Biden pledges his support to Ukraine to stop Putin and asks Israel not to use humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip | International

Foreign policy took first and last place in President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. In two blocs separated by domestic issues, the Democratic president has vigorously defended aid to Kiev (Ukraine could defend itself with more aid, he said) and to close his speech on US contributions to humanitarian aid. The catastrophic situation in Gaza, with concessions to both sides in the conflict, especially, for unprecedented reasons, to Israel. The Ukrainian chapter and the Middle East chapter, with a coda on the rivalry with China, were references to Biden’s troubled world, global instability, which also gives him headaches at home: Republicans help Kiev by blocking in Congress, and Democrats themselves, to overcome the disaster in Gaza. Asking for concrete action. Voters who didn’t check the box bearing their name in the primaries, opposed to their support for Israel, will not go unanswered tonight as their fate in November will be tied in part to their politics in the midterms. East.

Turbulent and strange times,” in which freedom and democracy are under attack, simultaneously, at home and abroad. Abroad, Putin is on the march, invading Ukraine and wreaking havoc across Europe and beyond. If this If anyone in the room thinks Putin is going to stop Ukraine, I guarantee you he won’t,” he noted, adding that “Ukraine can stop Putin if we give him the weapons he needs to defend himself. All he’s asking for is Ukraine. “They’re not asking for American troops, there aren’t any, and I’m determined to keep it that way.”

Just four minutes after opening his speech, Biden took advantage of the war in Europe to launch his first hook at his Republican rival, Donald Trump. Without naming him, the Democratic president expressed regret for Trump’s recent statements inviting Moscow to do whatever it wants with NATO allies that do not contribute to the alliance’s budget. Biden compared him, unkindly, to his predecessor and co-religionist: “It wasn’t that long ago that the Republican president, Ronald Reagan, shouted: ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ Now, the former US president bowed to the Russian leader and said, ‘Do whatever you want.’ “It’s scandalous, it’s dangerous and unacceptable.”

Addressing congressmen, he asked: “We must stand up to Putin. Send me the bipartisan Homeland Security Act (passed by the Senate, blocked in the House by Republicans). History is watching. If the US walks away now, it will endanger Ukraine. “Europe is in danger, the free world is in danger, emboldening those who want to harm us.” He also had a direct message for his Russian counterpart: “We will not give up, we will not bow, I will not bow. History sees us, as it saw us three years ago, on January 6,” the day Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. The parallel between freedom and democracy, between the United States and the world, ran through his message. More of the Atlanticist faith Without getting down to business, Biden recalled and celebrated the inclusion of Finland in NATO last year and Sweden today.

After much of the speech devoted to domestic issues, Biden stopped short of hostilities with the Middle East and China. The first issue was the most anticipated after learning that the United States would establish a humanitarian aid point on the Gaza Strip this Thursday. But his words about the war between Israel and Hamas were particularly hard won, perhaps because they were the most anticipated.

As primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, among others, have shown increasing pressure on the White House from Democratic voters who reject support for Israel, Biden took advantage of the session to officially announce the US Army’s plan. Help establish a temporary port on the edge of the Strip. Because not only Democratic voters are pressuring him, but also many of the party’s legislators.

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After reviewing health, immigration and reproductive rights, he said, “While we manage challenges at home, we also manage crises abroad, including in the Middle East. I know that the last five months have been difficult for many people, for the Israeli people, for the Palestinian people. For and it’s been heartbreaking for so many people here in the United States,” he admitted, alluding to the victims on both sides, some of whose relatives were present. in the hall. Biden reiterated what has happened since October 7, “the worst day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Israel has the right to persecute Hamas, he said, but it has an “extra burden” because the Islamist group “hides and operates among the civilian population.” But, he echoed Vice President Kamala Harris’s strongest comments in recent days, stressing that “Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect the innocent citizens of Gaza,” as the war has claimed “more innocent civilian victims than all of the above together” in the enclave. . “More than 30,000 Palestinians have died, most of them not from Hamas, they are thousands and thousands of innocent women and children, boys and girls also orphaned,” he declared about the “heartbreaking” panorama of neighborhoods under rubble. Ruins.”

Security of the two-state solution

Biden, who has demanded the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas, explained that his administration was working to establish an “immediate ceasefire lasting at least six weeks.” Despite the presence in the room of his ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, he did not mention the three vetoes with which his country has blocked two humanitarian ceasefire initiatives at the Security Council. He emphasized American leadership in the international community’s efforts to get more aid to Gaza and cited an announced plan for a temporary dock off its coast. “Tonight I have ordered the military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary dock in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Gaza, that can receive large ships loaded with food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. There will be no American troops on the ground, but neither will Israel. must play its part,” allowing more support for Streep and ensuring that support workers “don’t get caught in the crossfire.”

“To Israel’s leaders I say this: Humanitarian aid cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Saving and saving innocent lives should be the priority. Looking to the future, a two-state solution is the only real solution, I say this as a lifelong supporter of Israel and as the only American president to visit Israel in wartime,” he concluded, not without remembering that these places, “Israel’s security and democracy There will be no other way to guarantee it.”

Biden also addressed the threat of regional conflict if the conflict does not subside, the need to contain the threat posed by Iran as a prerequisite to Middle East stability and transit security in the Red Sea, “with attacks. Undermining the capabilities of the Houthis and defending our forces in the region” that , he warned, would be repeated if necessary.

China and the two powers’ commercial and geostrategic competition gave a signature to the speech. “For years I’ve heard from my Republican friends and many others that China is rising and the US is falling behind. They’ve got it backwards. The United States is rising and our trade deficit with China is over a decade old. has fallen to its lowest level in years. “We are fighting against China’s unfair economic practices and safeguarding peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” he noted. He noted not to bet on alliances and alliances in the Pacific, “and the most advanced American technologies. Cannot be used in China’s weapons,” without naming him, also took advantage of the auction to blame Trump, as he has done throughout his presidency. The democratic mandate, along with innovative initiatives like Aukus, to stand up to Beijing. For this reason , he concluded with the same optimistic tone that defined the remaining chapters of his message, “We are in a stronger position to win the 21st century competition against China or anyone else.”

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