When Biden visited Israel, wounds were fresh and tension was mounting. Two years later, Trump arrives with prospect of peace

President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on Friday. Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The last time an American president traveled to Israel , 11 days after the October 7 terror attacks, passengers aboard Air Force One received pocket-sized notecards describing how to behave should the motorcade come under rocket fire (“Do not exit the vehicle,” the tiny print helpfully read).

Ultimately, the air-raid sirens did not sound during then-President Joe Biden’s nine hours on the ground in Tel Aviv. Instead, Israelis watched calmly along the sparkling Mediterranean as his motorcade sped by, some of them playing beach volleyball on the sand, others taking sunset jogs under an apricot sky.

Almost exactly two years later, another president is making another last-minute