Biden heads in for lightning visit to Israel, Palestinian Authority

US Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to arrive in the region Tuesday afternoon for high-level meetings with Israel and the Palestinian officials, though the trip threatened to be overshadowed by a diplomatic kerfuffle over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cancellation of a trip to Washington that apparently took the White House by surprise.

Biden was due to touch down in the early evening and then meet with former president Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv. No major ceremony was planned for his arrival at Ben-Gurion airport.

On Wednesday he will confer with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and then meet current President Reuven Rivlin before traveling to Ramallah to see Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He will leave on Thursday for Jordan.

Police said major roads would be closed and security boosted as Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, traveled around the area.

The vice president’s planned meeting with Netanyahu comes hours after the White House expressed public “surprise” that the Israeli leader had rejected an offer to meet with US President Barack Obama later this month, and said it only learned Netanyahu was canceling his trip to the United States from the media.

In a sign of yet another round of tension between the Israeli and American leaderships, the administration also publicly rejected earlier Israeli reports that the White House had been unable to schedule a time for the meeting as “false.”

The tiff, punctuated by pointed statements from both Washington and Jerusalem, threatened to once again ruffle feathers in the often testy relationship between Netanyahu’s government and the Obama administration.

Netanyahu’s office said it had earlier informed the White House the trip would likely not go forward and a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel any possible issues could be discussed with Biden instead.

“The thinking is that we’re seeing Biden this week and the assumption is that in the discussion with Biden all the issues will come up,” the official said.

Biden’s trip will include talks on US economic and energy interests, as well as security concerns about Iran and Syria, the White House said.

Central to the discussions are expected to be the finalizing of a new 10-year defense aid package, which Israeli officials are looking to boost beyond the $3.1 billion it currently receives annually.

Talks will also include discussions on neighboring Syria and fighting terror. Biden, who has been involved in American efforts to smooth out relations with Turkey, may also discuss detente efforts between Ankara and Jerusalem.

The White House last week played down suggestions that Biden would launch a new peace initiative during his visit.

“The vice president will not be carrying any major new initiatives,” a senior administration official told reporters.

However on Tuesday reports surfaced that Washington is making efforts to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians before the end of the Obama administration.

Citing “senior US officials” the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported that discussions included “a possible United Nations Security Council resolution that would outline steps toward a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.”

The resolution would call on both sides “to compromise on key issues,” the report said with the US pushing Israel to end settlement construction in the West Bank and recognize East Jersusalem as the capital of a Palestinian State.

In return, Palestinians would be required to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and end their claims for the right to return for Palestinian refugees.

Biden’s visit to Israel will be his second diplomatic visit since a trip in 2010 was marred by the announcement of a major Israeli building project in East Jerusalem, which the US does not recognize as Israeli.

According to a diplomatic cable leaked last month, the episode sparked a rift between Jerusalem and Washington, with Netanyahu then asking European leaders to help patch up ties with US President Barack Obama.

On Monday, Biden kicked off his trip with a visit to Abu Dhabi, where he vowed that the United States and its allies would destroy and “squeeze the heart” of the Islamic State group.

Despite the regional challenges, Biden struck an upbeat tone in a speech to US troops.

“We have to squeeze the heart of Daesh in Iraq and Syria so they can’t continue to pump their poison in the region and around the world,” Biden said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Earlier Monday, Biden visited Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, pausing outside to remove his black dress shoes in keeping with Islamic custom.

He examined a wall in the ornate mosque bearing the 99 names of God written in Arabic before stepping outside to wave at visiting tourists kept a short distance away.

Raphael Ahren and AFP contributed to this report.