The White House’s apparent efforts to publicly distance President Biden from the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman are making for a diplomatic spectacle. A ban on presidential handshakes during his trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia this week lasted only a few minutes after Air Force One landed in Israel today.
From the New York Times dispatch on President Biden’s arrival:
President Biden avoided shaking hands upon landing in Israel on Wednesday, just as aides hinted he would, citing the rapidly spreading new coronavirus subvariant, and fist-bumped local leaders instead. But only minutes later, he evidently forgot and shook hands with two former prime ministers anyway.
Outsized attention was focused on what Mr. Biden would do, because his staff appeared to be laying the ground to make it possible for him to avoid a much more politically unhealthy handshake later in his trip with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Because of Covid, aides suggested, he might refrain from all handshakes during the four-day swing through the region, sparing him a photo that he would prefer to avoid.
Previously, the president had attempted to obscure the fact that he even planned to meet MBS. A White House statement that conspicuously omitted any mention of a Biden–MBS meeting was quickly undercut by a statement from the Saudi embassy confirming that there would in fact be a meeting between the two.