Biden forgoes handshakes for fist bumps after arriving in Israel

President Biden greeted Israeli leaders with a fist bump rather than the traditional handshake when he arrived in Tel Aviv Wednesday — in what the White House called a nod to rising COVID-19 cases in the region, but what critics said was an attempt to avoid a diplomatic incident when he meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman later this week.

Biden offered the unusual greeting to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Yair Lapid and other dignitaries before delivering brief remarks during an arrival ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

Notably, none of the leaders appeared to take other precautions that have been hallmarks of the ongoing pandemic.

Biden, Herzog and Lapid stood shoulder to shoulder during the ceremony and chatted to each other without wearing masks.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed to reporters on Air Force One early Wednesday that Biden would continue to refrain from shaking hands when he travels to Saudi Arabia on Friday.

“What we’re saying is we are taking precautions,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“Is one of those precautions not shaking hands?” one reporter asked.

“What I’m saying is we’re going to try to minimize … contact as much as possible where we can, and so that is what the focus is going to be on this trip,” the press secretary said.

When the press corps pointed out that the president participated in “very lengthy handshaking and selfie sessions” at the White House over the past two days — including at the Congressional Picnic hours before his departure — Jean-Pierre continued to insist that the no-handshake rule while overseas was due to “extra precautions.”

“COVID is not gone, it’s still very much around,” she said, adding that the imposition of added measures to protect the president are “up to his doctor.”​

Biden is scheduled to meet with the crown prince, known widely as MBS, despite vowing during his successful presidential campaign to make Riyadh a “pariah” over the royal’s role in the murder of US-based Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The US intelligence community has concluded that MBS approved the operation that led to a hit squad killing and dismembering Khashoggi after he was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

​Biden has been criticized for meeting with MBS and accused of going hat in hand to the oil-rich kingdom to plead for an increase in production to help bring down fuel prices in the US.