(Breaking Israel News)
While the ink dries on the newly signed nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, America’s largest pro-Israel organization is seeking to help defeat the agreement in Congress through the work of its nascent office in Washington, DC.
San Antonio-based Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which during 10 years of existence has grown to 2.2 million members, is beginning to hire staff for a new entity dubbed the “CUFI Action Fund.” Headed by Gary Bauer—the U.S. under secretary of education in the administration of former president Ronald Reagan—the Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) designation for tax-exempt groups dedicated to social welfare, meaning that it will have more leeway on political activities than the 501(c)(3)-status CUFI. The influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby, too, is a 501(c)(4) group.
Bauer told a small group of reporters at CUFI’s annual Washington Summit this week that because the Iran nuclear deal has failed to meet the Obama administration’s own stated standards, “we’re going to go all out, as challenging as it will be, to get the 67 votes that we will need in the United States Senate” to nix the deal. (Sixty-seven Senate votes against the agreement will enable Congressional rejection of the deal to override a presidential veto.)
Once it is fully operational, the CUFI Action Fund will deliver daily reports to every Congressional office on issues related to the U.S.-Israel alliance, according to Bauer.
“Even though it’s Christians United for Israel, really at the end of the day it is about the United States, too. … Israel and the United States are the two pillars of Western civilization, and that civilization is under attack,” said Bauer, who explained that after “10 really successful years educating people” and hosting the yearly Washington convention, CUFI founder Pastor John Hagee “decided that it was time to set up a serious professional Washington operation.”
Asked by JNS.org if the Action Fund will focus exclusively on CUFI’s Christian Zionist core, or if its activity will also target the Jewish community, Bauer noted that “there are more and more Jewish attendees at our [Washington] conference, and certainly we have financial supporters in the Jewish community… our intention is to have people of goodwill of all faiths, as long as they agree with us on the major issues. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, you can even be an atheist and belong to Christians United for Israel, as long as you’re pro-Israel.”
Read more the full article at Breaking Israel News
