Netanyahu and Erdogan meeting
On what is known as the sidelines of the United Nations Assembly, tonight at midnight (Israel time) there will be a clearly non-sideline meeting: Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is the second meeting of the two in the last 15 years. The two were supposed to meet about two months ago in Istanbul , but due to Netanyahu’s hospitalization in the hospital, the meeting was postponed. At the time, Erdogan’s office announced that the two are expected to discuss “the bilateral relations between the countries in all their dimensions, and steps to improve cooperation.”
The meeting between Netanyahu and Erdogan comes after, in their telephone conversation with the Prime Minister’s victory in the elections, the two agreed on “establishing a new era in relations between Israel and Turkey.” This conversation was particularly groundbreaking, and this is because Erdogan doubted that Netanyahu would continue the reconciliation process carved out by President Yitzhak Herzog and former prime minister Lapid continued, when the Bennett-Lapid government announced a renewed normalization of relations.
Since then, not only has Netanyahu sought to follow the same path, but to a large extent he has also “courted” Erdogan, partly due to the fact that other political meetings he wanted did not materialize.
Netanyahu and Zelensky meeting
For the first time since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine a year and a half ago, an Israeli Prime Minister will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a meeting that is expected to be charged.
Netanyahu, let’s remember, is the only Western leader in the world (other than Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban) who has not yet come to Kiev. The reason: careful conduct and balance of interests vis-a-vis the Kremlin.
The Jewish Zelensky has a series of expectations and requests from Israel, which until now have been met with refusal. In the center: receiving defense systems and technologies to intercept Iranian drones. To date, Israel has agreed to send only passive defense equipment to Ukraine, and recently the transfer of the “red color” system was also approved.
Zelensky’s criticism of the lack of support from Israel did not remain vague. He made sure to transfer her time and time again on numerous occasions. In the last visit of Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, he compared the war between Russia and Ukraine to the battle between Goliath and David and said: “Ukraine has not yet received David’s slingshot from Israel.”
Recently, the tension in the relationship between Ukraine and Israel even worsened when senior officials in Zelensky’s office refused to accept calls from diplomatic officials from Israel, in protest of the cold attitude coming from Jerusalem.
Moreover, in Ukraine they are outraged at the treatment received by Ukrainian immigrants who arrive in Israel – and have even threatened to cancel the visa agreement between the countries. The Ukrainian embassy claimed that “the Israeli government mistreats Ukrainian citizens.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Yavhan Kornichok, explained that his country sees the Israeli conduct as good coercion. He said that it would be unthinkable that Ukraine would go out of its way to host tens of thousands of Israelis in Uman under a high security risk and with a real logistical effort, when on the other hand – Israel “mistreats” Ukrainian citizens who come to Israel as part of the agreement between the two countries.