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Post by Newsman on Oct 19, 2023 17:18:07 GMT -5
 ..after his visit to Israel, Pres. Biden is set to give a primetime speech to the American people this evening...(The Guardian) President Biden to deliver primetime address tonight on Israel, UkrainePresident Joe Biden is set to deliver a primetime address tonight at 8pm ET in which he will discuss the US response to the wars between Israel and Hamas, as well as Ukraine and Russia. Biden’s remarks follow a brief visit to Tel Aviv in which he met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During the visit, Biden pledged support for Israel in its fight against Hamas but cautioned Israel to not be “consumed by rage.” He also urged Israel to “not repeat” the same mistakes the US made after 9/11. Biden’s speech comes as the House of Representatives remain in a weeks-long limbo as Republicans continue to struggle to decide on a speaker. With the House essentially paralyzed and unable to pass legislation, Biden is expected to face hurdles in his likely additional requests for funds for both wars. Speaking of Biden’s upcoming address, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told MSNBC: “This will also be very much a message to the American people: how those conflicts connect to our lives back here, how support from the American people and the Congress, frankly, is essential.” |
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 17:25:50 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republican politicians' inflammatory rhetoric threatens safety of Arab Americans, Muslim groups warnAs the Israel-Hamas war intensifies, Muslim groups across the US are warning that the inflammatory rhetoric coming from Republican politicians threatens the safety of Arab Americans. The Guardian’s Chris McGreal reports: Muslim groups in the US have warned the outpouring of extreme language is threatening the safety of Arab Americans following the killing of a six-year-old boy and the wounding of his mother by their landlord in Illinois in an apparent hate crime prompted by the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The police said Joseph Czuba stabbed the boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, to death after entering their apartment and shouting: “You Muslims must die!”.
Some politicians have also spoken out against inciting language, including the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen. “We must call out Hamas for the evil that it is. But those seeking to use this moment to demonize & dehumanize all Palestinians & Muslims are complicit in the deaths of innocents like the brutal hate killing of this six-year-old Palestinian-American boy, stabbed to death in Chicago,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:02:32 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:07:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden to address nation on Israel-Hamas warUS president Joe Biden is expected to use his primetime address, which starts in a few minutes’ time, at 8pm Eastern Time, to try to sell Americans on the need to spend billions more dollars on Israel and Ukraine, even as the US House of Representatives, without a leader, cannot approve new spending on the two wars, Reuters reports. “Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel,” Biden wrote in a social media post listing topics for his White House speech. “The need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine.” He added: “We are at a global inflection point that is bigger than party or politics.”
Speech is Biden's second ever prime-time Oval Office addressIt is only the second prime-time Oval Office address in the Democratic president’s nearly three years in office; in June he cheered the end of a debt ceiling standoff. The speech comes as Israeli officials signal their readiness for a ground offensive.
Biden expected to unveil funding request including $14bn for Israel – reportThe White House said Biden will unveil a new funding request this week believed to be as much as $100 billion. It may include $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, sources told Reuters, as well as billions for Asia and US border security.
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:09:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Oval Office address about to beginBiden is about to begin his second-ever Oval Office address. US Presidents traditionally reserve speeches from the solemn setting of the Oval Office for moments of key national significance, Reuters explains. Biden’s only previous address from there was in June when he hailed a deal with Congress to avert what would have been a catastrophic US default. But Congress has now been paralysed for more than two weeks as divided Republicans struggle to elect a House speaker – in turn holding up aid.
Hardline Republicans, and a growing number of voters, are strongly opposed to adding to the $43.9bn in security assistance that the United States has committed since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Biden hopes to break the logjam by hitching it to funding for Israel, Taiwan and the southern border with Mexico. He said in Tel Aviv he would ask Congress for an “unprecedented” package for Israel’s defence this week. US media reported that the package will include $14bn in emergency assistance for Israel and $60bn for Ukraine, although fuller details may not be released until Friday.
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:10:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Oval Office address begins“We’re facing an inflection point in history,” Biden says as he opens his speech. What we do today will determine outcomes for decades to come, he says.
Biden: We’re pursuing every avenue to bring hostages homeBiden says, “We’re pursuing every avenue to bring hostages home”. He says there is no higher priority. “The US remains committed to Palestinians’ right to dignity and to self-determination. The acts of Hamas don’t take that away,” Biden says.
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:11:00 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Hamas wants to “annihilate a neighbouring democracy”, Biden says. The militant group uses civilians as human shields, he says. He is switching between Ukraine and Israel as he speaks – the funding Biden wants approved will be for both countries, with the bulk going to Ukraine.
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:11:56 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 'Making sure israel and ukraine succeed is vital for America's national security'Biden says, “Making sure israel and ukraine succeed is vital for America’s national security.” Walking away from Ukraine or Israel increases the risk of global chaos, he says. He wants to use funding to make the Middle East, “more stable, connected to its neighbours … [with] more predictable markets, more employments, less grievances, less war, he says.”
Biden's funding request to be sent to Congress tomorrow“In Israel we must make sure they have what they need to protect their people today and always,” he says. The funding request will be sent to Congress tomorrow. The funding will be used to, “Sharpen Israel’s qualitative military edge,” he says. It will make sure the Iron Dome defence system continues to function, and will “sent a message to other hostile actors in the region.”
'We cannot give up on a two-state solution', says Biden“As hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace, we cannot give up on a two-state solution,” Biden says.
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:14:53 GMT -5
(The Guardian) He says that he knows “how many of you in the Muslim-American community, the Arab-American community” are hurting, are saying “here we go again, with Islamophobia.” He mentions the killing of Wadea Al-Fayoume, an eight-year-old boy, in an alleged hate crime. It is at times like these that, “We have to work harder than ever to hold onto the values that make us who we are,” Biden says.
A fuller quote from earlier in Biden’s speech: he said that, Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin “represent different threats but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy”.
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:16:06 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 'We made mistakes' after 9/11Biden says that the US was “blinded by rage” after 9/11 and “made mistakes”. He urges Israel not to do the same.
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Post by Webster on Oct 19, 2023 19:17:41 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden is now stressing that many of the weapons used as part of aid projects are manufactured in the US.
Biden signals that his address is ending. He is telling the story of his secret visit to Ukraine earlier this year, on a train from Poland with “blacked out windows”. “As I walked through Kyiv with President Zelenskiy with air raid sirens sounding in the distance, I felt something,” he says, that he has felt before – which is that, “America is a beacon to the world still, still.”
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