JERUSALEM — President Joe Biden landed in Israel determined to assert his place as a stalwart friend of Israel, a message White House officials said will be front and center as he meets with Israeli leaders Thursday.
Recalling the president’s five decades of history with the Jewish state and its people, Biden’s advisers used every chance to remind reporters how the president was hosted by one of Israel’s founding leaders when he traveled to the country as a young senator in 1973.
“He’s known and had a relationship with every single Israeli prime minister since Golda Meir, so he very much felt in many ways like he was coming home,” a senior administration official told reporters after Biden had settled in for the night at the stately King David Hotel.
The White House was also keen to stress the Biden administration’s $4.8 billion defense commitment to its closest Middle East ally, including $1 billion to help replenish Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. “That’s the highest ever total in a single year,” a senior administration official told reporters.
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On Thursday, Biden will hold a one-to-one meeting with the state’s caretaker, Prime Minister Yair Lapid, before embarking on sit-downs with President Isaac Herzog, opposition leader and longtime premier Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the leaders of India and the United Arab Emirates, as part of a multipartner coalition with Israel.
The agenda, officials said, would look to cement Washington’s close cooperation with Jerusalem on a range of security and diplomatic matters while attending to Iran and Russia’s destabilizing actions. Biden and Lapid will cement that effort in part through a new declaration that commits the two countries to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
But impossible to escape will be the looming shadow of Biden’s Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, whose overtures secured him widespread support inside the country.
In east Jerusalem’s walled Old City, one shopkeeper showed off his most popular wares: a shelf of kippahs emblazoned with Trump’s smiling face and a “Make America Great Again” logo.
Near the Machane Yehuda market, Johnny, a 26-year-old Jerusalem native, said he wasn’t swayed by Biden’s promises and was irked by the citywide closures. “Trump was better for Israel,” he told the Washington Examiner, “but Biden is my problem now.”
Johnny said he would back Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Israeli far-right Otzma Yehudit party, in the elections.
Though other Jerusalem locals said they were pleased Biden was visiting, many objected to the mundane disruptions that accompany a three-day presidential swing, with its attendant closures for roads and businesses.
Israel’s state-owned Kan 11 television channel aired a segment on Biden’s love of ice cream early Wednesday evening. A later broadcast on the same channel showed an image of Biden appearing to snooze during a multilateral meeting.
Closely watched by Americans and Israelis alike will be Biden’s meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday, a leader the president has known for decades.
“You know I love you,” Biden told the longtime premier when the two reunited Wednesday.
During an interview with Israeli TV on Wednesday, Biden was asked about the danger that Washington and Jerusalem could trend backward toward the “fraught” and “tumultuous” relationship that characterized the years under former President Barack Obama when Netanyahu was prime minister.
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Biden insisted that his administration would stand by the relationship no matter who takes power.
“We’re committed to the state, not an individual leader,” Biden said in response to a question about Netanyahu. “Whoever the leader is, I’ll work with.”
