In the weeks leading up to President Biden’s State of the Union address, aid packages to two of our allies, each in the middle of a war they didn’t start, were stalled in Congress. Last night, Biden made the case for… one of them.
“Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself,” Biden said. “That is all Ukraine is asking. They are not asking for American soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. And I am determined to keep it that way. But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world.”
Hard to disagree. And what of our obligations to Israel, to aid our Mideast ally fighting its own defensive war against a brutal opponent? Crickets. Perhaps there wasn’t enough space in the 70-minute address for such trifles.
Not that he’d forgotten about the conflict. There was plenty in there about Israel’s Gaza counteroffensive—Israel’s responsibilities, Palestinians’ suffering, etc. The only talk of aid was about aid to the Palestinians, so careful were the speechwriters not to ruffle the feathers of the keffiyeh-clad Democrats in the chamber, some of whom not only donned the scarf but held signs calling for Israel to lay down its arms. The president also…
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