President Trump delivering address to a joint session of Congress Image by Getty Images

By Aiden Pink May 4, 2017

President Trump’s first foreign trip as president later this month will take him to Israel — and he wants the ultimate photo op.

Tentatively scheduled to arrive in Israel on May 22, Trump is expected to “lay out some terms for what we see as a peaceful future in that region,” an administration official told The Jerusalem Post. Israel’s Channel 2 News reported that the White House’s advance travel team requested that the speech take place at Masada, the ancient desert fortress where thousands of Jews committed suicide rather than submit themselves to foreign rule.

Trump’s first appearance will come shortly before the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, which according to the Hebrew calendar begins on May 23.

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Trump will start his trip in Saudi Arabia on May 19, where he will convene a meeting of Arab world leaders to discuss the future of the region. This may square with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for a “regional approach” to Israeli-Palestinian peace when he visited the White House in February.

After Saudi Arabia and Israel, Trump will travel to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis, and then attend a NATO meeting in Belgium and the G7 summit in Italy.

Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter at @aidenpink.

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