. sanctions as punishment if Ankara moves forward
with a second-round of deliveries of S-400s."

Gaza

Over the weekend Hamas terrorists fired rockets again, and Israel
responded by targeting a rocket manufacturing facility and another
military target in Gaza. Last week, Palestinian terrorists shot and
wounded an Israeli civilian who was working near the security fence that
protects the Jewish state from terrorists walking into Israel and
blowing up busses - as they often did in the early 2000s.

The rocket fire should remind everyone in Washington of the importance
of advancing the Iron Dome replenishment legislation that passed the
House by a vote of 420-9 last year and enjoys overwhelming support in
the Senate. Unfortunately, this legislation is being blocked by Sen.
Rand Paul of Kentucky. Sen. Paul's actions put him on the same side of
the issue as "The Squad," endanger Israeli and Palestinian civilians and
embolden terrorists like Hamas.

The current situation is an embarrassment to our country, the people of
Kentucky and the United States Senate. We hope Majority Leader Schumer
and Republican Leader McConnell can exhibit the necessary leadership to
end Sen. Paul's despicable effort to block this vital legislation. 

Finally, as has become our practice - or at least we're trying -
we want to end on a positive note this week. One of the greatest foreign
policy achievements of the Trump administration was the Abraham Accords.
But this success need not end with the previous administration. And we
think the Biden administration agrees. During a recent visit to
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, Secretary of State
Anthony Blinken raised the possibility of Jakarta joining the Abraham
Accords and normalizing ties with Israel. We're not saying we expect
an announcement imminently, but we do support the Biden
Administration's embrace of the accords and wish them nothing but
success in their efforts to expand the number of Arab and Muslim nations
making peace with the Jewish state.

Sincerely,

CUFI Action Fund Team

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CUFI Action Fund, 300 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003, United States