DUBAI: In the sky above Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Air Force One lowers its giant wheels. On the ground below, the red carpet was already unrolled, awaiting the arrival of the great and good American president who was himself six years older than the state of Israel.
Joe Biden is no stranger to Israel. This is his 10th visit, and he has met with all of the country’s prime ministers since he first arrived as a young senator in 1973 and sat with Golda Meir.
This time it was the turn of President Isaac Herzog and Israel’s interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, as it awaits another parliamentary election at the end of the year to welcome Biden. The men exchange fist bumps in line with White House guidance that the US president would avoid personal contact because of COVID-19 precautions.
Biden, however, made an exception for Benjamin Netanyahu, shaking hands with the opposition leader and former prime minister. The President also placed a friendly hand on the shoulders of several Israeli dignitaries.
In a welcome speech, Lapid told Biden: “Your relationship with Israel has always been personal,” and added that the president was “one of Israel’s best friends ever.”
Similarly, Herzog played on Biden’s first name, considering him “both a visionary and a leader” like the biblical Joseph. Herzog said Biden was “really among the family” in Israel.
In response, Biden described the relationship between the two countries as “bone-deep.” He said: “We have a full agenda over the next few days, as the relationship between Israel and the United States covers every issue important to our mutual future. We are united in our shared values and our shared vision.
“I am proud to say that our relationship with the State of Israel is deeper and stronger than I thought ever before. With this visit, we are strengthening our ties even more. Will continue to pursue integration.”
The issue of Iran, particularly its nuclear program and regional intervention through proxy militias, is at the top of the agenda for Biden’s visit – not only in Israel but later when he visits Saudi Arabia.
Herzog on Wednesday noted the “security challenges arising directly from Iran and its proxies, threatening Israel and its neighbors and endangering our region”.
Lapid said he and Biden “will discuss building a new security and economy architecture with the nations of the Middle East,” following US-brokered agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in 2020.
“And we will discuss the need to renew a strong global coalition that will halt the Iranian nuclear program,” he said.
Israeli officials said Biden’s visit would work towards the Jerusalem Declaration on the US-Israel Strategic Partnership. One official said the joint declaration “takes a very clear and united stance against Iran, its nuclear program and its aggression throughout the region and commits both countries to use all elements of their national power against the Iranian nuclear threat.” does.”
Indeed, before Biden even left Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday, Israeli security officials showed him his latest hardware they say is essential to countering Iran — the anti-drone laser’s new iron beam system.
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Israeli officials are increasingly sounding the alarm over Iran’s fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, which have already been used to attack Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This month the Israeli military intercepted four Iranian-made drones launched by Hezbollah and headed for an offshore gas rig.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military showed Biden footage of drones being intercepted by the already existing Iron Dome defense system and the Iron Beam system, which uses laser technology.
“It will be operational in a very few years, it will be on land integrated with the Iron Dome,” said Daniel Gould, head of research at Israel’s Defense Ministry.
He said that the two systems would complement each other. “They would work together, and the Iron Dome’s brain — command and control — would decide in real time who was going to shoot, the laser or the missile,” he said.
Presenting such technology to Biden is a strategic move for Israel after Washington approved a billion-dollar package for the Iron Dome system in September.
As he left the airport on Wednesday, Biden’s first stop was another rite of passage for every diplomatic visitor to Israel – a memorial to pay respect to the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its allies during World II. A visit to the Vashem Holocaust Memorial. war.
Joined by Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who are both children of Holocaust survivors, Biden was invited to rekindle the eternal flame in the memorial’s Hall of Remembrance.
A children’s choir sings a poem by Hannah Sjens, a female Jewish resistance fighter captured by the Nazis in Hungary and killed at the age of 23.
Two Marines lay wreaths on a stone crypt containing the ashes of Holocaust victims. Biden, wearing a skull cap, bent down to adjust it and put his hand on his heart as the Marines saluted for a moment of silence.
Biden listened silently as a cantor read a remembrance prayer, before greeting two Holocaust survivors – Rayna Quint, 86, and Gisele Psykowicz, 95. Kissing the women on their cheeks, the president had tears in his eyes as he engaged them in conversation. “My mom would say: ‘God loves you, dear’,” Biden told the women.
The Quint later said that he told Biden how his mother and brothers were executed in the death camp. Born in Poland, she was reunited with her father at a male slave labor factory, where she pretended to be a boy. His father was also murdered. Quint arrived in America in 1946 and was adopted by a childless Jewish couple.
“Did you see the president hugging me?” He said after meeting Biden. “He asked permission to kiss me and he kept holding my hand and we were told not to touch him.”
The president is spending two days in Jerusalem for talks with Israeli officials before meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday in the West Bank.
Biden said he would emphasize his continued support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, which he said would “ensure a future of equal measure of freedom, prosperity and democracy”. That was the best way to do it. Israel and Palestine alike.” But he acknowledged that it would not be possible “in the near term”.
On Friday, Biden will travel directly from Tel Aviv to Jeddah to meet with King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, leaders of other Gulf countries and officials from Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.