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Foreign policy has taken first and last place in President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. In two blocks separated by domestic issues, the Democratic president has made a vigorous defense of aid to Kiev (Ukraine can defend itself with more aid, he stated) and, to close his speech, of the US contribution to humanitarian aid. to remedy the catastrophic situation in Gaza, with nods to both parties in the conflict, especially, for unprecedented reasons, to Israel. The Ukrainian chapter and the Middle East chapter, along with a coda on the rivalry with China, were Biden’s references to a turbulent world, of global instability, which is also causing him headaches at home: the Republicans by blocking in the Congress helps Kiev, and the Democrats themselves, by asking for concrete actions to alleviate the catastrophe in Gaza. The flood of punishment votes from voters who in the primaries did not check the box that bears their name, in protest of their support for Israel, could not go unanswered tonight, because their fate in November will be partly linked to their politics in the Middle East.
Turbulent and strange times, “in which freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and abroad, at the same time. Abroad, Putin is on the march, invading Ukraine and wreaking havoc across Europe and beyond. If anyone in this room thinks that Putin will stop in Ukraine, I assure you that he will not,” he noted, although “Ukraine can stop Putin if we provide him with the weapons he needs to defend himself.” That’s all Ukraine asks for. “They are not asking for American soldiers, there are none, and I am determined to keep it that way.”
Just four minutes after starting his speech, Biden took advantage of the war in Europe to launch the first hook at his Republican rival, Donald Trump. Without naming him, the Democratic president regretted Trump’s recent statements inviting Moscow to do whatever he wants with NATO allies that do not contribute to the Alliance’s budget. Biden compared him, unkindly, to a predecessor and co-religionist of his: “It wasn’t that long ago that a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, cried out: ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ Now, a former American president, bowing to a Russian leader, said ‘do whatever you want.’ “It is scandalous, it is dangerous and unacceptable.”
Addressing the congressmen, he asked: “We must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Act [aprobada por el Senado, bloqueada en la Cámara por los republicanos]. History is watching. If the US walks away now, it will put Ukraine at risk. “Europe at risk, the free world in danger, emboldening those who want to harm us.” He also had a direct message for his Russian counterpart: “We will not leave, we will not bow down, I will not bow down. History watches us, as it watched us three years ago, on January 6,” the day a horde of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. The equivalence between freedom and democracy, between the United States and the world, ran through his message. Without making an excessive profession of Atlanticist faith, Biden recalled and celebrated the incorporation of Finland into NATO last year and Sweden today.
After the bulk of the speech, dedicated to domestic issues, Biden closed with the Middle East and the rivalry with China. The first issue was the most anticipated, after it became known this Thursday that the United States will establish a humanitarian aid point on the Gaza coast. But his words about the war between Israel and Hamas were especially hard-won, perhaps because they were the most anticipated.
The pressure on the White House from Democratic voters who reject support for Israel is increasingly pressing, as the primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, among others, have shown, so Biden took advantage of the session to officially announce the plan for that the US Army will help establish a temporary port on the coast of the Strip. Because it is not only Democratic voters who are putting pressure on him, but also many party legislators.
“While we manage challenges at home,” he said after reviewing health, immigration and reproductive rights, “we also manage crises abroad, including the Middle East. I know that the last five months have been heartbreaking for many people, for the Israeli people, for the Palestinian people and for many here in the United States,” he conceded, alluding to the victims on both sides, some of whose relatives were present at the hall. Biden recapped what has happened since October 7, “the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
Israel has the right to persecute Hamas, he said, although it has “an added burden” because the Islamist group “hides and operates among the civilian population.” But, he stressed in line with the strongest comments of the vice president, Kamala Harris, in recent days, “Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect the innocent civilians of Gaza,” since the war has claimed “more innocent civilian victims than all the above together” in the enclave. “More than 30,000 Palestinians have died, most of them are not from Hamas, they are thousands and thousands of innocent women and children, boys and girls also orphans,” she declared about a “heartbreaking” panorama of neighborhoods under the rubble “and cities ruined”.
Defense of the two-state solution
Biden, who demanded the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas, explained that his Administration has been working to establish “an immediate ceasefire that lasts 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 in the Security Council. He did emphasize American leadership in the international community’s efforts to get more aid to Gaza, and gave as an example the announced temporary dock plan on 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 Israel must also do its part,” allowing more aid to the Strip and ensuring that aid workers “are not caught in the crossfire.”
“To Israel’s leaders I say this: humanitarian aid cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority. Looking to the future, the only real solution is the two-state one, I say this as a lifelong supporter of Israel and as the only American president who has visited Israel in times of war,” he concluded, not without remembering that, without These premises, “there will be no other path that guarantees the security and democracy of Israel.”
Biden also addressed the risk of regional conflict if the conflict does not subside, the need to contain the threat posed by Iran as an essential condition for the stability of the Middle East, and that of transportation security in the Red Sea, “with attacks to degrade the capabilities of the Houthis and defend our forces in the region” which, he warned, will be repeated if necessary.
China and the commercial and geostrategic competition of both powers gave the signature to the speech. “For years the only thing I have heard from my Republican friends and so many others is that China is rising and the United States is falling behind. They have understood it backwards. The United States is rising and our trade deficit with China has dropped to the lowest point in more than a decade. “We are fighting against China’s unfair economic practices and defending peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” he noted. He also took advantage of the auction to criticize Trump, without naming him, for not betting on associations and alliances in the Pacific, “and that the most advanced American technologies cannot be used in China’s weapons,” as he has done during his presidency. the Democratic mandate, with innovative initiatives such as the Aukus, an alliance created to stand up to Beijing. Therefore, he concluded with the same optimistic tone that he defined the rest of the chapters of his message, “we are in a stronger position to win the competition of the 21st century against China or against anyone else.”
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