WASHINGTON – United States President Joe Biden has put America’s credibility and power on the line in pledging continued support for both Israel and Ukraine, in a rare primetime televised address to the nation from the Oval Office on Thursday.

“We are, as my friend Madeleine Albright said, ‘the indispensable nation’,” he said in his 15-minute address, in a reference to the late former US Secretary of State.

“Tonight, there are innocent people all over the world who hope because of us, who believe in a better life because of us, who are desperate not to be forgotten by us, and who are waiting for us,” he said.

In a reflection of not just foreign policy challenges but also domestic complications, Mr Biden also walked a tightrope in his speech between support for Israel and relations with the wider Islamic world – for example, by denouncing both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in his speech.

His address comes at a time when tempers are fraying at home over the war in Gaza.

On Thursday, the Marriott hotel in Arlington, Virginia, cancelled an event scheduled for Saturday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organisation, after anonymous callers threatened to plant bombs, kill hotel staff and storm the hotel.

In an open letter on Thursday, Jewish and Muslim Congressional staff said: “We write to implore our bosses, members of the United States Congress, to join calls for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.”

Last week, a six-year-old Palestinian boy was stabbed to death in a Chicago suburb; his mother was also critically wounded. The perpetrator was their 71-year-old landlord who had reportedly become obsessed with the Israel-Hamas war.

“We can’t stand by and stand silent when this happens,” Mr Biden said. “We must, without equivocation, denounce anti-Semitism. We must also, without equivocation, denounce Islamophobia.”

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an internal note to all staff, referred to “ripples of fear and bigotry” against Arab Americans, Muslims and Jews. He maintained that the administration’s approach had been balanced.

“President Biden has made clear from the beginning of the crisis… that while we fully support Israel’s right to defend itself, how it does so matters,” he wrote. “That means acting in a way that respects the rule of law and international humanitarian standards, and taking every possible precaution to protect civilian life.”

Soon after his address, Mr Biden posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter: “American leadership is what holds the world together. Our alliances are what keep us safe. And our values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with.”

America would put all of that at risk if it walked away from Ukraine or turned its back on Israel, he warned.

Poll results released by Quinnipiac University on Tuesday showed that 52 per cent of voters agree that America is getting it right in supporting Israel.

The President also did relatively well over US support for Ukraine more than 1½ years since Russia invaded the country – the other major topic of his speech on Thursday. The Quinnipiac poll showed 47 per cent of voters approve of his response to the invasion, while 45 per cent disapprove. The numbers were encouraging for Mr Biden, who is seeking re-election just over a year from now.

Mr Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland and distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think-tank, said: “This was a speech to rally US support for an internationalist agenda.

“He asserted... that US interests and US values are interwoven,” he wrote on the think-tank’s website.

Mr Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South Programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told The Straits Times: “The speech was an unabashed case for American primacy. The melding of two rather separate conflicts (Gaza and Ukraine) into a seamless battle against the more abstract framings of tyranny and terror serves this goal.”

“In truth, these two conflicts are very different, and their contexts are key. But for Biden to justify the continuation of primacy, he needs to find a way to erase these contexts.”

Some analysts questioned whether Mr Biden has underestimated the complexity of the Gaza situation.

Dr Robert Manning, a former senior government official, told ST: “I fear Biden overreacted to the savage barbarism against Israel, a close democratic ally that he has long supported – and underestimated the complexity of the situation.

“I think there is too little thought about what next after Hamas,” said Dr Manning, currently a distinguished senior fellow with the Reimagining US Grand Strategy project at the Stimson Centre, a Washington think-tank.

“This crisis has upended Biden’s plans for brokering an Israeli-Saudi normalisation, which envisioned a new Middle East of Israeli integration with Sunni Arab states without resolving the Palestine question.”

Dr Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, told ST that Mr Biden’s speech was “a solid articulation of US interests in these two major foreign policy crises”.

“The problem is, it comes from a defensive place. Biden is concerned that the United States isn’t going to be able to provide leadership going forward, given domestic political dysfunction. US military support for Ukraine going forward is facing significant headwinds.

“Biden... doesn’t want Israel to start a ground war that will lead to immense civilian casualties and consequent radicalisation – but (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu is going to do it anyway.”