US President Joe Biden was welcomed as an “old friend” in Israel on Wednesday, the first leg of a tour of the Middle East, amid efforts to bring the country closer to Saudi Arabia and persuade Washington’s allies in the Gulf to produce more oil.
At Ben Gurion Airport in the Tel Aviv area, where he first set foot in 1973 as a senator, Biden greeted Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog. In a speech at the scene, the American described the relationship between Israel and the US as “deep to the bone”.
“You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” said Biden, referring to the ideology that defends that the region where Israel is today is the right of Jews, which is contested by Palestinians and some Arab peoples.
Biden’s first visit to Israel as president is the 10th in a long political career for the Democrat. Prime Minister Lapid called Biden “one of the best friends Israel has ever known”.
Biden reaffirmed at the airport that he wants to resume negotiations to create a Palestinian state in territory now occupied by Israel. According to the American president, the so-called two-state solution is “the best hope” for both peoples.
The American president will spend two days in Jerusalem before meeting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday in the West Bank, in the first talks between a president and a Palestinian leader since the Obama administration. He will then fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he will attend a summit of allies in the Gulf region.
What the US government hopes is that the trip will help improve relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, who are historical enemies but also two of the United States’ strongest allies in the turbulent region.
Since 2020, with the Accords of Abraham, the biblical patriarch recognized by Jews and Muslims, the United States has tried to improve relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. With this Wednesday’s trip, Biden wants to deepen Israel’s integration in the region and fight the influence of Iran, more directly, and also of Russia and China in the Middle East.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan reaffirmed that Washington intends to reopen a consulate in Jerusalem, closed under Donald Trump. The consulate served the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. The task of pleasing the Palestinians, however, comes up against relations with Israel, which considers the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital — a status that is not recognized abroad — and does not consent to the reopening of the consulate.
“Obviously this requires engagement with the Israeli government,” Sullivan told reporters.
For Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Biden’s speech repeats unfulfilled promises. “Biden’s visit aims to integrate the occupation state in the Arab region and build a new alliance against Iran. When it comes to the promises President Biden made during his election campaign and at the beginning of his term in office, we don’t see any practical formula to reflect it on the ground,” he says.
Tensions are high between Israel and the Palestinians over the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May during an Israeli army strike in the West Bank. Palestinians say she was deliberately killed by Israeli troops, which Israel denies. Washington concluded that she was killed by a bullet that came from the same direction as Israeli troops, but says there is no evidence it was intentional.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke to Abu Akleh’s family, Sullivan said, and invited them to a meeting. The family accuses the Biden government of guaranteeing Israel impunity.
Under pressure to lower gasoline prices, which have impacted his approval on public opinion, Biden also wants to pressure Gulf allies to expand oil production and intends to use the meetings in Saudi Arabia, with meetings with Saudi leaders, including the prince. heir Mohammed bin Salman, accused by the US intelligence community of being behind the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The meetings contradict the previous position of Biden, who once called the country a pariah. Aides say the president will raise human rights issues, but that hasn’t stopped a slew of criticism.
“Biden needs the Saudis to increase their oil production to help keep global energy prices in check,” wrote Washington Post editor Fred Ryan. “The trip sends the message that the United States is willing to look the other way when its commercial interests are at stake,” he said.
Israeli officials said Biden intends to announce what the administration calls the Jerusalem Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership, which will take a strong stance against Iran’s nuclear program and says the two countries are committed to “using every element of its national power against the nuclear threat”.
At Ben Gurion Airport, Biden was also briefed on the state of Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, which intercepts missiles fired at Israeli cities, and a new laser-armed defense system called Iron Beam. . In the country, Biden also paid tribute at Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to victims of the Holocaust in World War II.
Biden will also meet former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, now leader of the opposition. Netanyahu was a close ally of Trump and was critical of the Obama administration, during which time Biden was vice president.
