Biden is scheduled to travel to the Middle East July 13-16 to promote peace in the region and make a desperate bid to convince Saudi Arabia to help lower record gas prices, which are rising amid Russia’s war with Ukraine. Saudi Arabia, Biden wrote, “is now working with my experts to help stabilize oil markets with other OPEC producers.” “I know there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia,” he continued. “My views on human rights are clear and long-standing and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be on this trip, as they will be in Israel and the West Bank.” When he travels to Israel, Biden will receive the country’s highest political honor, Israel’s Presidential Medal of Honor. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the award was “to thank him for being a true friend of Israel” and for “Biden’s decades of support for Israel’s security, deepening our alliance and fighting anti-Semitism.”
