All language subtitles for Israel.and.the.Palestinians.The.Road.to.7th.October.S01E03.1080p.WEBRiP.x264-DARKFLiX_track3_[eng]

I have experienced a fair amount
of the danger of Israel.

I've been there
when bombs have gone off,

I've been there
when a wedding was blown up,

I've been there
in the aftermath of a bus explosion.

And I've seen
some really ugly things.

I've never, ever seen

a rampage as brutal
and horrendous.

October 7th has defined
a new set of traumatic hurdles

that have to be overcome
in order to find a way forward.

The October 7th attacks

and the devastating war
they sparked in Gaza

have brutally reopened scars
from decades of conflict.

The Bible says that there is a time
for peace and a time for war.

This is a time for war.

Now, with lasting peace
as elusive as ever,

those at the highest level tell
the story of how, time and again,

they tried and failed
to end the deepening conflict,

as strained relationships
reached breaking point.

What Netanyahu did to
Vice President Biden was outrageous.

It was like the biggest slap
in the face.

I said, "If you're going to do this
next week, look at this face,

"this will be the last face you will
see of any Palestinian official."

We'll see how two decades
of failed negotiations

helped Hamas's power grow.

Ad we'll hear from their leader,

who was killed a month
after our interview.

In this episode, Donald Trump,
in his first term as President,

tries to make peace his way.

He wanted President Abbas
to be in the crime scene

both as a victim and a witness.

I had to ask, "What do we do
about Gaza?" The answer that I got -

"Sh! Don't talk about Gaza
or Hamas."

The whole Middle East changes.

And Netanyahu presents
his new Middle East.

Erasure of Palestine,
erasure of the Palestinian people.

Then...the 7th of October.

Believe me,
if I was 20 years younger,

I would have picked up an M16
and gone down to Gaza myself.

In July 2014,

Israel launched a major
aerial bombardment of Gaza

after a series
of Hamas rocket attacks.

Then they discovered Hamas militants
entering Israel through a tunnel.

A huge ground invasion followed.

Around 2,000 Palestinians
and 68 Israelis were killed,

before an uneasy ceasefire
was agreed.

With the threat
of another war ever present,

Hamas decided it was time
to try a bit of diplomacy.

I got messages back
through various people

that Hamas wanted
to write me a letter

and set out...

..potentially a change of position
for them.

I was in favour of encouraging that.

And whereas I understood
the narrative from the Israeli side

very well, it was important to hear

from all sides of
Palestinian politics.

To me, you get to the stage
where you need to actually sit

with the people
and look them in the face

and have that conversation
direct with them.

Morning.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair

was the Representative
of the Quartet,

a group set up
by the UN, EU, America and Russia

to mediate Middle East peace talks.

He travelled to Qatar to meet
the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.

I said to Khaled Meshaal that,
"You've got to stop activity

"that's going to give the Israelis
the sense that you are still

"utterly hostile to them." So, you
know, the building of the tunnels,

it's hard to see
what the purpose of that is

unless it's to be used for something
that's aimed at the Israelis.

My response was,
"Well, OK, but if you want

"to get to a different place,

"you've at least got to state
a broad outline of your position

"that allows us to say, 'Well, you
should be part of this negotiation

"'because you're now prepared to
accept what we're negotiating for.'"

Less than a year later,

the Israeli military
uncovered a new tunnel,

more than 40 metres deep,

going under the Gaza border
into Israeli territory.

People became really, really
obsessed with the tunnels,

and there was
a lot of thought around

how to neutralise the tunnels.

There was 14 Cabinet meetings
about the tunnels.

I know because
I prepared those papers.

14 meetings that the Cabinet talked
about the problem of the tunnels.

Netanyahu had a solution -

an underground barrier,
dozens of metres deep,

along the entire border with Gaza.

He'd need his Cabinet's approval

for a construction
costing up to a billion dollars.

Everybody were very enthusiastic
about it.

I... I was the exception.

I said, "This is... This is not
the main problem with Gaza.

"The main threat
is a massive eruption,

"massive guerrilla campaign
from Gaza into Israel,

"and they don't need the tunnels
for this."

Yuval definitely highlighted,
if we invest, if we over-invest

in technology that helps us
detect things underground,

they're just going to
come above the ground.

But the vast majority
of the security establishment

viewed the tunnels as the enemy

and that's what
the Security Cabinet approved.

The barrier would take four years
to be built.

The government cut the budgets
of health, education

and even security to fund it.

The Israelis had even more reason
to feel that their security

was well looked after.

They had a new ally -
the new American President,

one whom the Israeli Prime Minister
counted as a family friend.

Donald Trump came to office
promising that he would

quickly succeed where
his predecessors had failed.

So President Trump
is a deal junkie, right?

I worked for him for 20 years,
I've never seen anybody like him.

He's always heard in his life that
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

is sort of the Holy Grail,
if you will, of deals.

Although many people cautioned him
it was not achievable,

he didn't want to hear it.
He wanted to try to do it his way.

So I'm looking at two-state
and one-state,

and I like the one
that both parties like.

I'm very happy with the one
that both parties like.

Trump was unexpected.

No-one thought he would talk about
two states, one state.

"Let's solve it.

"Let's do business." This is
always... "Let's do business."

Why to go to bother
with all the details?

That's President Trump's way
of saying, "Let's figure it out.

"Whatever it's going to be,
the parties have to do it,

"they have to do it together."

If Trump was to get his deal,
he'd have to get Mahmoud Abbas -

the man recognised
by the international community

as the President
of all Palestinians.

President Trump really made sure

to make President Abbas
feel welcomed.

Usually, Presidents stop
a few metres away

until a Marine comes and opens.

No, President Trump
charged towards President Abbas.

I was still sitting in the car,

so I was looking at the face and
the body language of President Trump

and I could see how much
he was trying to welcome...

Extraordinary welcome
President Abbas.

We're going to have lunch,
we're going to have discussions,

and hopefully something terrific
can come out

between the Palestinians and Israel.

Thank you for being here.
Thank you.

President Abbas played his part
very, very well.

He was warm, he was friendly.

President Trump, I think,
almost viewed him as a statesman,

a grandfather figure, almost.

President Abbas presented
our logic,

our vision, which is two states,
a state of Palestine,

a state of Israel that is secured,

with good neighbourly relationship
with its neighbours,

and I remember President Abbas,

he showed President Trump
all the countries

that would recognise Israel.

And after all that discussion,

he invited the two delegations
to lunch.

TRUMP: Details...

And he looks at us and he said,

"Guys, guys,
you have a great President,

"you have a great President,
you have...a great President."

I could not believe
what I heard from him.

"I think you're going to make peace.
I think things will be OK."

Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat

had accompanied Palestinian
Presidents to the White House

for more than two decades.

This is the last interview he gave.

He was in poor health
and died only weeks later.

He said, you know, "I will give you
a year with Israelis.

"I will not do anything that may
pre-empt or pre-judge issues

"for President Abbas' negotiations,
but after a year,

"I will see the side
that's putting obstacles

"and then I will take action.

"The US is paying so much money
to this region

"and I'm not going to pay those who
are obstructing the peace process."

CAMERAS CLICK

Thank you. Thank you.

To deliver his deal,

Trump set up a small team
in the White House

headed by his son-in-law,
Jared Kushner.

Jared's view very much was,
"Go study this. What are the issues?

"What have been the parties'
positions over the years?

"I'm learning from everybody -

"State Department, National Security
Council, think-tanks."

It wasn't that long before I had to
ask the important question,

which is, OK, let's just say
we get Bibi Netanyahu

and Mahmoud Abbas and Donald Trump
in the room, and they all agree.

What do we do about Gaza,

the 2 million Palestinians
living in Gaza

who are subjugated by Hamas?
What do we do about Hamas?

The answer that I got - "Sh!

"Don't talk about Gaza or Hamas.

"Let's just figure out
the two-state solution,

"and then we'll figure out Gaza."

UNTRANSLATED SHOUTING

Hamas hoped the new American
President would change things.

No US administration had ever agreed
to talk to the group,

which had called
for the destruction of Israel

and the creation
of an Islamic Palestinian state.

The political wing of Hamas,
based in Qatar,

arranged a press conference

to announce it had re-written
its founding charter.

The original document
had been widely condemned

for using anti-Semitic language.

The press conference
was broadcast live into Gaza,

where Hamas's top brass
had gathered.

The new local leader, Yahya Sinwar,
brought his son to watch.

The 1967 borders was diplomatic
shorthand for a two-state solution.

It could imply that Hamas
was ready to move in this direction.

But the document made clear

that they were still committed
to armed resistance

and would not recognise Israel.

There is not a distinguish

between the military wing
and the political wing.

There is no moderate and not
moderate in terrorist organisation.

And they can speak very nice
in the TV and things like that.

But, basically, at night,

they're preparing missiles
to penetrate to Israel.

Trump ignored the Hamas relaunch.

He remained intent on a peace deal
between Netanyahu and Abbas

and decided that his first foreign
trip would be to the Middle East.

FANFARE

Only hours
after his arrival in Israel,

Trump visited one of
the most sacred sites for Jews

in occupied East Jerusalem,

which Palestinians claimed
as their capital in a future state.

The Western Wall
was a very controversial place.

You know, there had never been
a sitting President

who had visited the Western Wall.

The visit had been arranged by the
new US Ambassador, David Friedman,

Trump's lawyer and personal friend.

He was also a fervent supporter
of Israel

and believed that all of Jerusalem
should be its capital.

We insisted...
They said, "Look, this wall,

"this is the story of the Jewish
people and it's the story of Israel.

"If he's going to go anywhere, he's
going to go to the Western Wall."

President Trump understood that

something like that visual

can communicate more than any speech
could possibly give,

that this is a President
who is committed to Israel

and doing something important
for the country.

The Palestinian government
wasn't unduly worried.

They believed Trump had promised
that the status of Jerusalem

would only be settled in the deal
they were negotiating.

Six months later,
this would be put to the test.

During President Clinton's
presidency,

the Congress passed a law

requiring the President
to move the American Embassy

from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

But they also allowed
every President to sign a waiver

that would allow him not to move it.

And every President since
President Clinton signed the waiver.

On the campaign trail,
Trump had promised to change this

and recognise Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel.

With the deadline to sign the waiver
coming up,

David Friedman was determined to
make the President keep his promise.

To me, moving the embassy
was the most important thing.

There were a lot of people
in the State Department

and the Defense Department
who were against it.

So, Chief of Staff said to me,
"Look, if you want this done,

"you better stick around
because no-one else is going to

"fight for this the way you will."

Less than a week
before the deadline,

Trump called a meeting
in the White House Situation Room.

I'll tell you candidly,
I was a little bit nervous because,

you know, I am making a case that is
rife with national security issues.

There were a number of warnings
that there would be uprisings

in capitals all over the Arab world,

and that it could also lead to
our embassies being stormed

and diplomats being taken hostage.

Then the president said to me,

"David, how do you read
the situation?"

And I said to him, "Mr President,
why wouldn't you keep this promise?

"Because of the threats of who?
The Palestinians, Islamic Jihad?"

And I said,
"The whole world is watching.

"All the countries that are trying
to size you up to see,

"'Do you have the courage
of your convictions?"',

"they're going to see that you do
because of this move."

Trump's team called in
the Palestinian negotiators.

Mr Kushner had asked for a meeting

and I went to see him
in his office,

which was adjunct
to the Oval Office.

You could hear President Trump
in the background.

With him was Jason Greenblatt.

We knew it would be upsetting
to the Palestinians.

We had respect for them. We didn't
want them to be caught flat-footed.

Dr Saeb Erekat
asked Jared, you know,

"Signing the waiver to make sure
that the Embassy is not moved

"from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
is tomorrow," to which Jared said,

"OK, we're not so sure
if we are going to sign it or not."

I said, "Seriously?

"If you're going to do this
next week, look at this face,

"look at this face - this will be
the last face you will see

"and encounter
of any Palestinian official."

Erekat left Washington
and returned to the West Bank.

The next day, Trump asked
to speak directly to Abbas.

President Trump, of course, felt
the need to let President Abbas know

why he was moving the Embassy

and how it wasn't going,
in his mind,

to stop our efforts
to try to achieve peace.

So, they got President Abbas
on the phone.

He told him, "It's going to happen,

"but it's not going to affect
your position,

"it's not going to affect
your rights,

"it's not going to affect anything."
He said, "How...?

"If you're going to recognise
Jerusalem as its capital,

"how is it not going to affect
this? This is a pre-empting,

"I have an agreement with you.

"You told me that you will not
take any action, Mr President."

President Abbas
told President Trump,

"You promised us not to do it,

"and if you do it,
I cannot but disengage."

We were all listening in
on different extensions.

I think I was in the
National Security Advisor's office.

But the line went dead.

It seems there were issues
with the line

and our President was not really
interested to hear all the,

you know, "Wait with me,
I'm going to give you much more

"than what I gave Israel."

And I remember hearing President
Trump saying, "Hello? Mahmoud?

"Hello?" And nothing.
But I remember thinking,

"Did President Abbas hang up on
the President of the United States?"

President Abbas
immediately instructed us

not to have any contact
with the US administration

until further instruction.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

After the President announced
that we are moving the embassy

to Jerusalem,
Arab leaders around the region

had prepared for the worst,
but then, in fact, nothing happened.

There were no uprisings or chaos
or violence or bloodshed.

And that was an indication to us

that a new Middle East
was coming into existence.

And it was a Middle East
that was tired of the old conflict

between Arab nations and Israel.

But one place did erupt.

At the border with Israel,

protesters clashed
with Israeli forces

and dozens of Palestinians
were killed.

For weeks, Palestinians had been
demonstrating in what they called

the Great March of Return.

This was to remind the world
that millions of their people

had been made refugees
through decades of conflict.

They were also protesting
against Israel's blockade of Gaza

that was suffocating its economy.

The humanitarian crisis
was compounded

by the Palestinian Authority
restricting the money it supplied

for salaries and electricity
in Hamas-run Gaza.

Hamas turned to a Gulf state that
had been supporting them for years.

International bank transactions
to Gaza were impossible.

The easiest way to get the money in
was as cash,

carried in suitcases through Israel.

Surprisingly, Israel's Prime
Minister was happy to allow it.

In the summer of 2018,

Netanyahu called in his Cabinet
to ask them to endorse

what would be one of his
most controversial decisions.

Although we knew for sure that Hamas
is taking 20% or 30% of this money

in order to build rockets
and tunnels and things against us,

on the other hand, you cannot ignore

the 2 million people
that are sitting there.

Although they supported Hamas,
and most of them voted for Hamas,

there are many children also there.

You have to provide them
with minimal conditions.

The decision to funnel money
to Hamas

was a decision made in that spirit,
"Let's maintain the status quo."

The status quo was that
Hamas ruled in Gaza...

..and if we can give them
economic prosperity,

life will be better for them.

Therefore, they won't want
to kill us.

The deal remained secret

until this photo of the suitcases
filled with cash was published.

In the West Bank, the leadership
of Abbas's Fatah party

were in no doubt
about Netanyahu's motivations.

It didn't come as a surprise.

Of course,
the appearance was surprising

because we didn't expect, really,
a bag of cash to be carried,

but we knew that
there was Israeli support

and we knew that the... It was
in the Israeli strategic interest

to maintain the split
and to keep the two regimes.

With the help of the money
coming in from Qatar,

Hamas was building its popularity
with the people of Gaza.

And they were getting support
on the military front

from another very powerful ally.

The Supreme leader of Iran,
Ayatollah Khamenei,

invited a top-level delegation
of Hamas to Tehran.

General Qasem Soleimani
was in charge of military support

to Iran's proxies in the region.

Badran and his colleagues asked for
help building new rocket systems.

In the years ahead,
when Hamas needed military support,

its leaders knew
they could count on Tehran.

BRASS BAND PLAYS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It had been three years since
Trump had promised a peace deal

between the Palestinians and Israel.

Now, with America
entering an election year,

the President decided to announce
what he called

"the deal of the century."

A top Israeli delegation flew in,

but there were
no Palestinians in sight.

Today, Israel takes a big step
towards peace.

My vision presents a win-win
opportunity for both sides,

a realistic two-state solution

that resolves the risk
of Palestinian statehood

to Israel's security.

Israel is a light unto the world.

The document claimed that
Palestinians would be able

to achieve an independent state,
but only under stringent conditions.

It confirmed that Jerusalem would
remain Israel's undivided capital.

..they want peace
and they want peace badly.

It also talked about bringing
major international investment

into the West Bank and Gaza.

I watched on television,

as did the rest of my colleagues,

and it unfolded,
I think, exactly as we anticipated,

that it was the American President

delivering to
the Israeli Prime Minister.

I saw Netanyahu
in every word and every letter,

I was just seeing Netanyahu's face
popping out, peace for peace,

economic peace. There was nothing in
it about rights, not once, nothing.

"Israel should have
an overall security control

"over the entire territory
of historic Palestine,

"from the river to the sea.

"In exchange, we will just give
Palestinians some cash."

That's his logic.

And therefore, our main assessment
and decision

was just to reject it outright.

..recognise Israeli...

I had served as an adviser
on the Trump peace plan.

It was a plan that had probably
the best chances of success

that I'd seen.

By the way, it was
the only peace plan

in which Israel accepted
the idea of territorial swaps.

Swapping territory
was a key part of Trump's plan.

Israel would get
30% of the West Bank.

In exchange, the Palestinians would
receive a comparable amount of land

in the Israeli desert
far from the West Bank.

The details would have to be agreed
by both sides.

..should not be symbols
of conflict...

After President Trump
announced his vision,

Prime Minister Netanyahu got up
and announced his vision.

Exceptional peace plan,
Mr President.

And, unfortunately,
Prime Minister Netanyahu

described conditions that were
not captured in our vision.

Mr President...

Netanyahu took the proposal of
the land swaps as license to declare

that he would annexe huge swathes
of the West Bank.

Israel will apply its laws
to the Jordan Valley,

to all the Jewish communities
in Judea and Samaria

and to other areas that your plan
designates as part of Israel

and which the United States
has agreed to recognise

as part of Israel.

APPLAUSE

I like that.

President Trump was surprised
with the substance

and by the tone of the speech,

which was far more about
the sovereignty than about peace.

This decision will protect
Israel's security,

ensure Israel's national interest.

If Israel annexed land
without negotiating,

it could kill off any possibility
of a two-state solution.

President Abbas needed his allies
to stand with him publicly.

He requested an emergency meeting
of the Arab League.

Netanyahu's plans for the West Bank

were due to take effect
at the start of July.

Only few days before the deadline,

the Ambassador of one of the Gulf's
most important states

made an unexpected move.

Towards the very end of June,
Yousef Al Otaiba,

the Emirati Ambassador
to the United States,

approached the White House, saying,

"We are prepared to normalise
our relations with Israel

"if this step doesn't move forward."

And, you know, and he says,
"Look, you know,

"we've always wanted to find a way
to normalise with Israel.

"We also need to find a way

"to provide some something
for the Palestinians, some cover.

"So how about you give up
this idea of annexation

"and we will normalise?"

Normalising relations meant
recognising Israel as a state.

It was something most Arab countries
had always refused to do

unless the Palestinians
got a state of their own.

In fact, Israel and the UAE

had been working for years
on normalisation, in total secrecy.

Back in 2006, Israel had opened
an undercover mission in Dubai.

The authorities there knew about us.

It was by their consent.
They said to us,

"We will host you, but you cannot
say that you are Israeli."

We were trained like...not robots,
but, "No. No talking about it.

"No-one else, no friends, no...
Of course, no media."

Here we are building
the infrastructure for the peace

in the future, Inshallah.

When we spoke about peace,

the authorities
were not shy of telling us,

"Listen, you have to have
the Palestinian issue being solved.

"It will enable us
to go for full normalisation."

The cancelling
of Netanyahu's annexations

could be a step
in the right direction.

And the Emirates had another reason

to push for normalisation
with Israel.

They'd been lobbying Trump's team

to get America's
state-of-the-art F-35 jets.

US law stated that no enemy
of Israel in the Middle East

could buy the latest
American weapons.

Normalisation would help
get round that.

Jared Kushner told me that
he had had meetings

with senior Emirati officials.

They were very interested in F-35s.
And he said,

"The Emiratis are thinking about
normalising relations with Israel.

"What do we have to do
in order to sell F-35s to the UAE?"

A deal to sell the F-35s
was agreed within a couple of weeks,

subject to normalisation
going ahead.

But the Israelis
still hadn't committed

to their part of the bargain.

The Emiratis wanted
this application of Israeli law,

what is often called annexation,

permanently to be taken off
the table.

We were not willing to do that.

I was looking at a thesaurus,
you know, for different words that,

you know, that would mean
putting something off.

I'm looking for a word
that makes clear

that it's temporary
versus permanent.

You know, we came upon
the word suspend.

You can suspend something for a day,
for a week, for a month, for a year,

or for a longer period. And we could
both say full-throatedly

that it has been suspended,

and the question of how long
is a separate question.

The normalisation would be
signed off in a phone call

between Trump, Netanyahu
and the Emirates' Crown Prince

Mohammed bin Zayed.

Only minutes before the call, they
decided to give a name to the deal.

As soon as the phone call was over,
we let the press in,

and the first thing
the President did was to say,

"Well, let me explain to you,
you know,

why it's called
the Abraham Accords,"

and says,
"David, why don't you explain?"

David. Thank you, Mr President.
Abraham, as many of you know,

was the father
of all three great faiths.

He's referred to as Abraham
in the Christian faith,

Ibrahim in the Muslim faith
and Avraham in the Jewish faith.

I wanted it to be called
the Donald J Trump Accord...

LAUGHTER

..but I didn't think

the press would understand that,
so I didn't do that.

The Abraham Accords were officially
signed a month later,

with Bahrain also a signatory.

Netanyahu suspended
the annexations in the West Bank,

although Israeli settlements
continued to be built there.

As for the F-35 jets,

they were never mentioned publicly
as part of the deal.

I mean, it was a momentous occasion
in one sense, and, of course,

because the Palestinians
were not supportive of it,

there was, in a sense,
an empty chair in the room.

The Palestinian Authority basically
opposed the Abraham Accords.

APPLAUSE

After several weeks
of negotiations,

Abbas's Fatah party and Hamas
finally said

they would hold parliamentary
and presidential elections.

Hamas agreed not to run a candidate
for the Presidency,

leaving Abbas unopposed
after 16 years in office.

Three weeks before
the parliamentary elections,

the opinion polls
were looking bleak for Abbas.

Even members of his own party

were now running against
his chosen candidates.

Abbas decided he had to act.

Abbas said the reason
for postponing the elections

was that Israel had failed
to confirm

it would allow voting to take place
in East Jerusalem.

Abbas cancelling the elections

meant the deal with Hamas
was off the table and, with it,

hopes to bring the militant group
into the political fold.

That year, Ramadan and Passover
came at the same time.

Fighting broke out,
as both Jews and Muslims

gathered in the narrow streets
of East Jerusalem.

Tensions came to a head

when Israeli police
raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque,

the holiest place in Jerusalem
for Muslims,

only metres away
from the Western Wall.

From Gaza, Hamas's military wing,

the Qassam Brigades,
decided to intervene.

When you launch a missile
through Jerusalem in order to say,

"I'm the man,
I will call the shots over here,"

it's not a good idea
to mess with a state like Israel.

You are trying to cause damages
to civilians.

There is consequence to that.

Israel used all the might
of its air force to target Hamas

and other militant groups in Gaza
in an 11-day bombing campaign

they called Guardian of the Walls.

This time, Hamas found support
far beyond Gaza.

Rockets were fired
from Syria and Lebanon.

There were violent protests
in the West Bank,

and Arab citizens of Israel
clashed with security forces.

The Al-Aqsa Flood

would be the name that Hamas chose
for the 7th of October attacks.

But for the Israelis,

the Guardian of the Walls
was their victory.

The operation
was Netanyahu's parting shot.

CHEERING

Israel had just held
its fourth election in two years,

but this time,
after more than a decade in office,

Netanyahu was unable
to form a government.

It was up to a new Prime Minister,
Naftali Bennett,

to decide whether the operation
had been enough to contain Hamas.

The military explained to the
incoming National Security Cabinet

the result
of the Guardian of the Wall -

that there was no penetration
into Israel.

The underground barrier,
which Israel has built for years

before that, performed
remarkably well.

There was a good feeling
that, "We got it covered."

But Hamas was still holding
the bodies of two Israeli soldiers

killed in the 2014 war.

They had also taken
two civilian hostages.

Prime Minister Bennett
wanted them back.

This is an ethos
our soldiers need to know,

and the families of the soldiers
need to know,

that when we send them to combat,
we will get them back - in any way.

And the families need to know that

we will treat
civilian lives seriously.

Negotiations over the hostages
were being held with Yahya Sinwar,

the head of Hamas in Gaza.

He had been released
from Israeli prison a decade earlier

in a deal that saw
over a thousand Palestinians freed

for one Israeli soldier,
Gilad Shalit.

Now, he was demanding
another spectacular exchange.

I remember the convening
of the group of ministers

dealing with that
in the summer of '21.

It was very clear on the table
that there was no way

we're going to give in
to the Hamas demands

to release an obscene amount
of prisoners

with blood on their hands.
Our objective was

to lower the price, so to speak.

We have a lot of elderly
and sick prisoners.

Hamas made no secret
of its ambitions,

posting on social media
videos of hostage-taking drills.

But the Israelis
had their vast security fence

above and below ground, stretching
along the entire border with Gaza.

And behind the scenes, Israel
was working on an audacious plan

that they thought would give them
even better protection.

They were trying to normalise
relations with Saudi Arabia,

the most powerful country
in the region.

For this, they needed the help
of the new US President.

But they'd have to wait
for their chance.

During his campaign, Joe Biden had
called Saudi Arabia a pariah state.

Now, under pressure to deal
with rising oil prices,

he finally decided to visit.

He stopped in Israel first, where he
had something of a dress rehearsal

for his arrival in Saudi Arabia.

We were standing on the red carpet,
it is hot as hell.

What moron decided that it was a
good idea to do an arrival ceremony

at Ben Gurion Airport
in the mid-afternoon,

in the middle of summer?
That'd probably be me.

The President came down.
And as he was walking down,

he started fist-bumping all of us
down the greeting party.

There was lots of anxiety

about the handshake that would come
48 hours later in Saudi Arabia.

Biden was reluctant to shake hands
with Saudi royals

he held responsible for
shocking human rights violations.

He tried out a new form of greeting
on the Israelis.

What they wanted to show is that
he was doing fist bumps in Israel

and they were going to do fist bumps
in Saudi Arabia.

We understood that there is
an opportunity to use that visit

to create arrangements
or agreements that are trilateral -

American, Saudi and Israelis.

We knew that at that time,

reaching the full normalisation was
premature, but we wanted something

that was very tangible
and meaningful and symbolic.

As a starting point, Israel
wanted permission for its aircraft

to fly over Saudi territory.

BIDEN: Had a good series of meetings
with the Crown Prince

and basically
the entire Saudi government.

We've accomplished
some significant business.

First, Saudi airspace is now open
to flights to and from Israel.

This is the first tangible step
in the path of what I hope

will eventually be a broader
normalisation of relations.

Six months later,
Netanyahu returned to power.

He did so by forming
the most right-wing government

in Israel's history.

One of its first acts
was to push for a judicial reform

that would give him greater control
of the Supreme Court.

Massive protests erupted across
the country and went on for months.

Thousands of army reservists even
threatened not to report for duty

if called on.

Despite the turmoil,

Netanyahu remained intent on signing
a peace deal with Saudi Arabia.

Nine months into office,
he travelled to New York

for the annual UN General Assembly.

As the world leaders gathered,
a US news crew was in Saudi Arabia

interviewing the Crown Prince,
Mohammed Bin Salman.

For the first time, he talked
publicly about an imminent deal

to normalise relations with Israel.

Now, we don't have
a relation with Israel,

but if Biden administration
succeeded to make,

I believe, the biggest historical
deal since the end of the Cold War,

then we're going to start
a relationship.

Literally up until October 6,

there was a grand strategic play

that we were putting together
for the Middle East.

Part of it was that
there would be a suite

of US-Saudi bilateral agreements,
the mutual defence treaty,

something on a civilian
nuclear programme for Saudi Arabia.

And in exchange for that,
or adjacent to that,

the Saudis were willing to normalise
relations with Israel.

And the Americans
forced them to say,

"No, you have to ask also

"for some solution
for the Palestinian problem."

They didn't want to add it.

So, they added something
that was very vague.

We have... Good negotiations
continue until now.

We're going to see where it will go.
We hope that it will reach a place

that will ease the life
of the Palestinians

and get Israel as a player
in the Middle East.

The Saudis weren't asking
for any commitments or changes

on a specific timeline.

And, in fact, they even understood

that the structure of what could be
a viable Palestinian state

in the West Bank or Gaza
didn't yet exist at that time.

I have great pleasure in welcoming
His Excellency Benjamin Netanyahu,

Prime Minister of
the State of Israel.

I invite him to address
the Assembly.

I've long sought to make peace
with the Palestinians.

But I also believe that we must not
give the Palestinians a veto

over new peace treaties
with Arab states.

Look at what happens
when we make peace

between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The whole Middle East changes.

We tear down the walls of enmity.

We bring the possibility

of prosperity and peace
to this entire region.

Netanyahu's map made no reference
to the Palestinians at all.

He stood on that podium
and basically told the whole world,

"This is the map.
These are my plans.

"This is the new Middle East."

Erasure of Palestine,
erasure of the Palestinian people.

UNTRANSLATED SHOUTING

Netanyahu's speech came at
an especially fraught time.

Since the beginning of the year,

Palestinians and Israelis
in the West Bank

had been engaged in
increasingly deadly clashes...

..the worst for 20 years.

I was probably meeting
with my Israeli counterparts

more than any other partner
that I had

in my entire Middle East portfolio.

So the first thing that happens
is an exchange of views

on what we would call
the threat environment.

It starts with Iran,
goes to Hezbollah,

then the militias in Iraq
and Syria.

Very, very rarely was Hamas making
a top five of concerns

about risks to Israel's security.

It took me hours
to understand what's going on.

Our people, our civilians,
that we have a contract with them,

we failed.
We - I'm saying the government,

the IDF, the Shabak, everyone -

we failed to protect them.

October 7th is now a new demarcation

for beginning to talk about what's
possible, what's not possible,

how do you begin
to change the dynamic?

It's not that
it makes it impossible,

but it raises the bar.

If you don't have a just and fair
solution for the Palestinian issue,

that source of disagreement
and conflict will remain.

Whether it does happen or not
depends on the leadership.