US President Joe Biden, who is campaigning for a second term, is seeking to unite Americans in defense of Israel and Ukraine, a risky bet that could antagonize his political opponents and upset part of his base, especially young people.

Biden will address his people on Thursday midnight GMT from the Oval Office on "the (United States) response to the terrorist attacks of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) against Israel and Russia's ongoing brutal war against Ukraine."

The 80-year-old Democratic president, who returned Wednesday evening from Tel Aviv after a risky visit on more than one front, sees the possibility of building a political or at least financial consensus by raising a single issue that unites two parties (Israel and Ukraine) in two wars in which Washington supports.

With his visit to Kiev in February, Biden became the first U.S. president to travel to a conflict zone not controlled by the U.S. military, which Biden has now done twice.

100 billion

A source familiar with the matter told AFP on Tuesday that the White House would ask Congress to allocate a massive $100 billion budget for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the migration crisis on the border with Mexico.

If Biden's Republican opponents are reluctant to provide military assistance to Ukraine, they are at the forefront of demanding massive support for Israel, a tough stance on immigration and a tough policy toward China.


Biden's pro-Israel stance has garnered praise even among conservatives, with Richard Haass, a former diplomatic adviser in the George W. Bush administration, calling the president's speech in Tel Aviv "ingenious."

But if Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah directly enters the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Biden will again face right-wing accusations of leniency toward Tehran.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a candidate to represent the Republican Party in the race for the White House, criticized the announcement of $100 million in US humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas would use it for terrorist purposes.

Young voters

On the other hand, Biden's success in bringing some humanitarian aid trucks into the besieged Palestinian enclave will not be enough, according to the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Some representatives of this wing are calling for greater distance from the Israeli Government and for greater sympathy for Palestinian civilians under continuously concentrated Israeli bombardment and who fled from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip in intensive displacement after receiving an ultimatum from Israel in preparation for a ground offensive.

Progressive Representative Cory Bush called on X-platform for an "immediate ceasefire," which was demanded by some 100 protesters who occupied a congressional building on Wednesday at the call of the Jewish Voice for Peace movement.

Young American voters generally do not share the absolute attachment to Israel's security shown by many political officials of Biden's generation.

A poll published by Quinnipiac University this week showed that most American voters under the age of 35 oppose handing Israel weapons, while a majority of voters over 35 support it.

The massive mobilization of young people was one of the factors that brought Biden to the White House in 2020.