Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia was doomed from the beginning

Editorial: At least Biden was honest enough to admit the ‘ground is not ripe’ to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks

Biden’s scepticism about prospects for peace seem reasonable (Reuters)

Trying to make peace in the Middle East is a task American presidents usually leave until their second term. That was the pattern set, with varying degrees of success, by presidents Nixon, Clinton and Obama.

Only Jimmy Carter allowed hope to triumph over experience during his single term in office, with the historic Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. Although only in his first term, and on his first visit to the region, Joe Biden is expressly not there to follow in the footsteps of any of his peacemaking predecessors. He has been around for too long, and seen too many disappointments, to risk the investment needed to make progress. This trip has more to do with Russia and Ukraine than Israel and Palestine.

President Biden makes no bones about it. While re-affirming the long-standing two state formula – “two states for two peoples” – he was also honest enough to admit the “ground is not ripe” to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks. It is something of an understatement.

Despite a warm welcome from Israeli and Palestinian officials, the militant group Hamas scorned the president’s expressions of sympathy for the Palestinians, and called America “a partner in the aggression on our people”. Not content with insulting the only power in the world remotely able and willing to broker peace in the future, Hamas also attacked Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas for meeting Mr Biden at all. Hamas declared it “strange” that the Palestinian leader “extends his hand for peace with the occupation”.

Given that Palestine needs America, it is not so strange, however. With such obvious fissures on the Palestinian side, and an Israeli government continuing to flout UN resolutions, Mr Biden’s scepticism about prospects for peace seems reasonable.

The historic aspect of the trip was his taking a direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia, something only made possible by the recent rapprochement between the two regional superpowers. In doing so, Mr Biden signalled once again that he is content to follow Donald Trump’s diplomatic initiatives aimed at normalising relations between the state of Israel and its neighbours.

With new diplomatic relations, it is at least possible that Israel may be reassured about the intentions of its past enemies, feel more secure, and thus more ready to live in peace with Palestinians, and guarantee their security and human rights in return. Given the absence of “ripe” conditions for a more traditional bilateral Palestine-Israel initiative, it is worth pursuing. Mr Biden’s most pressing priorities in the broader area were to evacuate US forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, and withdraw from direct involvement, rather than increase engagement.

Mr Biden’s real aim now is to persuade Saudi Arabia to help Ukraine win the war with Russia. Thus far, the Saudis have displayed a surprisingly neutral attitude towards the Kremlin, given that it has traditionally been so close to the west, particularly America. Cementing the Saudi-Israel relationship may help tilt Riyadh away from Moscow, and in the process increase oil shipments and take the pressure of spiralling energy prices off the world economy.

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Even here though, on limited and practical policy aims, the president seems set to falter, just as Boris Johnson failed to persuade crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to loosen the taps earlier this year. The White House spin is that “further action taken to ensure that there is sufficient energy to protect the health of the global economy will be done in the context of Opec”.

So gas prices in the US and across the world will stay high, and higher than they could be, if Prince Mohammed were more cooperative. It is difficult to persuade such a figure, though, when the free world has rightly made an issue of his abuse of human rights and disregard for human life. After all, President Biden once promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah state” and “pay the price” for the crown prince’s policies.

It has to be said that Saudi Arabia has rarely been in a stronger negotiating position than it is today, and such words are unlikely to fall from the lips of the president in the coming days.