Joe Biden’s administration is finalizing an aid package for Ukraine and Israel that will also include funds for the fight against illegal immigration across the border with Mexico and, perhaps, for the defense of Taiwan, worth $100 billion. dollars (about 94,000 million euros). The big issue, however, is the chaos of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives, where that party, despite having the absolute majority, cannot agree on who should govern that body, which in practice leaves 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 a large part of the Republican opposition, since it includes two areas in which both parties are in complete 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 the Democrats have no choice but to recognize the seriousness of the situation, even though That means implicitly recognizing that the Republicans were right: immigration. Joe Biden plans to head to the country tonight (early morning today in Europe) to talk about the crisis in Israel and announce – although possibly without many details – his plans to support that country and Ukraine. Biden was also going to ask House Republicans to come clean once and for all and name a president, although it does not seem difficult, given the degree of factionalism in the party.
The news means in practice that the United States will be massively supporting two countries – Ukraine and Israel – at war, something that is unprecedented in the recent history of the United States. It also raises the question of how Washington will be able to maintain military production for both states, given the brutal pace of ammunition and equipment attrition of a modern conventional war, as has become clear in Ukraine. This Thursday the Washington news website Axios reported that the United States has begun delivering 155-millimeter howitzers to Israel that were going to be destined for Ukraine. Since 2022, the US had removed, with the approval of Tel-Aviv, these howitzers from its arsenals in Israel to deliver them to kyiv. Now, however, Israel says it needs them. Already in 2022, Washington left without the weapons it had promised to Taiwan to give them to Ukraine; Now, it’s kyiv’s turn.
The details of the aid program are still being finalized, but it is expected that the vast majority of resources will be delivered to Ukraine. That is an idea that the Democratic leaders – Chuck Schumer – and Republican – Mitch McConnell – of the Senate, who designed three weeks ago when the US Public Administration avoided its closure for a matter of hours due to the lack of a budget agreement within the caucus. Republican of the House of Representatives. The agreement reached in extremis provided money for the State to maintain its normal functioning until November 17, but in exchange it left Ukraine without additional aid. Since then, the US has halved its arms deliveries to kyiv. If more aid is not approved, in just over a month the US will stop giving military material 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 talk of 100 billion dollars – that, once approved, would allow the establishment of a permanent flow of aid to that country for more than a year. year, which would mean that the approval of aid would not be subject to the political vagaries of an electoral year like 2024.
The big problem for this plan is that, for the first time in United States History, the House of Representatives does not have a president due to the inability of the Republican majority to agree on who should occupy that position. Now, however, Hamas’ terrorist offensive in Israel on October 7 could cause Republicans to put aside their differences, given that the party supports Tel-Aviv 100%.
Biden’s proposal to make a combined aid plan for Ukraine and Israel can relaunch his image as a statesman who seeks consensus, while the Republicans are divided and unable to have a leader. The calendar also works in the president’s favor, given that Donald Trump has seen his ability to criticize, insult and threaten the officials who have prosecuted him in four different cases, severely restricted after a judge last week imposed an order that prevents him from making statements on the matter. Trump also has limited freedom of political action, given that since his fraud trial began this month, his trial for fraud has been taking place in New York, which could end up forcing him to get rid of a large part of his real estate assets and companies in that state in which he has led. spent most of his career as a businessman.