The White House said President Joe Biden would try to restrict physical contact during his vacation in the Middle East due to fears over emerging COVID-19 cases, but the president temporarily returned to old-school behavior after landing in Israel on Wednesday.
He struck several times after getting off the plane, then swiped an arm around Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and shook hands with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden, 79, began his first regional stopover as president on Wednesday by landing at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, and will fly directly to the Saudi city of Jeddah later this week.
The touch comes amid an intense hypothesis about Biden’s upcoming meeting with Saudi leaders and whether he will shake hands with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who, according to U. S. intelligence officials, will not be able to shake hands with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The U. S. Military Department of Homeland Security likely sanctioned the 2018 killing of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi. a Saudi citizen and resident of the U. S.
The obvious RULE of COVID-19 may give Biden a canopy to a potentially problematic symbol with the crown prince.
It remains to be noted how Biden would greet Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders on his trip, which includes the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Saudi Arabia.
Later Wednesday in Jerusalem at Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to Holocaust victims, Biden hugged and kissed the cheeks of survivors Rena Quint, 86, and Giselle Cycowicz, about 95.
“Did you see the president kissing me?” Quint asked. ” He asked me for permission to kiss me and kept holding my hand and they told us to touch it. “
A new variant of omicron, which can evade immunity more than past vaccines and infections, has reignited considerations about the risk of the pandemic.
“We try to minimize contact as much as possible,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One with the president.
But such precautions didn’t appear to be in place Tuesday before Biden left for the Middle East, when he intruded and shook hands with members of Congress at a picnic at the White House. And they don’t seem to be subsidized by science, because COVID-19 is a virus in the air, it’s not transmitted through touch.
Biden is scheduled to meet with Saudi King Salman and the crown prince on his flight to the kingdom on Friday. The long-awaited meeting is under close scrutiny as the White House seeks to restore U. S. -Saudi relations after a rocky start under the Biden presidency.
As a candidate, Biden pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” country because of its human rights record. Last year, the president also angered the Saudis by releasing a U. S. intelligence report that decided the crown prince, whom he refers to through his initials MBS, most likely approved the killing of Khashoggi, a fierce critic of the kingdom’s leadership, to Saudi Arabia. Consulate of Istanbul in 2018.
Its management has particularly moved away from that position in recent months as it pressures Riyadh to pump more oil at higher commodity prices, something central to the recent rise in U. S. inflation. U. S. at 40-year highs.
But in the weeks leading up to Biden’s tour, the White House was timid about any direct interaction between the U. S. president. The U. S. and crown prince, the Saudi component of his visit.
Images of Biden shaking hands with MBS in Jeddah would likely attract media scrutiny.
Citing considerations about the spread of the coronavirus, Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters on Air Force One that “it is moderate to expect [Biden] to take extra precautions. “
“I wouldn’t say a change” in fitness protocols, he replied when asked if the measures were aimed at avoiding a handshake with Prince Mohammed.
Separately, anyone traveling in the presidential entourage will need to be tested at least once a day, in addition to any host country protocols.
On Wednesday in Israel, Biden refrained from greeting Israeli dignitaries who greeted him on the tarmac at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.
He had brief, limited, maskless, face-to-face talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Lapid and interim Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Everyone exchanged blows.
Biden shook hands with Netanyahu, the opposition leader, as they greeted them at the airport.
Netanyahu had a strained relationship with former U. S. President Barack Obama’s tenure, in which Biden was vice president, amid a bitter dispute over how to engage Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
According to Netanyahu’s office, Biden told the former prime minister, “You know I love you,” at his assembly on Wednesday.
Biden, known for his warmth, also noticed a handshake on one occasion with lawmakers at the White House just before his trip.
The president’s previous trips abroad, which added a stopover in Europe last fall due to the spike in cases caused by the delta variant, did not come with attempts to limit Biden’s handshakes.
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