Day 788 - PM invited to White House for unprecedented fifth time
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receives his fifth invitation to visit US President Donald Trump at the White House, discusses Berman, an important opportunity given the Gaza ceasefire that is stuck in its first phase.
Berman notes that Trump wants to further Israel's security agreements with Syria, where there were clashes last week between IDF troops and Islamist Syrians. He says that conversation will be the centerpiece of the Trump-Netanyahu meetup, if it takes place.
After the US signed major agreements with Saudi Arabia during the recent White House meeting between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Berman notes that Trump's focus is on other conflicts right now, and not necessarily on Israel and Saudi relations.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Trump speaks to Netanyahu, invites him to visit, warns Israel not to ‘interfere’ in Syria
As Trump and Saudi prince heat up ties, Israel normalization left out in the cold
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IMAGE: President Donald Trump talks with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's Daily Briefing. It is Tuesday, December 2nd, and I'm Jessica Steinberg. |
| 0:09.6 | Before we get started today, I just want to mention DocuNation, our series of Israeli documentary films that could be watched from home with English subtitles. |
| 0:19.4 | After each film, you can ask questions directly to the |
| 0:22.3 | filmmakers in exclusive Q&A webinars that we host. It's available to members of our reader's |
| 0:29.0 | support group, the Times Visual community. For more info, you just need to go to timesavisual.com |
| 0:35.4 | slash films. That's timesavisual.com slash films. Okay, back to today's |
| 0:40.7 | podcast. I'm seeking today with diplomatic correspondent, Laser Berman. Hey, Laser, good morning. |
| 0:46.6 | Good morning, Jessica. Good morning to our viewers around the world. Good morning to our viewers and |
| 0:51.9 | listeners. It is day 78 of the war. Just some quick headlines. |
| 0:58.1 | Two soldiers were stabbed and lightly hurt by an 18-year-old assailant in the West Bank, |
| 1:03.6 | and he was shot dead by them. Last night, a 17-year-old Palestinian assailant was killed by IDF troops in a pursuit after he rammed a soldier in an attack earlier in the day. |
| 1:15.7 | We will move away from those headlines and discuss matters on the diplomatic front, including U.S. |
| 1:22.8 | President Donald Trump's phone conversation yesterday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as |
| 1:29.1 | Trump's push not talked about in the phone call, but ladies and we're going to tell us more about |
| 1:33.1 | that. Trump's push for a security pact between Israel and Syria. And we will also talk about |
| 1:38.8 | Saudi Arabia-US ties and what that means for Israel. So stay with us. |
| 1:58.0 | Okay, so Laser, I guess what I was wondering as I was reading over your various reports about the conversation between Trump and Netanyahu was, |
| 2:01.5 | was this phone conversation expected and the invitation to Netanyahu to come to the U.S. |
| 2:08.3 | for another visit at the end of the month? |
| 2:10.6 | So phone conversations between Trump and Netanyahu are fairly regular. |
| 2:14.8 | So in general, it's no great surprise, but there was no indication that this |
| 2:18.8 | particular conversation was about to happen. Now, in terms of the invitation, on one hand, |
... |
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