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.”

This week, several Western countries, including the UK, France, Australia and Canada, concluded their complete capitulation to the antisemitic elements within their domestic constituencies and recognized the state of “Palestine.” The question is, what does this actually mean?

On Tuesday, in the New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman, syndicated columnist of the New York Times, authored a lengthy column attacking Israeli policy in Gaza. The column was a near-comprehensive cavalcade of well-dressed neo-left talking points, and as such, gives us a great opportunity to put a few of those myths to bed.

In this week’s edition of the Action Update, we look at the latest proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, see where things stand with Lebanese efforts to disarm Hezbollah, and then delve into the Iranian regime’s efforts to rebuild its once fearsome presence, and how the world can undermine those efforts with a tight squeeze on Tehran’s cashflow.