 Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly has been much easier. It is his first face-to-face meeting with Biden in the nation since the formation of his hardline government late last year. During the conversation, the U.S. President is expected to push the Israeli Premier on concessions to the Palestinians for a possible normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. That's among other topics. The meeting between the two of them is set to take place in a short while and of course will take you live to New York once it does. Meanwhile, and leading up to his highly-awaited presser with Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu was attending to some other significant sideline meetings. On Tuesday, the Israeli Premier met with both the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky described their meeting as good and positive against the backdrop of tense relations between the two countries since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Netanyahu vowed to maintain humanitarian aid to Kiev but did not respond to a request for offensive weapons, a major sticking point for Ukraine. Following Zelensky, the Israeli Prime Minister then sat down with Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In his first-ever meeting with the Turkish head, he discussed the effort to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, which would benefit the entire region and to cooperate in energy, technology, innovation, artificial intelligence, and cyber security. The two also agreed to coordinate mutual visits in the near future. And as we are waiting for that presser between the Israeli Prime Minister and the US President to begin here in studio joining me with their expert analysis on the subject is our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ultiman and Aviv Puzner, the former Israeli ambassador to France and Italy and the former world chairman of Kiran Hayasot United Israel Appeal. Gentlemen, thank you both very much for joining me here on this special edition. Aviv, I'd like to start with you. In the lead-up to Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with Joe Biden, can we expect that Saudi Arabia is going to be on the forefront of their conversation? And is it likely that Netanyahu will abide by his far-right coalition members? Or are we going to see him taking a different direction? We can assume that the Saudi issue will be very central because it's not only the Saudi issue. With the Saudi issue comes also the Palestinian issue. And Biden yesterday indicated clearly what his ideas on the subject were. He wants a solution with two states, Jewish state and the Palestinian state. Now we know that Benjamin Netanyahu is unable now to deliver on such a political deal. Also, by the way, not only he, also Abu Mazen is not in any position. But certainly Netanyahu, who has a hardliner in his government, like Smoltridge and Ben Gver, cannot even dream of delivering something political to Biden on the Palestinian issue. Maybe we can find other ways, economical ways, civilian ways. There might be ways. But the Saudi issue is tied to that very concretely. And then there is another issue. The Saudis want to have a nuclear power plant. And as far as I know, within the defense establishment in Israel, there is a lot of opposition to that. But Netanyahu, before living for the states, did not convene the cabinet to deal with this issue. So this is also a big interrogation mark. What will happen? Because it will come up. It's evident. What is Israel's position on that? Traditionally, Israel was against having neighboring country with nuclear power, even civilian nuclear power, which can be transformed, as we all know, into military. So those are the subjects. But I can bet with you, Batya, that when Bibi comes out of the meeting with Biden, he will, the first topic he will speak about is Iran. He will not speak about Saudi Arabia, he will not speak about the Palestinian. He will say, I raised or we discussed the Iranian issue. That will be his first, I think, topic. And Owen, obviously, a fortune of diplomacy lined up for Benjamin Netanyahu to be discussing with Joe Biden. But that didn't seem to be the only thing of importance here, the location. Benjamin Netanyahu wanting to have this meeting in the White House, in Washington, obviously now having it being on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, how big of a deal really was this with regards to the location? And more so than that, I believe that as we've been speaking, there have been protests taking place outside of the U.S. Embassy at the moment in Israel, but also protests happening on the sidelines as well. Oh yeah, they sure are. Batya, my count, 265 days since Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in, this time as Israel's prime minister. That's how long it took for him to get this meeting. And you're right, of course, the meeting is not going to be in the Oval Office, with all that that signifies it's instead going to be, as you rightly said, on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Just think about that language, on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York, is it a big deal? I think it's a moderate deal, right? I think in some sense too much has been made of this in Israel, right? At the end of the day, it's a meeting between the two that has a lot of symbolic value, but there are plenty of other ways for the governments to communicate, plenty of other ways for the leaders to communicate, right, without the face-to-face meeting. It has a lot of symbolic importance, but I don't think we should overstate it. But you're right, the protesters. And again, I think even beyond the Saudi issue or the Iranian issue, I think the eyes of nine or 10 million Israelis are going to be cast at this to see what Joe Biden says, even if in a very oblique way, about the judicial overhaul and the debate here, right? I think for many Israelis, that's what everybody's going to be watching for when these two leaders step before the cameras in a short time. Obviously, we don't expect Joe Biden to go at this frontally, right? It wouldn't be appropriate. It's not of a piece with the way he sees the relationship. It's not of a piece with diplomatic protocol. But will he obliquely speak to it, right? Talking about shared democratic values as has been coming from podium after podium in Washington over the course of the last eight or nine months. So that, I think, is going to be what people are watching for. It has a different ring when it's said by the president, with Netanyahu sitting just a few feet away from him. And I think that's what the public is going to be looking for, and you're absolutely right, Batu. We continue to see this tug of war in New York, as we saw in California before it, between the one-hand Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to set the agenda and make news with his meetings, important meetings, right, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday. And now, of course, with Joe Biden, and then on Friday with the speech itself before the General Assembly, where Netanyahu has often been able to make news. On the one hand, you have Netanyahu pulling the rope in his direction, but on the other hand, the protesters are having a vote too. And they're pulling the rope to try to get attention for their demands, for their activities, and they've also had a large measure of success if we look at how much attention they've been getting in the United States and certainly here in Israel. And Avias Owen so rightly points out, it's undoubtedly going to be coming up in the conversation that he has with Joe Biden and set to take place in just a few minutes now. But Benjamin Netanyahu was evidently maybe hoping to at least arrive with something in his hands with regards to the negotiations, some kind of wide-reaching agreement between both the coalition and the opposition. He seems to be arriving empty-handed. How does that look? Absolutely. He wanted to come with an agreement. And he and President Erdogan were working on that. And there was a draft or even an agreement signed by Netanyahu's people, which he should have brought to Biden, telling Biden, we are going forward with the judicial reform, but with the wide accord between the opposition and the coalition. And this did not happen because what happened, this was torpedoed by Yareb Levine, first of all, who immediately, as soon as it was published, went out and blasted the agreement. And then, of course, by Benjamin Smotrich, who immediately after him saw that, yes, he wanted to, and he would have been in a completely different position if he would have come with an agreement with the opposition in a completely different position. But he tried, did not succeed. It's not the first time in these nine months that the prime minister cannot do what he wants to do. And so he's in a position, he's in the defensive position with Abbi Biden, because Biden, obviously, is going to raise the question. Obviously, everybody expects the Democratic Party, the Jewish community, everybody expects Biden to raise the issue. I think that, I think Netanyahu will tell him about his effort and will tell him he will continue his effort. But what will he do here that we will know only in the next few weeks, because I don't think that he is master of the situation today regarding the reform. Abbi Paz now owns Ultimate State with us. We'll be right back after the short break. 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And thanks for staying with us here on our special edition as we are waiting for the presser of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden, which is set to take place in just a few short minutes' time. But in the meantime, we bring the discussion right here to the studio where I'm joined by our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Altman and Avi Pazner, the former Israeli ambassador to France and Italy, and the former world chairman of Karen Hayesot United Israel Appeal. Just before we went out to the break, I've used so rightly pointed out that Iran, if you had to be a betting man, would likely be the number one topic on Benjamin Netanyahu's agenda. But Owen, I'm interested to know here 10 years ago, just over 10 years ago, we saw Benjamin Netanyahu take to the podium of the U.N. with his famous bomb picture of Iran drawing how much enrichment they currently have. This is not the same audience. It's not the same atmosphere. And it's not 10 years ago. You're right. But from Netanyahu's perspective, and I think the perspective of a large part of the Israeli public, it's the same issue, right? It's the same Iranian regime with the same goals, with their technology much more advanced, right? With a world that, of course, is distracted, and maybe in some sense by the world's perspective, rightly so, by the war in Ukraine, by the challenge of China for the United States, by climate change, and by a range of other issues. But for Israel, this is still front and center. And you're right, Bacha, if you have your bingo card out there, right? For Benjamin Netanyahu with the U.N. every September, you better hope you have at least one square, okay, with Iran on it, because you're assured that he's going to spend a lot of time talking about it. I think most of all, the speech before the General Assembly on Friday, but of course, throughout the time, and Netanyahu's perspective, this is a safe topic. This is a safe topic, a topic where there's relative consensus in Israel, right? Where he's on reasonably safe ground and speaking for the whole country. It's not as divisive as the Palestinian issue, and it's certainly not as divisive as divisive as the judicial overhaul. Of course, there's the Saudi issue out there as well, which is a matter of consensus, but that only taken Netanyahu so far. So coming back to the Iran issue serves important policy goals for him and for Israel, but obviously also serves political goals. And I do think that relative to other points in history, there's relatively, at least at this moment, something that could change tomorrow, but at this moment, relatively less tension between the Israeli government and the US administration on the Iran issue than we've seen in the past, certainly with democratic administrations. So it's a relatively safe topic for Netanyahu to talk about before the cameras with Biden. It's expected, it's almost ceremonial at this point, for better or worse. But for Netanyahu, he's on safe ground while he's doing that, which is why he'll probably run to that safe ground, especially given his political situation, which as Avi rightly said, is defensive. And speaking of safe ground and the Iran topic, we know that during the Iranian president's speech yesterday, Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, walked out, but also walked out holding a photo of Masa Amini, the young Kurdish woman in Iran who was dressed immodestly according to the Iranian laws and obviously killed in police custody, saying that Iranians deserve freedom. Now a lot of critics pointing that out that Israel should be very careful as to the fingers that they point, given they've got their own domestic issues. Is this actually a case of internal affairs, or are we talking about a difference between morality and ethics here? First of all, but I didn't like to see Gilad Erdan, the ambassador representing the whole country of Israel, walking around with a picture in his hand. I mean, this is not done at the UN. I have never seen any ambassador, any representative at the UN walking through the aisle with some message. First of all, I don't like that. About our regime still, I mean, we live in a democracy. I think we cannot compare what is going on here and in Iran. In Iran, you have a repressive regime that represses women. Again, today, there is a new decision to make even harsh laws about the head cover today. So I don't think that this is, that you can compare Iran and Israel from this point of here. We have a struggle about where we are going. And I mean, this is a democratic struggle. And by the way, I think it honors the country that we can live in such a situation that we can freely, part of the public can freely express itself. It's not the case in Iran. So the point for me is the behavior of the ambassador, not the issue itself that he raised. Okay. You could have done that outside the UN. You could have organized easily enough a few hundred people to raise these images and to shout. So this is what disturbed me is to see the Israeli ambassador with both hands going among the delegates at the UN. And I saw the smile on some faces. You know, this is simply not done. It's nice to attract television attention. Sure attracted a lot of attention. Certainly in Israel, Erdogan has maybe still a political career ahead of him. That's not the behavior of an ambassador. And gentlemen, stay with us because as we've been discussing Benjamin Netanyahu before meeting with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in just a few minutes has also been meeting with other influential leaders outside of even the political arena. On Monday prior to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu met with American entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk at his Tesla factory in San Jose, California. Their conversation was broadcast live on X formerly known as Twitter, which Musk took ownership of back in October last year. Our senior US correspondent, Mike Wagon, I'm caught up with Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department's special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism in New York. She addressed the meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk. In particular, the latest anti-Semitic remarks made by the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. I think that there's a real obligation on the part of the social media platforms to at the very least live up to the standards they set themselves. And most of them have said we do not condone hate speech. We don't want hatred, including anti-Semitism. And I would hope that they would live up to those obligations. I think his statements were decidedly anti-Semitic. There's no question about it. Look, he was even criticized strongly by a close, I don't know whether it was 150 or 200 Palestinian academics, many of them based here, but still feel very strongly in terms of the Middle East and Palestinian issues. And he was roundly criticized by them. If he was roundly criticized by them, how much more so I found his statements at board. Now, as we've brought up in conversation here in the studio on Tuesday during the afternoon session of the UN General Assembly, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took it to the podium. During his speech, which was boycotted by the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Giladier Dunn, Raisi called out another arch enemy, the United States. The Iranian president said that America should prove its willingness to revive the 2015 nuclear pact as months of indirect talks between the longtime foes have led nowhere. Those talks officially stalled in September last year, with both sides accusing each other of demanding excessive concessions. In an attempt to at least call some of those tensions, Tehran and Washington reached a Qatar-mediated deal last month, which resulted in the swapping of five detainees each on Monday. That arrangement also involved the White House releasing $6 billion of Tehran funds that were frozen in South Korea. Here's more from Raisi's speech. America's exit from GCPOA was a violation to the principle of the agreement by clearly violating the provisions of Resolution 2231 passed by the Security Council. The American government avoids fulfilling its obligations under the GCPOA. America should demonstrate its goodwill and genuine willingness to fulfill its commitments and conclude the path. And still with me here in studio is our Owen Ultiman and Avi Pazna. Just before we had a look at some of the other speakers and the other meetings prior to the UN, a big thing that we've been talking about is obviously Saudi Arabia normalization. And Owen, there's no doubt everybody knows that if normalization is to happen, Israel is going to be asked to make some kind of concessions toward the Palestinians. But a big question that perhaps has not been addressed is what about the compromises or promises from the Palestinians towards the Israelis, like putting an end to the pay for slave policy, putting an end to incitement and terrorism? Yeah, not so much. I don't think that's going to be much part of this deal. I mean, the Palestinians may make some statements to that effect, Bacha, to help Netanyahu politically here in Israel. But I don't think anyone will take that seriously as part of this deal. What the Palestinians will be asked to give, to concede, is to be able to give a green light, to give their blessing to this passage so that they don't generate opposition to it in the US Senate or in public opinion in the Arab world, that they get on board with this so that it can make it through to the finish line and Capitol Hill and pass muster on the Arab street. That's, I think, their main concession, not necessarily being able to give something to Israel directly, but in a sense being able to give something to the United States and Saudi Arabia to be able to let them go off on their way to make the deal with Israel. I think that's the goal. As for the wider deal, Joe Biden gave us, I think not for the first time, a window into his thinking about this. And it was very, very important. And we noted it here in I-24 News, at least I certainly personally did. But I'm not sure it was noted enough in the media just how much a part of the strategy and the grand strategy with China the normalization is. The Israel piece of the speech that Joe Biden gave yesterday before the General Assembly was right next to the China piece and Bacha tells you everything you need to know. Israel made it into the speech by virtue of China, by virtue of being part of the U.S. infrastructure plan, this grand plan, right, that was announced in Delhi at the G20 summit to have goods and electricity and information flow from India through the Middle East, including through Israel onto Europe. Israel matters because of its geography. The United States wants to beat China by winning over the global south, by winning over the developing world. Joe Biden went to New York in order to try to put out the messages to make that happen. How is he going to win them over? One way is through this infrastructure corridor. Israel, by luck, in a sense, happens to be on the way geographically. And so Israel is important to the United States geopolitically because it's part of the grand strategy to contain China. The Saudi normalization can add fuel to that, can add momentum to that because it'll have Israel and the Saudis working more directly. But Joe Biden, I think, was very clear in the nuance in the speech that even if there isn't a full grand bargain, a piece of the normalization is already here. As soon as you have an announcement in Delhi and you go to the podium and say, we are going to have this corridor that goes through Saudi Arabia, Kama, Jordan, Kama, Israel. And the two countries, Saudi Arabia and Israel, essentially separated by Kamas, by Jordan, but essentially by Kama's new agreement. And Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, is sitting there in the room while it's all happening. No one is denying the fact that these countries are essentially de facto, in effect, working together and part of this plan together. So there's a piece of normalization that is already here and with us. And that's a part of the US strategy to China. And it's, I think, a new chapter in that sense in the US-Israel relationship. It gives a new rationale for it. And the Saudi normalization, it's an issue that goes far beyond Saudi Arabia and far beyond Israel to be part of the wider contest around the world between the US and China. And I think let's touch a little bit more on geopolitics because we know that Benjamin Netanyahu has been meeting on the sidelines with numerous other leaders, but I think the two that were really highlighted was Ukraine and Turkey. No doubt important for the region that there are warming ties between Turkey and Israel. But are we in a situation where Benjamin Netanyahu is just going to let bygones be bygones? We have to also remember, in the past, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made some pretty, at least I would say, borderline anti-Semitic and anti-Zionism comments. Well, you know, in international politics and diplomacy, as you said, you let bygones be bygones. I mean, Erdogan is Erdogan. Nobody here loves him. Nobody here really trusts him because he has been zigzagging his way through diplomacy. We have no illusions about Erdogan. We have no illusions. We have interest with Erdogan. So, and I think Netanyahu is right to have this meeting with Erdogan, to try to better relation with Turkey, which is an exceptionally important country in the Middle East. I mean, not only 80 million people look how strategically it is posted member of NATO. So, I mean, really, it's a regional superpower, like I hope we are. But so, those remarks by Erdogan, I mean, nobody has any illusions about Erdogan. Did you know that Erdogan studied in an Imam school, that he's an Imam? He's a Muslim Imam. I mean, we should have no illusions about his thoughts about the Jewish people. But here, we are speaking about the interests of Israel, interests of Turkey. We have a lot to gain from better ties, but I want also to open a parenthesis. We have to be careful to maintain also good relations with Cyprus and Greece. Because in those 10 years that we were having a hate affair with Turkey, we had developed, we developed very much our relationship with Greece and Cyprus, which are also regional countries, important regional countries, neighbors of Israel. The situation of the relationship with those two countries now is excellent, excellent, including military and security cooperation. And we will have to try a balancing act here between those two countries and Turkey and other countries around, I could speak at length, but just to answer shortly your question, let bygones be bygones with Erdogan. Yes, but knowing with whom you are dealing. And that tomorrow you can see a new Erdogan again blasting Israel and Netanyahu. I mean, I think that's basically right. I agree at 90-some percent of that. On the other hand, I remember sitting in this studio when Isaac Herzog, Israel's president, was making that visit to Ankara and talking through it and just how skeptical I was. I think speaking for the vast majority of the Israeli public, for exactly the reason that you said, Batja, when you're putting together a video report on Erdogan, the archive of his statements on Israel over the course of those 10 years is so long. I mean, it could just go on for minutes and minutes and minutes and minutes of just what we have available and the vitriol and the hate that was spewed. It's something that I don't think could really ever be forgotten no matter what happens with the relationship going forward. All of that being said, we're now like what, two years on from that trip almost? And look at how consistent the Turks have been, including at points of time where there's been escalation and deterioration in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how much they have committed themselves publicly to reining themselves in and Erdogan to rein himself in personally and to allow the rapprochement to proceed. And I think we have to give credit to that to the point where it's, of course, dues that Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Taip Erdogan. You see them in all kinds of different angles shaking hands. But it's not surprising. It's not shocking for us anymore. And I think that's a testament to how far the rapprochement has come. And of course, which brings, of course, the very, very important comment, which is the heart of the matter of what Avi Pazner said, the balancing act in the Eastern Mediterranean. Israel, as in many parts of the world, needs to play a balancing act, but maybe no part more about you than our backyard or our maritime backyard, if you will, in the Eastern Mediterranean, where we have important interests in all these countries. We have a deep relationship with great reasons, Cyprus that has been built, and nobody wants to see that destroyed for a lot of reasons. But obviously, Turkey is important. And as Avi said, the balance is really the name of the game. Well, speaking of that balance, and you mentioned that there's no illusions as to why Erdogan and Benjamin Netanyahu are meeting, but perhaps there is an illusion as to why Benjamin Netanyahu decided to meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. In particular, that Israel has taken this line of playing a balancing act between Ukraine and Russia, not coming out against either country. Was this meeting simply for a show of the cameras, and because that's what the West and a lot of Israel's allies would have expected of Benjamin Netanyahu? Or is this actually something else beneath the surface? No, you're right. We are speaking about another balancing act that's like Owen explained. There are many balancing acts of Israel also within the Arab world, by the way, but that's another issue. Here it's the classical balancing act between Israel, between Ukraine and Russia. And the minimum that Benjamin Netanyahu could do is to meet Zelensky. It's the minimum, because I don't see here Israel changing policy and giving or selling arms to Ukraine, or even defensive arms. But we have to remember we are part, as long as we are a democracy of the democratic part of the world, which is with Ukraine, and we have to show a minimum of solidarity. And I think that it serves also Netanyahu, who is Biden, by the way, who is very, very committed at the high cost, sometimes internally in the United States, because there is fierce criticism of Biden of the amount of money he gave, amount of support he gave to Ukraine. But I think that when Netanyahu decided to meet Zelensky, he had also Biden in mind. It's the minimum he could do. And he again was very careful, because we have to manage our relations with Russia. What can we do if we have here 200, 300 kilometers from here, a Russian army, a Russian air force with whom we have to coordinate Israel's action in the region, quoting foreign sources. And then there is something else. We have also two big Jewish communities in Russia and in Ukraine. In Russia, bigger than in Ukraine. Also with that, we have to take into account. So all that having been said, I think Netanyahu did the right thing in meeting Zelensky and also the right thing in not committing himself to give any military assistance to Ukraine. Yeah, I mean, I guess just to amplify one point that Avi that you made, this is an easy give for Benjamin Netanyahu to Joe Biden, right? There are a lot of hard gifts, right? On the Palestinians, maybe the most. I want to say with us, I do want to come back to this conversation, but I do want to go across live to New York where our senior U.S. correspondent Mike Wagenheim is joining us. Mike, we've got word in that Benjamin Netanyahu has just arrived at the hotel where he's set to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden that there will be a closed door meeting between the two of them before it's open to the media. What else can you tell us what's happening on the ground? We are just a few steps away from a room here where President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet. Netanyahu has been the case throughout the week being greeted by protesters here outside the hotel. We'll turn the camera around here. If we can, looking down outside the hotel, it's the Qamariah. And down there, you can see some of the protests going on at the corner here by Joe Biden's hotel. There are more protesters waiting by the Prime Minister's hotel here over on Park Avenue just a few blocks away here in Manhattan. Obviously, much to be discussed today, not the setting that Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted, but the agenda is still the same. The Iran, the top of the list, normalization with the Saudis, the price that the Netanyahu government would have to pay in terms of Palestinians for normalization with the Saudis. And we learned yesterday from the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog at a gathering just down the street that the visa waiver program is to be finalized or expected to be finalized by the end of next week. That is expected to come up as well in the meeting today here between these two leaders. Right, Mike. And earlier in the day being yesterday, there was some criticism from the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky as to just how big and expensive a team Netanyahu was bringing with him. Who exactly is expected to be in these closed door meetings? Is it likely just to be between the Prime Minister and the U.S. President? Or is there more of an entourage with the Israeli side likely to join? I'm not sure if that was directed as an insult. I think it took Zelensky back just the large gathering and greeters that were waiting for him there in that meeting. When I saw Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor arrived earlier on in the day, he'll certainly be a part of the extended bilateral meetings once the one-on-one concludes. I would certainly guess that Secretary of State Tony Blinken would be involved. I talked to Dan Shapiro, the regional integration senior advisor for the State Department yesterday, couldn't tell me at least on record whether he'd be in that meeting or not. But obviously with normalization being such a high priority, we expect senior-level State Department officials in the meeting here today and of course the IDF with some concerns about the civilian nuclear program that may go along with normalization. They voice the concerns as to how much the Americans are willing to give the Saudis in terms of support. So I would expect IDF representation and Defense Ministry representation in the meeting as well today from the Israeli side and obviously from the American side as well. And Mike, just earlier we were talking about the location of this meeting. Clearly not exactly what the Israeli Premier envisioned in terms of a high-profile public meeting at the White House in Washington, but on the sidelines. And we made mention in studio to the importance of it being on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Is it likely that this is going to maybe irk or even add to the tensions between Joe Biden and the Benjamin Netanyahu government or will it sort of be clear there? Yes, and I think it depends on what comes afterward. I'm not sure if the meeting today will have the tensions. I think the longer drags on without a White House invite will only add to it. Israeli sources have been insistent to I-24 News that there is no ban on Netanyahu going to the White House. There's no boycott in place that it was indeed a scheduling conflict. We take that obviously with a grain of salt, but it is a possibility with Biden's schedule and Netanyahu's schedule here that there is a ring of truth to that, that that's why they couldn't get together in Washington this week in addition to New York. And so the Israeli sources that we've heard from are insistent that a White House in detention is coming in the next few weeks, sometime by mid-October. Obviously that remains to be seen. But in the meantime, it's best at this point that Biden Netanyahu found a way to sit down regardless of the venue and start to talk about all these urgent issues in person. It's been a long time coming for these two longtime friends. Biden has long said, listen, I disagree with everything Bibi does, but I love him. That disagreement has certainly been at the forefront. I'm not sure the love has been as high up on the charts as it's been in the past. So a chance for these two leaders to finally sit face to face after a long break without a one-on-one meeting. And speaking of things being as high as Mike here in Israel, we've seen 37 consecutive weeks of really intense mass protests against both Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition, in particular the more hard-line members against the controversial judicial reform. You showed us just a few moments ago images of some of those protests. How big are they in terms of their scope? And are they making a dent in sort of hounding the prime minister on his visit across the U.S.? No, I don't think the prime minister really cares one way or the other to be honest with you. He's kind of practical in all business when it comes to these particular meetings, but they have been prevalent. They've been unabated throughout the week here in New York, in addition to earlier in San Francisco during the prime minister's meeting there, where they allowed a muskback on Monday. There's a whole itinerary that the protest leaders developed about where they're going to be at what particular time, multiple locations, depending on how much they want to hound the various Israeli ministers who have come here. There was a protest in Times Square yesterday. Again, here today it'll be at the United Nations that will be out in front of the prime minister's hotel, not giving a rest, even a brief respite to Netanyahu and company here this week. I'm not sure the impact it has on the prime minister directly, but it's certainly getting the message across that he really can't get away from the protest, even as he leaves Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or what have you. It's going to follow him essentially wherever he goes. Right. And my Benjamin Netanyahu is very good at getting the message across, which is likely why we are not going to see him at the UN General Assembly. Speaking of the time slot that was originally given to Israel, why is that? And is there any update on when exactly we can expect Benjamin Netanyahu to take to the podium? Yeah, that change of slot is nothing out of the ordinary world leaders' jockey for the position they want throughout the week to try to make sure they're talking to as big an audience as possible back home. And of course, with the time differences, that often means you don't want to be speaking in the middle of the night. Netanyahu was originally slated to speak Thursday, essentially in the evening time, 6 p.m. Eastern time, which would be in the middle of the night in Israel. He opted instead to shoot for a Friday morning Eastern spot time just ahead of Shabbat and the long holiday weekend in Israel to make sure that his message is broadcast or wide of audience as possible. Still nothing official yet. The UN is slow in making those final determinations as to speaking slots. But as of right now, Netanyahu will speak second on Friday morning. So about 9 p.m. Eastern time, that would fall at about 4 p.m. Israel time coming up on Friday ahead of Shabbat. A senior U.S. correspondent, Mike Wagner, I'm joining us on the ground in New York, just ahead of that meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. President Joe Biden. Thank you so much for that update. And as we've been discussing, there is no doubt that Saudi Arabia and a potential normalization with Israel is going to come up in that meeting, and everyone seems interested in wanting a stake in that potential deal. But all sides involve one assigned on their terms. In an open letter that was published on Tuesday, over 75 current and former American Jewish community leaders urged U.S. President Joe Biden to only pursue an agreement that includes measures that advance a two-state solution and reverses the worrisome trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In exchange for normalizing ties with Israel, Saudi Arabia is asking for a major defense pact with America, including major arms deals, and the U.S. cooperation in establishing a civilian nuclear program on Saudi soil. And still with me here in studio is our senior correspondent Owen Altman and Avi Pazna, the ambassador. But just before we come back to the studio, I would like to go across at the moment to a guest who joins us now from Jerusalem, rather pardon me, Dan Dikler, the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. It seems like the main deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is being completely overshadowed here by Israeli and Saudi interests. I wouldn't say overshadowed. I would say converging. If we take a look at where Prime Minister Netanyahu began his U.S. trip, it was with Elon Musk, the most important technological entrepreneur and the wealthiest man in the world. That was a signal to Mohammed bin Salman of Israel's prowess in the world of AI and high technology. This is exactly what Saudi Arabia is interested in. This is exactly in line with Mohammed bin Salman's vision of Saudi 2030. And it was that vision that Prime Minister Netanyahu skillfully delivered in my assessment by starting his trip in Tesla and not in the halls of the U.N. Absolutely. And what about this defense pact? This would or could look like, is it going to be similar to NATO, if that can't have a model? And if Israel is part of the sideline agreement, why not include them in this as well? Well, this is a real sticking point for Saudi Arabia. I know that the obstacle to a deal is far more on the table between Saudi Arabia and the United States, as opposed to the Palestinian issue, where in my assessment, U.S. Jewish leaders get it wrong is that Saudi Arabia is far less interested in a full-blown Palestinian state along the indefensible fragile lines of the post 1967 line. But in fact, Saudi Arabia needs to show sympathy and support for the Palestinian public, even though they know that the source of the problem is the Palestinian Authority leadership. They're not the solution. They are the problem. And it's very clear that Saudi Arabia knows that. And what Saudi Arabia needs is from the United States. They need that NATO-like defense pact, which is very difficult for this administration to deliver. And they also want to clearly a civilian nuclear capability, which is a negotiating point also for Israel, because it really raises concerns to make sure that a civilian nuclear program does not transform into a military nuclear program. That is going to become a point where Israel and the Saudis have to negotiate. Not only Israel in the United States, even though Jerusalem and Washington are negotiating as partners as to what the terms of that civilian nuclear deal would be. Now, liberal Jews are evidently making their voices clear in this open letter. But critics are saying that any possible agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia does not impact them, but rather the people on the ground. Do you tend to agree here? Or is this necessarily the same as how a lot of people tend to put both anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in the same bracket that it's one in the same and should not be a distinction between the two? Well, there's clearly anti-Zionism. Anti-Semitism is reflected today as collective anti-Semitism as expressed through when people say anti-Zionism, even though the people who say I'm anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic are misled and ill advised. It's one of the major misunderstandings in the western discourse today, and this is clearly something that I think Israel is going to have to lead. The race in really bushwhacking a new understanding that people say that they're against or oppose the existence of the Jewish state or they oppose the Jewish state in this or that borders, they're really being in many cases anti-Semitic in a collective sense of the word. Do you see the Saudi-Israel situation being at least on the very forefront of this upcoming meeting that we are waiting for in terms of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US President Joe Biden? Or are there supposed to be other security issues? We know that the US is one of the biggest defense suppliers of Israel. Is there supposed to be something more that is going to overtake a possible normalization agreement that also includes some kind of security and defense agreements? Very good question. There are two urgent issues that define Prime Minister Netanyahu's his trip and his mission as Prime Minister for the sixth time unprecedented in the history of western politics. And that is one is the Iranian regime's race for regional supremacy under a nuclear umbrella. And the second is normalization with Saudi Arabia. Clearly America, the best friend of the state of Israel and the people of Israel, the security defense packs which were signed under the Obama administration, a $30 billion commitment from the United States. But clearly that commitment reflects Israel's power as an R&D center for American weaponry. So America is getting a lot from that. But clearly it's the twin issue of the Iranian of the strategic and even existential Iranian regime threat to destroy the state of Israel, which they have claimed it's the only case in the history of the United Nations since 1946 where a UN member state, the Islamic Republic of Iran has vowed publicly and repeatedly to massacre the Jews in Israel and destroy the state of Israel. That is clearly an unacceptable and intolerable reality that is leading Prime Minister Netanyahu's trip as it has in the years past. And that he will discuss with his American counterparts as well as pushing for what looks increasingly to be a possible deal with Saudi Arabia. Having said that, I am doubtful that Mohammed bin Salman having suffered a lot of, I would call it from his point of view, degradation from this American administration would give a gift of normalization to President Biden. But having said that in politics, everything's important. All three parties need the deal. So it really remains to be seen whether it will be signed, sealed and delivered before the 2024 US elections. Dan Dekker, the president of the Jerusalem Central for Public Affairs joining us from the Capitol. Thank you so very much for your time and analysis. And still with me here in studio is Owen Altman and Avi Pazna. Owen, just before we went to Mike, I did cut you off. We were talking about the balancing act between Ukraine and Russia that Israel has to so carefully play. What was your take on that? Well, first of all, reports in Israeli media about you that the meeting to state the obvious is running late that Joe Biden has not yet arrived at the hotel and Netanyahu is being kept waiting. Obviously, we have no idea if this is simply coincidence, or if this is somehow intentional. Obviously, Vladimir Putin, I think is the one who likes to keep people waiting. I think it was former Syrian. Also Netanyahu likes to get into. I think it was former Syrian President Hafez Asad, who would keep you in the meeting for hours and not let you go to the bathroom. But at any rate, we don't have any reason to believe that there was anything intentional here. But obviously, it doesn't look great for Netanyahu. Obviously, to be sitting in that meeting with hundreds of protesters outside, with all of Israel watching the television, as we head into the evening hours and to the main newscast, and Joe Biden's not there yet. I think it's an element that will simply, Bacha, be swept away by whatever developed at the meeting itself. But at the moment is something that I think the optics, let's say, for Benjamin Netanyahu aren't great. As the balancing act with Russia and Ukraine, look, this is an easy give for Benjamin Netanyahu to Joe Biden, to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky. One would imagine maybe one day that you're actually making the pilgrimage to Kiev, making a visit to Ukraine. Maybe that carries some risk in the balance with Russia. But giving something that is an easy thing, relatively speaking, for him to give to Joe Biden relative to other issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the judicial overhaul, where they ask they're much, much tougher for him in Israel's domestic politics. And of course, it's not just a big gift to Biden. It's even maybe a bigger give Bacha to the Europeans, for whom Ukraine really truly is a cause celeb, almost with a kind of religious zeal and fervor in terms of how the Europeans look at this issue, certainly understandably from their perspective and from where they sit, and given the merits of what's going on in Ukraine as well. So one wonders why Netanyahu in a sense hasn't done more and been more, taken more initiative to give Biden more concessions here. It would seem like an easy fix for him politically, right, in terms of smoothing the relationship with the United States. Maybe that's still to come. Maybe Netanyahu feels that a deal on the judicial overhaul is right around the corner. And once that happens, he doesn't need, quote, unquote, Volodymyr Zelensky to the same degree. At any rate, maybe we'll be a little bit smarter once this meeting gets started. And as Owen mentioned, this is now a meeting that's been delayed for more than 30 minutes. But we are seeing reports that U.S. President Joe Biden's motorcade can be seen driving up Fifth Avenue and toward the hotel. Hallelujah. But no newly elected prime minister has had to wait that long for a meeting, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think since Levi Eshkol in 1964, which doesn't also vote well, not only that the meeting is running late, but that when Biden arrives, he's going to see protesters outside the hotel. You're absolutely right. But I don't like this situation where the prime minister of Israel has to wait for more than half an hour in a hotel for Biden to arrive half an hour late. I don't think it bodes well for the meeting, in my view. I try to study and analyze situations. You can be late five minutes. That's okay. But to be half an hour late, in my view, I interpreted as a message from Biden, another message. Not only do you not come to the White House, we meet in a hotel in New York, and I leave you waiting for half an hour, because I know, you know, I have been in so many situations. You can play with time to send messages. I have that. When I was working with Shamir and with Abba Ibn, the former foreign minister of Israel, we were playing. We were, you know, sometimes you let people wait but not half an hour. You know, you let them wait outside five minutes, ten minutes just to show them, you know, we are not that eager. So I don't like that, I must say. I don't like Biden being late. You know, the French say that la politique, l'exactitude et la politesse des rois, being on time is the manner of the king. King shows his good manners by being on time. So being half an hour late not only shows bad manners, not only bad manners. Also, in my view, bad intentions. But I do remember Queen Elizabeth II once saying that everybody else is simply early and she is never late. There's that too. I mean, listen, all of that said, I mean, we still don't know what's behind this. And again, don't forget, right, Joe Biden's meeting with Naftali Bennett in Washington, right, delayed by a full day because of the bombing in Afghanistan, if I remember correctly. So, of course, that's an extreme example, obviously. But we don't yet know. But at the very least, the optics aren't good for Benjamin Netanyahu as everyone is tuning in waiting to see this meeting. And of course, the meeting has not yet happened. Well, gentlemen, as we're waiting for that meeting, stay with us. But there is other news to cover, in particular, more local news where six Palestinians were recently killed in clashes with the IDF in the West Bank and Gaza in a space of just 12 hours. awai24news senior defense correspondent Jonathan Regev has those details. The Palestinian side of the air is crossing remains empty. It was meant to open on Monday morning following the end of the Jewish New Year holiday, but remained closed. And the effects are very well felt. Worker losses amount to over $1.5 million daily. Inside the Gaza Strip, workers already face hardships. About 60 percent of them live under the poverty line. And unemployment is more than 50 percent. This is Israel's way of putting pressure on Hamas to end the violent protests, which return to the Gaza border. Well, we are going to be cutting that report short, because we are going to be moving now to the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's dip in. Including, most recently, the Indian Middle East European Economic Park, which I think has a known prominent Indian, which is going to take India and Europe and Saudi Arabia to be in Israel. I think it's a big deal. And we're working on a lot more together. Today, we're going to discuss some of the issues. And that is, only democratic values that lie at the heart of our partnership, including checks and balances in our systems. And for a very good path to a negotiated two-state solution, and ensuring that Iran never, never requires nuclear weapons. Because even where we have some differences, we might go into Israel with, you know, with iron. We do seem to be having some connection issues. There could be that perhaps there are too many cameras focused on that high level and highly anticipated meeting between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu. But up until that feed, we do appear to have that feed now. It does seem to be working. So we'll go back there to have a listen. I am delighted to see that we live at a time of great promise, but also great danger. We just spoke about it, and great promise in the G20 meeting that you participated and led. You spoke about an economic corridor that would link Asia, the Middle East, and Europe together. It's such a corridor. We'll make it a very important hub for this president. We can forge this piece. We'll go a long way first to get that to the end. Achieve recognition between Islamic rule, which was there. This is something within working together. We can make history and create a better future. I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic piece between Israel and Saudi Arabia. And I think such a piece would go a long way first to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state, and advance the genuine in Israel and the Palestinians. This is that future. None more so than Iran. I appreciate it, Mr. President. It does appear that there are connection issues. And you said earlier if you were a betting man, but I'm going to be a betting woman and say that either there's too many cameras there or Iran has something hidden up their sleeve in terms of some cyber issues. But obviously Iran and Saudi Arabia are coming up from what we could preliminary here in that meeting. But it seems all smiles. This looks like old friends that have reunited, almost like what we used to see between the former US president, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. This doesn't seem like a tense meeting by any means, at least from the body language. You are right. The body language is a language of friendship. I agree with you. It has not always been so. I remember times when the US president and the Israeli prime minister met and there were frozen faces, Obama and Netanyahu, Beggin and Carter. I mean, let's say it's a good start. It's relaxed. It smiles. I did not hear what was being said. I heard a word or two about Saudi Arabia and thank you for trying. I did not hear. The body language in this meeting seems okay. Now the big question is, is there going also to be a four-eyes meeting? Is there going also to be a private meeting between Biden and Netanyahu? I do not know. I do not know if the big format, I have seen many people, I've seen Blinken and I've seen Sullivan. I didn't see anybody, but I imagine Eli Cohen must be there if Blinken is there and others. And it's very important to know whether there will also be a possibility for Bibi and Biden just to sit together like we do here and talk, really talk their heart off. This would be very meaningful if there is such a meeting. All that being said, the headline we already have, right? Joe Biden said it. He said it. There was the first piece about the Saudis and about the India economic corridor, right? And how the Saudis, as we talked about before this, before the meeting, right? Fit into the anti-China containment strategy in Israel, those two. That's number one on Joe Biden's agenda. And that was very clear. But we also got into the pecking order, right? Number two, what was number two? Talking about democratic values and checks and balances among the branches in our systems. That was number two. And only after that, Iran, the Palestinians and the rest. So that is how Joe Biden set the agenda, right? Number one is the Saudi normalization, the grand bargain. From the U.S. perspective, the strategy to contain China. But number two on the list is the judicial overhaul. That's going to be the headline for Israelis. That's what people are waiting to see if that was going to be a shoe that dropped and Joe Biden dropped it. And the next step is to wait and see. Obviously, as far as we saw on the screen, Netanyahu did not address this. One would imagine he won't. Or if he does, he'll do so in some circumspect and optimistic way in terms of getting to a resolution. But at any rate, the next step, of course, is going to read the statements and maybe the conflicting statements coming out of the meeting afterwards. And then all the rest. And I've already just pointed out that in terms of the agenda, we had number one, two, three and four all on Joe Biden's list. But how did Benjamin Netanyahu's list compare in comparison to that? And should he have maybe re-aligned his list to suit that of the president of the United States in order for them to actually get their points across effectively? No, my English is not as good as always. Or my ears are not as good as always. I really did not understand what Biden said. What Netanyahu said, I understood when he talked about Saudi Arabia. But again, as I told you, for Netanyahu, the item number one will be Iran and the nuclear issue. Because this is an issue that he's been dealing with for years and years and years. It's an issue of agreement in Israel. Everybody agrees that Iran should not have the nuclear bomb. That would be number one on Benjamin Netanyahu's agenda. Number two would be, evidently, Saudi, evidently. This also, by the way, those are two issues on which there is a consensus in Israel. Iran and Saudi, everybody doesn't want Iran to have a nuclear bomb and everybody wants to have a relation with Saudi Arabia. So these are the two most important. I do not believe that Netanyahu will raise, of his own volition, will raise the issue of the judicial reforms. I don't think so. But Biden will do that for him. He will have to answer that. Again, we talked about it before. From this point of view, he comes empty-handed without an agreement with the opposition. Maybe after the meeting with Biden, it will strengthen his determination to get such an agreement. Maybe. So for Netanyahu, one, Iran, Saudi Arabia, two, three, he will explain the Palestinian dilemma. We are speaking now about, is it possible to have a new agreement with the Palestinians? But for the time being bloody shed yesterday, six Palestinians were killed. We have on the Gaza Strip, they started again the demonstrations against Israel. One of the demonstrators was shot dead. You know, they tried to destroy. So that we are speaking now about agreement with Palestinians on the ground. We are very far from the agreement. And Owen, in the last 30 seconds that we have left our special broadcast, if you were to pick out from the little that we did get to hear, a highlight and a low light of this meeting, what would you put that down as? Well, listen, I don't want to give grades about highlight and low light, headlines, right? Again, the most important headline so far from what we saw, Joe Biden talking fairly directly about the judicial overhaul. And number two, I think I would add, again, Joe Biden emphasizing where Israel fits into the containment strategy in China and on Netanyahu's side, again, Netanyahu expertly right, the experienced Israeli prime minister who rightly claims can take the mantle of statesmen in situations like this, knows how to handle a meeting like this, knows how to bring it in his direction. And I'm sure we'll see that in the hour to come. Hopefully. So, Owen Ultiman, Avi Pazna, thank you, gentlemen, both very much for your expert analysis on our special edition that does come to an end. Unfortunately, thank you very much for watching. I'm about to 11th all. Hello and welcome. I'm your lovely moment. This is