US President Joe Biden gave an interview to Yonit Levy on Channel 12, in which he pledged that Iran would not go nuclear on his watch, explained why an agreement with Iran is necessary - despite Israeli opposition, and clarified what the future will look like between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
In the interview, Biden addressed the possibility of running head-to-head with Donald Trump again in 2024, attacked the anti-Israel voices in the Democratic Party, and said: "I can work with any Israeli prime minister who is elected.".
""It's a little bit like coming home," Biden said of his current visit to Israel. "I know it sounds strange, but that's how it is. I grew up with a devout Christian father, as my Jewish friends call him. He would come home for dinner before he closed the store and then we would talk. He used to talk about how terrible what happened to the Jews in Europe and why we didn't bomb the railroads and why we didn't... the concentration camps and so on. I also have a relationship with the Jewish community in my country, a very close relationship, since I was 20.".
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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 a nuclear-armed Iran, and if we can go back to the agreement and 'hold them short'... I think the previous president made a huge mistake when he left the agreement, Iran is closer now to developing nuclear weapons than it was before.".
'"It has nothing to do with whether or not the 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 went to the negotiating table, we drafted an agreement, we offered it, and now it's up to Iran." Biden emphasized that "Iran must not have nuclear weapons.".
The American 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 kinds of things, makes sense to me.".
Biden was asked whether his relationship with Netanyahu would be strained if the latter were re-elected as prime minister.
'"'Israel is a democratic country. We are committed to the country, not to a specific leader,'' Biden replied. ''Just as Israel is our ally and not committed to a specific president, it is committed to the country, to the United States. Bibi and I have known each other for almost 40 years. And we know what we agree on, what we disagree on, we don't hide it. But I am working with a democratic country that is in the process of choosing a leader, whoever it may be, that I will work with.".
When asked if he intends to run for another term in 2024, President Biden replied: "There's no way to predict what will happen. I'm not even halfway through my term yet. There's still a lot of room to decide what's going to happen. But I hope that the Republican Party will return to a normal position, and not remain the 'MAGA' party that it has become in many ways.
""I'll summarize and say that I ran last time for three reasons. I really didn't intend to run, until I saw the people marching in Virginia, in Charlottesville, carrying torches and Nazi flags, singing the same anti-Semitic poison that they sang in the 1930s in Germany. My family and I sat together, and they thought I should run in the election.
""I took a chance and said, 'I'm running for three reasons.' No one in my campaign has agreed yet... Number one - to restore the soul of America, and to return to who we are as a nation, in the way we talk to each other, in 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 class has a chance to advance, and the rich stay rich... And the third reason is to unite the country. I haven't completed the third part yet, that's what I'm trying to do.".
