00:00Tanyahu was just recently appraised about a week ago during the visit of Donald Trump's envoys here, Steve Wyckoff and
00:09Jared Kushner.
00:11And he already met them late last night upon arrival in Washington, D.C.
00:16But the prime minister has put an emphasis on his need, as he put it, to explain to the United
00:24States that Israel needs full military autonomy.
00:28In other words, basically not to be held by the terms of any deal that the United States might sign
00:35with Iran.
00:36This may be in part a response to the fact that Israel's demands, both regarding Iran and to a great
00:44extent regarding Gaza, have simply been ignored in recent weeks by the United States.
00:50Donald Trump was asked by Israel not to engage in talks with Iran, went ahead and did so.
00:57He repeatedly says he prefers a deal with Iran.
01:01The Israeli point of view is that no deal matters with Iran.
01:05No deal counts because the Iranians have never upheld a deal.
01:09And so on and so forth regarding Gaza as well.
01:14Prime Minister Netanyahu said the Palestinian Authority would have nothing to do with running Gaza.
01:20It is Palestinian Authority figures who right now are manning the border post at Rafah.
01:26The stamps that people crossing into Gaza, Gazans returning home, have gotten on their passports, clearly say State of Palestine
01:35on them.
01:36The prime minister of Israel has promised his people there would never, ever be such an entity and on and
01:42on.
01:43So this trip may have principally a demonstrative effect vis-a-vis Israelis to show them that the prime minister
01:50is upholding his promises to them.
01:53The Israeli media watchdog, the seventh eye, pointed out yesterday, referred to Israeli media, that while all journalists, most reporters,
02:07everyone is covering this visit using the terms presented by Netanyahu as if it were about Iran and Gaza,
02:14that we should not forget that the most pressing issue for Prime Minister Netanyahu vis-a-vis Donald Trump is
02:22Netanyahu's request that Trump help Netanyahu get a pardon,
02:28in effect cancel the corruption law that Netanyahu is skipping this week by going to Washington,
02:35and that this may actually have a much bigger part of this visit than we currently know.
02:41We do know that last night, even as the White House and the Netanyahu government were exchanging tit-for-tats
02:49over the West Bank,
02:51that the Israeli government offered to shower Donald Trump with prizes, with a specially created Israel prize,
02:59offered to allow him the honor of carrying a torch on Israel's Independence Day,
03:04and all kind of little buttering-up exercises of this type.
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