In Congress, the two conflicts have been intertwined for months, because a Senate bill, the only aid package to pass at least one chamber would fund the defense of Ukraine and Israel. Linking the two made sense after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, as the United States sought to aid two democracies in peril. It also helped build political support for the bill, as it joined pro-Ukraine and pro-Israel lawmakers.
Since the aid bill passed the Senate six months ago, the situation has grown more complex. Concern about Israel’s Gaza operations has risen on the left and opposition to funding Ukraine on the right. After the weekend’s Iran attacks, voting for the aid package could become more palatable to both sides. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) should bring it to the floor quickly. Late Monday, however, he announced a complex plan to vote on simultaneous separate aid bills for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Over the House’s six months of pointless delay, by Republicans and at the urging of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Ukraine’s situation has become desperate. The country needs air defenses, ammunition and warplanes, from a coalition of countries like the one that intercepted Iran’s weekend fusillade aimed at Israel. Though neither money nor arms can solve Ukraine’s military manpower problems, the country has moved to call up more troops, at the risk that its limited cohort of young Ukrainians will die on the battlefield.
Further delay would help Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has redirected Russia’s economy toward war production and can throw waves of infantry at Ukraine’s thin front lines. Backing Ukraine now will show Mr. Putin that he cannot count on a Trump presidency to undercut Western support for Ukraine, as he obviously does.
No matter Mr. Trump’s intentions, a hefty infusion of U.S. aid would see Ukraine through crucial months of fighting, time European countries could use to step up their support. French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken more forcefully in recent weeks about the threat Russia poses to European security and the imperative of supporting Ukraine’s fight. And, however the war ends, providing assistance now would put Ukraine in a favorable position for negotiations later — a position that would protect its aspirations to build its democracy and orient toward Western Europe and the United States.
De-escalation and eventual peacemaking should also be the order of the day in the Middle East. Over the weekend, Iran’s attack was repulsed in the skies by not only the air defenses and warplanes of the Jewish state but also vital help from the United States, Jordan, France and Britain. This alliance’s quick work was a welcome demonstration of resolve and an illustration, in the geopolitical context, of what economists call “revealed preference”: When forced to choose between Israel on one side and Iran’s theocracy on the other, the West and at least one key Arab state did not hesitate to pick the former. President Biden is wise to urge Israel to avoid a tit-for-tat escalation with Iran, and the wider war that could bring. As long as it maintains its international relationships, Israel has shown that it can act in its own defense and fend off Iranian attacks.
To keep those relationships, and to end the intolerable suffering of civilian men, women and children, Israel’s priority should be the swiftest possible conclusion to the war in Gaza. That requires ensuring immediate humanitarian relief reaches desperate Palestinians. It means developing a credible endgame for the military operation that respects civilian lives, and a new political dispensation in Gaza that both sidelines Hamas and provides Gazans some measure of hope for their future. After the weekend’s moment of regional anti-Iran cooperation, Israel and the United States might find it easier to persuade Arab countries to help rebuild Gaza.
The first step would be a six-week truce that Israel and Hamas have been negotiating on and off for weeks, including the release of hostages held by Hamas. After this weekend, Hamas’s leaders, who have been holding out, should understand that no Iranian or Iranian-backed offensive will rescue them — in part because the United States, despite its recent quarrels with the Netanyahu government, remains committed to Israel’s security.
Both conflicts still appear far from resolution. As it did over Israel’s skies this weekend, the United States can leverage its unique capabilities to stave off the worst.
