When Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and other Israeli officials extended their hands to President Biden upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday, Biden responded with fist bumps.
But after delivering remarks at the airport, Biden joined other Israeli dignitaries for a photo, shaking hands with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his successor, Naftali Bennett.
The handshakes were perfectly normal for a normal diplomatic trip, but quickly made headlines due to White House announcements ahead of the visit.
His aides announced Wednesday that they were seeking to “minimize contact” during the trip due to the spread of COVID-19, an announcement that came amid Biden’s controversial meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later in the trip.
The White House has reportedly informed Lapid’s office that Biden will refrain from shaking hands due to the pandemic.
A reporter directly asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if the policy was to avoid a photo with Biden shaking hands with the Saudi crown prince, who U.S. intelligence has concluded ordered the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“We say we will try to minimize contact as much as possible,” replied Jean-Pierre. “But there are also precautions that we take because it’s up to his doctor.”
The White House has maintained mitigation measures, such as regular COVID-19 testing for the president and those around him, but the plan has raised eyebrows as Biden has been seen regularly shaking hands at public events in recent days.
During a wreath-laying ceremony later Wednesday at Yad Vashem, a Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Biden also grabbed the hands of two Holocaust survivors as he spoke with them.
It’s unclear whether handshakes will be part of the next leg of Biden’s trip.
Asked Monday if Biden would be photographed shaking hands with the crown prince during the trip, Jake Sullivan, his national security adviser, said the two would meet but said he was leaving the “exact terms” to the trip’s organizers.
Two days later, when he announced that Biden was cutting back on contact during the trip, Sullivan declined to say whether that meant handshakes were out.
“I think the simplest way to put it is that we’re in a phase of the pandemic right now where we’re looking to increase masking, decrease contact to minimize spread,” he said Wednesday. “That’s the approach we’re taking. How exactly that plays out in any given interaction is something we’ll see develop.”
Biden promised during his presidential campaign that he would make Saudi Arabia a “rogue” state after the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and columnist for The Washington Post, who US intelligence concluded was killed on the orders of the Saudi crown prince.
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The president has been widely criticized for his decision to visit Saudi Arabia, which Biden recently defended as helping to keep the United States “strong and secure.” The Washington Post publisher on Tuesday said the trip “undermines our moral authority.”
Saudi Arabia is also a key player in global oil supplies, although Biden has played down suggestions that lower gas prices are driving the trip.
Biden heads to Saudi Arabia on Friday.
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