Biden’s Middle East Junket (Updated)

The editors of The Economist are highly critical of President Biden’s trip to the Middle East, characterizing it as “aimless”:

For decades American presidents have arrived in the Holy Land like earnest pilgrims searching for the holy grail of a two-state solution. George Bush hoped to find it in 2003 with his “road map for peace”. Barack Obama came in 2013, while John Kerry, his secretary of state, was trying to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks. Even Donald Trump promised to “give it an absolute go”.

Joe Biden has lost the faith. His nearly 48-hour visit to Israel and Palestine, which begins on July 13th, will be an exercise in banality: shake a few hands, see a few sights, head back to the airport. He is unlikely to announce big plans or offer stirring words. No president in recent memory has arrived with so little to say about the region’s most intractable conflict.

Then it’s off to Saudi Arabia!

Even now, the president insists he is not going to Jeddah, the Saudis’ commercial capital, to meet Prince Muhammad. Instead he is going to attend a broader meeting with leaders of six Gulf countries, plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. If the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia should happen by a diplomatic summit in Saudi Arabia, perhaps he will say hello. This is comical spin; that Mr Biden feels he must offer it shows how controversial the trip is among Democrats.

It would be less controversial if it offered the promise of real achievements. It does not. Israeli officials play down talk of a breakthrough with Saudi Arabia, with good reason. The kingdom is in no rush to make a deal. It will settle for incremental steps: Mr Biden is expected to announce in Jeddah that more Israeli airliners will be allowed to fly over Saudi airspace. On oil, even if the Saudis agree to pump more, it is unclear how long they can run fields at full tilt, and whether the world has enough refining capacity to turn extra crude into fuel that can be gobbled up.

I think they’re being a bit harsh but their key observation remains: why is President Biden visiting the Middle East? To beg for more oil? That doesn’t make any sense. Since the Abraham Accords the urgency of Middle East peace is much diminished so the typical reason that presidents have visited the Middle East doesn’t apply, either. The visit can’t be for domestic consumption since Americans are disinterested in foreign policy at best and much more concerned about domestic concerns now so that doesn’t make any sense.

It’s mysterious.

Update

Foreign Policy’s Colm Quinn has a slightly more charitable take on the trip:

By visiting Israel before Saudi Arabia, he avoids the snub of his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, who rankled Israelis by traveling to Egypt for his first Middle East trip and skipped Israel altogether.

With Israel ruled by a caretaker government following the collapse of its multi-party coalition last month, the visit is a chance for interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid to audition for the full-time role.

Biden is handing Lapid a diplomatic lay-up by participating in a signing ceremony as part of the trip. On Thursday, the two men are set to put their signatures to “The Jerusalem Declaration”—a framework for relations that will include a statement that neither country will allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

with this about the Saudi visit:

In a weekend Washington Post op-ed, Biden gave his reasons for traveling. Biden said he was going to the Middle East “to start a new and more promising chapter of America’s engagement” and promote the “diplomacy and cooperation” that he said ultimately prevents violent extremism from attacking Americans on U.S. soil.