There have now been 12 US presidential visits to Israel – all of them in my lifetime. While I was not there when Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter stopped by, Jerusalem was my home when Bill Clinton came calling (4 times), George W. Bush (twice), Barack Obama (twice) and Donald Trump (once).
Out of all these, none – not even Trump, Israel’s best friend ever in the White House – verbalised love and support for the Jewish state as earnestly, as meaningfully and as emotionally as did President Joe Biden on his July 13-15 stop-over en route to Saudi Arabia.
(Less contrastable is the degree of Israel’s fawning over every visiting American leader – unsurprisingly really, given the dearth of friendships enjoyed by the Jewish state or, throughout history, by the Jews. Note Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s poignant if misappropriated greeting to Biden, “You are Joseph, our brother.”)
This brother pressed every button; ticked (almost) every box:
About Israel, and his affinity to her: “I am a Zionist” he proclaimed before boarding...
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