US President Joe Biden celebrated his Irish roots on the second day of a visit to the Middle East.
Mr Biden was meeting Israel's President Isaac Herzog, whose Belfast-born father is also a previous President of Israel. Mr Herzog spoke of it being "a great day for the Irish" as he met Mr Biden in Jerusalem.
The two men spoke of their shared Irish heritage.
Isaac Herzog's father, former Israeli President Chaim Herzog, was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin, where he became Ireland’s bantamweight boxing champion. Mr Herzog’s grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac HaLevi Herzog, was rabbi of Dublin after the Irish declaration of independence.
Mr Biden inscribed the guestbook in the presidential residence saying that: "From our shared Irish roots to our shared love of Israel, we are united in heart and spirit.
"May our friendship endure and continue to grow! That is the Irish of it, as my grandfather Finnegan would say. God bless you, Joe."
Mr Biden, on his first Middle East trip since taking office in early 2021, arrived in Israel yesterday and held talks with Israeli leaders today.
The US President will meet Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank tomorrow and will hold talks with leaders of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies in Jeddah on Saturday.
Mr Biden said he would not avoid talking about human rights when he visits Saudi Arabia on the second leg of his Middle East trip and stressed that his position on the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi was "absolutely" clear.
The trip represents a delicate balancing act for a president who less than two years ago promised to make Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, a "pariah" on the international stage.
That promise was prompted by the 2018 murder of Mr Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, in a plot that US intelligence said was directly approved by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who denies involvement.
However, Mr Biden and his senior aides ultimately decided that the United States' security and energy relationship with Riyadh was too important to isolate the Sunni Muslim powerhouse.
Mr Biden has said his aim was to reorient - but not rupture - a strategic relationship that has weathered many storms over 80 years.
