Biden offers several messages for Israelis and Palestinians

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

Mr Biden started the day by announcing that Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Arab country, would allow direct flights to and from Israel. After years of clandestine behind-the-scenes discussions between Saudi Arabia and Israel, that agreement was the Saudis’ first overt move to establish a formal relationship.

Praised as “historic” by Mr. Biden, it was the latest sign of Israel’s growing acceptance among Arab leaders after years of regional isolation, as fears of a nuclear Iran — shared by both Israel and several Sunni Arab leaders — hit Arabs. solidarity with the Palestinians.

For the Palestinians, Biden offered sympathy and funding, but few 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 is subject to congressional approval. And he reported that Israel had agreed to give Palestinians access to 4G internet, a decision not yet confirmed by Israel.

He also reiterated his support for a future Palestinian state, with a capital in at least part of Jerusalem, and said Israel’s increased acceptance in the Arab world could give new impetus to the lingering peace process.

But Mr Biden warned that “the ground is not ripe at this point to restart negotiations,” and announced no long-term program to revive them, other than hopes that the Middle East’s shifting alliances will could make a breakthrough at some point. in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

“Right now, as Israel improves relations with its neighbors across the region, we can use that same momentum to revitalize the peace process between the Palestinian people and Israelis,” Mr Biden said, referring to both the new Saudi flight arrangements. and a series of previous agreements between Israel, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

It was a juxtaposition that highlighted the central dichotomy of his 49-hour visit to Israel and the West Bank.

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

“A visit that moved our entire country,” Yair Lapid, Israel’s interim prime minister, summed up as Mr. Biden left for Saudi Arabia.

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

But it was also a reminder that Palestinian aspirations are not a priority for the Biden administration. Mr Biden spent just three hours in the West Bank, compared to 46 in Israel. And he disappointed Palestinians by avoiding criticism of Israel, quelling expectations of a renewed American-led peace process, and upholding several Trump administration decisions that have been widely criticized by Palestinians.

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

Some praised Mr Biden’s decision to restore US funding for a Palestinian network of hospitals, with a hospital director, Fadi Atrush, saying the president “brought hope to thousands of Palestinian patients.”

But others portrayed the promises of more aid as mere short-term measures that did little to address the more fundamental problem of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A nurse whose hospital will benefit from Mr. Biden, thanked him for the donation, but said the Palestinians needed more than money.

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

There was also frustration 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, Saudi Arabia itself spearheaded a peace proposal based on that premise — and Mr. Abbas tried to channel that same idea in his meeting with Mr. Biden.

“The key to peace and security in our region begins with the recognition of the State of Palestine,” said Mr Abbas.

But Mr Biden’s own words and actions seemed to undermine the thought.

Within hours, Mr. Biden was on his way to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was one of the first few open direct flights between Israel and Saudi Arabia — the latest indication of how Israel is gaining regional acceptance as security concerns and trade ambitions become more important to some Arab leaders than an immediate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is a generally bleak time for Palestinians, with leadership divided between the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank, and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that took control of Gaza from authority in 2007. Most Palestinians see little hope of reconciliation, recent opinion polls.

In Gaza, a blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt is in its 15th year. One in four Palestinians was unemployed by 2021. Seven in ten say they believe Palestinian statehood is no longer feasible due to Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, a June said opinion poll. Nearly 80 percent want the resignation of Mr Abbas, who was last elected in 2005, and the vast majority view both the authority and Hamas as corrupt.

Against this background, Biden mildly criticized the Palestinian leadership. “The Palestinian Authority also has important work to do, if you don’t mind me saying so,” Mr Biden said. “Now is the time to strengthen Palestinian institutions to improve governance, transparency and accountability.”

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

Mr Biden has not formally reversed a decision by the Trump administration to legitimize Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which most of the world considers illegal. Following Israeli pressure, he has not reopened the US consulate to Palestinians in Jerusalem and the Palestinian mission in Washington, both of which were closed under Mr Trump.

The Biden administration has also angered Palestinians by recently refusing to prompt Israel to launch a criminal investigation into the May murder of a Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in which multiple investigations, including one by The New York Timesdiscovered that the bullets came from the location of an Israeli army unit that knew there were journalists in the area.

Palestinians demonstrated against Mr Biden on Friday in both Jerusalem and Bethlehem, with some Palestinians criticizing Mr Abbas for meeting him.

“Palestinians view the US as a partner in the occupation, either by funding it or by supporting Israel politically,” said Suhaib Zahda, 39, a political activist in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Mr Biden said he had empathy for Palestinian frustrations. “The Palestinian people are in pain now – you can just feel it,” he said on Friday, adding that the Palestinians’ experience reminded him of his own Irish heritage and the struggles of the Irish under colonial British rule.

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

History says: Hope not
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The long-awaited tidal wave
From righteousness may arise,
And hope and history rhyme

Mr Biden went on to add that he hoped “we are reaching one of those moments where hope and history rhyme”.

He didn’t elaborate on the how or why.

Hiba Yazbek contributed from Jerusalem.