WASHINGTON - United States President Joe Biden on Thursday asked Americans to spend tens of billions more dollars to help Israel fight the Hamas militant group.
“It’s a smart investment that’s gonna pay dividends for American security for generations,” he said.
In a televised White House speech that also addressed Ukraine’s effort to repel Russia’s invasion, Mr Biden said Hamas sought to annihilate Israel’s democracy.
He also stressed the urgency of getting relief to Palestinian civilians in Gaza who lack food, water and medicine.
“We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have opportunity,” said Mr Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday.
Israel is poised to launch a ground offensive to root out Hamas from Gaza following an attack in the south of the country.
The densely populated enclave is ruled by the militant group. The Israeli military has amassed troops and equipment near Gaza.
Mr Biden sought to link Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip who attacked Israel to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine.
“Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to annihilate a neighbouring democracy,” he said.
Mr Biden requested emergency spending that US officials say will total roughly US$100 billion (S$137 billion) over the next year for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, and security along the porous US border with Mexico.
Mr Biden spoke about 20 hours after returning from a whirlwind trip to Israel to show US solidarity after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct 7.
The assault killed 1,400 people.
Since then, Israel has bombarded Gaza and killed at least 4,100 people.
It has also blockaded the enclave in its bid to flush out Hamas from the territory.
Aid slow to move
Civilians say their situation is desperate as they run short of food, water, fuel and medical supplies.
During his eight-hour visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Mr Biden sought to broker a deal to get aid into Gaza but had only limited success.
He said Israel and Egypt agreed that 20 lorries with relief supplies could cross into the enclave.
Two Egyptian security sources said equipment was sent on Thursday through its border crossing to repair roads on the Gaza side. More than 100 lorries are waiting in Egypt.
The crossing has been out of operation amid Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side of the border.
While some officials previously expected aid to enter Gaza on Friday, the chances appeared to dwindle.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the Rafah border crossing on Friday and said aid lorries need to move as quickly as possible from Egypt into the enclave.
“These trucks are not just trucks – they are a lifeline, they are the difference between life and death to many people in Gaza,” he said, speaking on the Egyptian side of the crossing.
“To see them stuck here makes me very clear – what we need is to make them move, to make them move to the other side of this wall to make them move as quickly as possible and as many as possible.”
Tensions are also at a fever pitch after a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital that killed around 470 people.
Mr Biden said Israel was not responsible for the blast as Hamas officials have asserted.
But as global protests grow about the attacks on Gaza, Mr Biden urged Israelis not to give in to “blind rage” as they respond to Hamas.
Nato allies threatened?
Mr Biden voiced concern that some Americans are asking: Why does it matter to America that the US supports the wars?
“I know these conflicts can seem far away,” he said. “History has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. They keep going, and the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising.”
If Mr Putin is not stopped, he could threaten Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – all Nato allies, Mr Biden suggested. “If Putin attacks a Nato ally, we will defend every inch of Nato,” he said.
If the US does not act, the risks of conflicts and chaos could spread, including in the Middle East, he said.
Mr Biden said the US’ adversaries are watching how both conflicts play out and could stir up trouble elsewhere in the world, depending on the outcome.
The President spoke against a backdrop of political chaos in Washington, as Republicans who control the House of Representatives have struggled to settle on who will lead them as Speaker after ousting Mr Kevin McCarthy from that job.
Directing his remarks squarely at squabbling Republicans, he said: “You can’t let petty, partisan, angry politics get in the way of our responsibilities as a great nation.
“I refuse to let that happen,” he said.
Republican opposition
By lumping the priorities together in one package, Mr Biden is testing whether Republican lawmakers can be persuaded to set aside their opposition and go along with spending on Ukraine, whose 20-month-old war with Russia has absorbed billions of dollars already in US weapons with no end in sight.
The package was expected to be formally unveiled on Friday.
Anticipating a fight with Republicans, Mr Biden pointed to an economic benefit.
He said weaponry sent to Israel and Ukraine comes from existing stockpiles and that the money approved by Congress will be used to build fresh supplies made in American factories.
Any funding measure must pass both the Democratic-led US Senate, where additional aid has bipartisan support, and the Republican-led House, which has not had a Speaker for 17 days.
Conservative Jim Jordan, an ally of former president Donald Trump, vowed to continue his bid to be House Speaker after failing to win majority support among Republicans.
House Republican lawmakers in recent weeks nearly brought government to a halt over chronic budget deficits and US$31.4 trillion in debt, threatening to slash government spending across the board.
Mr Biden’s televised remarks, at 8pm on Thursday followed a Middle East trip upended by the hospital blast in the Gaza Strip. It is the second prime-time Oval Office address in the Democratic president’s nearly three years in office; in June he cheered the end of a debt ceiling standoff.
A senior White House official said Mr Biden felt that it was important to speak to the country on why American leadership is needed to help Israel respond to the Oct 7 attack by Hamas militants operating from Gaza, and to aid Ukraine’s battle to repel Russian invaders.
In Tel Aviv on Wednesday, the President pledged US$100 million in new funding for humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and said he would ask Congress for unprecedented aid to boost Israel’s fight with Hamas.
“This will also be very much a message to the American people: How those conflicts connect to our lives back here, how support from the American people and the Congress, frankly, is essential,” US deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told MSNBC early on Thursday when asked about the speech.
About four in 10 respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week said the US should support Israel’s position in the current conflict when given a range of options. Nearly half said Americans should remain neutral or not be involved.
In a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier in October, roughly the same proportion agreed with a statement that Washington “should provide weapons to Ukraine”.
“By bringing these two issues together, it will enable Biden to have a conversation with the nation not just about wars that are taking place in isolation, but conflict globally that has significant repercussions for American security interests as a whole,” said Ms Carmiel Arbit, a senior fellow at Atlantic Council.
Mr Biden’s brief Israel trip aimed to offer US support following the Hamas attack on Israeli villages and military bases. His planned summit in Jordan joined by the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders was cancelled after the Gaza hospital explosion.
Meanwhile, the USS Mount Whitney, a sophisticated command, control, communication and intelligence ship, was heading to the eastern Mediterranean to join a host of US warships already there, the US Navy said.
The US Defence Department told members of Congress at a briefing on Wednesday that it intends to send its two Iron Dome missile defence systems back to Israel as part of a leaseback deal, having experimented with the systems for several years. REUTERS
