In an about-face, the Israeli diplomatic press corps traveling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the U.S. next week will be allowed to return with him to Israel on his plane despite the proximity of the return flight to Yom Kippur.
The decision, announced by the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday, defused a crisis with journalists who had threatened to boycott the premier’s American trip over an earlier decision not to allow them to travel back to Israel on the same plane because of his rush to get back home ahead of the fast day.
Netanyahu is scheduled to depart for the U.S. on Sunday evening, immediately after the end of Rosh Hashanah, and land in San Francisco the following day.
He is expected to visit Silicon Valley for a tour of the tech industry and meet with Elon Musk, the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter.
The prime minister will then fly to New York late Tuesday, where he will deliver an address to the U.N. General Assembly on the morning of Friday, Sept. 22.
Netanyahu will hold his long-anticipated meeting with President Joe Biden in New York, on the sidelines of the annual U.N. general debate. While in the city, he is slated to meet with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well.
Netanyahu will spend Shabbat in New York and leave for Israel on Saturday night, landing in Israel on Sunday afternoon, a few hours before the start of Yom Kippur.
