The White House had previously said Mr Biden would avoid shaking hands with foreign leaders during his trip as a means to protect the 79-year-old man amid rising Covid-19 cases.
Wearing his aviator sunglasses, Mr. Biden initially punched as he descended from Air Force One.
But he soon threw caution into the wind, wrapping an arm around Mr. Lapid and shaking hands with Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister of Israel.
The president then posed with Israeli leaders for a photo on the asphalt of Ben-Gurion Airport before attending an information session on Israeli air defense systems.
Biden’s tactile greetings will complicate the White House’s efforts to prevent a handshake between Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the U.S. concluded killed a Washington Post journalist.
Biden hopes his visit to the Kingdom will encourage him to increase oil production and thus reduce prices for Americans at the pump.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, a Iran-based analyst with the Washington-based Defense for Democracy Foundation, said Mr Biden’s commitment to using military force to reduce Iran’s nuclear ambitions was ” remarkable and first declared “.
He added: “But it can fall on deaf ears compared to the year and a half of unwillingness to enforce non-kinetic pressure in Tehran.”
“Democrats want me to run again”
Under pressure at home, the president has rejected polls that show him bleeding support and has tried to highlight employment figures and other strong indicators of the U.S. economy.
Biden has insisted Democrats “want” him to seek re-election when asked about a poll that showed 64% of Democratic voters would prefer a new leader for the 2024 election.
“They want me to run away,” Biden said. He added: “This poll showed that 92 percent of Democrats if I ran would vote for me.”
Biden did not mention that the NYT / Siena College figure was among the Democrats choosing between him and Donald Trump.
The poll offered some comfort to Mr Biden, and voters across the country said he would beat Mr Biden. Trump in a possible 2024 recovery between 44 and 41 percent.
It came as Biden’s approval rating rose three points in a Reuters-Ipsos poll on Wednesday from its all-time low of 36 percent the previous week.
“Read the polls. Read the polls,” Biden criticized a White House reporter, adding, “You’re all equal.”
The U.S. president deviated from the most alarming figures in the NYT poll, which found that only 26 percent of Democrats thought Biden should be the party’s candidate.
Biden, who at 79 is the oldest president in U.S. history, has repeatedly said he intends to run in 2024 if his health allows.
His allies argue that he remains the best hope for Democrats to keep Trump out of the White House amid speculation that the Republican will announce a presidential candidacy in a few weeks.