--- title: Biden Rallies for Ukraine, and Delivers a Warning to Israel description: The two moments highlighted the balancing act for Biden, as opposition to Israel's bombing of Gaza grows. canonical: https://time.com/6384946/biden-netanyahu-zionist-zelensky/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-12-13T00:51:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T12:47:44.817Z article:section: Politics og:title: Biden Rallies for Ukraine, and Delivers a Warning to Israel og:description: The two moments highlighted the balancing act for Biden, as opposition to Israel's bombing of Gaza grows. og:url: https://time.com/6384946/biden-netanyahu-zionist-zelensky/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6db2c9979372b617/698a431f47ca3829033bb6a0/GettyImages-1850718732.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Biden Meets With Visiting Ukrainian President Zelensky At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Biden Rallies for Ukraine, and Delivers a Warning to Israel twitter:description: The two moments highlighted the balancing act for Biden, as opposition to Israel's bombing of Gaza grows. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6db2c9979372b617/698a431f47ca3829033bb6a0/GettyImages-1850718732.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Biden Reaffirms Support for Ukraine, but Issues a Warning to Israel > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Dec 13, 2023 12:51 AM UTC  President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Dec. 12, 2023 in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Dec. 12, 2023 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Dec 13, 2023 12:51 AM UTC President Joe Biden stood next to Ukraine's leader on Tuesday, presenting a united front against Russia as they took questions from reporters. "If you're being celebrated by Russian propagandists, it might be time to rethink what you're doing,” Biden said of Republicans blocking his request to send about $60 billion in aid to Ukraine. The support from the President for a critical ally was a marked contrast from hours earlier at a fundraiser, when Biden was publicly airing his frustrations about Israel’s leadership as the country’s bombing campaign in Gaza appears to be losing international support. “They don't want a two-state solution. They don't want anything having to do with the Palestinians,” Biden said dismissively of the far right-wing coalition that brought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to power. The two moments highlighted the balancing act for Biden, as he tries to urge Congress to pass a budget measure before the end of the year that includes billions in aid for both Ukraine and Israel. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had come to Washington to shore up funding for his country’s defense against Russia’s continued invasion, including additional funds for ammunition and air defense of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. But rather than flip the votes of [skeptical Republicans](https://time.com/6368630/zelensky-congress-republicans-ukraine-aid/) in Congress to his side, he instead found Ukraine's cause competing with debates over border funding and Israel’s endgame in Gaza. Biden’s pointed criticism of Netanyahu, his long-time frenemy, sucked up much of the attention in Washington on Tuesday. Netanyahu, Biden told a room of about 100 campaign donors at the Salamander Hotel in Washington, is leading “the most conservative government in Israel's history,” and “has to change.” Biden described a decades-old photo with Netanyahu that the Israeli Prime Minister displayed on his desk during his visit to Israel in October. On it, Biden had written years ago, “Bibi, I love you, but I don't agree with a damn thing you have to say.” Biden said his feelings about Netanyahu are the same today. “That remains to be the case.” Biden has drawn a distinction between his criticism of Netanyahu and his longtime support for the state of Israel. During a Hanukkah celebration at the White House on Monday night, Biden said his commitment to defend and support Israel is “unshakable,” and repeated a phrase he’s used for decades, saying, “You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist. And I am a Zionist.” Senate Republicans have held up aid to Israel and tied Biden’s effort to extend U.S. military assistance to Ukraine while they demand changes to immigration policy at the U.S. border, including shutting down legal avenues the Biden Administration has used to admit some migrants. “My team is working with Senate Democrats and Republicans to try to find a bipartisan compromise both concerning changes in policy and to provide the resources we need to secure the border,” Biden told reporters. “Compromise is how democracy works, and I'm ready and offered to compromise already.” He added, “Holding Ukraine funding hostage in an attempt to force through an extreme Republican Party agenda on the border is not how it works.” Biden said that only a small number of Republicans were balking at aid for Ukraine and that he doesn’t believe they speak for the majority of the GOP. "I'm not making promises, but I'm hopeful we can get there," he said, warning that not coming through for Ukraine with the military assistance it needs “would send a horrible message to our allies.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6384946/biden-netanyahu-zionist-zelensky/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6384946/biden-netanyahu-zionist-zelensky/"},"headline":"Biden Reaffirms Support for Ukraine, but Issues a Warning to Israel","datePublished":"2023-12-13T00:51:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T12:47:44.817Z","description":"The two moments highlighted the balancing act for Biden, as opposition to Israel's bombing of Gaza grows.","url":"https://time.com/6384946/biden-netanyahu-zionist-zelensky/","keywords":["Joe Biden","Israel-Hamas War"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6db2c9979372b617/698a431f47ca3829033bb6a0/GettyImages-1850718732.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6db2c9979372b617/698a431f47ca3829033bb6a0/GettyImages-1850718732.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Biden Meets With Visiting Ukrainian President Zelensky At The White House","caption":"President Biden Meets With Visiting Ukrainian President Zelensky At The White House","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/joe-biden/","name":"Joe Biden"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6384946/biden-netanyahu-zionist-zelensky/","name":"Biden Reaffirms Support for Ukraine, but Issues a Warning to Israel"}}]}] ```