Joe Biden appeared from the oval office to explain to the people of the United States that he has a mission. “This is a turning point in history,” he began.
Hours after visiting Israel, the US president appeared on prime-time television to address the nation and ask Congress for an “urgent” billion-dollar budget request in military aid to deal with the “dictator” Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and the “pure evil” of the Hamas “terrorists” in Israel.
Biden drew a clear parallel between his main foes. “Hamas and Putin – he stressed – represent different threats, but they share one thing in common: they both want to completely annihilate neighboring democracies.”
In a fifteen-minute speech, Biden tried to convince Americans that the US must play a fundamental role in defending democracy around the world. “I know that these conflicts may seem distant and it is natural to ask: why should this matter in America?”. According to the 80-year-old US leader, the answer is national security, because if Putin and Hamas are not stopped, they will cause more “chaos”, “death” and “destruction”. “America’s leadership is what holds the world together. Our country’s alliances are what keep us safe and sound. America’s values ??are what lead other nations to want to work with us. We will put all of this at risk if we leave Ukraine or deny support to Israel.”
His words were echoed shortly after from Moscow. The Kremlin, through the spokesman of the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, criticized that Biden’s words are not typical of a responsible politician. “We do not consider this tone acceptable in relation to the Russian Federation and its president”, he said.
For David E. Sanger, national security specialist of The New York Times newspaper, the intertwined references to the Ukrainian and Israeli conflicts by President Biden are not accidental; on the one hand, they elevate the issue to a sense of personal mission (“this is the moment for which he has been preparing throughout his political career”), and on the other, they appeal to national pride . Per Sanger, “[Biden] seems determined to show that, despite all the criticism that America is a divided and declining power, it remains the only nation that can shape events in a world of unpredictable chaos.”
Although Biden did not specify the numbers of the “urgent” budget he will ask Congress for, several US media outlets specified the items: the proposal will include $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $7 billion for the Asia-Pacific region that includes Taiwan, 14 billion to strengthen security on the border between the United States and Mexico, as well as 10 billion in humanitarian aid for various conflicts.
The diversity of the parties gives clues to the intentions of the leader of the US Democrats. Because, in addition to the sphere of security and international weight, the speech also has an obvious reading of national politics.
Biden decided to link aid to Israel, which has broad support in both major US parties, with aid to Ukraine in an attempt to overcome the blockade of Trump-friendly Republicans.
“At times like this, we must remember who we are. We are the United States of America and there is nothing that is not within our reach if we do it together,” he said. His words also seek to mobilize public opinion in view of the horizon of the presidential elections – probably against Donald Trump – at the end of 2024, in which Biden’s internationalism will face off against the “Make America great again” of republicans
The response of the Trump campaign was not long in coming and they published a video with images of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, criticism of aid to Ukraine and the attack on Israel. It ended with a legend. “Joe Biden. Stupid incompetent Weak”.
