The warm relations that have existed for many years between Israel and evangelical Christians in the United States are set to be improved in the near future with the launch of a program called "Stand with Israel."

The program, aimed at institutionalizing evangelical support for Israel, is the brainchild of Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

For the last 25 years Eckstein, an Orthodox rabbi from Chicago, who settled in Israel about a year ago, has been heavily involved in relations between the Jewish and Christian communities in the United States.

For the last eight years he has headed the Jerusalem Friendship Fund that collects donations from the evangelical community in aid of immigration and welfare projects in Israel. To date, Eckstein says, the fund has distributed around $60 million.

Eckstein now wishes to use his connections to deepen evangelical support for Israel and talks of setting up a Christian version of the pro-Israel lobby on Capitol Hill, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In order to realize his idea, Eckstein has enlisted the support of Ralph Reed, the head of the Christian Coalition and one of the leaders of the Republican Party. Eckstein and Reed plan to act on two fronts: the Christian leadership and the general public.

Eckstein plans to enlist prominent Christian leaders such as Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson and the preacher Jerry Falwell, whom he plans to invite next month to the program's founding convention in Washington and then, further down the line, to Israel, for a meeting with senior Israeli figures, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

As far as the grassroots campaign goes, Eckstein says, the plan is to set up an Internet site where supporters of Israel will be able to register themselves. "We hope that within a year we will have a million registered supporters," Eckstein said. The site will enable users to send letters of support for Israel to Congressmen and will provide information about Israel and its policies.

The organization has set September 9 as a day of support for Israel in all the evangelical churches in the U.S. The date was not incidental. It falls 2 days before September 11 when Americans will mark the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States.

"Millions of Americans will attend church on that day, among them President Bush and the leaders of the Republican Party," Eckstein said.

This year, September 9 also happens to be the second day of Rosh Hashanah, giving it, from Eckstein's point of view, an additional symbolic Judeo-Christian connection.