"Biden comes to Jerusalem to save himself" | Israel today

Is the President of the United States coming?

Are you serious? ", Asked Juan and Constance Ramzini, tourists from Houston who happened to be at the gates of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem yesterday morning and had no idea that in a short time, where they were standing, Joe Biden himself would be marching.

The Ramzini couple - originally from Guatemala and she from Colombia - came on a tour of the holy sites.

I informed them that the 46th President of the world's most powerful power is coming to advance the affairs of the region, skip to Bethlehem, meet with the head of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, and proceed to Saudi Arabia.

Then Juan, who testified that he was quite far from current affairs, said: "Peace and politics are different things. These leaders never do the right things."

Anyone looking for the hustle and bustle and armored vehicles outside the mythical hotel, was a little disappointed.

No snipers on rooftops and no special forces, at least those visible to the naked eye.

But it was easy to spot the American pioneer force on the ground.

Spreading the red carpet at the President's House, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

US President Joe Biden, Photo: EPI

One by one, large savannah vehicles reached the front of the hotel and unloaded equipment.

Young men, dressed in elegant sportswear, walked outside and scanned the area.

Our own police force walked along the street and lingered on weak points so that nothing would go unanswered at the time of the XI.

The large part of the tourists who fill the streets of the beer this summer is troubled, more than the nuclear problem, the question of how the presidential visit will affect the continuation of the trip.

"I had a team from Spain that was interested in how it would move from place to place," said Miriam Kadosh, a mentor by profession.

"They were worried about the amount of security personnel they met everywhere."

Miriam had just been waiting for a French TV crew, which came out for an article in the City of David.

"This visit is causing us, the professionals, quite a few problems, because this is a time when you can not move in your city."

are you excited?

"I am indifferent because there will be no change, certainly not from Biden. His intentions are good, but he is an older man and if you want to change then it must first come from us, and not from the President of the United States.

I say and show my groups in daily life that there is no problem here with the neighbors, we have a good relationship with them.

It is the political interests that are hurting.

So whether he comes or not - it does not interest me. "

"Business will be disrupted"

Avraham Levy, who runs a fruit shop in the Mahane Yehuda market, had a clear opinion on the subject of the visit.

"I did not want him to come," he stated emphatically.

"I'm not an extreme right-winger, but he is undesirable. I know Biden's views even when he was vice president, and I know he came to the region because of Saudi oil and the road passes through us. He came to save himself. Trump was a thousand times better for Israel."

Levy's political side is not difficult to identify, certainly when a picture of Menachem Begin hangs on the podium.

"The visit is the biggest political intervention there is," Levy is angry.

"After all, if Bibi had been the prime minister, he would not have come, and what else can Lapid do in front of the president of the United States?

He is a child, what experience does he have? '".

The self.

"I do not believe in presidents", Photo: Yehuda Peretz

St. Mary.

"I do not care if Biden comes," Photo: Yehuda Peretz

Karkash and we wrote Levy.

Hello and cheer, Photo: Yehuda Peretz

The Mahane Yehuda market is no longer as political and exciting as it used to be.

Today the merchants care more about the pocket than the political horizon.

"The visit will disrupt our business," is convinced Shimon Ozeri, a butcher.

"I live in the Talpiot area, and on Wednesday I will take the bus and back. If there is no public transportation, I will walk. In the market business is not something anyway, the cucumber season. There will certainly be less traffic. I know this from Trump and Obama visits."

The Jerusalem Municipality is preparing for the visit of the President of the United States // Photo: Arnon Busani

"On which side is he at all?"

As in the Judean camp, there was also someone in the Old City market who grumbled about the rush, which was supposed to start tomorrow.

Jack Honey, who owns a juice stand, showed stickers on the doors of the business, signs left over from security on previous presidents' visits, so they asked to close the shops and whoever opened them was fined. 

"Which side is he on, what will he do here?" Asked Hani, who defines himself as a Palestinian-Christian who feels he belongs to the State of Israel.

"I do not believe in presidents."

But it was precisely in the alleys of the Old City that one could also catch a hint of excitement.

"If Biden manages to do in the short visit what they have not done here for 3,000 years - hello and hello," Ahmad Karkash, a store owner in the market, told us.

"If he has good will, let them close everything for him."

"He is a serious man," said Rashek Razek, a taxi driver, a native of the Old City.

"Hopefully he will succeed in the task and not be like his predecessors, who only spoke and failed. There is really nothing missing here, except one thing - peace."

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