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JERUSALEM, Israel – President Joe Biden will make his first visit to the Middle East this week as commander-in-chief, arriving in Israel on Wednesday to begin a four-day tour that includes meetings with the country’s new prime minister Yair Lapid and other top leaders , as well as stops in the West Bank before taking the first direct flight from Israel to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
With oil prices rising, fueled in part by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and as tensions continue to rise in the region over Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb and a possible return to the now-defunct nuclear deal, the main agenda of the president’s visit is clear. But as his popularity at home continues to slide, Israelis appear unsure of his support for America’s closest ally in the region. A poll released Monday by the Israel Democracy Institute found that more than half of Israelis, 54 percent, do not trust the Biden administration to take Israel’s overall interests into account, and a larger majority (75 percent) do not trust the Biden administration to consider Israel. in its dealings with Iran on the nuclear issue. EXPECT NUCLEAR SPECTER DOMINO IN MIDDLE EAST IF IRAN GETS WEAPONS CAPABILITIES, EXPERTS SAY Additionally, a Pew survey also released Monday found that while 60 percent of Israelis trust Biden to do the right thing in world affairs, that’s down from 71 percent who said the same about President Donald Trump in 2019. However, more than half of respondents (89%) said they believed current bilateral relations were in good shape. (Pew survey conducted in May 2022.)
President Biden will meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during his trip. In Saudi Arabia he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Professor Jonathan Rynhold, head of the political studies department at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, told Fox News Digital that while most Israelis are aware of Biden’s long history of friendship and support for Israel, they are also aware of hostility toward Israel from members of the Democratic Party. “The Israelis don’t know Biden that well and much of the public thinks the Democrats are the group,” Reinhold said, referring to the group of House Democrats who have been extremely vocal in their criticism of Israel and particularly the Israel. treatment of Palestinians.
ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS FIT AGAINST TEAM’S ANTI-ISRAEL RHETORIC, BLUE STATES TOP THE LIST However, he added, most Israelis are excited about Biden’s visit “because he is the president of the United States and the United States is Israel’s best friend.” Following Trump’s success in normalizing ties between Israel and four Arab countries, known as the Abraham Accords, it is hoped that Biden, who has already reversed some of Trump’s policies in the region, will continue to build and strengthen the relationships. According to one Israeli commentator, many Israelis view the Democratic Party through the lens of the group’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
Over the past year, the administration has taken steps to reverse some of Trump’s policies toward the Palestinians. Last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US would restore $150 million in funding to UNRWA, the controversial United Nations agency that supports and advocates for Palestinian refugees. restoring aid for Palestinian welfare projects in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza; and reviving the role of its consulate in Jerusalem, which traditionally interfaced with the Palestinian Authority but was closed by Trump. BIDEN ADMINISTRATION QUESTIONS TRUMP POLICY ON PALESTINIANS While Palestinians felt increasingly alienated by Trump, the former president was prized in Israel as a friendly and trusted leader for taking steps such as implementing a 1995 law to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan. Heights, and unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.
“Trump was the gift-giving president,” said Tal Snyder, a veteran Israeli journalist and diplomatic correspondent for the Times of Israel. “Biden is not a gift-giving president, but when Israelis look at this administration the most important thing is not the gifts, but whether he can continue with the Abrahamic Accords.”
On Friday, the president will tour a Palestinian hospital in East Jerusalem, meet with civil society activists and travel to Bethlehem for meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before heading to Saudi Arabia.
“The Palestinian issue will be on the sidelines, it’s the Iran issue that will figure in the president’s discussions with the Israelis and the Saudis,” said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD). adding that the relationship between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia will also be at the top of the agenda.
During his campaign, Biden said among his foreign policy goals was to make the Saudis “pay the price” for the brutal killing of dissident Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist. Immediately after his inauguration, the administration released a CIA assessment alleging that Crown Prince Bin Salman had directly ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.
NOT ANOTHER ‘PARIA’ STATE LIKE BIDEN ASKS FOR HELP FROM SAUDIS AS GAS PRICES RISE Tensions between the US and the House of Saud over the past year and a half are, in part, why efforts to bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords with Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco have stopped. although there are some signs that the largest country in the Middle East has softened its stance on the Jewish state.
Now, as Biden heads to the country seeking alternatives to Moscow’s global dependence on fossil fuels in the hope it will lower gas prices and stabilize global markets, some analysts believe a renewed U.S.-Saudi relationship Arabia could create leverage for opening ties with Israel.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will meet with President Biden later this week. The US-Saudi relationship, experts say, needs mending. (AP)
“I don’t think the Biden administration needs to push the Saudis to get even with the Israelis, the biggest obstacle to Israeli-Saudi ties is Washington,” FDD’s Dubovitch said. “It is the US-Saudi relationship that needs mending and [Crown Prince] Bin Salman will not fully reconcile with Israel until that relationship is in a much healthier state.”
Dan Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration, told Fox News Digital that the goal of Biden’s visit was to help build and maintain partnerships between Middle Eastern countries that share the same interests as the US. while allowing a more seamless approach to an unstable area. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The Abraham Accords and the addition of Israel to CENTCOM are opportunities that Biden can take on this trip,” Shapiro said, referring to the normalization accords and Israel’s recent inclusion in the US Central Command (CENTCOM), the which cooperates with mainly Arab and Muslim countries. in the Middle East and Central Asia. “It creates the opportunity for the emergence of a cohesive coalition of countries aligned with the US and is a recipe for a more sustainable US presence in the region,” said Shapiro, distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East program.
During his two days in Israel, Biden will meet with Lapid, who became the country’s interim prime minister last week ahead of general elections scheduled for November, President Isaac Herzog and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Friday he will meet with Abbas in Bethlehem. Ruth Marks Eglash reports on Israel and the Middle East. You can follow her on Twitter @reglash