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00:00And Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver a landmark speech to the US Congress
00:06in Washington on Wednesday.
00:08In doing so, he will become the first foreign leader to address the full American Congress
00:13four times, just passing Winston Churchill.
00:16For more, let's speak to our foreign editor, Ketavan Gordisani.
00:18Hello to you, Ketavan.
00:21Depending on which American politician you speak to, there's a lot of mixed reactions
00:25about Netanyahu's visit, isn't there?
00:27Yes, and that starts pretty much at the White House, because we are expecting Benjamin Netanyahu
00:33to actually meet with Joe Biden, despite the upheaval in the Biden campaign and the fact
00:40that the US President is still recovering from COVID.
00:44And that is very important in the sense that there's been a lot of tension between the
00:48two men.
00:49Probably the most tense relationship between any US President and Israeli Prime Minister.
00:54There's a lot of criticism about Israel's handling of the war in Gaza, frustration about
01:00some of the comments coming out of the Prime Minister of Israel.
01:06But it is important in the sense that Joe Biden is in that way showing his support for
01:12Israel, even though there is tension with the Prime Minister himself.
01:17Then if you look at Congress, of course, among Republicans, there is widespread support for
01:24both Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, and it is the Republicans who actually invited him
01:30to come and speak to Congress.
01:32When it comes to Democrats, things are much, much different.
01:36Long gone is the idea that support for Israel was a very strong bipartisan issue.
01:43Now there is a really growing group within the Democrats, specifically the more progressives,
01:50the younger democratic lawmakers who are increasingly opposed, not just to Benjamin
01:57Netanyahu, but also who have questions about the US's support, military support towards
02:06Israel.
02:07And there are dozens of Democrats who are expected to boycott the speech in Congress
02:13by Benjamin Netanyahu, and some of them are even planning on staging protests outside
02:18Congress.
02:19So you're really seeing those tensions there within the Democratic Party.
02:23And then there's the question of whether or not Benjamin Netanyahu is going to see or
02:28talk to Donald Trump while he's in the United States.
02:32It's not unheard of to have foreign leaders, when they're traveling in the US ahead of
02:36a big election, to actually go and meet with the opponent of the sitting president to sort
02:43of see who could be in the White House in the next few months.
02:48But so far, no confirmation there.
02:50And there is some tension between the two men.
02:53Donald Trump is, of course, a huge supporter of Israel, but he's still not completely over
02:58the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu in 2020 was very quick to recognize and congratulate Joe
03:04Biden on his victory at the presidential election, and that didn't really sit well with Donald
03:09Trump.
03:10But Benjamin Netanyahu has been working hard to amend those personal relations with the
03:16former US president, looking ahead, of course, to what could happen come November.
03:21Yeah.
03:22And depending on whether it's Joe Biden or Donald Trump in the White House, there is
03:25another looming foreign policy issue, which would be drastically different, depending
03:29on who is the president.
03:30But that's a war in Ukraine.
03:32Absolutely.
03:33And when I was talking about foreign leaders starting to discuss the possibility of having
03:39Donald Trump come back to the White House, Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine,
03:43was one of those.
03:44He had a call with the former US president on Friday, and it was interesting to see how
03:50the two men talked about that call after it happened.
03:53Donald Trump talked about the fact that he was going to do everything and he promised
03:58to end the war.
04:01This is something that Volodymyr Zelensky did not mention at all, this idea of ending
04:06the war, because they definitely don't agree on what is implied in the idea of ending that
04:13war.
04:14And the Donald Trump presidency, if you listen to what Donald Trump has said, would not be
04:19great for Ukraine.
04:20Donald Trump has been very critical of the US's support for Ukraine.
04:26He has also hinted at the fact that Ukraine might have to cede some territory to Russia
04:32in order to end the war.
04:34He said that if he had been president, Putin would never have invaded Ukraine.
04:40But he also, more broadly, you remember those comments about NATO allies who don't contribute
04:46their fair share and how he would tell Volodymyr Putin to do whatever the hell he wants with
04:51those NATO allies.
04:53And to add to that, you have the choice of his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, who
04:59is definitely not going to go against Donald Trump on any of these elements.
05:04He was one of the leading Republicans in the opposition to blocking that package of
05:12aid, a billion-dollar package of aid for Ukraine earlier this year.
05:17He has said things like, it's ridiculous that we're focused on that border in Ukraine when
05:24we should be focused on the one at home.
05:26He even said a couple of years ago at the start of the war, I got to be honest with
05:32you, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.
05:37And even more recently, back in February, he said, I do not think that Putin is an existential
05:42threat to Europe.
05:44So yes, it's Donald Trump who sets foreign policy, but he's definitely not going to find
05:49in J.D. Vance someone who might talk to him and tell him to do things another way.
05:55This is someone with whom he's very much in line with when it comes to how to deal with
06:01Ukraine.
06:02All right.
06:03Ketivan, thank you very much.
06:04Ketivan Gorgastani, our foreign editor.