YORK “We are at a global turning point,” Joe Biden said in a speech to the nation overnight, his second in the Oval Office of his presidency. He compared Putin to Hamas, saying that despite their differences, both “want to wipe out neighboring democracies.” He drew on scenes from trips to Ukraine and Israel, the first U.S. president since Lincoln to visit a war zone not under direct American control. In an interview in recent days, he reiterated that “America” could “manage both wars.” We have the ability and the obligation. We are a necessary nation” and which must remain “a beacon in the world”: “We cannot let terrorists and tyrants win: if they are not stopped, they will cause more destruction.” He called on Americans to join him to help defend the “interests and national security of the United States” because “the costs of inaction and abandonment are much higher.”
America does not want to send troops, “we do not want to fight in Russia or against Russia,” but that is precisely why action must be taken before the conflict spreads. “Other aggressors watching, in the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East: Iran supports Russia and Hamas.” He added: “We must pursue a path so that both the Israeli and Palestinian people can live in security, dignity and peace.” Before a month later, Biden announced a speech on Ukraine; After the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, he told advisers he wanted to speak directly to Americans about the two wars to explain “the importance of military and humanitarian assistance” and how it was in the national interest.
At home there is fear of violence against Jewish and Muslim communities; In light of attacks on Americans abroad, the State Department yesterday called for caution everywhere. Biden recalled the killing of a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy named Wadea in Chicago in recent days: a hate crime that led the US president to condemn all forms of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Biden will ask Congress today for 100 billion dollars in aid: 60 for Ukraine and another 40 divided between Israel (around 10 billion), security on the border with Mexico and Taiwan. By proposing a unified aid package, the White House hopes to overcome opposition to funding for Kiev that has been growing among Republicans in the House of Representatives (still without a speaker and unable to vote for aid) and among right-wing voters.
As for Israel, despite strong solidarity, public opinion remains uncertain about the extent of US intervention. When it comes to Gaza, the Democratic Party is divided: the center welcomes Biden’s speech in Tel Aviv, while progressives criticize him for not calling for a ceasefire. Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Tlaib is very harsh: “We are watching a genocide without doing anything.” Two groups of the Jewish-American left led a protest in front of the Capitol on Wednesday (300 arrests) to call for a “ceasefire now “, and a State Department official in charge of weapons for the Allies, Josh Paul, resigned and denounced a “ceasefire.” “blindly partisan” policies that “will bring more suffering for Israelis and Palestinians and are not in the interests of the United States.”
Several diplomats tell the Financial Times that in the eyes of the global South, Biden and the EU are not defending Palestinian rights strongly enough and that this risks “poisoning efforts to build consensus condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine.” The White House fears an escalation in both wars. The Pentagon said yesterday that its military had foiled drone strikes on two bases in Syria, albeit with some minor injuries, while explosions occurred at a base in Iraq. The destroyer USS Carney intercepted three missiles in the Red Sea yesterday that were fired northward from Yemen by pro-Iranian Houthi militias, “potentially against Israel.”