Over the past two weeks, Christians United for Israel staff and leadership have been to the Middle East and Europe, working every step of the way to support the Jewish people in yet another hour of need. In this week’s Action Update, we go from Jerusalem to Hungary to the Negev Desert.
Jerusalem
During a recent trip to Israel, the CUFI Action Fund’s Chairwoman met with Israel’s Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Defense Minister. Such meetings help us to understand the Israeli perspective – though as an American organization, we come to our own determination on the best policy positions for Americans advocating a strong US-Israel alliance. At every meeting, the primary topic of discussion was the Israeli view on the continued Iranian threat.
The Israelis do not consider the Iranian nuclear and terrorist threat to be an exclusively Israeli problem, nor as Prime Minister Bennett said are they “bound by what will be written in the agreements.” And they’re right. A world in which the radical Islamic regime in Tehran possesses a nuclear weapons capability is a threat to every free nation on earth. The latest reports on a potential Iran deal indicate it is far less imminent than was once discussed in the press, but those reports do not indicate the Biden administration has made a U-turn on its road to appeasement.
For our part, we remain focused on ensuring Congress reviews any agreements made between President Biden’s envoys, their war criminal Russian interlocutors, and the representatives of the leading state-sponsor of terrorism – the Islamic Republic of Iran. To that end, both Democratic and Republican Members of Congress have authored letters to President Biden voicing the same.
Hungarian-Ukrainian Border
In recent weeks, CUFI has raised more than $3 million to support the immigration of Ukrainian Jewish war refugees to Israel. Last week, a small team, including one member of our Action Fund staff, traveled to the Ukrainian border to document and better understand the situation.
“The mothers carry their babies in one arm and all of their possessions in the other. It is a human tragedy on a massive scale, but these survivors will build a new life in the land of their ancestors,” said the Action Fund staff member.
“The title of Israel’s national anthem is ‘The Hope.’ And for these beleaguered but not broken people, it is the hope that they will one day be reunited with their loved ones in the land of milk and honey that drives them forward. Exhausted, yet resolved to survive, they are men and women of valor who have tasted freedom and will not relinquish it. They mourn the obliterated lives they lived just one month ago, but they are determined to make it to their promised land,” he added.
Israel has continued its humanitarian efforts to help the Ukrainian people, including opening the first foreign field hospital in Western Ukraine last week.
Negev Desert
In a once unthinkable event, this week, Israel hosted foreign ministers from four Arab nations with which the Jewish state has relations and US Secretary of State Tony Blinken. According to reports, the primary topic on the agenda was Iran.
Both Arabs and Israelis are threatened by Tehran’s evil actions, and we can imagine that Secretary of State Blinken spent much of his time in Israel’s southern desert hearing the same thing from the diverse group of leaders: don’t capitulate to Iran.
Ultimately, Secretary Blinken promised to “work together to confront common security challenges and threats, including those from Iran and its proxies.” We imagine the Arab and Israeli reactions to that statement were the same as ours: we’ll believe it when we see it.
The inaugural Negev Summit Forum is a beginning and not an end. The nations agreed to meet twice a year and established six working groups on issues of economic and security concerns.
Next week, we’ll be back to our more regularly scheduled programing, covering policy developments at the state and federal levels. Until then, thank you as always for staying informed, engaged and vigilant.
