>> from our studios in new york, this is "charlie rose." charlie: we begin this evening with vice president joe biden's decision not to run for president. he made the announcement from the white house rose garden earlier today. said he is out of time to launch a campaign of promised to play a role in the race. not be ai will candidate, i will not be silent. clearly to speak out influence as much as i can where we stand as a party and where we

need to go as a nation. this is what i believe. i believe that president obama has led this nation from crisis to recovery and we are now on the cusp of resurgence. i am proud to have played a part in that. this party, our nation will be making a tragic mistake if we walk away or attempt to undo the obama legacy. the news ends speculation about his presidential run. joining me from washington is heleal hunt. in new york, mao cap are in an halperinemann -- mark an john heilemann. i am pleased to have all of them. this tell me why he did

and what factors contributed to the decision. mark: you had hillary clinton building up fundraising, joe biden torn about whether he wanted to run for president anyway, and the death of his son a few months ago. the filing deadline is coming up. the vice president has been dealing with his grief. all of that caused him to delay his decision until now. had to be decision time for anybody. the clock ran out and he said today what our sources are preparedhe family was to say, we are strong enough to do this but he did not accept his advisor's critique that there was time to mount a credible campaign while being vice president in taking care of his family, raising money, campaigning. charlie: should he have

accepted that critique? i think that he made the right decision politically. the people i talked to who would dealing with him said, he was himself stronger than he had been hints his son's death. to him. had returned i think politically, hillary , theyn and bernie sanders have tens of thousands -- millions -- of people around the country excited about the prospect of fair being president. strengths joe biden's , i don't think there are tens of millions of americans excited about abiding candidacy -- a joe biden candidacy. add?ie: you would

john: i think there was momentum for a while. you have a unique situation for biden. he has been running for something since 1972. that is all he knows how to do. confronting a future in which he is no longer doing what is his natural mode of being was difficult. --und the cold air thing colbert thing, people were calling him saying, you should run. voters, strategists, voters. i don't think joe biden had had that happen before. it is easy for politicians when they get all of that in coming to think, this is my moment. the country is calling out for me to do this. the truth is, we did focus

groups for our show, we talked to democrats, the voters looked and said, that guy doesn't seem emotionally ready to run for president. i am sure that information reached joe biden. more generally, he came to his senses that this was not a national calling for him to get into the race. at the same time, they were people around him who at that moment when all of that was happening, hillary's trajectory seemed to be getting worse and worse. her poll numbers were sinking of people were saying, this is coming to you. just keep waiting. in the last few weeks, that changed with kevin mccarthy's comments in the benghazi hearings looking more favorable, her performance, other things in

the atmosphere, the moment when he starts to doubt of the country is calling for him and the dynamics no longer seemed favorable and then he goes back to his heart and he was never fully there. possible still that if something happens to secretary clinton's campaign, whether it is an e-mail that nobody knows about that implodes her candidacy, that he would get back in? al: it would have to happen very soon. it is very unlikely. voters who elect delegates -- i think all of this back-and-forth ,nd this tick-tock occurred there was a discussion with top advisers late yesterday afternoon who were pretty convinced he was not going to run. it was not final until he talked with his family. the overarching question here

was something that maybe even joe biden to not fully, fully know all along, which was you cannot run for president as a catharsis, to somehow shed your grief. , painful thing to go through. it is not fun. people think it is fun. it is not. for joe biden, to have done that, almost from the beginning was not going to happen. i don't think he fully realized that for a while. i think that is more important than the polls for the fundraising or the other stuff. charlie: he very much wanted to be president. he thinks he would be a better candidate, better president, thinks that his partnership with obama has made him more ready then he felt he was before.

of what he said coda was to try to put a on saying, here is my vision. -- the much wants highest office he is likely to achieve now it's vice president of the united states. he is trying to find a way to make peace with that. charlie: let's imagine that he had run, what would be the differences with hillary clinton? always a big question. on foreign policy, he was more ve-ish, on economics and most domestic policy, they are not very far apart and that was one of the problems in trying to think of what the path would be. there is not an ideological

difference that is dramatic unlike clinton and sanders. it would have been a campaign based more on, i am a more authentic voice for the middle .lass is th it would have been a contrast rather than one based on issues. part of the argument on the argument all along was that we are in this moment right now when you can see it on the republican side, a mirror image with the interest in donald trump and ben carson, this authenticity is priced. that is the argument that biden would have been implicitly making. charlie: issues that he believes in about the middle class -- mark: from scranton in the guy who writes the amtrak train and

has the common touch and the ability to speak for working-class voters in a way that few politicians do, he would have -- that would have been the pitch. much more of a temperamental thing. that would had not been the thing. charlie: what did barack obama want? al: i think he probably would have voted for joe biden if he had voted in a contest but i think he is probably not displeased with the outcome. he knew it would be difficult for joe biden to win. it might make it harder for hillary clinton to secede him. him.cedde hillary clinton will be

campaigning with joe biden and i think the vice president worries about what life will be like outside of politics which he has been in for 43 years. -- i don'twill be think revered -- but certainly a highly respected figure, there will be a role for him to play. turning to hillary clinton, the testimony is tomorrow. issue? now less of an substantially less. goods, youneed the need to have the country pay attention to what you want to say. it is not clear to me that the republicans will be her match on any level and i think they have set the table in a way not just because of the comments i've -- comments of kevin mccarthy.

i thought they were in a good place a few months ago. others suggested that they were not. it is clear to me now that they are going to have to struggle to hearing, an effective even as a matter of oversight. charlie: my theory is that the e-mails might unload something else. the benghazi investigation, there have been investigations elsewhere, it has been investigated pretty carefully for many years. there was new information and new e-mails from the ambassador, some new things to dig into, but largely the matter has been litigated. the new and potentially damaging thing as a relates to the

e-mails is that the committee took a sharp turn when the e-mail scandal are routed that is suddenly seized on that and a pretty overtly political way. when she gave a good debate performance in las vegas, people pointed out that part of the reason she did well is that she has done this a lot of times before. she had been in debates with barack obama and experience helps on the stage. it is the same thing for this committee hearing. she has been her front of a lot of congressional committees. she has been interrogated before many times. she has the background of having done this against the very people republican -- very able republican opponents. it is almost inevitably -- she is going to be better than the republican house members who were against her because she has

been dealing with this issue for a very long time. she knows what she knows and she knows how to make the argument. charlie: is there any talk as to what might be on the e-mails that were deleted? there is a lot of talk, charlie. whether it goes beyond that is another matter. i cannot help but contrast this with the hearings held by your fellow north carolinian, sam ervin. that was a much tougher time. that was much more perilous. it was bipartisan from the beginning. trey gowdy was never the right person to do this but it never should have been done here in congressional hearing on libya would be very legitimate but a hearing on the tragedy of four americans being killed was bound to be partisan. 1983, 241 marines were blown

out of the barracks in beirut. they were not hearings. this never should have taken place. charlie: the notion has set in that donald trump could win -- you are looking at me like that is the dumbest thing i have never said -- john: no, no, no -- summer in which the establishing media was in denial about him being the nominee, now he is widely --epted -- not universally that he is leading every national poll, that he is a viable candidate and at this moment, the most likely nominee. he is building an organization, he has the money, all of those things. he is a real candidate. i don't think anybody thinks he is better than a 50-50 shot that nobody has a better shot than

him but to go back to your earlier question, ben carson is in iowa a more natural fit for the iowa electorate the donald trump partly because his evangelical credentials are legitimate. there are questions about trump. maybe this poll is the beginning of a trend in that direction. becomes newstion hampshire, is there an establishment candidate that can be donald trump? southwere to win carolina, he might be unstoppable. if you lose the first two , does he go on after that? i don't know. many people have some doubt about if he starts losing, whether he has staying power. charlie: we will be right back, stay with us. ♪ charlie: seth meyers and it is

run on saturday night live after 13 years on that program. each oak over as host of late-night in february 2014. he is the fourth person to helm the show following letterman, o'brien, and fallon.

the austins, which he cocreated, is airing his third season. i'm pleased to have set meyers at table. welcome. let's talk about the animated series. do you get some satisfaction out of being a creator? >> i get a great amount of satisfaction from being a creator. my cocreator is a producer on .he night there are so many places you can do programming. >> he has been huge beneficiaries with the things we want to do.

i very lucky to have a show on a network where you can reach out into more homes but in this day and age, you can do the ship in -- bottle programming that is there something to note about what is happening at cbs? whether it is joe biden? >> one of the ways you bring your dna as a hostess who you want to book. that is something that joan -- we were very lucky to have him on our first show. for us, in the same way that it appeals to stephen, not just politicians but i have enjoyed having authors on. i found authors to be really interesting storytellers. charlie: people who have picked up on that said, where are the

shows that care about books? you have gotten on that list. it is nice to use the platform to have people who would not be guests anywhere else. charlie: how has it changed since he began? seth: we made the choice to start the show behind the desk. that was one of the bigger changes we made. instinct?as that your seth: i learned a lot of skills at snl. we were just talking about ways -- even though these are year-round shows you think of fall as the new season. we wanted to shake up the way we present ourselves. one thing i had always felt was that when i was doing a monologue, i was the warm-up comedian for my own show another show starts when it starts. charlie: do you see the audience before the show? seth: more than anything else,

to make them feel more comfortable, that is when i get a sense of what the house is like. it varies from night tonight. it's funny. because we don't have any windows, i don't know the weather -- charlie: he always have one or two people who might not expect are loud or enthusiastic, the crowd will be more enthusiastic than normal. in enthusiastic crowd gives you a little bit more license to have fun in those moments between the jokes. if you have a longtail of laughter, that is when you can go off script. any other changes? gettingstly just better. a lot of the staff we hired, it was their first job in television.

we liked that idea. it is nice to hire people that don't know how to do these things and you can teach them the way you want to teach them. have all just, everybody has gotten better. the luxury of these shows is that you do one every night, so your learning curve is a lot faster. it is the best. charlie: i can't imagine people who do something like once or twice year. if it goes wrong, if it is not perfect, there is tomorrow. seth: you can be less precious about it. when people are watching you later tonight, they want to see somebody who is comfortable when jokes are going well and badly. one of the things i had to hammer out of myself was just not to sweat a bad joke, not to sweat a bad piece of comedy. you know as much as you know and then doing it, it is so funny

how you theorize about what it is like to do a late-night show but until you actually get out there, you don't realize how it actually is processed. charlie: do you watch other shows? seth: only stuff they gets picked of virally the next day with. when people start, i am always curious about their shows. i was excited for stephen and trevor. in and we arets actually put together a show, you have a ton of time. charlie: you have any regret about leaving snl? seth: no. charlie: even though it was an institution and you followed a remarkable group of people. seth: the nice thing was, doing weekend update, i followed remarkable people. i at least knew that it was possible and one of the ways it was possible as you try to think too hard about the footsteps you are following. leave, but isad to

was also reaching the point where i was the oldest guy in the room. i don't think you can do both. it is full-time. if anything, i wish i had more time to work on my show. charlie: but would you do with wartime? -- what would you do with more time? orh: you always want to more hours. whether it is a story that is breaking that day, just the logistics of pulling together the clips are the graphics -- charlie: do you spend more time thing about the monologue or the i spendws iago seth: the most matter of time taking of other written comedy in the first act of the show in that being the stuff that is day-of. charlie: carson did that, everybody. seth: that is -- right.

for us, oneecially of the most important things about our show and we are so locked to be following jimmy fallon, we want to -- >> he is doing all right -- >> he is fantastic. you want to say, stick around for this. tot was one of the reasons move buying the task. us, jimmy was doing a fantastic monologue. you can understand somebody walk out and stand in front of a curtain, it seems to some degree like a repeat; making it look different was important. charlie: but what makes jimmy jimmy is not the monologue [indiscernible] it is the seth: i think he has a breath of talent that has not .een -- is not conventional he can do all of these different things. he does a wonderful monologue but what elevates and about of everybody else if that he can do impressions and he can sing and he can dance and he can -- you know -- he is a wonderful, group -- comic performer. cordon james

charlie: -- [indiscernible] seth: james and i are friends. we are both happy that we are trying not to do the same show. we are giving people choices. charlie: how would you define the choices? obviously, james is talented at so many things but i am not even in the zip code on, it he is a tony award-winning performer who -- charlie: a very good actor. seth: a skill set that i am th insanely jealous of. with our first act, the hope is, this might be a nice way for you to catch up on the day. i have voice been drawn to news and i think coming from that weekend update -- of the: you were ahead snl writers, so you understand stand up comedy, skid comedy,

jokes, is that a learned skill or is that something that is mostly you are funny or you are not funny? seth: like any talent, you have to refine it. who is think anybody poor and has the equal opportunity to be an nfl quarterback, you need to -- i met ray lewis and i -- charlie: a good linebacker if he worked hard. seth: if i work just as hard -- [indiscernible] charlie: you are lucky for that. seth: the funny thing about comedy is, i have been writing it for my entire professional life and we are into the second decade of doing it. to some degree, you are constantly blown away by how little you still know, like how wrong you can be with a piece of comedy. you bring out a joke that you are sure is going to work in a

can strike out -- charlie: every charlie: does that happen every night? it is most likely something you thought would work did not work. or the other way. seth: that is, i think, what is the flame that draws us comedy writers as moths to it. the idea is -- you never crack it completely. you always try to get better and better. charlie: and you get better and better by doing it? seth: again, at some point, you cannot be influenced by things as much as you were when you were young. i was very lucky that my parents introduce me to monty python, snl, to richard priors. charlie: they like those groups? seth: they did not wait until it was age-appropriate to introduce it to u s. charlie: because they enjoy comedy. seth: they enjoy comedy. i have said this before, but my mother is a very beautiful woman. my dad is a funny man.

my brother and i -- learned at an early age. charlie: a beautiful woman is attracted to a funny man. seth: you can try to be funny. charlie: you will be less handsome as you get older but you will not get less funny. be veryd guys can funny. they are probably the funniest. charlie: did you go to amsterdam after college? seth: i did. charlie: this is amsterdam, new york? seth: no. the original amsterdam. some guys from chicago went over to amsterdam. they started a second city of amsterdam called boom chicago. they were chicago guys. they would have auditions and chicago. right after i graduated from college, i saw an audition notice. and i did not even have a passport and i lived in holland for two years. charlie: did you pick up any habits over the? seth: i will say this, when i man, 27-year-old

people would say this must be the best time of your life. it is not quite as good as amsterdam. charlie: not quite as free. seth: living in amsterdam i felt city.as a child proffofed there were no hard edges. everything had padding on it. charlie: a different mindset of liberation. seth: but i will say, you realize there are a lot of different ways you can perform for comedy audiences that are impaired. the audience say can be impaired in amsterdam is the worst way and audience can be impaired for comedy. they laugh at the wrong things did you walk out with a well-written skit. they will lose themselves over the hat. charlie: you went to northwestern? is there something about northwestern that produces a lot of very talented performers? seth: yes. they have a great theater school. you know, i think, we don't have any kind of great program that becomes renowned. the teachers are great.

what really happens is because what everyone heard it was good, you were surrounded by people your age who are good. so, all of a sudden you go from being the funniest person in your high school to the least funny person who's auditioning for the improv troupe. there was an improv troupe called meow. it took me four years to get into it. i auditioned every year. it was not until my senior year i made the troop. i know the guys who made it ahead of me and they were never wrong. they got it right every year. charlie: but how many of them are big stars? seth: they're all doing fairly well. they do not have talk shows. i would stillcontend -- charlie: they're not that many shows. when you think about in the world of television, not that many people have their own show. seth: having your name and the show is surreal. charlie: it is. you get up every day, and you say, what do i want to do myself? my god, i get to talk to seth meyers today. i just read a book, let's find

the author. especially itha, read a few books and i thought i would love to talk to this person. you make a phone call and they show up. they are more delightful in person than you thought. charlie: do you think the audience is smarter than we think they are? especiallynces now, comedy audiences are savvier in a very good way. they can tell us something is not genuine. the host does not believe in. so, you really have to be true to your own sense of humor. charlie: be authentic. seth: you have to be authentic. i think that will continue to be the case. people are really hip to stuff that is authentic versus inauthentic. and i do. i think the audience is very smart now. also because it is amazing to me when i run into the younger generation and you realize they are not just coming up on the comedy being made today. they are self educating themselves on the internet. and there watching the stuff i

grew up with. up,eas, when i was going other than comedy albums, i could not go watch your show of shows. i was really only watching -- charlie: i always had the impression that david letterman, a, left medians and had a lot of comedians on. also, he loved athletes. he would always have them. . it would drive me crazy because of someone won a big athletic event, world series, nfl super vidl, i would know that da would have a better chance of getting that person the next date and i would. because he developed a sense of being deeply in awe of those kind of talent. seth: yes. i will say -- i do not know if you found this -- but it is more fun to talk to retired athletes. charlie: it is. because it is -- it's unplugged. they are really -- you just saw a ray lewis. seth: and i would say second to politicians, athletes are the most plugged during their career. you cannot blame them.

answers arek ultimately -- even when you interview athletes across all sports, you realize there are certain things they are all going to answer the same way. you get guys 10 years out of the game, and all of a sudden they are dealing the anecdotes. charlie: the does make a difference, and you can do this. you can make a book or give a movie at least a chance of being watched, of testing. there is a sense that if you see something you like, and you have the ability to explore that person in a way that makes them interesting explaining the art they do, you can get people to take a look. thereand it is fun when, will be people that we will have on the show. and look, there is this tier of talk guests that all of us want. we would all say yes to. my talent department would not even have to run it by me. it is fun when you have people on and people will say, i've never heard of that person. i do think you have a responsibility as a host as much as you can to, you were

basically saying to the audience, i'm vouching for this person. that is why we are having him on tonight. so we try to be consistent as much as we can. charlie: how do you want to change the show over the next year? you will find that out? seth: yeah. at snl, i learned, because we would always have a summer to think and talk. anderybody would shownd up, you would get the writers together and have all these talks. this year i think we should do more of this, more of that. the first week with start and it was like the building was on fire and all the plans are out the window because you do not have enough time to actually lay these plans into place. they have been with almost without noticing it. i don't know if we will make another big move like taking the monologue behind the desk. i do not know if we have another card like that. who knows? a year from now i could be sitting here saying -- i would love to schedule it now. i would love to get on the books. something could happen. i do not think we are lining up our plans to much.

being election year is very exciting. charlie: so far it is been a dream. seth: it has really been a dream. and there are so many of them that don't know they can't win. it is lovely to watch them. charlie: lorne michaels has meant what to? mark: l seth: lorne brought me into show business. he sort of plots me out of relative anonymity -- plucked me out of relative anonymity. what would he do? then he was patient with me, because was not -- i am willing -- the first to admit i was not a great cast member on snl. i really only started adding value commensurate with my pay when lorne made me a writer. orne let thatne -- l me do weekend update. he could have moved on in two years and the show would not have been worse for it. when i think back to the

thousand fears that i feel like are consistent with the other doubts and fears the people have their first years on snl. lorne called me up and saying, i think you would be good as a late-night host. you see ahen politician -- reasonably good of having done a good round of humor or comity in a speech, it used to be thought that obama would reach out to "the daily show" or to " saturday night live." does that happen a lot, that politicians and people with a -- can reach out and get you and others when you are a writer only to do comedy for them? seth: you know, when i think you are president you can reach out and you jokes. below that. charlie: i wrote that for the president. seth: that was mine. beyond that, i feel like we are too busy to overcommit to those other things. but i think famously obama has had some very high end talent right jokes for him. i get it. charlie: what is your day like,

before we go? you are in there about 9:30. seth: 9:00. the first thing is just, you know, some writers and i will e-mail the night before to try to -- charlie: like categories? seth: is there anything going on that is going to be something that will be better tomorrow than any other day? something really timely. because time is important to the show. because the shows do not age well. i do not think anybody goes back and binges. i missed june. charlie: it does i not work. seth: over the course of the two hours it is talking to the writers. around 11:00, we start reading through written pieces, both for that they show in the rest of the week. charlie: and begin blocking at what time? seth: we go down to the studio around 4:00 in the afternoon. charlie: you run through it once? whole show? seth: yeah, but ultimately so

much of the show was interviews. e just run throught th comedy. charlie: and you're still cutting? seth: you are always tweaking. to be honest, we always like add three jokes right before the show because the writers, the monologue writers are taking one last pass. it is fun to walk out knowing they're going to be, the first time you say them are going to be in front of an audience. charlie: i am genuinely interested. is there a secret to writing great monologue jokes? seth: mark i think there is. but if there is, i don't know what it is. what lorne gave me this job, you cannot take alex. he had run weekend update for years. said, int to alex and would love for you to come with me on this. i believe he is the best joke writer working today. alex baze.

b-a-z-e. he just was an incredibly good joke writer on weekend update. charlie: he's great because he can write funny jokes, but wasn't about his -- seth: there is a real economy. we would look to she felt jokes. you could always tell his page, because he uses less worse than everybody else. there is something, you seinfeld has talked about he is drawn to sports cars because there is not wasted inch on a sports car. you have to move as fast as possible. aze right jokes. there is a real slickness -- sleekness to them. when i was doing weekend u pdate, i needed the space of a sketch and the value of characters and performance. baze just zeroes in. charlie: i once had to do a big

speech and had to be in part funny. so i worked with some comedy writers. and it was amazing to me and to watch them work. and you do get into the mindset a little bit of that. even if you are essentially not a comedian or not even a funny person in terms of everyday life, and for example, reactive rather than proactive about funny things. you do get a sense of if you do it, you begin to think of it that way. you begin to see it in a much more quicker way. if you have never gone to the process of participating in it. seth: and you start realizing how much of it is about rhythm. iat is, obama's great gift think as a president, he was good at comedy, he almost has a standup's cadence when he is not being funny. there is such a rhythm to the way he talks in general that when you actually give him comic

dialogue, he's predisposed -- charlie: he fits it in. he is not, he is not afraid to take a beat. seth: oh. i've never seen anybody less afraid. charlie: i know. the other thing he will do, which i love, is that he will, he knows the joke. but he'll pause, and he will start smiling because he's thinking about the ending. it makes him laugh. seth: after the ending, you know, he does -- i would not say he laughs at his own jokes. charlie: iw ould. seth: he would go ha! he does and break up. yeah. were's i don't, you -- couple years away from one of these 21 people running for president having to do their first white house correspondents dinner. talk about a hard act to follow. i have been there just once. i have no intentions of going back. charlie: congratulations. seth: thank you very much. great to see you as well. charlie: back in a moment.

stay with us.

ron prosser is here. october marks his last months as israel's ambassador to the united nations. his career spans three decades. he served as director general in the israeli ministry of foreign affairs and ambassador to the united kingdom. last monthly general assembly granted palestinians the right to fly the flag at u.n. headquarters. it was a step that was imposed

by israel and the united states. ser criticizeds the decision. ambassador prosser: let no one be fooled by the outcome of today's vote. the assembly would go to declare ift the earth is flat the palestinians proposed it. the international community must make it clear to the palestinians that the only way to achieve statehood is through direct negotiations. believeas the persons they can achieve their political goals without making concessions, they will continue to avoid taking the difficult decision needed for peace. charlie: i am pleased to have ron prosser back this table. wwelcome. you say there are rules for dictators, rules for democracies, and then there are rules for israel. why do you think that? it isador prosser: looking at the facts. it is not a double standard. it is a triple standard.

israel is held to account basically on a bar that is hard to attain. there is an article iv that deals with human rights violations all over the world. and there is a special article i that singles out only one country in. the world -- that is the state of israel now, i went to one of my colleagues, and esteemed colleague and said, hey, don't i at least fit to be in a class with north korea, libya and syria? there is no good answer. that is the thing. hypocrisy in the systematic -- bias against israel can be seen by every day. for example in the conference on the status of women. everyone comes around, talks about the status of women. the only country that is being condemned is israel. not saudi arabia, not afghanistan, not iran. charlie: whose fault is that?

israel beganer: checking people at airports 30 years ago. what are people saying. how can you do this thing intrusion of privacy. israel has on the -- in the front line encountering phenomena western democracies are yet to protect our citizens. do we always get it right? no. we are trying. i think today when we look at what we face, the united states, western countries, israel, we are fighting on the same thing, we are fighting on the values, values of freedom, values that we all cherish. to, johnyou allude kerry made huge effort to bring israelis and palestinians together. he spent almost a year trying to get that to happen. and he's raised questions as to why it was difficult. and he has blamed both sides. yes?

ambassador prosser: when i can you, charlie, we have seen president clinton put an offer on the table. i was there at camp david. we have seen -- different is earlraeli prime ministers put things on the table. we've seen kerry put things on the table. reachednister netanyahu out and said i'm willing to negotiate every day, every place, all the time. and we saw that -- charlie: what risk is he prepared to take for peace? ambassador prosor: when i look at what the challenges are for the state of israel today. when i see prime minister netanyahu reaching out. i look at the region, look at what is happening around us. we see nationstates disintegrating before our eyes. libya', syria, lebanon, iraq. non-state actors like hamas and

has below basically take over, and boko haram, basically take over states. and yes, we should reach out every day, but we have seen it at the united nations. the palestinians have learned instead of sitting in direct negotiations, that is is easier to go out and circumvent that by the united nations -- although this is between ramallah as jews. charlie: from aman to jerusalem. ambassador prosor: of course. in a sense, we see the palestinians, the more they say no in the negotiation table, the the yes they get in international arena. and the only way to get them back to the negotiation table, there is only one way -- it is tough, it is frustrating, it is not easy. we have been there. but this is the only way forward. charlie: what do they say to you? the only way to have successful negotiation is stop occupying additional territory.

what if they say that to you? ambassador prosor: i can look and say -- truthfully, i can say, look, when there was -- we gave everything back. everythingn, we gave back. the state of israel is reaching out. but we have to negotiate this, and it has to be done on both sides. theyou heard abu mazen at united nations. oslo. going back on agreements. inciting. this incitement does not -- to primewhen i talked minister on friday of last week, it does not seem to be his highest priority. his highest priority is iran. my impression is he worries more about iran than he does about trying to find a peace agreement with the palestinians. ambassador prosor: when i think, is definitely standing out as a huge threat,

not just israel but for the whole region. is the palestinian issue is still a centerpiece. for every israeli, it is absolutely clear that we need peace with the palestinians, we need peace with our arab neighbors, but this peace cannot be a piece that would put israel in jeopardy and would create an additional problems for.israeli security . example when i headed israel's foreign service, was gaza. charlie: what happens when the demographics of the territory that israel lost to pies -- occupies goes significantly against israel? more non-jews in israel than jews? ambassador prosor: when we think two different trends which are interesting. the israeli-arab population, there is a decrease in the amount of births, because they live inside israeli

society. you see women going out to work. you see a change. but from my point of view, it is obvious that we should work together to achieve peace. but it is also important to know the challenges israel is facing. and how many times in the past, and you of all know it best, people came out and said the israeli-palestinian conflict is the major conflict in the middle east. you solve that, you solve everything else. my point is we are basically fighting -- it is not between israelis and palestinians or between arabs and jews. it is between people who sanctify life and people who celebrate death. fight at the end of the day that will allow us to live side-by-side to each other which we really want. charlie: what will you be doing when you go back? are you retiring? ambassador prosor: i have not decided to retire yet . having served in washington and

here. the bond between israel and the united states is an amazing bond between the people. cherished values. it is something, that i mean, how many countries in the region wave the american flag with pride? and when i go back to jerusalem, i can tell you that when i walk the core doors of the united nations everyday, i walk them tall and proud knowing who i represent and what i represent in this family of nations. and when i walked in, i saw 15 flags with a crescent on them. 25 flags with a cross. there is only one flight with the star of david. and for some countries this is one star too many. legitimacyht on the of israel inside the family of nations is something that i am

very privileged and proud to have done. charlie: thank you for coming again. much good luck to you on your return to jerusalem. ambassador prosor: thank you. and we will see each other interest. charlie: i certainly hope so. thank you for joining us. see you next time. ♪

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