opinion
Biden’s First Mideast Trip
BY DAN SCHNUR
I n a few weeks, Joe Biden will head to the Middle
East for the fi rst time as president. Even without
the recent upheaval in the Israeli government, his
time in Israel would have been the least important
part of the trip.

There is certainly political value in Biden’s sep-
arate meetings with interim Israeli Prime Minister
Yair Lapid and Palestinian Authority leader
Mahmoud Abbas. But the American president’s
two days in Israel will mainly serve as a prelude to
the main event: Saudi Arabia.

The primary benefi t of Biden’s time with Lapid
will be to show his support for the outgoing
coalition that Lapid and now-former prime min-
ister Naftali Bennett taped together last year.

Biden’s approach to Israeli domestic politics can
be roughly summarized as “anyone-but-Bibi,”
so publicly demonstrating to Israeli voters the
strength of his relationship with Lapid can serve
both to bolster their new leader and marginalize
Netanyahu at the same time.

Similarly, Biden and Abbas are not expected
to achieve any breakthroughs when they get
together the next day. This meeting, too, is mainly
about geopolitical positioning and messaging.

Just as Biden wants Israelis to understand that he
is a close ally to their leader, the president’s goal
in Bethlehem will be to reassure the Palestinian
people that he will pursue a more even-handed
approach in the region than the Trump adminis-
tration. Once those two communications goals have
been achieved, Biden will not only move from
Israel to Saudi Arabia but from symbolism to sub-
stance. This is where the president’s trip will really
start to matter.

The most obvious and urgent task for Biden
with the Saudis is to convince them to start
pumping more oil. The war in Ukraine has cre-
ated a worldwide energy crisis, and Biden’s fi rst
appeals to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
earlier this spring to increase Saudi output were
completely ignored. Over the past few months,
senior White House and Cabinet offi cials have
dramatically stepped up their outreach to Riyadh,
resulting in some additional oil being made avail-
able to world markets. But as Russia and Ukraine
settle in for a prolonged confl ict, the only way to
persuade Saudi Arabia to release enough addi-
tional oil to off set Russia’s resources is for Biden
and the crown prince to meet face-to-face. Given
the harsh criticism that Biden has leveled against
MBS in the past, that reconciliation will be very
awkward. But in addition to the urgent need for gulf oil,
14 JUNE 30, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
President Joe Biden
The long-term complications of Middle East politics
would become much easier to navigate with
enhanced cooperation from the Saudis.

this leg of Biden’s trip is substantively important
for many other reasons as well. The war in Ukraine
will end at some point, but the long-term complica-
tions of Middle East politics would become much
easier to navigate with enhanced cooperation
from the Saudis. The most important step would
be for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accord
agreements that Israel has achieved with four
other Gulf states to normalize relations and to
cooperate more closely on economic, cultural
and security matters. This, in turn, would not
only strengthen Israel’s standing in the Middle
East but would enhance the largely unoffi cial
coordination between the Saudis, the Israelis
and the United States toward their shared goal
of containing Iran.

Long after the Ukraine war has ended, and
long after today’s sky-high gasoline prices are
an unpleasant memory, the threat that Iran poses
to Israel, to the Middle East and to the world will
remain. Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia and Israel
participated in American-led naval exercises in
the region, a joint eff ort that was surely noted
by Iran’s leaders. But publicly acknowledging
and formalizing the partnership between the two
countries would send an even stronger message
to Tehran.

Biden seems to be willing to sacrifi ce some
personal dignity to be able to repair his rela-
tionship with MBS. He might not have taken that
step if it were not for the energy emergency that
the Russia-Ukraine war has created. But even if
cheaper gasoline is the immediate motivation, an
offi cially recognized collaborative eff ort between
Israel and Saudi Arabia against Iran would be an
even more consequential outcome of his fi rst trip
to the Middle East. JE
Dan Schnur is a professor at the University of
California Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. This
article was originally published by the Jewish
Journal.