The magic to the medina. Woodruff all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff President Trump is spending tonight in israel, after a day of talking up peace prospects in the region. Its all part of his first overseas trip since taking office. We begin our coverage with a report from john yang. Yang amid the pomp of President Trumps arrival ceremony in israel, an issue of policy thats confounded president s for generations the israelipalestinian conflict. We must Work Together to build a future where the nations of the region are at peace, and we have before us a rare opportunity to bring security and stability and peace to this region. Israels hand is extended to all nations, including the palestinians. The peace we seek is a genuine and durable one in which the jewish state is recognized, security remains in israels hands and the conflict ends once and for all. Yang the warmth between the two men was evident, as was the israeli Prime Ministers pleasure in both the change of u. S. President s, and a new direction on iran. I want you to know how much we appreciate the change in american policy on iran. I want you to know how much we appreciate your Bold Decision to act against the use of chemical weapons in syria. I want to tell you also how much we appreciate the reassertion of American Leadership in the middle east. Yang in an unscripted moment, the president seemed to give the First Official confirmation that the highly classified intelligence he gave russian officials came from the israelis. I never mentioned the word or the name israel. Never mentioned during that conversation. Yang in jerusalems old city, mr. Trump visited two of the holiest sites of christianity and judaism the church of the holy sepulchre, believed by many christians to be the site of jesuss tomb, and the western wall, believed by jews to be part of herods second temple. Mr. Trump began his trip with a muchanticipated stop in saudi arabia, where he appealed to sunni arab leaders to unite to against extremist movements like isis and al qaida, and other militant groups backed by shiite iran. The centerpiece was a speech the white house billed as an address to the muslim world. A Better Future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and extremists. Drive them out. Drive them out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land. Drive them out of this earth. Yang it represented a big shift in tone and temper from the campaign, when he condemned islam for hating america. This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects of different civilizations. This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it. The is a battle between good and evil. Yang mr. Trump also joined the leaders of egypt and saudi arabia to open a center aimed at combating online militant ideology and messaging. The president s saudi visit coincided with the reelection of Hassan Rouhani as president of iran, which was the target of much of mr. Trumps rhetoric. Today, rouhani contrasted the heavy iranian voter turnout with the lack of elections in mr. Trumps host kingdom. translated he has gone to a country where i think the word election has no meaning for them. They have never seen a ballot box. I hope that the day will come that saudi arabia will adopt this path. Yang like the israelis, the saudis also welcome the shift in the u. S. Approach to iran that the change in leaders brings. One reason for the opulent saudi welcome for mr. Trump, which included a traditional sword dance to underscore the friendship Saudi King Salman extended to the president. For the pbs newshour, im john yang. Woodruff i spoke earlier to tamara keith of npr from jerusalem. I began by asking if president in israel that he got in saudi arabia. There was another big red carpet at the airport just like in saudi arabia. There was a marching band and then tonight there were fireworks over the old city. Though its not clear that those were really for President Trump but probably for jerusalem day. Woodruff i want to ask you about the president s surprising comments when he was with prime hipster netanyahu earlier today and he spoke about his disclosure of classified information with russian officials. Reporter this was one of the times when reporters come into the room to basically a photo op they made brief remarks then a reporter from bloomberg shouted out a question asking Prime Minister netanyahu if he was concerned about sharing intelligence with the United States. Both leaders were eager to respond, President Trump said, well i never said anything about israel when i gave information to the russians. Which is an interesting point to make husband although theres been reporting that it was israel, none of the reporting ever said that President Trump had revealed to the russian forein minister that it was israels information that he was revealing. Woodruff he was essentially confirming it with his own remarks. Tam, i want to ask you about going go back to saudi arabia portion of this trip it was clear that the president was willing go out of his way avoid using a term that we heard frequently from him on the campaign trail, radical islamic terrorism. What do you know about that . Reporter on the campaign trail he frequently criticized people nor not saying those words. Say the words, radical islamic terrorism. But in this speech he carefully avoided saying those words. Though he kind of stumbled right around that section of the speech and departed from the prepared remarks. Later an aide said hes exhausted guy, attributed it to that. And not any sort of purposeful going off script. He certainly seemed to be toning down the language, he wasnt as directly critical of saudi arabia as he had been during the campaign either. Though an aide, Senior Administration official insisted that, no, he wasnt actually toning things down he is actually being tougher. But it certainly seemed toned down. Woodruff and tam, finally, it was in that regard, it was also clear to those who were listening that he did not bring up human rights in saudi arabia. Reporter he did not bring it up certainly in a big way. There was one short sentence that mentioned the oppression of women and christians and others but it was not a centerpiece of the speech, it was barely a paragraph, sort of a sentence. And there were other phrases in the speech that made it clear that theyre not emphasize can human rights saying that he wasnt there to lecture countries and that he was looking for partners not perfection. Many team took that as signal that he was sending to the leaders in the room that he wants to work with them to counter isis and hes willing at least on some level to not put human rights in their face. What the administration says, hes approaching this quietly and strongly and that by sort of easing in to it he might have bigger impact. Woodruff tamara keith reporting from israel, the second leg of President Trumps trip abroad. Reporter glad to be with you. Woodruff well have more on the president s trip right after the news summary. In the days other news, President Trumps former National Security adviser Michael Flynn invoked his right against selfincrimination, and refused to give documents to the Senate Intelligence committee. It involves potential ties between the Trump Campaign and russian officials. But flynns lawyers cited an escalating public frenzy and said any testimony he provides could be used against him. Its reported that two other former trump associates, Paul Manafort and roger stone, have turned over documents to the committee. Meanwhile, democrat elijah cummings, on the House Oversight committee, says government documents suggest flynn lied to pentagon investigators about his income from russian sources. North korea says its ready to start massproducing new medium range missiles. State media today called it an answer to the Trump Administration. On sunday, the north testfired a missile capable of reaching japan and major u. S. Military bases there. The u. N. Security Council Condemned the launch as highly destabilizing. Irans newly reelected president Hassan Rouhani is calling for better relations with the United States. But he says, first the Trump Administration has to get its bearings. He spoke in tehran, three days after he easily defeated a conservative challenger, backed by hardliners. translated iran and america, over the last almost 40 years, have traveled a curvy road together. We are waiting for the u. S. Government to become stable intellectually, in terms of its i hope it can settle down so that we can more accurately pass judgments on their leaders in washington. Woodruff also today, iranian reports said reformist supporters of rouhani swept all the local offices in tehran and did well in other cities as well. Back in this country, the Supreme Court has struck down two North Carolina congressional districts. The justices ruled that, during 2011 redistricting, republican lawmakers placed too many African Americans in the districts, weakening their voting strength elsewhere. The state legislature in texas is nearing approval of a transgender bathroom bill similar to North Carolinas measure that sparked national outrage. The texas bill limits children in public and Charter Schools to bathrooms that correspond with their official gender at birth. In last nights debate, state house members argued over whether the bill amounts to discrimination. There is absolutely no intent and i would argue nothing in this language discriminates against anyone. In fact it makes sure there is reasonable accommodation for all children. Bathrooms white. Colored. I was living through that era of not only america but of Texas History as well. Bathrooms divided us then and it divides us now. Woodruff the bill cleared the state house today and went to the senate for final approval. Meanwhile, the Texas Legislature also voted to let publicly funded foster care and adoption groups refuse to place adopted children with parents who are gay, unmarried or nonchristian. An elite New Hampshire prep school has acknowledged sexual abuse of students, by 13 former teachers and staff, dating back decades. St. Pauls school in concord today released results of an independent investigation. It comes amid reports of similar scandals at several other private boarding schools across new england and the northeast. In economic news, Ford Motor Company replaced mark fields as c. E. O. After just two years, amid doubts about the automakers direction. The new c. E. O. Is jim hackett, a former Office Furniture executive. And on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 90 points to close near 20,895. The nasdaq rose almost 50 points, and the s p 500 added 12. And, after nearly 150 years, the ringling brothersbarnum and bailey circus held its final show last night. The greatest show on earth faced declining attendance and high operating costs, as well as protests from Animal Rights groups. The last show on sunday, held just outside new york city, received a standing ovation. Performers hugged, as the ring master sang auld lang syne. Still to come on the newshour President Trump abroad attempting to reset relations in the middle east. How medicaid cuts could trickle down to students with disabilities. Its politics monday. A look at the Storm Brewing at home while trump is overseas, and much more. Woodruff during the president ial campaigning candidate trump said hed strengthen relations with middle eastern countries, and do a better job fighting islamic terrorism. So, with the president in saudi arabia this weekend and meeting with arab leaders, we thought wed ask how of a change in u. S. Policy is the president making . For that we turn to daniel benjamin. He was ambassadoratlarge and coordinator for counterterrorism at the u. S. State department during the obama administration. Hes now at dartmouth college. Elliott abrams served in the reagan and george w. Bush administrations. Hes now a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. And robin wright is fellow at the u. S. Institute of peace as well as a contributing writer for the new yorker magazine. We welcome all three of you back to the program. Beef talking little elliott about the president shifting language how he talks about terrorism extremism. What i want to ask the three of you is how much of a shift in policy is what President Trump is saying in his, particularly in that speech in saudi arabia. How much of a shift in policy would that be . There is a shift, i would say from the obama policy which was much more open to friendship or better relationship with iran and was not casting iran as a central problem in the middle east. In saudi arabia, the president said very much, iran is the problem, the king of saudi arabia then said the same thing, iran is the problem. Now of course were hearing it from Prime Minister netanyahu. This isnt a change i would say from bush policy actually but these are changes from obama policy which was centered on improving the relationship with iran. Woodruff david benjamin, how do you see what the president had to say . Well, i a agree with elliott about the tilt toward the sunni arabs, he was going all in, in terms of standing where them and with israelis against iran. That brings with it some challenges, i think its also noteworthy that he pushed the saudis and others to do more against terrorism themselves, but it was quite interesting, the way he described terrorism it was flat. It was in very good verse evil terms but no larger discussion of what the drivers of terrorism are, no discussion about bad governance, about economic stagnation, about repression, as a result, leaves the impression that this is going to be purely about military Law Enforcement and not anything else which is really at odds with the policy we had. Which was that you cant shoot your way out of this. Woodruff robin wright, youre nodding your head. It walks away from the kind of nation building of george bush or the democracy promotion of barack obama. It takes a very one dimensional approach to extremism which did is kill them all, drive them back, it is doesnt factor in the kind of economic grievances, the political sense among many in the region that their governments dont represent them. President trump is siding with the autocratic regime, which is most repressive, which not devoted much time or energy to some of the Broad Solutions of the 21st century. So this is a huge departure from the past. And i think that it opens up the United States to some vulnerability in the same way, once again looking for stability rather than the kinds of regime, is that reflect our own values. Woodruff is this an approach, elliott, that is likely to work . These regimes have had plenty of opportunities to come together against against terrorism, against extremism. Is this new appeal from President Trump likely to bring the wall . Better cooperation, lets say, on terrorist financing. There can be better cooperation on the military and police side. But i think robin wright, if terrorists were coming down from from outer space the military approach would be fine. But theyre coming from the very countries whose leaders he was addressing, he didnt discuss at all y. Is that . And what can be done about it in your country . Woodruff given that, dan benjamin, are we are these countries just basically left to ignore the president , i mean, has the expectation been raised for them to do something now or not . Well, he has suggested that, one of the reasons that the gulf arabs are so excited about donald trump is that he is signaled that hes giving them a complete pass on human rights issues. So, we could well see more repression over the long term that doesnt mean less terrorism that may mean more terrorism. But hes really just say knowledge, you know, do what you need to and be there for us when we ask. Thats also a problem because over the last five or six years they have paid a lot more attention to the sectarian rivalry with iran than they have to sunni extremism. Woodruff and speaking that have robin, thats come up in all of this discussion. Does it make sense in the long run for the president to pit basically sunni against the iran regime . This is the great danger are, the United States is often faulted with fostering this sectarian divide by its intervention in iraq in 2003. And now the administration is taking a very definitive stand on the side of the sunnis against predominantly shiite iran. Th