Netanyahu skirts Trump's attempted condemnation of Joe Biden

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Morgan Ortagus: Trump's Sudan-Israel peace deal 'unprecedented'

State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus talks to 'Fox & Friends Weekend' about Trump's latest Middle East peace deal.

In a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday, President Trump pivoted a discussion on the Israel-Sudan peace agreement to knock his Democratic opponent Joe Biden.

“Do you think Sleepy Joe could have made this deal, Bibi, Sleepy Joe,” Trump asked the Israeli prime minster from the Oval Office. “Do you think he would have made this deal? Somehow I don’t think so.”

Netanyahu side-stepped the comment and continued the discussion on  normalizing relations with Israel and the North African country.

TRUMP'S MIDDLE EAST PEACE DEALS 'REJECTED CONVENTIONAL WISDOM': STATE DEPT.

“Well, Mr. President,” Netanyahu said, “one thing I can tell you is that we appreciate the help for peace from anyone in America, and we appreciate what you’ve done enormously."

Netanyahu's avoidance of the partisan question came less than two weeks before the U.S. general election.

Trump currently is trailing Biden by 8 points in national polls according to Real Clear Politics, which takes the results of several national polls and averages them.

Biden is leading in battleground states by only 3.8 points, which is well within the margin of error of most polling. 

Biden has been critical of Trump’s international policies, generally driven by his "America first" mantra. Trump made headlines in recent weeks after securing peace deals between Israel and several Arab nations.

He also was nominated for a Noble Peace Prize for facilitating the normalization of diplomatic relations in the region. Critics of the peace deals, however, point out the continued lack of peace between Palestinians and Israel.

Palestinian officials have denounced the recent diplomatic ties and cite the decades-long refusal by members of the Arab League to acknowledge Israel as a legitimate state.

The United Arab Emirates became the first nation this summer to break from the League and form ties with Israel. Bahrain, along with Sudan, has now followed suit.

The United Nations still ascertains that Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank in Palestine since 1967.  But Israel along with the U.S. does not recognize Palestine as a country, despite the fact the 137 countries in the U.N. do.

A Biden win on Nov. 3 would likely mean the U.S. would again seek to improve ties between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. 

Netanyahu repeatedly said he intends to annex parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank – a move that the UAE claimed it prevented by forming relations with the Jewish nation.

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But the Israeli prime minister countered those claims by saying the plans for annexation have merely been postponed.

Recent polling in Israel show that 50 percent of Israelis want Trump to win re-election come November, while only 21 percent are in favor of a Biden presidency.