Biden will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli War Cabinet to understand Israel’s plans and goals in the coming days and weeks, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday Way to Tel Aviv.
“Uncomfortable questions”
“He will ask some uncomfortable questions, he will ask them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel, but he will also ask uncomfortable questions.” Kirby declines to specify the types of questions Biden intends to ask. According to Palestinian information, hundreds of deaths are feared as a result of the rocket hitting the hospital. Hamas and Israel blame each other for the rocket strike.
Biden originally wanted to fly on to Amman after the meeting with Netanyahu to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. If Biden does not meet with Abbas or a Palestinian leader while meeting Israelis on Israeli soil, it could undermine his diplomatic message and draw criticism at home and abroad.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, coming from Israel, met with President Sisi in Cairo. The flight of Scholz and his delegation was delayed due to a rocket alarm in Tel Aviv. The passengers therefore had to leave the plane. Scholz was taken into a building and the other passengers were asked to lie on the floor on the tarmac.
Egypt is Israel’s only Arab neighbor that borders the Gaza Strip. The conversation is likely to be about, among other things, how the approximately 200 hostages of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas can be freed – including several Germans. The German Chancellor is also relying on Egypt’s contacts with Hamas. He also wants to help prevent a wildfire in the region. Shortly after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, he had spoken to Sisi on the phone.
