Tonight. President Biden is departing for his first trip to the Middle
East as president. It is delicate diplomacy for an administration
that has pledged to put human rights first.
But it's also balancing Middle East realities, especially in Saudi
Arabia. That is where the president will spend Friday and Saturday.
Tomorrow he will be in Jerusalem, and that's where Nick Schifrin
begins our coverage.
It's a city holy to three religions. But this week they raised three
colors. The red, white and blue rolled out the red carpet and buffed
the bust, said the Israeli president's House.
And they called out the cavalry ahead of President Biden's arrival.
Israel and the US want to focus on defense Israel, The US and regional
Arab militaries are working together on air defense using Israeli
technology.
Including the still in production, Iron Dome. Lasers are designed
to combat common enemy Iran and its own advancing missile technology.
It's also an outgrowth of the Trump administration's efforts to normalize
Arab Israeli relations.
With Biden will not announce changes to Trump administration policies,
including the closure of the U. S. Is Jerusalem Consulate that focused
on Palestinian affairs and declaring Jewish settlements in the occupied
West Bank. Not a violation of international law is coming as
An extension of Trump's policies rather than as an antidote.
Ashrawi has been a Palestinian leader for decades, acting on the
basis that
You can ignore the Palestinians. You can weaken the Palestinians
who can bash them into submission. You can give them if you hand
out and symbolic gestures and they lie down and die quietly.
President Biden will announce support for a hospital network in East
Jerusalem and for the two state solution. President Biden and his
advisors talk about how they believe in the two state solution.
Do you think you laugh? Do you think that's real?
Ah, look.
That is a real disconnect between the verbal level.
And reality on the ground.
It's not enough to say we believe in that state solution. Israel
has systematically destroyed that two state solution by attempting
to destroy the Palestinian state. We want
Not these empty words, not hollow promises. We want to see action.
That says we are serious for acting Israeli Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Peed. The visit is about looking beyond the Palestinians
lame from Jerusalem, President Biden will fly to Saudi Arabia. He
will carry with him a message of peace and hope from us.
The Saudi visit, acknowledges Middle East reality these days, the
region's pomp and circumstances often reserved for Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman.
He's known as MBS 36 Year olds been on a regional tour as the man
who will be king. He's been trying to modernize the kingdom under
his vision, 2030 giving women more rights and Kirby in religious
extremists, But US officials also believe he is the source of the
kingdom's crackdown on its critics, US officials told PBS news hour
he's believed to have personally blessed
The 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside Saudi Arabia
Istanbul consulate the following year candidate Biden promised punishment
We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them
in fact, the pariah that they are human rights will be the center
of our foreign policy. Despite those words and warnings, the administration
says now is the time to visit Saudi Arabia.
To discuss the truce that's currently holding in Yemen and increase
oil production. America's values human rights are a strategic interests
of the United States. So is energy security, so is stopping terrorism.
So we seeking peace in a place like Yemen, But that's not good enough
for the kingdom's critics and the Saudi regime is going to take this
as a green light that they can. They can commit abuses without any
accountability. A regional sod Non is an American citizen whose brother,
Abdel Rahman, is also an American. He was working as a humanitarian
in Saudi Arabia when he was arrested in 2018.
He's been sentenced to 20 years in prison. He got held in a secret
prison and church brutally tortured. Um, and he was denied completely
any communication with us all of that, because he there to criticize
in a in an anonymous account.
The abuses and the oppression, repression that is happening in the
country. Saudi Arabia has launched reforms that MBS says are meant
to quote bolster the principles of justice in forest transparency
and protect human rights. Mohammed bin Salman's defenders say that
he's a modernizer that vision 2030.
Will remake the country. I would say actions speak louder than words.
It has been even becoming more abused them before it is, um, imprisoning
people torturing people disappearing people
says she and her family have faced online death threats. And so why
are you willing to do this interview and speak up? Staying silent
to me is a lot more.
Rescue e than actually speaking up. If I stay silent and I get targeted,
I'll be murdered in silence, and nobody knows about my case. Nobody
knows about my brother's case, but at least if I have, they're going
to come after me and murder me at least right now I'm known. My brother's
case is known.
Despite those worries and request by Saudi activist to President
Biden, he not traveled to the kingdom, U. S officials say that it
is vital right now to talk to Saudi officials about furthering Saudi
Israeli cooperation and Israeli integration into the larger region.
Judy
And Nic, You've learned what concrete announcements we should expect
from this trip.
Yes. So senior Israeli official tells me tonight that the prime minister
of Israel and the president will sign a strategic understanding document
laying out where the two countries will go in the coming years. As
we reported in the story, there will be that humanitarian assistance
to the Palestinians announced by President Biden and also independent
analysts have been briefed by U. S officials.
Say that Saudi Arabia will allow overflights from Israel over the
territory of Saudi Arabia and direct flights for Israeli Muslims
during the hajj to Saudi Arabia, Judy