US President Joe Biden will deliver a rare Oval Office speech Thursday urging Americans to back military aid for Israel and Ukraine at what he calls a perilous moment for democracy around the globe.
Fresh from a trip to Israel after the October 7 Hamas attacks, the Democratic president’s primetime address to the nation will pitch the case for a global US role to war-weary voters and isolationist Republicans.
The 80-year-old Biden, who is seeking a second term in 2024, is preparing to ask the US Congress for a massive $100 billion package that includes funding for Israel and for Ukraine’s battle against Russia’s invasion.
“Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel. The need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine. We are at a global inflection point that is bigger than party or politics,” Biden said on X, formerly Twitter, ahead of the speech scheduled for 8:00 pm (0000 GMT).
US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer told MSNBC that Biden would give a “message to the American people (about) how those conflicts connect to our lives back here.”
Biden spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hours before the speech in a move apparently designed to turn up the pressure on Republicans.
Zelensky welcomed the delivery of ATACMS long-range missiles from the United States, adding: “Ukraine is grateful for the vital and enduring US support in our fight for freedom and against Russian aggression.”
– ‘Adults table’ –
The speech will be only the second that Biden has given from behind the historic Resolute Desk, a solemn setting which presidents have reserved for moments of key national significance.
The first was in June when Biden hailed a deal to avert what would have been a catastrophic US default after a bitter standoff — an agreement Republicans later reneged on.
The US Congress has now been paralyzed for more than two weeks as divided Republicans struggle to elect a House speaker, in turn holding up aid for Ukraine. Biden hopes to break the logjam by hitching it to assistance to Israel, Taiwan, and the southern border with Mexico. He said in Tel Aviv he would ask Congress for an “unprecedented” package for Israel’s defense this week.
Republicans “need to get their act together and join this president at the adults table,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
The speech will also play on the role of a global statesman facing tough choices that Biden has sought to portray on Ukraine — where he made a wartime visit in February — and now Israel.
Biden said as he flew home from Tel Aviv on Wednesday that he’d deliberated hard on whether to go ahead with his Middle East trip after Jordan and Egypt canceled talks with him following a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital. The Palestinians and Israel blamed each other for the blast, which killed hundreds of people.
“Had we gone and this failed, then, you know, the United States failed, Biden’s presidency fails,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “And I thought it was worth taking the chance to get it done.”
Egypt’s president later agreed to open the Rafah border crossing into Israel for aid to Gaza.
– Missiles from Yemen –
Diplomatically, Biden now faces a more severe test as his personal show of support for Israel means he will be seen in much of the Arab world as backing an expected Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Left-wingers in his own Democratic Party have also opposed his support for Israel.
There is also the risk of a wider conflict. The United States has already moved two aircraft carriers into the eastern Mediterranean to deter Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah, both allies of Hamas, from getting involved.
The Pentagon said that a US Navy ship on Thursday shot down missiles and drones that had been fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, possibly at Israel.
Russia and China will be in the background of Biden’s speech too, with the US president repeatedly warning that authoritarian states pose a threat to global democracy. – Danny KEMP
