In this week’s edition of the Action Update, we tackle two very different and yet integrally related events: the firebombing of a Mississippi synagogue and the anti-regime protests in Iran. Let’s get into it.

On Friday, Yasser Abu Shabab, a young, slight Gazan militia leader who was at the forefront of the domestic Arab resistance against Hamas was killed. According to reports, Abu Shabab died trying to resolve a dispute between Gazan families in a town square in southern Rafah.

Just before Thanksgiving, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the relevant government entities to begin the process of designating Muslim Brotherhood affiliates as terrorist organizations. The President’s Order, and the forthcoming designations, are long overdue.

More than four years ago, a CUFI Action Fund staff member warned in an op-ed that America’s – to that point – $2 billion investment in the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) had failed to achieve the desired results. Around the same time, we met a senior policy maker with a leading voice on defense issues and discussed our view that swaths of the LAF are married to Hezbollah. Our warnings were dismissed.

I told you so. Four words no one ever wants to hear, yet at times, are absolutely called for. So, let’s begin the CUFI Action Update I Told You So (ITYS) edition.

Incidentally, it is our sincere hope that this is a one-off, but we suspect it will become a recurring feature.

Over the past two months, members of the CUFI Action Fund Team have been in and out of Israel on a number of occasions. In fact, one of the authors of today’s Update is there right now. As a result, we have had the opportunity to see snapshots of Israel and its people, to feel the air and listen to the voices. Here’s what we’ve seen.

Monday morning in Israel, the last 20 living hostages held by Gazan terrorists were released to their loved ones. The remains of just four hostages were returned, and while Hamas has claimed trouble with locating the rest, as of this writing, four more bodies are set to be repatriated. An Egyptian team has entered Gaza to “facilitate” recovering Israel’s abducted dead.

This week marks the two-year anniversary of the October 7^th Massacre. As this is being written, Israeli and American officials are in Egypt to participate in negotiations with senior Hamas terrorists. We are hopeful that the war can finally come to an end, but we are not so naïve as to think anything is done until the last hostage is home.

On Monday, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House to discuss, according to President Trump, “Iran, trade, the expansion of the Abraham Accords, and… how to end the war in Gaza.”