Biden gives different messages to Israelis and Palestinians

JERUSALEM – President Biden delivered contrasting messages to Israelis and Palestinians on Friday before departing from Israel for Saudi Arabia, announcing new steps toward Israel’s integration in the Middle East while warning Palestinians that now is not the time for new peace talks to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mr. Biden started the day by announcing that Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Arab nation, would allow direct flights to and from Israel. After years of secret behind-the-scenes discussions between Saudi Arabia and Israel, that agreement was Saudi Arabia’s first public step toward creating a formal relationship.

Hailed as “historic” by Mr Biden, it is the latest sign of growing Israeli acceptance among Arab leaders after years of isolation in the region over fears of a nuclear Iran. individuals – shared by both Israel and some Sunni Arab leaders – replaced Arab solidarity with the Palestinians.

To the Palestinians, Mr. Biden offered sympathy and funding, but little long-term prospects. During a brief visit to the West Bank, he announced more than $300 million for Palestinian hospitals and refugees, some of which must be approved by Congress. And he reported that Israel had agreed to give Palestinians 4G internet access, a decision that has not been confirmed by Israel.

He also reiterated his support for a future Palestinian state, with at least part of Jerusalem as the capital, and said Israel’s growing acceptance in the Arab world could lead to to a new impetus for the peace process that did not work.

But Mr. Biden warned that “the moment is not yet ripe to restart the negotiations,” and stated there is no long-term program to revive them, other than hope that alliances are changing in the region. The Middle East may at some point allow for a breakthrough. in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

“In this moment, as Israel is improving relations with its neighbors in the region, we can harness that momentum to restore the peace process between the Palestinian people and the Israelis,” Biden said. and a series of previous agreements between Israel, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

It was an adjoining location that highlighted the dichotomy of focus during his 49-hour visit to Israel and the West Bank.

For the Israelis, it was a source of celebration – the arrival of a self-proclaimed Zionist, one of their oldest and most loyal friends, and now the standard bearer for Israel’s integration into the Middle East.

Yair Lapid, Israel’s interim prime minister, summed it up: “A visit that moved our country,” summarized Yair Lapid, Israel’s interim prime minister, as Biden departed for Saudi Arabia. um.

For the Palestinians, parts of the visit may have been welcome: Mr. Biden brought funding, attention and reassurance that the US still supports the Palestinian concept of sovereignty.

But it’s also a reminder that the aspirations of the Palestinians are not a priority for the Biden administration. Mr. Biden spent just three hours in the West Bank, while 46 hours in Israel. And he frustrated Palestinians by avoiding criticism of Israel, downplaying expectations of a new US-led peace process and perpetuating some of the Trump administration’s decisions that were widely criticized by Palestinians.

“Mr. President,” Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, said at a joint press conference with Mr. Biden in Bethlehem. “Isn’t it time for this career to end?”

Some praised Mr Biden’s decision to restore US funding to the Palestinian hospital network, with one hospital director, Fadi Atrush, saying the president had “gives hope to thousands of patients” Palestinian people”.

But others describe the promises of more aid as short-term measures that fail to address the more fundamental issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A nurse whose hospital would benefit from Mr Biden’s pledge thanked him for the donation but said Palestinians needed more than the money.

“We need more justice, we need more dignity,” she called him after he announced the funding at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem.

There was also disappointment at the news of another thaw in relations between Israel and the Arab world.

For years, most Arab leaders said they would not recognize Israel before the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. In 2002, it was Saudi Arabia that spearheaded a peace proposal based on that premise – and Mr. Abbas, in a meeting with Mr. Biden, attempted to pitch the same idea.

“The key to peace and security in our region begins with the recognition of the state of Palestine.

But it was Biden’s words and actions that seemed to undermine that thought.

Within hours, Mr. Biden was on his way to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was one of the first few openly non-stop flights between Israel and Saudi Arabia – the latest sign of how Israel is being accepted by the region because of security concerns and high-profile commercial ambitions. greater importance to some Arab leaders than an immediate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. .

It was a bleak period for Palestinians in general, with their leadership split between the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has taken control of Gaza. from the government in 2007. Most Palestinians see little hope. reconcile, recent poll program.

In Gaza, a blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt is in its 15th year. 1 in 4 Palestinians will be unemployed by 2021. 7 out of 10 people say they believe in a Palestinian state no longer viable due to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, according to a June poll. Nearly 80% want Mr Abbas to step down, who last faced elections in 2005, and the vast majority see both the powerful body and Hamas as corrupt.

Against this backdrop, Mr. Biden offered mild criticism of the Palestinian leadership. “The Palestinian Authority also has a lot of important work to do, if you don’t mind my sayings,” Biden said. “Now is the time to strengthen Palestinian institutions to improve governance, transparency and accountability.”

But many Palestinians have had their own criticisms of the Biden administration, with 65% opposing dialogue between their leadership and the United States.

Mr. Biden has not formally reversed the Trump administration’s decision to legalize Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which most of the world consider illegal. After Israeli pressure, he did not reopen the US consulate to Palestinians in Jerusalem and the Palestinian representation in Washington, both of which were closed under Mr. Trump.

The Biden administration also angered Palestinians when it recently refused to push Israel to launch a criminal investigation into the murder of a Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, that included multiple investigations, Includes an article from The New York Timesdiscovered that the bullets had come from the location of an Israeli Army unit.

Palestinians protested against Mr. Biden on Friday in both Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and some Palestinians criticized Mr. Abbas for his meeting with him.

“Palestinians see the United States as a partner in the occupation, whether by funding or by supporting Israel in its occupation,” said Suhaib Zahda, 39, a political activist in the West Bank city of Nablus. political side.

Mr. Biden said he sympathized with the frustrations of the Palestinians. “The Palestinian people are hurting – you can feel it,” he said on Friday, adding that the Palestinian experience reminded him of his own Irish heritage and the struggles of Irish under British colonial rule.

The President quoted a line from “The Cure of Troy,” a poem by Irish poet Seamus Heaney that he often quotes:

History says, don’t hope
On this side of the tomb,
But then, once in a lifetime
Tidal waves longing
Justice may rise,
And hope and history rhyme

Mr. Biden later added that he hoped “we are reaching one of those moments where hope and history come together.”

He did not elaborate on how or why.

Hiba Yazbek contributed reporting from Jerusalem.