Biden, Saudi talks, and AI: Netanyahu's high and lows from US trip - analysis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "burning down da house,” read a protest sign on the streets of New York last week as the Israeli leader who is under fire at home and abroad made his first United States visit since taking office at the end of December.

Expectations were low given that from the start Netanyahu failed to achieve one of his most desired objectives, a visit with Biden in the Oval Office. The meeting that did take place in New York was confirmed only at the last moment. 

The fact that Biden hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Thursday almost seemed to underscore the point that he could have given that honor to Netanyahu, but didn’t.

When the whirlwind week ended, marked by Netanyahu’s address to the UN General Assembly, the absence of an Oval Office photo op almost seemed irrelevant against the sheer volume of diplomatic success. 

Below is a list of five highs and two lows from Netanyahu's week-long trip. 

Saudi peace talks underway

This is the week it became clear that talks were underway in earnest for a quadrilateral deal between Washington and Riyadh that would include a normalization agreement for Israel and possibly an interim agreement with the Palestinians.

Last year when former Prime Minister Yair Lapid took the podium at the annual high-level portion of the new 77th UN General Assembly, the idea of Israeli-Saudi peace still seemed like more of a pipe dream.

“We call upon every Muslim country — from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia — to recognize that, and to come talk to us. Our hand is outstretched for peace," Lapid said.

This year, talks are already underway.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News that “every day" Israel and his country are closer to an agreement.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has said he believed that such a deal could be reached by March 2024 and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said it could happen even before that.

Some of the details of the potential agreements are always known and a matter of debate.

When Netanyahu spoke at the start of the 78th UNGA session last week and said that Israel was on the “cusp” of a “dramatic breakthrough” with Saudi Arabia, he was not just being poetic.

His words were reflective of a reality that could soon be within his and Israel’s grasp.

US-Israel tensions soften

Netanyahu and Biden spoke face-to-face.

The two men have been friends for 40 years and have met more times than they can count.

So Biden’s past refusal to issue the customary invitation to the White House granted all prime ministers after the formation of a new government generated endless headlines and sparked speculation of a new low in Israeli-US ties.

Biden himself had been blunt that he had not invited Netanyahu due to fears that the government’s judicial reform plan would harm Israeli democracy.

Netanyahu had hoped the meeting would be at the White House and found himself instead with Biden in a New York hotel not far from the UN. 

Protestors outside beat drums and shouted “democracy.” Biden himself spoke of the importance of “democracy” in his public remarks. Netanyahu pledged his commitment to democracy and to Saudi peace under the president’s leadership.

Inside the room, the location of the conversation no longer seemed to matter, with Biden signaling a rapprochement of sorts by publicly inviting Netanyahu to the White House by the end of the year.

This does not mean of course that the US-Israeli tensions are gone. If anything, they will likely continue, as the two men remain at odds over democracy and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

But the decision to meet marked a turning point in which Biden is likely to place the focus on other matters such as Israeli security and a Saudi deal and less on democracy. 

The pending Saudi deal was the main focus of their conversation which lasted for an hour and was largely an intimate conversation between just the two men.

It marked the most high-level in-person conversation to date between Israel and the US about the deal, the weight of which is likely to overshadow the democracy debate and become the main focal point of US-Israeli relations for the coming months.

Turkish ties warm

The warming Israeli-Turkish ties received a boost as Netanyahu held his first-ever meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the UNGA last week.

For the Turkish leader who has often thundered against Israel, particularly for its treatment of the Palestinians, this is only his second meeting with an Israeli Prime Minister since 2008. The last one took place with Lapid last year.

Israeli-Turkish relations fell apart in 2010 when Netanyahu was Prime Minister during a previous term after 10 Turkish citizens were killed after the IDF boarded a Gaza-bound flotilla ship named the Mavi Marmara.

They have been restored in recent years as Turkey has sought partnership with Israel, which is developing regional plans to export its natural gas.

The meeting, given Netanyahu's history with the Mavi Marmara, is especially significant. The mood was positive enough that Netanyahu joked about the fact that they had both worn red ties, as he seemed to cement the new ties with Turkey, which is a regional powerhouse. 

Elevating Jerusalem

The status of Jerusalem was slightly elevated as the Democratic Republic of the Congo pledged to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and Paraguay renewed its pledge to do so as well.

To date, only five countries have Jerusalem embassies: the United States, Guatemala, Honduras,  Kosovo and Papa New Guinea.

Most of Israel's allies have their embassies in Tel Aviv and the center of the country to reflect the international community’s refusal to recognize that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Many nations do not recognize that any part of Jerusalem, even West Jerusalem, is within the country’s sovereign borders.

It’s significant for Israel that Congo and Paraguay spoke of a Jerusalem embassy on the sidelines of the UN, a body that has passed numerous resolutions disavowing Israeli and Jewish ties to Jerusalem.

Palestinian interim deal?

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on the United Nations to recognize Palestine as a state when he addressed the UNGA on Wednesday.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan on Saturday at the UNGA on Saturday called for a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 lines and did not mention a normalization deal with Israel, as Netanyahu did. 

At the UNGA last year Lapid called for two states for two peoples. This year Netanyahu did not mention two states, nor would his government support it.

Despite this, Israelis this week including in New York have spoken of a breakthrough with the Palestinians by which they have softened their demands on Israel to pave the way for a Saudi deal and would be open to an interim agreement.

In an interview with Kan News on Friday, even Lapid who is the opposition leader, lauded the moment.

“Something interesting is happening here,” Lapid said. After 30 years of refusing to consider an interim deal with Israel, “suddenly in the midst of this event, they [the Palestinians] said they would agree to it,” he explained.

Global AI role

If Netanyahu’s priorities were measured by the path of his airplane, then the fact that he landed first in San Jose California speaks volumes about the importance he places on artificial intelligence’s role in the coming century both for Israel and the globe.

At Telsa headquarters, he met both with the company’s controversial CEO Elon Musk and other leading experts in AI to discuss its benefits and dangers as well as joint global strategies.

AI, he said, would wipe out disease and hunger but if not harnessed could also become an existential threat by generating wars and allowing for machines to control humans.

His statements about placing Israel at the forefront of this technology were a reminder not just that the Jewish state is also the start-up nation and leader in innovation, despite the controversy over its judicial reform.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that one of Netanyahu’s strengths is his ability to perceive global trends early on and stay ahead of the curve, particularly with vaccination treatment.

Now he is attempting to do the same thing with AI by creating a directorate with the Prime Minister’s office and a global board of advisors to create a global blueprint for how nations can tackle the new technology.

Ukrainian tensions persist

Among the more highly publicized moments of Netanyahu’s visit was his meeting in the basement of the UN with Zelensky.

It's the first time the Ukrainian leader has met with Netanyahu since Russia invaded his country in February 2022.

Tensions have been high between the two countries as Israel has persistently refused to grant Ukraine’s request for defensive weapons against Russia. Even the civilian alert system that sounds an alarm against incoming missiles, which Israel has promised to send, has not yet arrived.

Israel has instead provided humanitarian aid, which Ukraine appreciates, but does not believe is a substitute for military assistance.

Zelensky had initially insisted that they should meet in Kyiv, a city that many Western leaders have visited in a show of solidarity. Cohen traveled there in February, but Netanyahu has not followed suit.

Instead, the two men spoke in New York, with Zelensky walking in telling reporters that he expected “a lot” from Israel. The meeting did not mend the relations as he left receiving only a public pledge for more humanitarian aid. 

Criminalizing protestors

Netanyahu began his trip by attacking those who planned to demonstrate against his judicial reform plan in both California and New York.

As he stood on the tarmac in Ben Gurion airport prior to his departure, he said, “This time we are seeing protests against Israel by people aligned with the PLO and Iran.”

It was a statement that appeared to his critics to delegitimize free speech and to equate those who oppose him with the enemies of the state.

Netanyahu and his supporters pushed back by explaining that such protests should not occur abroad while a prime minister is representing the country. But he never apologized for his remarks, which only stoked the fear among Israeli supporters that the country’s democracy was indeed in trouble.