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President Joe Biden addressed the American people Thursday evening from the Oval Office, linking the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, saying “we cannot let terrorists like Hamas and Putin win.”

The president is asking Congress for $100 billion in new funding, which is already facing resistance on Capitol Hill, with Republicans hesitant to give more money to Ukraine.

Sitting at the Resolute Desk, Biden argued in his 15-minute speech that the causes are the same — and that these allies share a common enemy: Iran.

Putin and Hamas “represent different threats but they share one thing in common: They both want to completely wipe out a neighboring democracy,” Biden said.

“Iran supports Russia in Ukraine as well as Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region,” he also stressed.

He continued: “American leadership is what holds the world together. »

“American alliances are what keep us and America safe. American values ​​are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with,” he said. “Putting all of that at risk if we leave Ukraine, we turn our back on Israel – it’s just not worth it.”

The president explained that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “appetite for power and control” meant he would not “limit himself to Ukraine”, which could lead to conflict involving NATO countries .

If that happens, Biden warned, “we’ll have something we’re not looking for.”

“We are not looking for American troops to fight in Russia or against Russia,” he said.

The president also made other promises: he told the families of hostages kidnapped by Hamas in Israel during the October 7 terrorist attack that “we are exploring all possible avenues to bring their loved ones home.”

“As president, there is no higher priority for me than the safety of Americans held hostage,” he said. “The Hamas terrorist has unleashed pure and unadulterated evil on the world and, sadly, the Jewish people know perhaps better than anyone that there is no limit to the depravity of people when they want to inflict harm. pain to others.”

He also insisted that foreign aid flow into Gaza, where Palestinian civilians are suffering while the Hamas terror group fires rockets into Israel.

While his in-person meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was canceled following the Gaza hospital explosion, Biden spoke by phone with the leader aboard Air Force One after spending seven hours on the ground in Israel on Wednesday.

Biden said he “reiterated that the United States remains committed to the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination.”

“The actions taken by Hamas did not have immediate consequences,” Biden said.

The president said he was “heartbroken” by the “tragic loss of Palestinian lives” in Gaza, including at the hospital – adding that “what was not done by the Israelis”, reiterating his statements made on Wednesday, attributing responsibility to an errant individual. rocket launched by another terrorist group close to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Biden’s funding request, reportedly $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, comes at a time when Congress is in chaos.

The House has been speechless since Oct. 3, when Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a motion to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the top job.

Eight Republicans and the entire Democratic caucus voted to impeach McCarthy, with MAGA-aligned Rep. Jim Jordan and McCarthy’s second-in-command, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, seen as the most viable candidates to take the gavel.

But efforts to elect Scalise and then Jordan to the presidency failed.

Scalise, after winning the first internal GOP caucus race, lost a vote in the House and chose to step down.

Despite losing votes in the House on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jordan told reporters Thursday afternoon that he planned to continue his march.

A move aimed at making interim interim president Patrick McHenry more accountable has currently fizzled.

But Biden will also have problems with the Senate.

On Thursday, Republican Senator Roger Marshall wrote a letter, signed by seven other Republican colleagues in the Senate, demanding that aid to Israel and Ukraine be debated separately.

The eight senators said Biden was “risking a government shutdown” by tying up aid programs.

“My colleagues and I firmly believe that any aid to Israel should not be used as leverage to send tens of billions of additional dollars to Ukraine. These are two separate conflicts at different stages and cannot be considered a “comprehensive agreement,” Marshall wrote.

Republican opposition to sending additional aid to Ukraine has grown in recent months.

“These are two separate and unrelated conflicts and it would be wrong to leverage aid to Israel to try to push additional aid to Ukraine across the finish line,” Marshall continued, joined by Senators Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley and Mike Lee. , Rick Scott, Cynthia Lummis, Mike Braun, JD Vance and Marsha Blackburn.

In the run-up to Biden’s Oval Office speech, former President Donald Trump – the Republican Party’s leading candidate – tried to score political points.

“The horrific disasters taking place in Israel, as well as the chaos on our southern border and in the world’s hottest hotspots, all have one thing in common: they were caused by the deadly combination of incompetence, radicalism and of weakness of Twisted Joe Biden. ” Trump said in a statement.