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New Group Fosters Jewish, Christian Alliances to Combat Hate: ‘There Is so Much We Can Do Together’
A congregant from a church that participates in “Solidarity Sunday” hugs an Oct. 7 survivor at the event on May 5, 2024. Photo: Provided by Moral Hearts Alliance
The founders of a new organization that aims to foster closer ties between Jews and Evangelical Christians who support Israel told The Algemeiner that not putting an effort into aligning the two communities is a “missed opportunity” at combating hatred targeting the Jewish state.
“Together there is so much that we can do,” said Dana Cohen, a co-founder of the Moral Hearts Alliance. “We all recognize the evil that is Hamas and is facing Israel, but now on the college campuses, it’s on our shores too. We have an amazing ally and we have to reach across the aisle to one another and come up with ways to build on that alliance and activate it for all of us.”
The main goal of the Moral Hearts Alliance is to strengthen relationships for Israel and the Jewish people around the world with different religions, ethnicities, and countries that share their same values. Partnering with Christians who support Israel should be an obvious alliance considering that there are 60 million Evangelicals in the United States and 600 million globally, according to Cohen.
“We have to put aside our prejudices as a group and accept that they want to love us and embrace us and be there for us. They want to be there for Israel and want to be included,” added Valerie Feigen, a fellow co-founder of the organization and Cohen’s sister-in-law.
The two women co-founded the Moral Hearts Alliance earlier this year after Feigen went to Israel in January and met with survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. One survivor asked Feigen to help share first-hand testimonies from Oct. 7 attacks with people outside of Israel, and she came back to the US with that mission in hand. She became dedicated to having people “outside of the Jewish bubble” hear stories from survivors just like she did.
Feigen’s trip to Israel inspired a project that the Moral Hearts Alliance organized last week called “Solidarity Sunday,” in which seven survivors of Oct. 7 — including three from the massacre at the Nova Music Festival — spoke at seven churches across the United States, from California to New York, about their experiences surviving the terrorist attacks that day. The event was organized in cooperation with the Christian pro-Israel organization Eagles‘ Wings.
The largest congregation to host a “Solidarity Sunday” event was in San Bernardino, Calif., with roughly 1,500 people.
The events took place across the US on May 5, the eve of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah), and the overwhelming response was “emphatic love for Israel, love for the Jewish people, and the desire to stand with Israel,” Cohen said.
Each congregation sang Israel’s national anthem Hatikvah at the event, and lit candles and held a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks. At one church, a Jewish prayer shawl, known in Hebrew as a tallit, was draped upon a cross inside the congregation. The events were also live streamed and shared on Zoom for others who wanted to hear the testimonies from the survivors.
A sign outside the Family Worship Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, ahead of the “Solidarity Sunday” event hosted by the congregation on May 5, 2024. Photo: Provided
“The overwhelming response was extraordinary love and gratefulness that the Israelis had come all this way to share their story,” Feigen explained. “From every pastor to every member of the church, every single Israeli and Moral Hearts representative chaperoning each Israeli were received with such love. And we heard after from the Israelis that people lined up for an hour and a half to hug them, thank them, bring them gifts. They were welcomed with such tenderness, love, and kindness.”
“We’re late in doing it,” Feigen added about helping Oct. 7 survivors share their experiences with people outside of the Jewish community.
“The Jewish community missed an incredible opportunity in the last seven months since the Oct. 7 attacks in not bringing stories about the attacks to the Christian community,” Cohen noted. “The Christians were hungry for these stories.” She said the positive response to “Solidarity Sunday” was even more heartwarming when considering the sometimes violent anti-Israel protests that have erupted on US college and university campuses in recent weeks.
At a “Solidarity Sunday” event hosted at a church in New York led by Bishop Robert Stearns, the founder of Eagles’ Wings, a Jewish student leader from the Students Supporting Israel chapter at the University of Buffalo also spoke to congregants about the hatred Jews are facing on college and university campuses. Stearns urged church congregants to support a pro-Israel rally taking place at the University of Buffalo the next day, and on Monday, 100 members of the congregation attended the campus demonstration to show solidarity with the Jewish state.
The Moral Hearts Alliance wants to help encourage similar displays of unity in the future, in which Jews and Christians can show support for one another.
“We believe this is an amazing opportunity for the Jewish community to turn the tide of hate against Israel and what is occurring in the United States,” Cohen said, emphasizing the importance of seizing the possibilities that come with forming alliances between Jews and Christians.
“We have this amazing partnership potential and we just need to meet them halfway, and we just want to spearhead that effort,” she added. “There is just so much we can do together.”
The post New Group Fosters Jewish, Christian Alliances to Combat Hate: ‘There Is so Much We Can Do Together’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical… there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides… However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon.”
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi had said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araqchi said Oman would announce the venue.
Ahead of the lead negotiators’ meeting, expert-level indirect talks took place in Muscat to design a framework for a potential nuclear deal.
“The presence of experts was beneficial … we will return to our capitals for further reviews to see how disagreements can be reduced,” Araqchi said.
An Iranian official, briefed about the talks, told Reuters earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious.”
The only aim of these talks, Araqchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Shortly after Araqchi and Witkoff began their latest indirect talks on Saturday, Iranian state media reported a massive explosion at the country’s Shahid Rajaee port near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, killing at least four people and injuring hundreds.
MAXIMUM PRESSURE
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since 2019, Iran has breached the pact’s nuclear curbs including “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment program or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
Moreover, European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalizing the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
Tehran insists its defense capabilities like its missile program are not negotiable.
An Iranian official with knowledge of the talks said on Friday that Tehran sees its missile program as a bigger obstacle in the talks.
The post Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but he had for years resisted internal reforms including the naming of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.
He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.
CALL FOR HAMAS TO DISARM
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.
Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.
The post Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – The third round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program has concluded on Saturday, US media reported.
The two sides are understood to have discussed the US lifting of sanctions on Iran, with focuses on technical and key topics including uranium enrichment.
On April 12, the US and Iran held indirect talks in Muscat, marking the first official negotiation between the two sides since the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The second round of indirect talks took place in Rome, Italy, on April 19.
All parties, including Oman, stated that the first two rounds of talks were friendly and constructive, but Iranian media pointed out that the first two rounds were mainly framework negotiations and had not yet touched upon the core issues of disagreement.
According to media reports, one of the key issues in the expert-level negotiations will be whether Washington will allow Iran to continue uranium enrichment within the framework of its nuclear program. In response, Araghchi made it clear that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment is non-negotiable.
The US, Israel and other Western actors including the United Nation’s nuclear agency reject Iranian claims that its uranium enrichment is strictly civilian in its goals.
The post 3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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