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Pro-Israel Rabbi and Trump-Linked Pastor Visit Syria, Say Peace Is Possible
Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper is pictured in his office at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, California, Dec. 10, 2015. Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Peace between Syria and Israel is “very possible,” a Trump–linked evangelical Christian pastor said after he and a pro–Israel American rabbi held talks this week with Syria‘s Islamist leader Ahmed al-Sharaa at the presidential palace in Damascus.
Rev. Johnnie Moore, a White House adviser during President Donald Trump‘s first term, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, from the Jewish human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center, have promoted interfaith dialogue in Arab states for years.
The two men met Sharaa late on Monday during a visit to Syria that they said was not aimed at discussing potential ties with Israel, though the topic came up.
“I think peace is very possible, if not probable, but the first priority has to be Syria focusing on Syria,” Moore told Reuters in a phone interview late on Tuesday, after they had concluded their trip.
Sharaa “articulated issues of concern he has, but also the potential for a very positive future,” Moore added.
A Syrian presidency media official did not respond to a request for comment.
Since ousting former strongman Bashar al-Assad last year, Syria‘s Sunni Muslim rulers, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have rapidly built international ties. But tensions persist with religious minority groups inside Syria, such as Druze and Alawites, as well as with neighboring Israel.
Cooper’s visits to nations such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which had no ties with Israel at the time, are credited by some observers with indirectly paving the way for landmark 2020 deals normalizing relations.
Efforts by the US to bring more Arab states, chiefly Saudi Arabia, into the deals known as the Abraham Accords have faltered amid regional outrage over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish state.
‘UNICORN’
Still, Syria‘s new rulers have from the outset indicated that they seek calm and even eventual peace with Israel.
Moore and Cooper said they believed Sharaa was uniquely able to deliver on a peace-making agenda.
“The Syrian president is what in Silicon Valley is called a unicorn; he’s one of a kind,” Moore said.
Cooper added: “What’s clear is there is now a window of opportunity to bring about a more positive state of affairs … [though] that doesn’t minimize the scale of the task ahead.”
Last week, Moore was named as the new executive chairman of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has begun distributing aid to the Palestinian territory in an operation that uses private US security and logistics companies and has been criticized by the United Nations.
Moore, who has publicly backed Trump‘s proposal for the United States to take over Gaza, said he did not discuss the GHF and its work with Sharaa during their meeting.
Moore and Cooper proposed to Sharaa joint humanitarian projects “to tear down stereotypes and create an unofficial army of goodwill ambassadors.” They declined to give details.
The two men also met with Syrian Christian leaders and walked freely around Damascus, Cooper wearing his yarmulke without issue, he said.
This contrasted with a 2024 visit to Saudi Arabia, where Cooper was asked by a Saudi official to remove his prayer cap, a request he refused, after which the US-Congress mandated delegation he was heading cut short their trip.
Israeli officials initially branded Syria‘s new rulers as “terrorists” due to their al Qaeda past and the Israeli air force waged a fierce campaign of aerial bombardment that has subsided since mid-May, when Trump turned decades of US policy on its head by lifting sanctions on Syria and meeting Sharaa in Riyadh.
After meeting Sharaa, Trump said the Syrian leader had agreed to a request to normalize ties with Israel, though it would take time.
Reuters has reported that Syria and Israel in the past weeks held indirect, and then direct talks aimed at calming tensions.
The post Pro-Israel Rabbi and Trump-Linked Pastor Visit Syria, Say Peace Is Possible first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.