• War Biden asks Israel not to be guided by "rage" and avoid the "mistakes" made by the US after 11/<>
  • Biden U.S. Says Support for Israel Won't Hurt Ukraine Aid

The Biden administration is finalizing an aid package for Ukraine and Israel that will also include $100 billion in funding for the fight against illegal immigration across the border with Mexico and, perhaps, for the defense of Taiwan. The big issue, however, is the chaos of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives, where that party, despite having the absolute majority, does not agree on who should govern that body, which leaves in practice the Legislative Branch of the United States paralyzed and without the possibility of passing any law. including this one.

Despite the Republican paralysis in the House, the aid package has the support of practically the entire Democratic Party and much of the Republican opposition, as it includes two areas on which both parties are in full agreement - Israel and Taiwan - one in which the Democrats have the support of the anti-Trump sector of the Republican Party - Ukraine - and, Finally, a fourth in which Democrats have no choice but to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation, even if that means implicitly acknowledging that Republicans were right: immigration. Joe Biden is scheduled to address the country tonight (early this morning in Europe) to talk about the crisis in Israel and to make known - although possibly without many details - his plans to support that country and Ukraine. Biden was also going to ask House Republicans to come clean and appoint a president, though it doesn't seem difficult, given the degree of factionalism in the party.

The news effectively means that the U.S. will be massively supporting two countries — Ukraine and Israel — at war, something that is unprecedented in recent U.S. history. It also raises the question of how Washington will be able to maintain the production of military materiel for both states, given the brutal rate of attrition of ammunition and equipment of a modern conventional war, as has become clear in Ukraine. On Thursday, the Washington news website Axios reported that the United States has begun delivering 155-millimeter howitzers to Israel that were intended for Ukraine. Since 2022, the US had taken those howitzers out of its arsenals in Israel to deliver them to Kiev with Tel Aviv's approval. Now, however, Israel says it needs them. Already in 2022, Washington left without the weapons it had promised Taiwan to give to Ukraine; now, it's Kiev's turn.

The details of the aid program are still being finalized, but it is expected that the vast majority of the resources will be delivered to Ukraine. That is an idea that the Democratic leaders - Chuck Schumer - and Republican - Mitch McConnell - of the Senate, which they designed three weeks ago when the U.S. Public Administration avoided its closure by a matter of hours due to the lack of a budget agreement within the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives. The agreement reached in extremis gave money for the state to maintain its normal functioning until November 17, but in exchange it left Ukraine without additional aid. Since then, the U.S. has halved its arms deliveries to Kyiv. If more aid is not approved, in just over a month the US will stop giving military equipment to Ukraine, a measure that the most 'Trumpist' and pro-Russian sector of the Republican Party has been demanding since 2022.

It was then that Schumer and McConnell began to propose a massive aid package to Kiev - there was even talk of 100,000 million dollars - that, once approved, would allow a permanent flow of aid to that country to be established for more than a year, which would mean that the approval of the aid would not be subject to the political vagaries of an election year such as 2024.

The big problem for this plan is that, for the first time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives does not have a speaker because of the inability of the Republican majority to agree on who should fill that position. Now, however, Hamas' terrorist offensive in Israel on October 7 could cause Republicans to put aside their differences, given that the party is 100% supportive of Tel Aviv.

Biden's proposal to make a combined aid plan for Ukraine and Israel may relaunch his image as a consensus-seeking statesman, while Republicans are divided and unable to have a leader. The timetable also works in the president's favor, given that Donald Trump has seen his ability to criticize, insult and threaten officials who have prosecuted him in four different cases severely restricted after a judge last week imposed an order preventing him from commenting on the matter. Trump also has limited political freedom of action, given that his fraud trial has been underway in New York since the beginning of this month, which could end up forcing him to divest much of his real estate assets and companies in that state where he has spent most of his career as a businessman.

  • Ukraine-Russia War
  • Israel
  • Joe Biden
  • United States