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White smoke: Boehner’s encounter with Pope Francis changed Congress forever

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An audience with the pope is a day to remember.

But only on Capitol Hill would the day after the pope visited become even more memorable.

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The late Pope Francis came to Washington, D.C., to speak to a Joint Meeting of Congress on Sept. 24, 2015. He wasn’t the first pontiff to descend on Capitol Hill. But the pope is a head of state, ruling the Vatican City and the Holy See. As such, Francis became the first pope to speak to a Joint Meeting of Congress in the House chamber.

DEMOCRATS’ IDENTITY CRISIS: YOUTH REVOLT ROCKS PARTY AFTER TRUMP COMBACK 

Pope Francis is seen in Vatican City

Pope Francis leads his traditional Wednesday General Audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on March 8, 2023.  (Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Lawmakers showered the Holy Father with applause and two standing ovations during his address. Two Catholics were perched behind Pope Francis on the dais: then Vice President Joe Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. As vice president, Biden served as President of the Senate. As speaker, Boehner was the Constitutional officer for the legislative branch.

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Boehner blotted his eyes with a handkerchief several times during the 3,400-word speech.

Pope Francis implored lawmakers to treat each other — and their constituents — with dignity.

«We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays. To discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’» he said.

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President Joe Biden exchanges gifts with Pope Francis

President Joe Biden, left, exchanges gifts with Pope Francis as they meet at the Vatican on Oct. 29, 2021. (Vatican Media via AP)

One thing I remember about the Pope’s visit was the choreography. Congressional workers affixed small, green strips of tape to the Capitol’s marble floors. Names were emblazoned on the tape in black Magic Marker at different points around the complex. «McCarthy» or «Pelosi» or «McConnell.» All part of the political — and papal — stagecraft.

The tape dictated where key political leaders would stand as they escorted Pope Francis into the House chamber or in front of the statue of Junipero Serra in Statuary Hall.

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A duct-taped «X» marked the floor in front of Serra. The pope canonized Serra the day before he visited the Capitol at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Serra became the first American to become a saint on U.S. soil. Pope Francis blessed the statue of Serra. The statue depicts the saint hoisting a cross in his right hand, looking skyward toward the heavens.

Someone taped a green arrow over the black and white tiles of Statuary Hall, pointing toward the Speaker’s Office.

That signaled the pope’s next stop on Capitol Hill.

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FOX NEWS TO AIR LIVE COVERAGE OF POPE FRANCIS’ FUNERAL ON SATURDAY

Pope Francis addresses the joint session of Congress

Pope Francis addresses the joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, 2015. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images)

Pope Francis and the entourage then walked toward Boehner’s office and onto the Speaker’s Balcony overlooking the West Front of the Capitol and down the National Mall toward the Washington Monument.

A throng assembled on the Capitol grounds.

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«Buenos dias,» said the Pope, greeting the crowd like he would from the «Pope’s Window» at the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican on a Sunday. «I am grateful for your presence.»

He then blessed the pilgrims on the ground below.

«Papa! Papa!» the crowd chanted.

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When the pope first arrived at the Capitol, he met with Boehner in the Speaker’s ceremonial office just off the House floor.

Boehner paced nervously awaiting Pope Francis on the 19th century Minton Tiles, which adorn the office.

«He’s on Boehner time,» said the former speaker. «Which is on time.»

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Boehner wore his signature Kelly green tie for the occasion — a vintage piece of Boehner apparel, which dates back to when he served in the Ohio state legislature and first ran for Congress in 1990. When Pope Francis arrived, he told the former speaker the tie bore a «color of hope.»

A few days later, Boehner choked up as he relayed a story about what Pope Francis said to him when they were about to exit the Capitol.

«We found ourselves alone,» said Boehner of himself and Francis.

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Pope Francis obituary, file image of the dead pontiff

Pope Francis ponders during the inauguration of a UNESCO chair at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome on Oct. 7, 2021. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images)

The pope grabbed the speaker’s arm.

«The pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulled me to him and said, ‘Please pray for me,’» said Boehner. «Wow. Who am I to pray for the pope?’ But I did.»

Boehner left the Capitol that night. But his encounter with the Holy Father seemingly transformed the speaker — and altered the trajectory of the House for years to come.

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The speaker decided to resign the next morning.

«He had been trying to get out of here for years,» said one source close to the speaker at the time.

Boehner’s plans to depart were thwarted when the heir apparent, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., stunningly lost his primary in the spring of 2014.

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So Boehner soldiered on.

By late July 2015, former Trump White House chief of staff and former Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., prepped a «motion to vacate the chair.» Those who follow Capitol Hill know all about such a motion now. But it was novel a decade ago. Such a motion would require the House to take a vote of confidence in the speaker in the middle of the Congress. Lawmakers had never used the tactic before. It was hardly discussed.

Pope Francis and Donald Trump

Pope Francis meets President Donald Trump in the Private Library of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on May 24, 2017. (Vatican/Pool/Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori via Getty Images)

Meadows released his resolution just before the August recess — but never triggered it.

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That gave Boehner and the House a month to stew over whether Meadows might try to oust the speaker when lawmakers returned in September.

On the night after the pope’s visit, Boehner called his chief of staff, Mike Sommers, to tell him he planned to step aside. Boehner also told his wife, Debbie, of his plans.

«This morning I woke up, said my prayers, as I always do, and thought, ‘This is the day I am going to do this,’» said Boehner.

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Boehner then astonished a meeting of the House Republican Conference that he intended to resign.

The move sent a shock wave through Washington.

«My first job as speaker is to protect the institution,» Boehner said. «It had become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution.»

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The Boehner departure — the day after his encounter with Pope Francis — set into motion what some might regard as the very «prolonged leadership turmoil» that the former speaker hoped to avoid.

It was believed that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. — then the House Majority Leader — would ascend to the job. But as startling as Boehner’s departure was, McCarthy supplanted that. Moments before House Republicans were set to tap McCarthy as the next speaker, McCarthy withdrew from the contest. He lacked the votes.

Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., looks on at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2023. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

McCarthy’s decision roiled Capitol Hill for weeks. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., eventually took the job. But Ryan was reluctant. He even put out a statement that he didn’t want it.

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Others jumped in: Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., along with former Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Bill Flores, R-Texas.

But Ryan finally came around. Fox was told at the time that if Ryan hadn’t come around, «there would be blood on the floor» of the House as Republicans waged an internecine donnybrook.

Ryan remained as House speaker until he retired in early 2019. Democrats won the House in the 2018 midterms. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., returned to the speakership she held eight years before.

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But Democrats lost the House in the 2022 midterms. And even though McCarthy touted a 40-plus-seat rout for the GOP, Republicans controlled the House by a thread.

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Mike Johnson Kevin McCarthy split

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., left, and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. (Getty Images)

Thus, it set into motion a five-day battle in early 2023 as McCarthy struggled for 15 rounds before winning the speakership. It was the longest speaker’s race since the mid-19th century.

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But McCarthy was gone by early November.

Remember that «motion to vacate the chair» mentioned earlier?

Meadows never activated his motion in 2015. But former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., did in 2023.

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McCarthy was done. And the House spent three weeks trying to elect a new speaker.

First they tried House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Then House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Then House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.

None prevailed.

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Finally, a backbencher emerged from the fray: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

House Speaker Mike Johnson

Rep. Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, holds the gavel after being re-elected House speaker during the first session of the 119th Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The House of Representatives has never quite been the same since Boehner made his surprise announcement after his encounter with Pope Francis. The speakership seems to teeter on an edge these days — at least when Republicans run the chamber. Johnson periodically endures threats to «vacate the chair.» Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tried to bounce him just last year.

During the speaker succession fight of 2015 and the three-week speaker debacle of 2023, friends asked if «white smoke» would emanate from the Capitol Dome. They facetiously suggested that it would signal the election of a new House speaker.

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The College of Cardinals will begin a conclave in Rome in a few days to select a successor to Pope Francis. It’s a political process. Not unlike what happens in Congress when there’s a vacancy in the speakership. We’ll know there’s a new pope when white smoke wafts out of a duct atop the Sistine Chapel.

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Conclave Vatican

Cardinals of the Catholic Church attended the election conclave in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Vatican City on April 18, 2005. (Arturo Mari, Vatican Pool)

It was an important day when Pope Francis spoke to a Joint Meeting of Congress in 2015. But in sheer Congressional terms, the day afterward was seismic for the nature of the institution. Boehner’s abrupt resignation ushered in an unsettled era about who presides over the House. The visit by Pope Francis and Boehner’s departure forever melded the two together in the annals of Capitol Hill.

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And as a result, whenever there’s a House speaker interregnum in the future, political observers will always look for political «white smoke» to find out if lawmakers have settled on a new leader.

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Summertime and the living is uneasy on Capitol Hill

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Senate Republicans faced a choice recently: Remain in session and confirm more of President Trump’s nominees, or finally abandon Washington for the vaunted August recess.

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Senators hung around – a little while – knocking out some of the President’s nominees for administration positions. But not all. That drew the ire of some conservatives, Trump loyalists and President Donald Trump himself.

Trump seethed at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for requiring the Senate to run lengthy parliamentary traps and incinerate valuable floor time to confirm even non-controversial nominees. The President finally unloaded on the New York Democrat in a digital coup de grace, telling him to «GO TO HELL!»

It’s notable that Trump has not yet met with Schumer or House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., during his second term. But then again, this is a two-way street. And Democrats remember multiple tumultuous meetings with Mr. Trump during the last time he was in office. It culminated in verbal grappling between the President and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and ended with Democrats abandoning the meeting after only a few moments.

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So, it’s far from certain any such meeting would yield anything remotely productive.

But back to the «August recess.»

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First, it’s important to establish that members of the House and Senate are not on «summer vacation.» Sure, there are always some breaks to visit with family and friends. Lawmakers are people, too. But truly, this is not a «break.» Lawmakers are always «on.» Not everything they do is centered around Washington. Any congressman or senator worth their salt will tell you that spending time back in their home states or districts is just as important – if not more so – than what goes down on Capitol Hill. Meeting with constituents. Visiting businesses. Conducting town hall meetings. Stopping by local coffee bars. Breaking bread at diners. Chatting up the local press corps. 

Members also use this longer respite for political travel and fact-finding missions overseas. These «CODELS» – short for «Congressional Delegation» – are a critical function for lawmakers to build bridges with foreign leaders and make their marks on how the U.S. approaches the rest of the globe. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., have recently led groups on trips to Israel. At least one other major trip is booked for later this month.

So, the «August recess» is not inherently a «bad» thing. It’s an essential part of the job and probably one of the biggest misnomers in American politics. 

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Still, many Americans simply dismiss August as a «vacation» for House members and senators, and it is a challenging optic for Congress.

Which brings us back to the tension between staying in session to get «something» done and returning home.

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It’s clear the Senate could have stayed in session to plow through more of President Trump’s nominees. Schumer and other Democrats simply weren’t going to relent and allow Republicans to confirm a slate of nominees «en bloc.» That’s where the Senate greenlights a large slate of nominees all at once and approves them either by unanimous consent or via voice vote. The Senate confirms the nominees all at once. The House certainly could have stayed in session to hammer out a few spending bills ahead of the deadline to fund the government by October 1.

But here’s a stark reality – especially for the Senate:

Lawmakers and staff desperately needed a break.

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Period. Full stop.

Since May, the Senate in particular has conducted multiple overnight, round-the-clock and weekend sessions. Not just a few. The Senate voted deep into the night or overnight on the Big, Beautiful Bill. Then the Senate was back for late-night sessions confirming nominees. 

Yes. This is the people’s business. But the floor staff and support teams were exhausted. Senate leaders were mindful of that. And that’s to say nothing of the lawmakers themselves.

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It’s anecdotal, but lawmakers probably needed a break from one another, too. That makes them happier – and probably more productive when they return to Washington. 

But this still doesn’t solve the political dilemma facing Republican senators with a substantial core of their party demanding they remain moored in Washington to grind out nominees.

And it may not satisfy President Trump, either.

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There’s lots of Senate talk now about «changing the rules» to accelerate the confirmation of nominees. 

One thing is for sure: the Senate won’t change the «rules» to expedite the confirmation process. The Senate boasts 44 standing rules. It takes 67 votes to break a filibuster on an actual rules change. But what Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could do is back the Senate into a special parliamentary posture where he can initiate a new «precedent» to confirm different types of nominees. That’s a maneuver that late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., executed to confirm some of former President Obama’s nominees. The same with former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to confirm Supreme Court nominees.

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«New precedents» in the Senate require some complicated parliamentary wrangling. But only a simple majority is necessary to make good on this gambit for nominees. So, it’s easier and much more plausible than «changing the rules.»

To the lay person, a new «precedent» doesn’t sound important. But there’s a reason why the Senate only has 44 standing rules and a voluminous book of precedents. You can accomplish a lot in the Senate if you’re able to concoct a new precedent.

And note that it’s not just Republicans who want to change the way the Senate does things for some lower-tier, non-controversial nominees. Some Senate Democrats have expressed interest in changes, too.

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President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have strongly over the confirmation of a number of Trump’s nominees for various administration positions. (Getty Images)

There are only so many minutes and so many hours. Time is just as valuable to Democrats as it is to Republicans.

Everyone on Capitol Hill knows that more long nights and overnight sessions await lawmakers in September and the fall as the Senate attempts to confirm additional nominees.

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That’s to say nothing of avoiding a government shutdown in October.

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This is why Senate Republicans elected to stick around for a bit recently – and then call it a day. Or a month.

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After all, there is only so much time available in August.

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Faith under fire: Netanyahu calls out efforts to divide Christians and Israel in US

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of a concerted effort in the United States and beyond to «break down» the bond between Christians and Jews.

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Speaking at an event last month in Jerusalem attended by Pastor Paula White-Cain, spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump and head of the White House Office of Faith and Anti-Semitism, Netanyahu stated, the «partnership that promotes Judeo-Christian values, that protects Israel’s Christians as nowhere else in the Middle East. That truth is being reversed,» 

«As part of this campaign,» he continued, Israel is now being portrayed as a threat to Christians.»

Netanyahu said that Israel is home to a thriving Christian community — unique in a region where Christians often face persecution. He pointed to Nazareth as a place where Christian life is visible and open, contrasting it with Bethlehem, where the Christian population declined sharply — from 80% to under 20% — after Israel withdrew, and the Palestinian Authority assumed control, leading to reduced protections for the community.

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Pastor Paula White-Cain, spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump and head of the White House Office of Faith and Antisemitism (sitting next to Sara Netanyahu) meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at Daystar’s «Together As One» event in Jerusalem, as part of a visit organized by Niv Jacobi, President of The Meaning Channel.  (Felipe Volokita, The Meaning Channel.)

Pastor John Hagee, the influential Founder and Chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), said fringe online agitators and politicians are motivated by two distinct impulses in their attacks on Israel.

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«The true narcissists, regardless of politics, will pursue relevance through antisemitic contrarianism if they perceive themselves to be slipping from the world’s stage. Tragically, trafficking in antisemitism is one of the shortest paths to infamy,» he told Fox News Digital.

«For the true Jew-haters, Christian Zionism has been correctly perceived as the bulwark against the rise of American antisemitism. As Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs [Ron Dermer] has pointed out, Christian Zionism is the backbone of American support for Israel.

«Those who hate Israel and want to see it destroyed understand that the Jewish-Christian alliance prevents them from achieving their terrible aims; it’s logical then that they would seek to drive a wedge between Jews and Christians. Our relationship is a direct and unequivocal refutation of their evil ideology and aims,» he said.

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Hagee also warned that anti-Israel narratives are being amplified online and through the mainstream media «to the exclusive benefit of Palestinian terrorists.»

DISPUTED FIRE BY ANCIENT CHURCH IN HOLY LAND SPARKS DIPLOMATIC, RELIGIOUS FALLOUT

During his speech, Netanyahu focused on some in the voices in the media. «So, Israel, the guardian of Christianity in the Middle East, is presented on American television by purchased influencers. It’s presented as the enemy of Christianity. What folly, what lies. What a travesty of truth,» he said. 

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«We must fight for our common values, we must stand up for the truth. And by standing up for the truth, you stand up with Israel, and you stand with the Jewish people against this abomination of falsehoods,» he concluded.

Netanyahu’s comments came against the backdrop of recent allegations that extremist settlers had targeted a historic church in the West Bank, and the IDF had deliberately targeted a church in Gaza.

Christians in Israel.

Jesus the King Church in Nazareth, Israel (Photo: Pastor Saleem Shalash.)

In mid-July, the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches of Jerusalem claimed that «radical Israelis» had intentionally set a fire near the Church of Saint George in Taybeh. However, Israel Police later confirmed that the ancient church ruins were undamaged and that the fire, of unknown origin, was confined to a nearby open area.

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Separately, the IDF confirmed that a July 17 mortar strike on the Holy Family Church in Gaza was the result of an «unintentional deviation of munitions.» An investigation found that the church had been accidentally hit during operational activity in Gaza City. The military said it facilitated humanitarian aid deliveries to the church and coordinated a visit by clergy from the Greek and Latin Patriarchates.

Dr. Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem and a former evangelical advisor to President Donald Trump, pointed to the billions of dollars invested by anti-Israel actors to influence young minds on American campuses.

Thousands of evangelical Christian pilgrims pray during a prayer gathering on the Dead Sea shore in Ein Gedi on September 20, 2013, in the Judean Desert, during their annual visit to Israel to mark the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles) and to express solidarity with Israel. Some five thousand Christian pilgrims from around the world arrived for a week-long visit to Israel, in an annual show of solidarity with the Jewish state. 

Thousands of evangelical Christian pilgrims pray during a prayer gathering on the Dead Sea shore in Ein Gedi on September 20, 2013, in the Judean Desert, during their annual visit to Israel to mark the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles) and to express solidarity with Israel. Some five thousand Christian pilgrims from around the world arrived for a week-long visit to Israel, in an annual show of solidarity with the Jewish state.  (Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)

EVANGELICAL LEADERS PRAISE TRUMP’S CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL AMID WAR WITH IRAN

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«The bottom line on this narrative is that there’s a belief system that Israel’s existence is illegitimate. They don’t say this about any other country in the world, no matter how bloody its origins. This belief system gets Jews killed. Anti-Zionism is antisemitism,» he said.

«My message to Bible-believing Christians is to teach a biblical worldview that Israel is the Bible land. The church in Germany was evangelical Protestant. They aligned with the Nazi party, had swastikas on its altars, and believed that God sent the chancellor.

«This happened because they rejected a biblical worldview and bought into what is called ‘replacement theology.’ That’s the reason why I have developed a significant curriculum to teach the church and its leaders,» Evans noted.

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David Parsons, Senior Vice President and Spokesman of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), told Fox News Digital that Christian support for Israel — rooted in decades, if not centuries, of history—has grown to unprecedented levels, though it is being heavily tested amid the war against Hamas in Gaza.

«It predates Trump and Netanyahu, it will be there after those leaders are gone,» he said.

Anti-Israel protest on Columbia University campus

Students at Columbia University participate in an anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protest. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

«We have to pass the baton to a new generation, and this is where the challenge is coming, as a lot of the young Christians aren’t buying into the same rationale as their parents to support Israel, which a lot of it was based on certain prophetic scenarios and prophecy charts about Israel’s role,» he continued.

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«We see it as God being faithful to his covenant promises to the patriarch Abraham 4,000 years ago. If God is faithful to what he promised Jewish people millennia ago, then he will be faithful to what he’s promised us under the new covenant,» he said.

Parsons noted that bringing young Christians to experience Israel firsthand helps cultivate that connection.

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«A lot of the young evangelical supporters of Israel are not in some of these elite universities where they’re being poisoned against Israel, and so we have hope,» he said.

«When you see the amazing things that Israel has done — the pager operation [against Hezbollah], how they defeated Iran in 12 days — if you’re a young person, you have to be impressed with Israel’s creativity and ingenuity,» he continued. «Eventually, once we get a resolution of the Gaza situation, there will be a whole new generation of Christians that are curious enough to come and check it out.»

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La guerra Rusia-Ucrania: Donald Trump analiza invitar a Volidimir Zelenski a su encuentro con Vladimir Putin en Alaska

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El presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, aún analiza invitar al mandatario ucraniano, Volodimir Zelenski, al encuentro del próximo viernes en Alaska con su homólogo ruso, Vladimir Putin, según reportaron este domingo medios como NBC, CNN y NewsNation que citan fuentes del Gobierno.

Trump no ha descartado por completo incluir a Zelenski en la reunión, reportó CNN con base en dos fuentes cercanas, mientras que fuentes señalaron a NBC que en la Casa Blanca «se está discutiendo» la invitación, lo que no se ha confirmado de forma oficial.

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De concretarse la participación de Zelenski, los funcionarios aún no saben si habría «una cumbre trilateral» o si habría un diálogo por separado a la conversación entre Trump y Putin.

Los reportes trascienden tras confirmarse el viernes pasado que la primera reunión entre Putin y un presidente estadounidense desde que comenzó la guerra de Ucrania en febrero de 2022 será el próximo 15 de agosto en Alaska, aunque aún faltan los detalles logísticos.

El encuentro se concretó tras la visita del enviado de la Casa Blanca para misiones de paz, Steve Witkoff, a Moscú el pasado jueves, el día antes de que expirase el ultimátum dado por Trump para que Rusia tomase medidas para terminar la guerra, so pena de nuevas sanciones.

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El presidente ucraniano reaccionó a la reunión al afirmar el sábado que las decisiones que se toman sin Ucrania son contrarias a la paz y «nacen muertas».

Apoyo europeo

Mientras que los líderes de Reino Unido, Francia, Alemania, Italia, Polonia y Finlandia, y la presidenta de la Comisión Europea, Ursula Von der Leyen, advirtieron en un comunicado el sábado que «el camino a la paz en Ucrania no puede ser decidido sin Ucrania»

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El mandatario ucraniano dijo haber conversado con su homólogo francés, Emmanuel Macron, que afirmó en la red X que «el futuro de Ucrania no puede decidirse sin los ucranianos».

El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, y el presidente de Ucrania, Volodimir Zelenski, se estrechan la mano durante una reunión paralela a la cumbre de la OTAN en La Haya, Países Bajos, el 25 de junio de 2025. Foto Reuters

El domingo, los principales líderes europeos firmaron una declaración afirmando que «solo un enfoque que combina diplomacia activa, apoyo a Ucrania y presión sobre la Federación Rusa» podrá poner fin a la guerra.

«Aplaudimos el trabajo del presidente Trump por detener la masacre en Ucrania» y «estamos listos para apoyar ese trabajo en el plano diplomático, además de mantener nuestro sustancial apoyo militar y financiero a Ucrania» así como «manteniendo e imponiendo medidas restrictivas contra la Federación Rusa», indicaron los líderes europeos.

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Entre los firmantes de la declaración figuran Macron, la italiana Giorgia Meloni, el alemán Fiedrich Merz, el polaco Donald Tusk y el británico Keir Starmer, además de la presidenta de la Comisión Europea, Ursula von der Leyen.

«Esperamos y suponemos que el gobierno ucraniano, que el presidente Zelenski, formarán parte de este encuentro», dijo el canciller alemán en una entrevista a la televisión ARD.

Por su parte, la jefa de la diplomacia de la Unión Europea, Kaja Kallas, anunció una reunión de urgencia el lunes de los ministros de Exteriores del bloque.

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«Cualquier acuerdo entre Estados Unidos y Rusia debe incluir a Ucrania y a la UE, pues se trata de la seguridad de Ucrania y de toda Europa», dijo en un comunicado el domingo, recordando que «el derecho internacional es claro: todos los territorios ocupados temporalmente pertenecen a Ucrania».

Las tres rondas de negociaciones entre Rusia y Ucrania celebradas este año no dieron frutos, y sigue sin estar claro si una cumbre contribuirá a acercar la paz.

La invasión rusa de Ucrania de febrero de 2022, ha dejado decenas de miles de muertos, millones de desplazados y grandes destrozos.

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Putin se ha resistido a los múltiples llamamientos de Estados Unidos, Europa y Ucrania para que se declare un alto el fuego.

La cumbre en Alaska, un territorio que Rusia vendió a Estados Unidos en 1867, sería la primera entre los presidentes en ejercicio de Estados Unidos y Rusia desde que Joe Biden se reunió con Putin en Ginebra en junio de 2021.

Trump y Putin se reunieron por última vez en 2019 en una cumbre del G20 en Japón durante el primer mandato del estadounidense, aunque han hablado por teléfono en varias ocasiones desde enero.

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Después de más de tres años de combates, las posiciones ucranianas y rusas siguen siendo irreconciliables.

Para poner fin al conflicto, Moscú exige que Ucrania ceda cuatro regiones parcialmente ocupadas (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporiyia y Jersón), además de Crimea, anexionada en 2014, y que renuncie a los suministros de armas occidentales y a cualquier adhesión a la OTAN.

Estas exigencias son inaceptables para Ucrania, que exige la retirada de las tropas rusas de su territorio y garantías de seguridad occidentales. Esto incluiría más suministros de armas y el despliegue de un contingente europeo, a lo que Rusia se opone.

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Estados Unidos,Donald Trump,Volodímir Zelenski,Vladimir Putin,Guerra Rusia-Ucrania

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