“Lapid gets a sharp and smooth ‘failed’ score on this visit,” says former Israeli ambassador Danny Danon.
By World Israel News Staff
On the final day of what was widely seen as a warm visit to Israel by the American president, Joe Biden’s staff apparently removed the Israeli flag from the presidential vehicle en route to the Augusta Victoria Hospital, which serves Palestinians, in the eastern part of the Israeli capital.
Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a three-day visit to Israel, including a stop in Ramallah Friday morning. He then continued on to Saudi Arabia.
The visit including the signing of the “Jerusalem Declaration” on Thursday, according to which Jerusalem and Washington “reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our two countries and the enduring commitment of the United States to Israel’s security.”
The countries “further reaffirm that the strategic U.S.-Israel partnership is based on a bedrock of shared values, shared interests, and true friendship.”
Notwithstanding the “true friendship,” the Israeli flag was missing from the American vehicle.
“It begins with a visit by an American president to a Palestinian institution in eastern Jerusalem,” Israel’s former UN ambassador wrote on social media.
“This continues Lapid’s inability to draw a red line, act as a statesman and prevent this dangerous precedent. And it ends with the removal of the Israeli flag from Biden’ caravan in the capital of the State of Israel,” the current World Likud chairman stated.
“Lapid gets a sharp and smooth ‘failed’ score on this visit, and it’s scary to think what future diplomats’ visits here will look like in the coming months. This evil government must be replaced,” he said.
In a first, the Biden administration had refused to permit Israeli officials to accompany the president to the eastern Jerusalem institution.
Since former president Donald Trump’s formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Israeli government officials have joined U.S. officials on all visits to the eastern section of the capital.
In an open letter published in The Jewish Press earlier this week, Danon said it will be viewed “as an attempt to undermine Israel’s sovereignty over its own capital.”
The visit ended with an American pledge of over $300 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority.