Thursday is the second day of US President Joe Biden's long-awaited trip to Israel, and the President has a full schedule of events ahead of him.
Following Biden's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid at 11:15 am, and the expected signing of a joint declaration dubbed the "Jerusalem Declaration," the two will join the heads of state of India and the United Arab Emirates in a virtual meeting.
At half-past-one, Lapid and Biden will hold a joint press conference.
Later in the afternoon at 5:30 pm, Lapid and the US President will attend a welcoming ceremony at the President's Residence. And at 7:50 pm this evening, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Lapid, and US President Biden will all participate in the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah Games at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem.
CNN reported last night that Saudi Arabia is expected to announce this week that it will allow all commercial flights to and from Israel to pass through its airspace, while at the same time allowing Israeli Arabs to take direct charter flights to Saudi Arabia for the Mecca pilgrimage.
Last night, Biden was interviewed by Channel 12 News and pledged that Iran would not get its hands on nuclear weapons on his watch. He explained why an agreement with Iran was a necessity despite Israeli opposition and described what the future would look like between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
During the interview, Biden touched on the possibility of him running head-to-head with Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race, attacking the anti-Israel voices in the Democratic Party and saying: "I can work with any Israeli prime minister elected."
"It's a bit like going home," Biden said of his current visit to Israel. '' I know it sounds weird, but that's how it is. I grew up with a devout Christian father, as my Jewish friends called him. He would come back for dinner before closing the business and then we would talk. He used to talk about how horrible what happened to Jews in Europe and why we did not bomb the railway tracks and why not...to the concentration camps and so on. I also have a relationship with the Jewish community in my country, a very close relationship, since the age of 20," he continued.
Biden was asked why he was determined to reach an agreement with Iran and explained: "Because the only thing worse than today's Iran is Iran with nuclear weapons, and if we can go back to the agreement and 'keep them on a [short leash]'...I think the previous president made a huge mistake when he left the agreement, Iran is closer now to having a nuclear breakout than it was in the past.
''It has nothing to do with whether or not Quds Force will continue to operate in the region. We can act against them and still reach an agreement that will curb the nuclear program. I still think it makes sense. We approached the negotiating table, drafted an agreement, proposed it and now it depends on Iran. Biden stressed that "Iran must not get its hands on nuclear weapons. "
The US president said that normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia could take a long time. "But deepening the relationship in the sense of mutual acceptance, in the sense of working together on all sorts of things, it makes sense to me."
Biden was asked if his relationship with Netanyahu would be charged, if the latter was re-elected prime minister. "Israel is a democratic state. "We are committed to the state, not to a specific leader," Biden replied. "Just as Israel is our ally and not committed to a particular president, it is committed to the state, to the United States. Bibi and I have known each other for almost 40 years. And we know what we agree on, what we do not agree on, we do not hide it. But I I work with a democratic state that is in the process of electing a leader, whoever it is, that I will work with. "
Asked if he intends to run for another term in 2024, President Biden replied that "there is no way to predict what will happen. I have not even passed half of my term yet. There is still a lot of room to decide what is going to happen. But I hope the Republican Party returns to normal from the 'MAGA' that it has become in many ways."
"I will sum up and say that I last competed for three reasons. I really did not intend to run, until I saw the people going out to march in Virginia, Charlottesville, carrying torches and Nazi flags, singing the same antisemitic poison that was sung in the 1930s in Germany. My family and I sat together, and we decided I should run for office."
"I took a chance and said, 'I'll run for three reasons.' Number one - to bring back the soul of America, and return it to who we are as a nation, the way we talk to each other, the way we treat each other. The second reason was to rebuild the backbone of the country - the middle class. When the middle class succeeds, everyone succeeds. The poor strive to move forward, and the rich remain rich...and the third reason was to unite the country. I have not yet completed the third part, which is what I am trying to do now."