President Joe Biden’s dash through Israel and the Palestinian Authority this week is expected to cut across some of the region’s most iconic places. Both luxurious and grueling, Biden’s visit starts with a VIP arrival at Israel’s main commercial airport — an on-and-off nightmare for regular travelers this summer due to huge lines and delays — and pings through Jerusalem and the West Bank. Most of his travels are focused on business. Upon arrival, he will get a close-up look at Israel’s advanced missile-defense technology. The threat of Iran’s nuclear capabilities and the 2022 U.S. midterm elections shadow the whole exercise as Biden steps back on the world stage in his first visit to the region as president. But in between meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, he will visit an array of well-known sites while staying at a historic Jerusalem hotel. Here’s a look at some of the expected highlights of Biden’s tour before he flies off to Saudi Arabia on Friday. FAMOUS DIGS The King David Hotel is fully booked this week for Biden and his retinue of hundreds of staff, security and journalists. It’s Biden’s first time as president bedding down behind the building’s iconic pink limestone façade, which overlooks the domes and minarets of Jerusalem’s Old City. The King David has been a witness to — and sometimes a participant in — Israel’s history. It was opened in 1931, when the area was still governed by British mandatory authorities. A bombing by a Zionist militant group in 1946 struck its southwest facade, killing 91 people. After Israeli independence in 1948, it overlooked a valley in no-man’s land. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were photographed having a tense dinner in 1977 ahead of the Camp David Peace Accords. Hollywood has been here, too. Movie stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton reportedly quarreled in public during their stay. Scenes from the 1960 movie “Exodus” were filmed in the gilded lobby and on the hotel’s fancy terrace. Presidents going back to Richard Nixon have stayed at the King David. Dozens of kings and prime ministers also make the hotel’s client list. Tiles that span the building’s first floor bear images of the signatures of luminaries, from Madonna to former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A stairwell behind the reception desk doubles as a gallery of famous faces in the house, including a priceless image of then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter in shorts as he returned from a morning jog. All that history and the sweeping views don’t come cheap. The 153 square-meter (1,600 square-foot) presidential suite goes for more than $3,800 a night the week after Biden leaves, according to the hotel’s website YAD VASHEM Biden on Wednesday will stop at Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, which memorializes the 6 million Jews killed during World War II by the Nazis and their allies. The spike-shaped building in Jerusalem tells the story of the Holocaust emphasizing the experiences of the individual victims. It’s about 180 meters (591 feet) long and slashes through a mountain, its upper edge protruding through the ridge. Biden will rekindle the Eternal Flame and lay a wreath on a slab over a spot where ashes from the extermination camps are buried, the […]

The post Biden To Ping Through Israel’s Iconic Spots On Mideast Tour appeared first on The Yeshiva World.