US President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on his first visit to the Middle East in accordance to the Abraham Accords. He was welcomed by Israeli Air Force officials at Ben Gurion airport on Wednesday, Biden in his opening remarks said one doesn’t need to be a Zionist and described the US’s connection with Israel as “bone-deep”.
“You don’t need to be a Jew to be a Zionist,” said Biden in his opening remarks.
“The connection between the Israeli and American people is bone deep … I am proud to say that US relations with Israel are deeper and stronger than they have ever been,” US president said at the airport.
In a speech, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid described Biden as a “great Zionist”.
It is Biden’s 10th visit to Israel. His first visit was reported in 1973; when he was a first-term US senator from Delaware.
Biden will spend two days in Israel including the current and former Prime Ministers before meeting Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday in the occupied West Bank.
He will then take a direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia, although the Saudi kingdom does not officially recognize Israel’s existence, but many Muslim countries were reportedly part of the secret talks with Israeli military officials in Egypt earlier this year.
The warming relationship between Israel and the Arab world in which US is playing a major role builds on the Abraham accords which was facilitated by the Trump administration.
The accord was named after the prophet Abraham (Ibrahim), a common figure revered by the three major monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
However, Jordan was the only Muslim nation that denied any military alliance with Israel.