The Action Update: What you missed at CUFI’s Summit and Iran talks drag on

As no doubt many of our readers and supporters are aware, CUFI returned to the nation’s capital last week for the first CUFI Washington Summit since the Covid-19 pandemic prevented us from doing so. We covered our legislative agenda in last week’s Action Update, so this week we thought we’d highlight some of the most notable moments from the Summit along with developments on the Iranian and Palestinian fronts.

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The Action Update: Hezbollah Drone Attacks and the New Axis of Evil

On Tuesday morning, as Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid was departing for France to discuss Iran and Hezbollah with French President Emmanuel Macron, Lapid sent a clear and unambiguous message to Israel’s neighbors to the north: if Lebanon doesn’t “rein in” Hezbollah, Israel will. In this week’s Action Update, we delve into what prompted the Prime Minister’s comments, and a number of issues directly related to the malign activities of Hezbollah and its backers in Tehran.

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The Action Update: A Regional Defense Against Iranian Aggression

In last week’s Action Update we promised to elaborate a bit more on what we’re hoping to see from President Biden during his mid-July trip to the Middle East. The trip is important, and a lot of work needs to be done in a short period of time, so this week we’ll only be covering two topics: the President’s trip to the Middle East and a new bipartisan bill aimed at creating a regional security infrastructure to confront Iran.

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The Action Update: Oil, Threats & Hate

Often, it’s hard to keep track of who’s battling who and what alliances have formed in the Middle East. Sometimes it’s as simple as good vs. evil (e.g., Hamas vs. Israel). And sometimes, the age-old concept that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ applies. Things in the region are rarely easy and never clean, but that’s part of the reason we distribute these weekly missives: to make sense of a messy Middle East. With that in mind, this week we’re going to touch on Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

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The Action Update: Rep. Massie Refuses to Condemn Antisemitism

In the past week, we’ve seen: a Republican lawmaker vote against a resolution condemning antisemitism; Iran, once again, threaten revenge for the killing of an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) leader; and an increasing sense that certain members of the Republican party share more of their foreign policy attitude with The Squad than with the American electorate. So, let’s dive right in.

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The Action Update: The Nazis Are Here in the USA

For years, experts in the field from across the political spectrum have been warning about the startling and brutal rise in bigotry across the country. And in recent years, these comments ceased being a warning about what’s to come and have now become expressions of horror concerning what has arrived. It is with the heaviest of hearts that this week, we start here at home, with the hatred-fueled, horrific massacre of ten innocent people in Buffalo, NY.

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