The White House earlier said Mr Biden would avoid shaking hands with foreign leaders during his trip as a means of protecting the 79-year-old amid rising Covid-19 cases.
Wearing his trademark aviator sunglasses, Mr. Biden initially pumped his fists as he stepped off Air Force One.
But he soon threw caution to the wind, embracing Lapid and shaking hands with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former prime minister.
The president then posed with Israeli leaders for a photo on the runway at Ben-Gurion Airport before attending a briefing on Israel’s air defense systems.
Mr. Biden’s tangible greetings will complicate White House efforts to avoid a handshake between Mr. Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the United States has concluded killed a Washington Post journalist.
Mr Biden hopes his visit to the Kingdom will encourage him to increase oil production and therefore lower prices for Americans at the pump.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran analyst at the hawkish Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Mr Biden’s commitment to use military force to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions was “remarkable and declarative in the first place”.
He added: “But that might be unheard of compared to a year and a half of reluctance to put non-kinetic pressure on Tehran.”
“Democrats want me to run again”
Under pressure at home, the president dismissed polls that showed his support was bleeding and sought to highlight employment data and other strong indicators of the US economy.
Mr Biden insisted Democrats “want” him to run for re-election when questioned about a poll which showed 64 per cent of Democratic voters would prefer a new leader for the 2024 election.
“They want me to run,” Mr. Biden said. He added, “This poll showed that 92 percent of Democrats, if I ran, would vote for me.”
Mr. Biden failed to mention that the NYT/Siena College figure is among the Democrats choosing between him and Donald Trump.
The poll did offer some comfort to Mr. Biden, with voters across the country saying he would defeat Mr. Trump in a possible rematch in 2024 by 44 percent to 41 percent.
It came after Mr. Biden’s approval rating rose three points in a Reuters-Ipsos poll on Wednesday from a record low of 36 percent the previous week.
“Read the polls. Read the polls,” Mr. Biden chided a White House reporter, adding: “You’re all the same.”
The US president deflected from more alarming figures in the NYT poll, which found only 26 percent of Democrats think Mr. Biden should be the party’s nominee.
Mr. Biden, who at 79 is the oldest president in American history, has repeatedly said he intends to run in 2024, health permitting.
His allies say he remains Democrats’ best hope to keep Mr. Trump out of the White House amid speculation that Republicans will announce a presidential bid within weeks.
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