Recently, Air Force One touched down at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv for U.S. President Joe Biden's four-day visit to the region including Israel and Saudi Arabia. Much of the emphasis ahead of the visit has focused on improving relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors as part of wider efforts to counter Iran’s growing nuclear threat. As soon as he arrived, Biden showed his great support for the Israelis. "The connection between the Israeli people and the American people is bone deep," he said. "Generation after generation, that connection grows. We invest in each other. We dream together. We’re part of what has always been the objective we both had. I’ve been part of that as a senator, as a vice president, and quite frankly, before that, having been raised by a righteous Christian."

In Jerusalem, Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint declaration, in which the U.S. vowed to use "all elements in its national power" to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

While most presidents have centered their visits to the Jewish state around trying to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Biden administration had no plans to do anything more than reaffirm Biden’s support for a two-state solution.

"This may be the first presidential visit to Israel in history where the president doesn’t really have that deep of a policy agenda and certainly not a real substantive one on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the peace process," said Michael Koplow, chief policy officer of the Israel Policy Forum, a U.S.-based organization that supports a two-state solution.

A report to talk about

Prior to his trip, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) urged Biden to put Israel’s continued violations against Palestinians at the top of his agenda as he visits Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. In its latest report, the NRC highlighted that since Biden took office, Israeli authorities have increased both settlement expansion and demolitions. In the first six months of this year, Israel has approved plans for 4,427 housing units in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. This is a huge increase from 3,645 units approved for all of last year. "This visit presents a good opportunity for Biden and the U.S. to demand a stop to the systemic and daily violations against Palestinians, especially evictions and demolitions that continue to destroy homes and lives," said the NRC’s Middle East Regional Director Carsten Hansen.

"Behind these numbers are real stories of human displacement, of families being evicted with nowhere to go, of children looking on as bulldozers ram through the only home they have ever known. As one of the world’s most powerful allies of Israel, the U.S. and Biden must prioritize the plight of the Palestinians during his visit to the region," said Hansen.

The recent analysis by NRC showed that, for each day Biden spent in office since January 2021, Israel has displaced an average of three Palestinians. This is a total of 1,657 people displaced as a result of the demolishing of 1,269 structures in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Since Lapid assumed office on July 1, Israel has demolished 18 structures and displaced 17 Palestinians.

In May, the Israeli High Court dismissed all the petitions against the forcible transfer of up to 1,200 Palestinians in a large part of Masafer Yatta in southern West Bank that Israel has declared a closed military zone.

"(The court decision) means for the residents, the loss of their homes and villages and their displacement from this area," said the head of the Masafer Yatta Council, Nidal Abu Aram.

The NRC called on Biden to demand that Israel issue a moratorium on expulsion and forcible transfer of Palestinians and the expansion of settlements.

Biden’s meeting

Following two days of warm embraces from Israeli officials, Biden made his support for the Jewish state clear, laid claim to the label of "Zionist" and praised it as a democracy that shares American values. Biden devoted the last hours of his Israeli visit to restoring ties with Palestinians by visiting the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)-operated Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem and meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem.

These two events on Biden’s itinerary achieved no progress in rekindling talks in the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. "I know that the goal of the two state (solution) seems so far away, while indignities like restrictions on movement and travel or the daily worry of your children’s safety are real and immediate," Biden said. "So even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians and the Israelis closer together."

Abbas, in his own remarks, said "the key to peace" in the region "begins with ending the Israeli occupation of our land," and he said Israel "cannot continue to act as a state above law." He noted, "I am willing to extend an open hand to Israeli leaders so that we can bring peace to the region." "The opportunity for a two-state solution on the 1967 borders may be available today, and it may not remain for a long time," Abbas added.

Abbas asked his U.S. counterpart in front of reporters to pressure Israel to halt the expansion of settlements and acts of settler violence against Palestinians, as well as the policy of demolishing Palestinian houses and frequent Israeli raids and arrests in Palestinian towns.

Besides, Abbas asked Biden to reopen the East Jerusalem consulate and the Washington office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), also asking that the organization be removed from the list of designated terrorist organizations. "We are not terrorists," Abbas said.

Abbas also asked Biden to press to further investigate the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the journalist who was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin while reporting on an Israeli raid.

The White House announced a range of measures meant to improve the Palestinian economic situation as it approved $316 million in new aid for Palestinians, including $100 million for a hospital network that serves patients from the West Bank and Gaza. Another $200 million is to go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) which supports Palestinian refugees.

The White House also announced $15 million in emergency aid to help the territories during grain shortages caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as an initiative to speed up the rollout of 4G technology in the West Bank and Gaza by the end of 2023. The Biden administration said it was also pressing Israel to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians by streamlining the crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.

The disappointment

Biden’s trip to the West Bank was met with skepticism and bitterness among Palestinians who believed he did not take any step toward reviving peace talks, especially after former U.S. President Donald Trump sidelined them while heavily favoring Israel. While Biden has improved relations between the U.S. and Palestinian leaders compared with where they stood under his predecessor, his administration has been slow to reverse several measures that Trump put in place as president that Palestinians say directly affect their goal of becoming an independent state.

The U.S. Embassy in Israel remains in Jerusalem, where Trump relocated it from Tel Aviv, but the U.S. Consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem and offices for Palestinians in Washington remain closed as the Israeli settlements on the West Bank that Trump did not criticize have continued to grow.

"In terms of the actual tangibles in their hands, they’re going to likely be left with some statements, a visit and a handshake," said Shira Efron, director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum.

However, the Biden administration officials said they have intentionally taken a more hands-off approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than the prior administration. The U.S. president left with an uncertain political road ahead and a low likelihood of anything more than minimal U.S. economic aid for Palestinians.