The New York Times
As they reached the back of Air Force One to tell us what to do in the event of a missile attack, it was clear that this was no ordinary presidential trip.
The famous blue and white Boeing 747 was somewhere over the Atlantic this week, carrying President Biden to Israel, which is in the middle of war with Hamas. Security officials gave traveling journalists instructions on how to, well, avoid dying.
They handed out pocket cards with brief tips on what to do if an air raid alarm was raised. They showed a possible Hamas offensive while we were on the ground and what to do if an attack occurred while we were under the wing of Air Force One on the runway, the president waiting to disembark; What should we do if there was an attack during our motorcade on the way to Tel Aviv? What to do if there was an attack on the hotel where Biden was supposed to meet with Israeli officials?
What if the tiny letters on the map were very difficult to read if a missile came our way?
It was the first time since I began covering the White House in 1996 that I saw reporters aboard Air Force One receiving such instructions a sign of how much uncertainty there was surrounding the trip.
After all, they led the president and his entourage live on television in broad daylight to a country at war. Air Force One would land at BenGurion International Airport, within range of Hamas rockets in Gaza, a place considered dangerous enough that many international airlines have suspended flights there.
The day before, Chancellor Olaf Scholz had to be evacuated from his own plane due to an air raid alarm and taken to an emergency shelter. The reporters traveling with him? They were ordered to throw themselves on the ground and lie down until the danger passed.
Earlier, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was taken to a shelter during a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The reporters who were with him were hastily removed from the vans and taken to the steps of a building to protect themselves from a possible attack.
This Biden presidential trip has already proven unusual in other ways.
As the delegation arrived for Air Force One’s takeoff at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, we learned that the second half of the mission — a stop in Jordan where Biden would meet Arab leaders — had been abruptly canceled due to the explosion at a hospital in Gaza.
Air Force One taxied down the runway and the journey began.
There is, of course, a reason why presidents generally don’t travel to countries at war. In the cases where this occurred, the circumstances were generally better controlled.
Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president to fly to a foreign destination during an armed conflict when he traveled to Casablanca during the North African campaign of World War II. No one was informed of the trip until he had arrived safely.
Reporters thought Roosevelt was on his way to his home in Hyde Park, New York. Following this precedent, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama flew to Afghanistan and Iraq in disguise. The arrival was not announced in advance and the short stay, measured in hours, was limited to American military bases.
Once, when Bush was secretly flown into the war zone, his cover was almost blown when a homeless man in civilian clothes walked toward his car at a traffic light. As the president was told to get out, a Secret Service agent in the car behind him had the quick idea to throw a few dollars out the window to get the fraudster’s attention.
With this year’s trip to Ukraine, Biden became the first president to visit a country at war without the relative security of a US military presence there. But this journey was also shrouded in mystery. Fearing Russian antiaircraft missiles, Biden was transported on a ninehour train ride to Kiev, accompanied by some aides, guards and two journalists.
On the other hand, the White House announced Biden’s trip to Israel in advance. Although the American government asked reporters traveling with him to keep the details of their agenda secret until they arrived on site, Netanyahu’s aides in Israel published where and when the American president would be before he landed in the country.
The safety instructions on the plane were surreal. Although I covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, I was not among the select group of reporters who flew with Bush or Obama on those occasions. But journalists told me that they received no guidance like we did on the way to Tel Aviv.
American government officials told us that if we heard an air alert, called “Azaka” in Israel, we would have about a minute before a missile flying toward us would hit.
If this happened while we were on the airport tarmac documenting the President’s arrival, we had to run at high speed to the escort vehicles that were nearby.
If an alarm sounded while we were in the vehicles, we were supposed to stay inside the opposite of Israeli security protocol, which is to exit the vehicle and seek shelter, as the car itself could be a target. When we arrived at the hotel in Tel Aviv where the President was to meet Netanyahu, we found a special shelter or safe room in the building called “Mamad.”
The end of the alert would signal that the missile was intercepted or crashed somewhere else. However, we should remain sheltered for a few minutes to protect ourselves from falling objects.
On the card we were given was the phone number to call if we got separated from the president’s party or if Air Force One took off without us. Fortunately for Biden and his entourage, the worstcase scenarios were worse than the reality we would actually encounter during our short stay.
When we were in Tel Aviv, the coastal city looked the same as always. There were many heavily armed soldiers along the procession, but that is generally the case wherever a president is received.
On a hot Mediterranean day, Israelis in shorts and Tshirts stood on the street taking photos with their smartphones, as is often the case during a presidential visit.
For some reason, we didn’t hear any sirens warning of airstrikes while Biden was there. We were told that they sounded in other parts of the country, and after we left they sounded in Tel Aviv. But Hamas apparently decided not to provoke the American president during his seven and a half hour stay in Israel.
The trip ended with another surprise. On the way home, the president returned to the press box to talk to us about the file something he had never done before during his presidency. “You guys suck,” he told us.
Wearing a light blue zipup sweater and jeans, he acknowledged that the trip was risky, at least politically. Presidential trips are often planned with specific outcomes in mind. This one was a bit risky in many ways. But Biden seemed satisfied that he got what he wanted. “I thought it was worth the risk,” he said.