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Jerusalem, Israel – President Joe Biden will be the first Chief Commander to visit the Middle East this week, arriving in Israel on Wednesday and launching a four-day tour that includes talks with the country’s new Prime Minister Yair Lapid and other top leaders. Stop on the west bank before boarding the first direct flight from Israel to Jeda, Saudi Arabia.
Tensions continue to rise in the region over the partial rise in oil prices caused by the Russian war in Ukraine and the possibility of a march to Iran’s nuclear bomb and a return to the now abolished nuclear deal. , The main agenda of the President’s visit is clear. However, as his popularity at his home continues to decline, the Israelis appear uncertain about his support for the closest American ally in the region.
More than half, 54% of Israelis, do not trust the Biden administration to take into account Israel’s overall interests, and the majority (75%), according to a survey released by the Israel Democracy Institute on Monday. ) Does not trust the Biden administration to consider Israeli interests. Profit in trading with Iran on nuclear issues.
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In addition, according to a Pew survey released Monday, 60% of Israelis are confident that Biden will do the right thing about world affairs, but said the same about President Donald Trump in 2019. It has decreased from 71%. Half of the people asked (89%) said they believed that the current bilateral relations were in good shape. (The Pew survey was conducted in May 2022.)
Professor Jonathan Lynnhold, Dean of Political Science at the University of Baluiran near Tel Aviv, said most Israelites know the long history of Byden’s friendship and support with Israel, but also members of hostility towards Israel. rice field. His Democratic Party.
“Israel does not know to Biden that most of its people think that Democrats are squads,” Lynhold said in criticisms of Israel, especially the treatment of Palestinians.
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But he added that 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, who succeeded in normalizing relations between Israel and the four Arab countries known as the Abraham Agreement, Biden, who has already canceled some of Trump’s policies in the region, continues to build and strengthen relations. Is expected.
Over the past year, the administration has taken steps to overturn some of Trump’s policies towards Palestinians. Last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States would resume $ 150 million in funding UNRWA, a controversial UN agency that supports and defends Palestinian refugees. Restore aid to Palestinian welfare projects in Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza. And it rejuvenates the role of the Jerusalem Consulate, which was traditionally in contact with the Palestinian Authority but was closed by Trump.
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Palestinians felt increasingly estranged by Trump, but the former president recognized Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem and Golan and enacted a 1995 law to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Respected in Israel as a friendly and credible leader who has taken steps such as Jerusalem, and unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran.
“Trump was a gift-giving president,” said Tal Schneider, a veteran Israeli journalist and diplomatic correspondent for The Times of Israel. “Biden is not a gift-giving president, but when the Israelites see this administration, the most important thing is not the gift, but whether it can continue the Abraham agreement.”
On Friday, the President will visit the Palestinian Hospital in East Jerusalem, meet with civil society activists, and travel to Bethlehem to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before heading to Saudi Arabia.
“The Palestinian issue is functional, and it’s Iran’s issue that comes to the fore in the presidential talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), based in Washington, DC. Said. He added that the relationship between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia will also be a top priority.
During the campaign, Biden’s foreign policy goal was to “pay” Saudi Arabia for the brutal assassination of U.S. resident and columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Washington Post. Said that. Shortly after his inauguration, the administration released a CIA assessment claiming that Crown Prince Binsalman had directly ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
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Tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia homes over the past year and a half are partly why attempts to bring Saudi Arabia into the Abraham agreement with Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco have been stalled. .. There are some signs that the largest country in the Middle East has softened its attitude towards the Jewish state.
Now, some analysts are new, hoping that Byden will head to the country in search of an alternative to Israel’s global reliance on fossil fuels, lower gas prices and stabilize the global market. We believe that US-Saudi relations can create the power to open relations with Israel.
“I don’t think the Biden administration needs to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to normalize with the Israelis. The biggest obstacle to Israeli-Saudi relations is Washington,” FDD Dubowitz said. “It is the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia that needs repairs, [Crown Prince] Binsalman will not fully normalize with Israel until his relationship with Israel is much healthier. ”
Former Ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, Dan Shapiro, said Biden’s visit was aimed at helping build and maintain partnerships between Middle Eastern countries that share the same interests as the United States, while at the same time in volatile regions. A more practical approach.
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“The Abraham Agreement and the addition of Israel to CENTCOM are opportunities for Biden to move forward on this trip,” Shapiro said to the Normalization Agreement and the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which works primarily with Arab and Islamic countries. Said referring to the recent inclusion of Israel. In the Middle East and Central Asia.
“This creates an opportunity for the emergence of a cohesive coalition of countries in partnership with the United States and is a recipe for a more sustainable US presence in the region,” said Shapiro, a prominent fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East program. “.
During the two days in Israel, Biden will meet with Rapid, President Isaac Herzog, and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who became Prime Minister of the State last week prior to the general elections scheduled for November. On Friday, he will meet Abbas in Bethlehem.