Can the Abraham Accords become more than agreements between governments? That is the question journalist Vitor Vicente puts to Tom Wegner, co-founder and CEO of the Abrahamic Movement, in a new video interview exploring cooperation between Israel and the Muslim world, the case for a shared Abrahamic identity, and what it would take to give the Accords a cultural, human, and spiritual dimension beyond diplomatic paperwork.

From Coordinating Soldiers and Police to Coordinating Peoples

Wegner draws on his own background coordinating between the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian police as evidence that practical, working-level cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians is possible even amid broader political conflict. That firsthand experience, he tells Vicente, shaped his conviction that peace efforts built from the ground up can succeed where top-down political agreements alone often stall.

A Shared Story Older Than the Conflict

Central to Wegner’s argument is that Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all trace their lineage to the same patriarchal figures — Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael — a shared narrative he says transcends today’s political and sectarian divisions. Rather than treating the three faiths as competing traditions, Wegner frames them as branches of one extended family, arguing that recognizing this kinship is essential to overcoming the divisiveness fueled by extremism on all sides.

A shared Abrahamic narrative offers a foundation for bridges built on familial bonds rather than enmity — a foundation older than any modern political conflict. Summarizing Tom Wegner’s remarks to Vitor Vicente

Inside a Secret Dialogue Between Rabbis and Imams

One of the interview’s more striking moments involves Wegner describing a confidential interfaith dialogue between rabbis and imams that uncovered unexpected theological common ground — including around the sensitive issue of the Temple Mount. According to Wegner’s account, a rabbi involved in the discussions acknowledged that the Jewish temple cannot be rebuilt amid conflict and would require Muslim consent, a position Wegner says points to real room for coexistence grounded in mutual religious respect, in contrast to the hostile narratives that often dominate public discourse.

Life Under Rocket Fire

Wegner also speaks candidly about the lived reality of residing in southern Israel under the threat of rocket fire from Gaza, a firsthand account that grounds his broader peacebuilding argument in the daily security pressures faced by civilians on the Israeli side of the border. He frames this experience not as a rejection of peace efforts but as the backdrop that makes durable, sustainable peace all the more urgent.

Reading the Region’s Security Dynamics

The conversation turns to the broader geopolitical picture, with Wegner describing what he characterizes as a regional Shia axis — spanning Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq — that has sought to project influence toward Mecca, and which he says Israel and its Gulf allies have worked to counter militarily in the period before recent conflicts. Wegner presents this as evidence that sectarian extremism in the region operates strategically rather than as a single undifferentiated force, a distinction he argues is necessary for understanding the broader path to regional peace.

Building a “Second Floor” Identity, EU-Style

Perhaps the interview’s central thesis is Wegner’s comparison between the Abrahamic Movement’s ambitions and the European Union’s creation of a shared supranational identity after the Second World War. Just as European nations built a “second floor” of common identity above their individual national identities, Wegner argues the Middle East’s Abrahamic peoples could do the same — with one key advantage: where Europe’s shared identity is a product of the past eighty years, the Abrahamic narrative is thousands of years old.

Unlike Europe’s relatively recent shared identity, the Abrahamic narrative offers millennia-old common roots — a foundation Wegner argues is even stronger than the one that reunified a continent after war. Summarizing Tom Wegner’s remarks to Vitor Vicente

Indonesia as a Potential Turning Point

Wegner points to Indonesia’s prospective accession to the Abraham Accords as a potentially pivotal moment. As the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia’s endorsement, he argues, could legitimize moderate, peace-oriented interpretations of Islam on a global scale, help reduce antisemitic sentiment, and accelerate momentum toward normalization with Israel among other Muslim-majority states — potentially including Saudi Arabia.

Peace After Suffering

The interview closes on a note Wegner returns to throughout: that peace has historically emerged only after profound conflict and suffering rather than in its absence. He points again to postwar Europe as precedent, while noting what he describes as growing openness to dialogue among Syrian and Gazan populations after years of hardship — a sign, in his reading, that leadership and public sentiment can shift once the costs of continued war become unsustainable.

Faith & Freedom News will continue to follow the Abrahamic Movement’s work and Vitor Vicente’s coverage of Middle East peacebuilding efforts.