Biden eschews handshakes for fist bumps in Israel — then switches back to handshakes
President Biden greeted Israeli leaders with a fist bump rather than the traditional handshake when he arrived in Tel Aviv Wednesday in what the White House called a precaution responding to rising COVID-19 cases in the region — only for Biden to undercut his own aides by reverting to shaking hands later in the day.
Biden offered fist bumps to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Yair Lapid during an arrival ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, only to grip-and-grab with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moments later.
In addition, Biden, Lapid and Herzog stood shoulder-to-shoulder during the ceremony and chatted to each other without wearing masks.
Just one hour later, the president again threw caution to the wind and was seen shaking hands with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz while attending a briefing on the Jewish state’s Iron Dome missile defense system. Later in the day, Biden shook hands with Lapid during a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The president also clasped hands with two Holocaust survivors and even leaned in close to speak with them, going further against COVID precautions.
Hours earlier, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One that Biden would continue to refrain from shaking hands when he travels to Saudi Arabia on Friday. Critics say the policy is a less-than-graceful attempt to avoid a diplomatic incident when Biden meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later this week.
“What we’re saying is we are taking precautions,” Jean-Pierre said.
“Is one of those precautions not shaking hands?” one reporter asked.
“What I’m saying is we’re going to try to minimize … contact as much as possible where we can, and so that is what the focus is going to be on this trip,” the press secretary answered.
When the press corps pointed out that the president participated in “very lengthy handshaking and selfie sessions” at the White House over the past two days — including at the Congressional Picnic hours before his departure — Jean-Pierre continued to insist that the no-handshake rule while overseas was due to “extra precautions.”
“I think we’re dancing around this question, which is, there’s a reason why the President might not want to be seen shaking hands with the crown prince,” one reporter tried again, “and it seems like you’ve — like he was just on the South Lawn of the White House embracing members of Congress, all that sort of thing. And now, suddenly, there’s what appears to be a change.”
“We are saying that we’re going to try to minimize contact as much as possible,” Jean-Pierre responded. “But also, there are precautions that we are taking because this is up to his doctor.”
“I think just the simplest way for me to put it is that we’re in a phase of the pandemic right now where we’re looking to increase masking, reduce contact to minimize spread,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during the same briefing. “That’s the approach we’re taking. How exactly that plays out in any given interaction is something that we will see unfold.”
Biden is scheduled to meet with the crown prince, known widely as MBS, despite vowing during his successful presidential campaign to make Riyadh a “pariah” over the royal’s role in the murder of US-based Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The US intelligence community has concluded that MBS approved the operation that led to a hit squad killing and dismembering Khashoggi after he was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Biden has been criticized for meeting with MBS and accused of going hat in hand to the oil-rich kingdom to plead for an increase in production to help bring down fuel prices in the US.
