Aviva Fried (US correspondent) / Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN / AFP 08:11, 07 December 2023

The U.S. Congress continues to oppose the president's request for an additional $106 billion in aid for Ukraine for both Ukraine and Israel. Republicans refuse to write the check, but the temptation of isolationism "would cost a lot more," Biden told Trump supporters.

From "America First" to the era of Joe Biden. Until the last minute, the US president tried to change the minds of Republican senators, saying he was open to compromises for an additional $60 billion in aid to Ukraine. It was a wasted effort. Republicans don't want to give it to him without a guarantee that funds will be allocated to sweeping immigration reform. A dangerous blackmail, according to the American president.

"Congress is on the verge of granting Putin's greatest wish and relinquishing our standing in the world. If Putin takes Ukraine, he won't stop there," Biden said gravely. Even if the issue is global, it has above all become a major point of domestic politics.

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A Dangerous Calculation

Republicans are refusing to continue paying for Ukraine, which has already received $111 billion, even as their bases are increasingly less concerned with a long and distant war. Joe Biden is presented as the president and candidate who puts the interests of Ukrainians ahead of those of Americans by not securing their borders. This is a dangerous calculation because Ukraine could run out of resources by the end of the year, but a calculation that could pay off at the ballot box next November.

The total package would be $106 billion and would go to both Ukraine and Israel, whose ammunition needs are growing. The aim is to supply the Israeli army with shells, which deal with nearly 300 targets every day. Israel says it has so far killed half of Hamas' commanders.