Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was enthusiastic about the chances of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia in his remarks to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning, while also warning about threats from Iran and artificial intelligence.

“We are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough [than the Abraham Accords],” Netanyahu said, “a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

Netanyahu said that such a peace would help usher in the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, improve chances of peace with the Palestinians and advance reconciliation between Judaism and Islam. 

Despite the tensions between the two leaders, Netanyahu credited President Joe Biden for his work in advancing negotiations with Saudi Arabia.

“We share the same optimism for what can be achieved and I deeply appreciate his commitment to seize this historic opportunity,” Netanyahu said. “Just as we achieved the Abraham Accords with the leadership of President Trump, I believe we can achieve peace with Saudi Arabia with the leadership of President Biden. Working together with the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, we can shape the future of great lessons for all our peoples.”

Netanyahu described the recent agreement to create a trade corridor from India to Europe through the Middle East as “a new corridor of peace and prosperity” and “another pivot of history.” 

A representative of Saudi Arabia remained in the U.N. chamber observing Netanyahu’s speech.

The Israeli prime minister used the speech as his first opportunity at the U.N. to take a victory lap for the Abraham Accords, which he said had validated his approach to regional peace over others favored by many in the international community.

He argued that previous efforts at peacemaking had failed “because they were based on one false idea that unless we first concluded a peace agreement with the Palestinians, no other Arab state would normalize its relations with Israel.”

“For years, my approach to peace was rejected by the so-called experts,” he continued. “Well, they were wrong… In 2020, under the approach that I advocated, we tried something different. And in no time, we achieved an amazing breakthrough.”

Netanyahu warned, however, that Iran would “do everything they can to thwart this historic peace,” highlighting the regime’s global threats, nuclear program, repression of its own people and proliferation of weapons throughout the region and world.

“Yet the regime’s aggression is largely met by indifference from the international community,” the Israeli PM lamented, calling for the international community to implement the snapback mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal to reimpose sanctions on Iran.

“And above all, Iran must face a credible nuclear threat,” Netanyahu said. “As long as I’m prime minister of Israel, I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. (Netanyahu’s prepared remarks shared following the speech showed that the prime minister intended to say “credible military threat.”)

Netanyahu said that the expanding Abraham Accords could be a path to peace with the Palestinians, but called on Palestinian leadership to stop spreading antisemitic propaganda and providing payments to the families of terrorists.

“Antisemitism must be rejected wherever it appears, whether on the left or on the right, whether in the halls of universities or in the halls of the United Nations,” he said.

The Israeli leader discussed the dangers and opportunities of artificial intelligence — another theme of his visit to the U.S., which included a stop with Elon Musk in Silicon Valley.

“Whether our future will prove to be a blessing or a curse will also depend on how we address perhaps the most consequential development of our time, the rise of artificial intelligence,” Netanyahu said. He described the technology as a potentially great engine for progress but also a threat that could ultimately subjugate humanity if not addressed properly.

“The world’s leading nations, however competitive, must address these dangers,” Netanyahu said. “We must do so quickly. And we must do so together. We must ensure that the promise of an AI utopia does not turn into an AI dystopia.”

With the myriad challenges facing Holocaust education these days, the most pressing, and seemingly unavoidable, is time. All too quickly, the world is being forced to accept a difficult truth: that soon there will be no survivors left to share their stories.

In an effort to combat this grim reality, and to propel Holocaust education into the future, Meta and StoryFile, in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO,) the World Jewish Congress and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, celebrated the international launch of “Tell Me, Inge…,” a new virtual reality and extended reality experience through one survivor’s life during World War II, on Wednesday evening at Ivy Terrace in Midtown Manhattan.

“I think Meta deserves a lot of credit for taking this seriously,” Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, who was in attendance at Wednesday’s event, told Jewish Insider. “It would be wonderful if all online platforms lived up to the standards they set for themselves.” 

“Tell Me, Inge…” shares the story of chemist and noted Holocaust writer Inge Auerbacher, who survived the Theresienstadt Ghetto as a child. Auerbacher, who was born in Germany, but has lived in the U.S. since 1946, was in attendance at the launch event and participated in a conversation with Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, which was moderated by StoryFile CEO and co-founder Stephen Smith.

“I do not want to leave this earth just as somebody in a coffin,” Auerbacher said of her decision to continue sharing her story. “I want my life to have meant something, especially for all the murdered Jewish children.”

Recorded over two days, “Tell Me, Inge…” presents itself as an intimate conversation between the listener and Auerbacher, but on a new stage: the Metaverse. Inside Meta’s virtual world, the user is presented with a seated Auerbacher, alone apart from her red memory box and the wooden end table it sits atop.

Users have the option of interacting with Auerbacher by asking her questions directly or by clicking on a series of prompts digitally projected across the screen, after which Auerbacher can be heard narrating her story as hand-drawn animations give a visual depiction of the scenes as she describes them.

“The use of new kinds of media will speak to a segment of the population in a way that they’re used to being spoken to,” Lipstadt told JI. “Some people will like it, some people will not like it, but you got to start where the client is at, and there are a lot of young people who we hope will respond to this, so I’m glad to see it happening.”

Despite the advancement of the technology as it stands, Clegg sees “Tell Me, Inge…” as a “pioneering” project. It may take a while, he said during the conversation, for Meta’s virtual reality technology to be as accessible and lightweight as it could be, but “Tell Me, Inge…” will always be viewed as a leader in immersive education and personal virtual experiences. 

As an accompaniment to the project, the Claims Conference created a written educational guide for use by young adults to help grow Holocaust education in the classroom. Also in attendance on Wednesday night were World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, White House Jewish liaison Shelley Greenspan and Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor.

“Where does hatred begin? At a young age. You learn it from your friends, you learn it from your parents, friends, etc… and that’s where the Holocaust really began,” Auerbacher said.

Several prominent trustees and alumni of the University of Pennsylvania have signed an open letter expressing “deep concerns” over the school’s controversial decision to host a Palestinian cultural festival featuring multiple speakers who have demonized Israel and voiced antisemitic rhetoric. 

The new letter, which had drawn more than 2,300 signatures as of Thursday evening, calls on the school’s president, Elizabeth Magill, to take a number of steps to address the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, which begins today on the university’s campus in Philadelphia and runs through Sunday.

“The University of Pennsylvania should be doing all within its power to distance itself from the event’s antisemitic speakers, make clear that such antisemitism is wholly at odds with the university’s values, and take proactive steps to ensure that Jewish students, faculty and staff are safe and welcome at Penn,” the signatories write in the letter, which was organized by the Anti-Defamation League.

The letter urges Magill to issue “a clear and unequivocal statement specifically denouncing the event’s platforming of known antisemitic speakers,” most notably including Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd co-founder and vocal critic of Israel whom the State Department has accused of “using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people.” 

Moreover, the signatories request that UPenn’s academic departments and units, some of which sponsored the festival, “re-examine their policies and protocols” for backing events and strongly suggest that administration officials introduce “mandatory antisemitism awareness training across the university,” among other steps.

The signatories include Josh Harris, the private equity investor who recently acquired the Washington Commanders; Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management; Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, the billionaire cosmetics heiress and businesswoman; and Jeff Blau, the CEO of Related Companies.

“The most potent weapon we have against antisemitism is to speak out,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, said in a statement to Jewish Insider on Thursday. “The people who signed this letter love Penn — many have donated huge sums to it and volunteered countless numbers of hours serving as trustees and advisors. In a moment of intensifying antisemitism across the country, I applaud them for taking a stand.”

Greenblatt said he hoped that “Penn’s leadership will follow their lead and issue an unambiguous condemnation of the toxic antisemitism associated with the so-called ‘festival’ this weekend and to completely dissociate the university and its departments from it.”

In a private letter sent to Greenblatt on Wednesday, Magill indicated that the university had taken some steps to address the signatories’ requests, noting that the administration had “initiated a review of the process by which groups external to Penn” can hold campus events.

The university leadership, Magill said, would also “build upon our existing training and education” efforts “to ensure we are including antisemitism awareness as part of our equity and inclusion programs.”

Magill emphasized to Greenblatt that she had led a joint statement last week “unequivocally” condemning antisemitism, while “fiercely” expressing support “for the free exchange of ideas.” 

Still, such comments have not been forceful enough for critics of the university’s approach, particularly after Penn Hillel was vandalized on Thursday morning before a service for Orthodox Jewish community members. While it remains unclear if the incident was related to the festival, it has only fueled calls for the university to further distance itself from the event. 

“Neither academic freedom nor freedom-of-speech principles prevent the university from using its own voice to speak out against antisemitism wherever and whenever it occurs, especially on campus,” the university’s trustees and alumni argue in their letter.

A spokesperson for UPenn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday evening.  

“Unfortunately, without stronger leadership from campus administrators,” the signatories write, “antisemitism has and will continue to find a home in academia by those who allow antisemitic beliefs to be couched in anti-Israel or anti-Zionist fig leaves.”

Israel’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Gilad Erdan had a viral moment this week that, judging from the news coverage and reactions on his social media, was seen around the world.

When Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi stood in front of the United Nations’s green marble wall on Tuesday, ready to begin his speech to the General Assembly, Erdan stood up and held a photo of Mahsa Amini, the woman whose brutal killing by Iran’s modesty police a year ago inspired a protest movement in the Islamic republic. U.N. security grabbed Erdan and escorted him out of the room.

From that moment on, Erdan’s spokeswoman’s phone was bombarded with messages from CNN, Fox News, The Washington Post, and more. The video was viewed over 3 million times on his Instagram alone.

On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, the ambassador took time out to speak with Jewish Insider about his protest and why the U.N. still matters for Israel.

Lahav Harkov: What sparked your act of protest?

Gilad Erdan: Every year, we decide to leave the GA hall when the leader of the only country that calls publicly to annihilate the Jewish state comes on the podium.

This year, it was on the first day of the high-level week and when I was walking over from my office I saw the very moving exhibition of Iranians against the regime. I posted a few Instagram stories from their exhibition that was very moving, with photos [of] all the women killed. I spoke with people there, and they saw I was Israeli. I asked if they have one of the signs there, and they said they would help me get the original photo. 

I asked someone on my staff to go to Staples to print it out. I didn’t want to be stopped on the way in, so we used paper that I could fold easily and I carried it with me.

I felt that really we should highlight to the world the fact that we stand in solidarity with the Iranian people…and say that we separate between the people of Iran and the ruthless radical regime that oppresses them. 

LH: Was that a normal reaction by security?

GE: I never expected them to forcibly drag me out. It was crazy that they touched me. I was silent, so I thought maybe they’d say something to me and then I would stop and leave.

When security detained me, I told them that when the war in Ukraine broke out, I remember many ambassadors were holding signs and Ukrainian flags and no one did anything. 

It’s an anecdote that made the whole story much more interesting, because it showed the world how distorted the moral compass of the U.N. is. They’re so pressured to give a mass murderer oppressing his people the red carpet treatment, but the one silently holding up a sign is dragged forcibly outside. 

Most of the Arab world covered the story and I received thousands of emails from Iranians across the globe.

LH: What did Netanyahu think about what you did?

GE: He was very satisfied. He wanted to visit the [Iranian protesters’] exhibition also, but unfortunately it took place only on the first day, when he was very busy.

Netanyahu is right [to include props in his speeches]. There are so many countries and so many speeches that you have to think about how to draw attention to your message…and I have the chutzpah to fight for the truth.

Once, I smuggled a big rock into the Security Council to demonstrate that rock-throwing is terrorism, even if they refuse to verify and report that fact. The president of the Security Council was [from] Norway and he claimed I endangered them because, as I had told them, the rock was a weapon. I told them it’s a weapon if you throw it at a moving car.

So, I learned my lesson. When I lit a memorial candle in the Security Council, I used an electric one and didn’t try to light a fire.

LH: How much does the U.N. General Assembly really matter for Israel?

GE: It’s a question that I am often asked by Jews in the U.S. I tell them about what [first Israeli Prime Minister David] Ben-Gurion said…that the Jewish state was not established because of the United Nations, but because of courageous Jews. “It does not matter what the [non-Jews] say; it matters what the Jews do.” When it comes to protecting the lives of Israelis, we should only care about Israel.

At the same time, today our enemies don’t think they can defeat us on the conventional battlefield, so their weapon is to delegitimize our existence. They call us an apartheid state and try to convince young decision-makers that Israel is the biggest human rights violator in the world and should be a pariah…They pressure Ben & Jerry’s and others to boycott Israel, they go after us in the International Criminal Court, and their claims ignite antisemitic attacks, because [the attackers] don’t differentiate between Israelis and Jews.

It’s extremely important to be present here, to expose the lies, the hypocrisy, and the double standards. That’s how I go on the offensive.

It’s also important to showcase Israel’s achievements. I organized two very important meetings for Netanyahu. He met with seven presidents of Pacific island countries and five presidents from the Caribbean. They each have the same vote as anyone else here. They all want to gain from our tech solutions, mainly in water, food security, some asked for healthcare and cyber defense. I told them, I separate the two things, but I always present them with a traffic light [chart] of how they vote regarding Israel. Micronesia is number 1 – they [are] 100% with Israel. Hungary does too. We took 40-50 important [U.N.] votes to build this scale.

We try to brand Israel as the solution, not the problem. When we hold these meetings, we say it’s separate — morally we want to share our expertise because we cherish human rights. At the same time, they should understand that Israelis also face challenges…I ask them not to play politics with us. These are the tactics that I use here.

LH: Have they been effective?

GE: I have been working for the last three years, and it is still an uphill battle, but every year we succeed in further eroding the anti-Israeli majority. We’re still losing when the Palestinians present their package [of resolutions], but historically they had 140-150 with them, and this year they got only 87 votes when they presented the resolution to investigate Israel in the International Court of Justice. Many countries now prefer to just disappear during the vote, which is fine — baby steps. I think our position here is getting stronger every year. If we’re patient and understand we need [to] fight to achieve long term goals, exactly like how the Abraham Accords were achieved, we will also shatter the anti-Israel majority. It’s a matter of time.

LH: The U.S. is the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council whose leader attended the General Assembly this week. Is that a sign of the U.N.’s diminishing influence? If so, is that good for Israel?

GE: I think there are different reasons why each one didn’t send their president. You can’t generalize. I do agree that today, not only because of the competition between the U.S. and China, we also have the war in Ukraine — the U.N. has gone almost back to the Cold War, where you look to see which country is on the side of the U.S., or is with Russia or afraid of Russia. The Security Council is almost paralyzed when it comes to conflicts. If one of the two sides has an interest,  the other will make sure nothing effective can come out of it…When it comes to preventing war and solving conflicts the U.N. definitely lost [its ability], especially now.

But it’s still the biggest international organization, so we cannot ignore it. We have to fight for ourselves here.

LH: Israel appears close to joining the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, an effort that you initiated when you were ambassador to the U.S. What was your role? Where do you think that is going? 

GE: I knew Alejandro Mayorkas when he was deputy secretary of homeland security, and I was [Israel’s] public security minister, and we discussed the idea [in 2017]. Then he became secretary of homeland security soon after I became ambassador, so we started working on it.

I looked into the obstacles to joining the program and I realized that the American officials don’t understand that Israelis who are 21-22 years old didn’t graduate from university yet, so they don’t have jobs, which is different from other countries. That’s why our refusal rate was too high. So many soldiers right after their IDF service were refused visas. I convinced him to review their policy and the instructions. 

I established a joint team with Mayorkas. I met with the State Department and [U.S. Special Representative for the Palestinians] Hady Amr at the time. He told me that without solving the issue of Palestinian-Americans, it’ll never happen. So I spoke with the head of the Shin Bet at the time, Nadav Argaman and he told me if the Shin Bet is the last obstacle, he guarantees he will find solutions.

Then I did one more thing, which I think was the most crucial. When Naftali Bennett became prime minister and came to meet President [Joe] Biden, I convinced his team to ask Biden to say Israel will be added to the Visa Waiver Program. Bennett accepted the idea and he raised it with the president. What I understood, as an experienced politician, was the difference between something getting stuck in the bureaucracy and a presidential commitment. 

Sept 30 is my birthday, and with God’s help, this is the date the Americans are expected to announce whether we met the criteria. I think it will be a big achievement.

LH: You were ranked in the top three of the Likud list in five primaries. Are you making plans for your political comeback?

GE: I still have one more year at the U.N., and I still don’t know. In Israel, a year is like five years in any other country. I want to continue contributing my experience and strengthening Israel, but I think it’s too early to know.

Citing the University of Pennsylvania’s “commitment to open expression and academic freedom,” the school’s president, Elizabeth Magill, indicated in a private letter to the Anti-Defamation League that she would not directly intervene in a Palestinian cultural festival that begins on Friday and features a number of controversial figures who have voiced antisemitic rhetoric.

In the letter to the ADL sent on Wednesday, Magill indicated other steps to support Jewish students on campus during the three-day conference. The university has faced mounting calls to exclude high-profile speakers including Roger Waters, an outspoken critic of Israel who has “a long track record of using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people,” according to the State Department.

“As you know, Penn’s commitment to open expression and academic freedom are central to our educational mission,” Magill explained to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in the letter, which was obtained by Jewish Insider. “This is true even — and especially — when keeping those commitments is most challenging.”

Instead, Magill emphasized that the university has implemented a “series of actions” to address “concerns raised about some of the speakers invited to the Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” which is scheduled to take place Sept. 22-24 on Penn’s campus in Philadelphia.

Among other steps cited in the letter, Magill said that university leaders had worked “in close partnership” with Penn Hillel to “provide support” in advance of the festival and had boosted security for campus Jewish groups during Rosh Hashanah and through Yom Kippur, which begins on Sunday evening. 

Despite the increased security measures, Penn Hillel was vandalized on Thursday morning before a service for Orthodox Jewish community members, when an unidentified perpetrator damaged the building’s lobby while shouting antisemitic slurs, according to witnesses who spoke with The Daily Pennsylvanian, UPenn’s student newspaper. 

It was not immediately clear if the incident was directly related to the controversy over the upcoming festival. 

In a statement posted to social media on Thursday afternoon, the ADL said it was “still collecting information” on the alleged attack, adding that it was “deeply disturbed by the antisemitic incident” at Penn Hillel. “Thankfully no one was hurt, but perpetrators need to be held accountable. Security measures need to be reviewed and adjusted.”

In a follow-up tweet, the ADL called on Magill and university leadership “to issue an unequivocal condemnation of the antisemitism associated with the festival this weekend and to completely dissociate the university from it.”

A spokesperson for UPenn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday afternoon.

Greenblatt was among the first national Jewish leaders to publicly speak out against the festival last week, when he called Penn’s decision to host the conference “mind-boggling” and “insulting” in a sharply worded statement shared with JI. “If this were a conference to explore and celebrate Palestinian literature, none of us would object,” he said. “However, it is not. It is a gathering of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activists, some of whom have a long history of antisemitic statements and comments.”

Since then, Greenblatt has spoken directly with Magill and followed up in writing, according to the letter obtained by JI on Thursday. The ADL’s Philadelphia chapter and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia have also been in touch with university leadership in recent weeks to urge the administration to publicly condemn the festival.

In a joint statement last week led by Magill, the administration condemned “antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values,” while stressing that “we also fiercely support the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission. This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

But the festival — and the university’s response — have continued to field opposition. On Friday evening, for instance, Penn Hillel is planning a “massive” Shabbat Together demonstration to celebrate “Jewish pride, unity and togetherness” as the festival begins, according to a recent statement posted to social media. Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee and a former Democratic congressman from Florida, will be among those in attendance, according to a spokesperson for the organization.

The festival’s organizer, Susan Abulhawa, has defended the conference, which features more than 100 speakers, accusing critics of engaging in “Zionist hysteria” that is typical of “the colonial mentality,” she told JI last week. 

Other speakers who are scheduled to participate in the festival include Noura Erakat, a Rutgers University professor who has suggested that Zionism is a “bedfellow” to Nazism, and Marc Lamont Hill, a former CNN commentator who was dismissed from the network after he used a phrase widely interpreted as a call for Israel’s elimination.

While Magill has described some of the event’s speakers as “deeply offensive, misaligned with the festival’s stated purpose” and at odds with Penn’s “institutional values,” she has reiterated the university’s “responsibility to foster open dialogue and cultural diversity on campus.”

Still, in her recent letter to the ADL, Magill acknowledged that the administration had yet to perfect its approach to addressing anti-Jewish prejudice. 

Moving forward, she said university leadership would refer to the Biden administration’s national strategy to combat antisemitism and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, among other resources.

“Our commitment to countering antisemitism on Penn’s campus extends far beyond this event,” Magill averred. “There is more we can and will do to continue to create an environment where all members of our community can thrive and succeed.”

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani railed against what he called Israel’s “Judaization of Jerusalem” in his address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, as Jordanian King Abdullah II on the same day called the Israeli capital “a flashpoint for global concern.”

Israel “responds to Arab peace and normalization initiatives with more nationalist and ultra-Orthodox intransigence and extremism,” Al Thani said, which is “reflected in government coalitions and further settlement expansion, in addition to the Judaization of Jerusalem, attacks on the holy sites and heavy-handed and draconian measures against the people in Gaza.”

Doha, Al Thani said, “provides extensive political, humanitarian and development support to our brotherly people in Palestine and we also contribute towards rebuilding the Gaza Strip.”

Earlier this week, it was reported that three months ago Qatar halted some $7 million in payments to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, funds that were intended to pay the salaries of civil servants.

Al Thani, whose government earlier this week served as a middleman in the transfer of $6 billion in unfrozen Iranian funds as it seeks to promote its position as an interlocutor in the region, denounced the “intransigence of the Israeli occupation and the rejection by consecutive Israeli governments of any just political solution according to international legitimacy.”

While Al Thani’s 19-minute speech largely focused on regional issues, as well as Doha’s recent hosting of the World Cup, King Abdullah II, who also spoke on Tuesday, dedicated one-third of his speaking time to the Palestinian issue.

The king again called for a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, while describing 2023 as “the deadliest for the Palestinian people in the past 15 years.” A majority of the more than 200 Palestinians killed in clashes with Israel since the start of the year have been identified as members of terrorist organizations including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Abdullah also touted U.N.-funded education programs for Palestinians — which have come under fire for curricula that include incitement and the glorification of terrorism against Jews and Israelis — suggesting that the alternative to the U.N. schools “will be the black flags of terror, hate, and extremism.”

King Abdullah II of Jordan said on Wednesday that he hopes an Israeli-Saudi normalization deal could bring the region “to a new horizon” but warned against creating a deal that ignores the Palestinians, chastising those in the Arab world who believe “that you can parachute over Palestine and deal with the Arabs.”

His remarks came at a glitzy confab, hosted at Manhattan’s Academy Mansion on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly by the publications Semafor and Al-Monitor, that saw some other Middle Eastern leaders express more skepticism toward greater Israeli integration into the region. 

“I think the key challenge for a sustainable peace and security in the region,” said Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi, is “the unresolved question of Palestine,” adding that “there is no other way” for Israel to reach peace in the region if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues. Al-Busaidi also praised the state of the country’s relationship with Iran and urged Western nations to make progress in nuclear negotiations, calling the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action “the best thing we had.”

Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar said the country is not considering any agreement with Israel so long as Israel and the Palestinians have not reached any kind of resolution. 

“The lives of Palestinians is for us something which is sacred, like the life of everyone,” said Ammar. (Ammar also brushed aside suggestions that Tunisian President Kais Saied was antisemitic when Saied said that the name of Mediterranean Storm Daniel, which created widespread destruction in Libya, was selected “because the Zionist movement has infiltrated minds and thinking.”)

Their comments diverged from a major new statement offered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who on Wednesday said, in an interview with Fox News, that “every day we get closer” to a Saudi-Israel normalization deal. The “Palestinian issue is very important,” bin Salman added.

Anwar Gargash, a top foreign policy advisor in the United Arab Emirates, offered a telling statement at Wednesday event as to how the Gulf nation, which normalized ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords, views the Palestinian cause: “​​Were the Abraham Accords envisioned to solve the Palestinian issue? It wasn’t,” said Gargash. “We had all our leverage with the Palestinians, gave them cheque blanc, and they haven’t done anything.”

Gargash acknowledged that “far-right policies of the Israeli government” are putting normalization “through a difficult time right now.” But, he added, “the government of the day will change,” and “the Abrahamic Accords are something that we will continue regardless of what is the government of the day.” 

In a Wednesday meeting, President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both pledged to work together toward Israeli-Saudi normalization. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that he intends to visit Israel as soon as possible in a private discussion with American Jewish leaders in New York City on Wednesday afternoon, according to participants who were present for the conversation, a day after his first in-person meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Erdogan, who made a similar pledge last year, offered no clear timeframe for a potential trip to Israel, which restored full diplomatic ties with Turkey in 2022 after years of strained relations.

Instead, he confirmed that he would first host Netanyahu in Ankara before his own trip to the Jewish state, two attendees told Jewish Insider on Wednesday.

Neyanyahu had been scheduled to meet with Erdogan, who recently won reelection to a third five-year term, in Turkey this summer but postponed the trip due to health concerns following a pacemaker implant. The two leaders, who had only spoken by phone before the U.N. meeting, agreed during Tuesday’s conversation to coordinate mutual visits, according to a senior Israeli diplomatic source. Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Turkey in March 2022.

During Erdogan’s meeting with approximately 30 Jewish leaders in Manhattan, which went on for more than an hour at the Turkish House across the street from U.N. headquarters, the Turkish president fielded questions on a range of topics, participants said, including renewed ties between Turkey and Israel, rising antisemitism, Holocaust education, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Iranian nuclear capabilities.

“I’ve been attending these meetings for about 20 years since he’s been president, and I would say this is the most cordial meeting that I remember,” Abe Foxman, the former longtime director of the Anti-Defamation League who was among the participants who met with Erdogan, said in an interview with JI. “The rhetoric on both sides was respectful.”

Foxman said there were a few reasons for increased cordiality, citing the presence of Turkish Jewish leaders who were included in the meeting and the recent rapprochement between Israel and Turkey. “He’s always had time for the American Jewish community because he understands that it’s part of his relationship in this country,” Foxman said of Erdogan. 

In his introductory remarks, Erdogan delivered greetings recognizing the Jewish new year and emphasized that during “all of his visits” to the U.S. he has “always attached great meaning to meetings with Jewish leaders,” recalled Ezra Friedlander, an Orthodox Jewish lobbyist whose clients include the Turkish government.

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, described the meeting as “warm and engaging” in a statement to JI. The Turkish president “reaffirmed his commitment to a stable and fruitful relationship with” Israel as well as “his resolve to combat antisemitism, which he referred to as a ‘crime against humanity,’” Daroff said.

The Jewish leaders who attended the meeting, Daroff added, “pledged to welcome” Erdogan’s upcoming visit to Jerusalem “and to work to ensure the relationship” between Turkey and Israel “continues to improve and flourish.”

There were some points of tension, according to participants who asked to remain anonymous to discuss more sensitive elements of the conversation. “There are issues,” said one participant, who noted that some attendees had privately raised concerns over hostages held by Hamas, which has maintained a presence in Turkey.

Meanwhile, Erdogan was somewhat vague in addressing a question about the prospect of Iran securing a nuclear weapon, according to another participant. “His response was, ‘We are against countries in the region acquiring nuclear weapons,’” the attendee told JI.

The attendee said that Erdogan was also asked if he would pray at the Western Wall during his visit to Israel, after he had reportedly expressed interest in praying at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In response, the Muslim president insisted that he would “never force anyone” to pray anywhere, suggesting that the Western Wall was not on his agenda, according to the attendee. “But he didn’t say, ‘I will not pray at the Western Wall,’” the attendee told JI.

Participants also included Amb. Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism; Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League; Malcolm Hoenlein, the vice chair and former CEO of the Conference of Presidents; Harriet Schleifer, the chair of the Conference of Presidents; Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch; and Harley Lippman, a longtime AIPAC leader.

During last September’s UNGA, Erdogan first promised to visit Israel while meeting with representatives from the Conference of Presidents, AIPAC and J Street, among other groups, for an hour-long discussion that one participant recalled as “conciliatory.”

Erdogan did not appear to have made any additional commitments on Wednesday, even as attendees tried to lobby him on some causes. Foxman, for instance, said he encouraged Erdogan to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on his next visit to Washington. “My feeling is it’s an easy ask,” said Foxman, who is a Holocaust survivor.

The Turkish president “didn’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” Foxman said, noting that Erdogan had instead emphasized his opposition to antisemitism. Still, when Foxman said he would personally accompany him to the museum — and to Israel, if preferable — Erdogan seemed more receptive. “He said ‘OK,’” Foxman recalled.

Additional reporting contributed by JI’s senior political correspondent Lahav Harkov.