Over the past week, there have been some significant developments here
at home and in the Middle East. In this week's Action Update, we'll
look at the headlines and then go a bit deeper.

Rep. Ilhan Omar Booted from HFAC

On Thursday, Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the most antisemitic members of
Congress, was kicked off her assignment to the House Foreign Affairs
Committee (HFAC) by the House of Representatives.

We issued a statement
<[link removed]>
welcoming the news in which we noted, "Rep. Omar has a track record of
trafficking in antisemitic tropes and making bigoted claims concerning
pro-Israel activists. Moreover, her positions regarding the Middle East
defy reason. She has made blatantly false claims about Israel and has
even gone so far as to compare the United States and Israel to terrorist
groups. An individual espousing such fringe and hateful beliefs has no
place serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee."

The laundry list of Rep. Omar's antisemitic statements could fill
pages, but one particular incident exemplifies just how unapologetically
hateful she is. After her 2012 tweet alleging that "Israel has
hypnotized the world," came to light, Rep. Omar was confronted on a
news program about her antisemitism. Apparently unfamiliar with the
concept of irony, Rep. Omar accused those who took offense to her tweet
of bigotry. That's right, folks, Rep. Omar's understanding of the
world is that anyone who doesn't appreciate her antisemitism is a
bigot.

As we noted in the aforementioned statement, "Antisemitism has no
place anywhere in America, including and especially in Congress." Rep.
Omar's removal from HFAC is good for the country. Antisemitism cannot
be normalized, and that is quite clearly Rep. Omar's goal.

Iran and Russia, a Match Made in Hell

Regular readers of the Update know that we've been tracking Iran's
weapons sales to Russia. We're not going to claim to be surprised that
Tehran and Moscow have engaged in such a partnership. Both are evil
regimes run by despots who have no regard for human life. But we are
increasingly concerned about how close these two international pariahs
have become.

Russia has been using Iranian suicide drones to indiscriminately kill
Ukrainian citizens. Iran, which doesn't care about innocent life (see
above), isn't just making money off these acts of murder-they are
also able to see their drones in combat, which enables these weapons,
whose final target is Israel, to be improved.

In the latest development, the Russians are working with Iran to build a
factory on Russian soil that would produce as many as 6,000 Iranian
drones for use in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

As Ukraine has gotten pretty good at destroying the current crop of
relatively slow-moving Iranian drones being deployed by Russia, the new
drone factory will build faster, more elusive aerial death machines. As
we mentioned in last week's Update, the Stop Iranian Drones Act is
more imperative than ever, and we will be putting the full weight of our
organization behind advancing this legislation

Turkey and Syria Suffer Massive Earthquake

Some of you may have seen that Turkey suffered a massive earthquake
earlier this week. The quake had a substantial impact on Syria as well.
As of this writing, more than 2,400 people have died, with thousands
more injured. During moments like these, everyone must set aside
political differences and help those in need. And that's exactly what
Israel is doing.

Israel has sent medical and Search and Rescue teams to Turkey to try to
save as many lives as possible. In addition, even though Syria and
Israel are officially at war, Jerusalem is sending aid to their northern
neighbor as well.

This is not the first time Israel has set aside ongoing conflicts in the
name of humanity. During Syria's recent civil war, Israel provided
aid, including medical treatment inside Israel, to victims of that
brutal and catastrophic conflict in an effort dubbed "Operation Good
Neighbor."

There's a reason Israel has become known as the world's first
responder. In part, it's because, tragically, Israel's fight for
survival has made the country extremely adept at dealing with mass
casualty events. But the foundation of Israel's support for those in
need is biblical. The Jewish state takes very seriously its divine
mandate to be a light unto the nations, and that light shines brightest
on those dark days when disaster strikes.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team <[link removed]>

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