The president of the United States, Joe Biden, promised this Wednesday that it will advance the “integration” of Israel in the Middle East and pointed to new forms of cooperation with Indo-Pacific countries, such as India. “We will continue to advance the integration of Israel in the region,” Biden promised in a brief speech after his arrival aboard Air Force One, at Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv. Is about his first tour of the Middle East,which will also take you to Saudi Arabia, since taking office in January 2021.
The president also pointed to new forms of international cooperation for Israel with the participation of the US, such as the “I2U2” summit that will be held virtually this Saturday and will focus on how to improve food security. Participating in that summit will be Biden, Israel’s acting prime minister, Yair Lapid; the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi; and the newly elected President of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan.
cooperation
“Economic cooperation between the Middle East and the Pacific must be deepened. Greater stability, greater connection, all of that is critical for all the peoples of the region,” Biden stressed.
Biden was received at the airport by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, President Isaac Herzog and former prime minister Naftali Benet. The US side is made up of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blink; White House National Security AdvisorJake Sullivan; and the adviser to the president for the Middle East, Brett McGurk.
After his arrival, the US president was taken to tour part of the new missile defense system “Iron Beam” of Israel and to visit Yad Vashem, a memorial to the victims of the holocaust. He is also scheduled to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials, receive Israel’s Presidential Medal of Honor, and visit American athletes participating in the Maccabee Games, which includes thousands of Jewish and Israeli athletes from around the world. In addition, he plans to meet this Friday with the head of the opposition and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This is the first leg of Biden’s tour, which will remain in Israel this Wednesday and this Thursday to move to the West Bank on Friday and leave that same day for Saudi Arabia. The official visit to Israel marks the 10th time Biden has traveled to that country as an official in a span of half a century, a record that surpasses any other American president. Previous visits were made as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or as vice president of the United States, a position he held between 2009 and 2017.
tensions
Washington’s ties with the Palestinians were strained in May with the death of prominent Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering an Israeli army incursion into the West Bank. The UN determined that the reporter for the Qatari Al Jazeera news network was killed by Israeli gunfire, although Washington supported the Israeli hypothesis that there is no evidence that it was intentional.
Added to this conflict is the fact that, after coming to power, Biden did not reverse Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Dissatisfied with US action, Palestinian leaders accused Biden of reneging on his promise to once again make the United States an impartial mediator in the conflict.. “We only hear empty words and no results,” said Jibril Rajoub, a leader of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah movement.
The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel, as the capital for the state they want to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel captured those territories in a war in 1967 and has colonized them ever since, rejecting Palestinian demands to evacuate the settlements and return control of the territories to Israel.
The police will deploy some 16,000 men during the visit and many accesses will be closed in Israel and in Jerusalem. American flags were placed on King David Street in Jerusalem, where Biden will stay, to celebrate the first visit by a US president after former Republican President Donald Trump in 2017.