Following the visit, a statement entitled “Jerusalem Declaration” will reaffirm Israel’s right to protect itself.
Biden said the United States is committed to Israel’s security when it arrives in Tel Aviv for the first leg of a three-day stopover in the Middle East, a goal to deepen the majority Jewish state’s ties with the Arab world as the region faces a non-unusual enemy in Iran.
The American leader was greeted by Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Acting Prime Minister Yair Lapid as Air Force One arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday afternoon. the White House said it was involved in the rise in Covid cases.
Ahead of Biden’s trip, senior Israeli officials informed reporters that the two countries will consider a broad scope called the “Jerusalem Declaration,” which will take a business stance on Iran’s nuclear program and reaffirm Israel’s right to protect itself.
In his opening remarks, Biden recalled that his first visit to the country was as a young senator in 1973, just weeks before the Yom Kippur War with Egypt and Syria broke out. At the time, Israel and imperial Iran were still allies, and Egypt and Jordan remained hostile to the majority Jewish state.
“We will continue to advance Israel’s integration into the region and, in my opinion, the encounters between the United States and Israel are deeper and more powerful than ever,” the president said.
Departing israel, Air Force One will make a first direct flight from Tel Aviv to Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to identify a relationship between the Jewish state and the conservative Gulf kingdom, which officially recognizes Israel’s existence.
For Biden’s tenth trip, and the first as president, Israel has unprecedented positive relations with Arab countries: The Abraham Accords, a primary of Donald Trump’s foreign policy, normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan two years ago.
Like Israel, Saudi Arabia, the geopolitical axis of the Sunni Muslim world, fears the development of the drone and missile functions of Iran and its proxies in the region.
Calling Biden a “peace trip,” Herzog said, “Today, winds of peace blow from North Africa across the Mediterranean to the Gulf. . . from the Holy Land to Hejaz”.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process, however, remains moribund. At the opening ceremony, Biden said he believed a two-state solution was “the most productive way to ensure a meaningful measure of freedom, prosperity and democracy for Israelis and Palestinians in the future,” but that he knew it was “not short-term. “. “”.
He will go to Bethlehem in the occupied Palestinian territories to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday. to Palestinians in Jerusalem after Trump identified the divided city as Israel’s capital. Biden did not object to that decision.
The President of the United States. The U. S. also evaded a request to meet with the circle of relatives of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, who likely died as a result of an Israeli sniper shooting in May. The circle of relatives, who accused Biden’s management of siding with Israel after the State Department said it would not pressure Israel to conduct an investigation into thieves, but invited him to talk in Washington.
On Wednesday, Biden is scheduled for Israel’s new generation of Iron Beam anti-drone laser and a stopover at Yad Vashem, the country’s official Holocaust memorial. On Thursday he will hold one-on-one talks with Lapid and Herzog, as well as former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is seeking to return to work in the country’s fifth election in less than four years in November.
Biden will also attend the opening rite of the Maccabean Games, a sports tournament for Israeli and Jewish athletes from around the world, on Thursday night.
The president’s stops in Israel and the Palestinian territories are widely noted as secondary to those he made Friday in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
Biden called the kingdom a “pariah” over the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, but was forced to reconnect with the circle of Saudi royal relatives as part of efforts to stabilize war-stricken oil markets in Ukraine and prevent Gulf states from reconnecting with the spheres of influence of China and Russia.