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President Joe Biden made an impassioned call for the United States to show global leadership by backing Israel and Ukraine, saying in a speech from the Oval Office Thursday that defeating Hamas and Russia was a vital US interest.
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Biden, 80, said he would make an “urgent” request to Congress on Friday for funding to help Ukraine and Israel, arguing that this was an investment for the United States’ future on the world stage for decades to come.
“American leadership is what holds the world together,” Biden said in just the second primetime speech to the nation of his presidency from behind the historic Resolute Desk.
Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin “represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy,” he added.
“We cannot and will not let terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin win. I refuse to let that happen.”
Fresh from a whirlwind trip to Israel this week, the Democratic president wants to win over war-weary voters and hardline Republicans as he ramps up his 2024 reelection bid.
His 15-minute speech was a call to Americans to overcome deep political divisions and unite behind support for two conflicts that he said posed a critical threat to the US despite being an ocean away.
‘Beacon to the world’
“We can’t let petty partisan angry politics get in the way of our responsibility as a great nation,” said Biden said, with the Stars and Stripes and a flag of the US presidential seal behind him. “America is a beacon to the world. Still. Still,” he said.
Biden also called for an end to a surge in both anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim prejudice in the United States, especially after the killing of a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy in an alleged hate crime linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict. “To all of you hurting, I want you to know, I see…
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