On the first part of a crucial journey marked by tensions with Iran, US President Joe Biden touched down in Israel on Wednesday. The country welcomed him as an old friend.
After touching down at Ben Gurion Airport, whose runway he had previously walked on as a senator in 1973, Biden shook hands with President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Yair Lapid of Israel and said in a speech that the relationship between the two countries is “bone-deep.”
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Biden said, “You don’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. ” Many Palestinians are bitterly opposed to Israel’s establishment on territory with historic Jewish origins.
The two-state solution, which Biden called “the best hope” for both peoples, would allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state on Israeli-occupied land, but discussions have been inactive since 2014.
In his lengthy political career, Biden has made eleven trips to Israel, the first one being as president. Israel has deliberately avoided disagreements with the United States over the Iranian nuclear program and the protracted discussions for a Palestinian state.
In a speech, Lapid referred to Biden as “one of the finest allies Israel has ever had,” saying that “your connection with Israel has always been personal.”
Before visiting Mahmoud Abbas on Friday in the occupied West Bank, Biden will stay in Jerusalem for two days.
Then, after arriving in Israel, he will take a direct flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with Saudi leaders and attend a conference of Gulf allies.
Similar to the biblical Joseph, Herzog made fun of Biden’s first name by calling him “both a visionary and a leader.” In Israel, Biden was “really among family,” according to Herzog.
The objectives of Biden’s visit are to advance regional stability, strengthen Israel’s absorption into the area, and thwart Iranian influence and Chinese and Russian aggression.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser for the US, reaffirmed Washington’s intention for the restoration of a US consulate in Jerusalem that had been closed by President Donald Trump’s previous administration. The Palestinians, who seek East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state, were served by the consulate.
On board Air Force 1, Sullivan told reporters, “Obviously that involves cooperation with the Israeli government.” Israel opposes the reopening of the consulate because it considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital—a claim that is not acknowledged internationally.
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) member Wasel Abu Youssef said that Biden’s stance on Palestinian affairs was unchanged.
“The purpose of Biden’s visit is to forge a new coalition against Iran and incorporate the occupation state into the Arab world. We don’t see any workable formula to represent the pledges President Biden made throughout his election campaign and early in his administration, he said.
Saudi visit
Biden is anticipated to encourage Gulf allies to increase oil output since he is under pressure at home to lower skyrocketing gas costs that have hurt his popularity in polls.
He said that specifics of a ceiling on the price of Russian oil were still being worked out with European allies and warned that any indications of a growing partnership between Russia and Iran should be taken seriously.
Talks in Jeddah, where he will participate in a Gulf summit alongside the presidents of Jordan and Iraq, will be a focal point of Biden’s visit.
It will be the first time since the Obama administration that a US president and a Palestinian leader have spoken in person. Biden will meet with Abbas. A peace proposal that the Palestinians believed to be prejudiced against them prompted them to boycott the Trump administration.
The shooting of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May during an Israeli army raid in the West Bank has raised tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel disputes the Palestinian claim that Israeli soldiers murdered the woman on purpose. Washington has come to the conclusion that she was murdered by a bullet fired from an Israeli position, but there is no proof that it was deliberate.
In order to meet with Biden on his visit to the area this week, her family had accused the Biden administration of granting Israel impunity for her murder. According to Sullivan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a conversation with the family and had asked them to a meeting.
Although they are grateful for the restoration of relations under Biden, the Palestinians want him to follow through on his promises to restore the Jerusalem consulate.
They also want the United States to remove the PLO from the US list of terrorist organizations, block changes to rules for worship at Jerusalem sites revered by Muslims and Jews, and curb Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Israeli officials said Biden’s visit would work towards what they called a Jerusalem Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership.
One official said the joint declaration “takes a very clear and united stand against Iran, its nuclear program and its aggression across the region and commits both countries to using all elements of their national power against the Iranian nuclear threat.”
Israel and Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are likely to ask Biden about the soundness of his efforts to salvage the nuclear agreement with Iran that was scrapped by his predecessor, Trump.
Biden was briefed on Israel’s Iron Dome defensive system, which the US supports, and a new laser-enabled system dubbed Iron Beam at Ben Gurion Airport. At Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to Holocaust victims from World War Two, he will also pay his respects.
Israel has seen internal political unrest since the government of former prime minister Naftali Bennett collapsed in June.
Lapid is now serving as the interim prime minister until the fifth election in less than four years, which will take place in November. On Thursday, he and Biden will hold a joint press conference.
Additionally, Biden will meet with current opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister. While Biden was vice president, Netanyahu was an ardent opponent of the Obama administration and a strong supporter of Trump.
