Ukraine — USA — Israel + “Mexican Border Wall”

Ukraine is at the center of bipartisan discussions both in the USA

Oleksii Volovych
Ph.D. in History

With the beginning of Russia’s large-scale aggression, our relations with Western countries have noticeably intensified, which had never been and could hardly have been during the entire period of Ukraine’s independence. And there is nothing surprising in this, because today it depends on the support of our Western partners: whether Ukraine will or will not exist as a sovereign and independent state in the center of Europe; whether there will or there will not be the Ukrainian nation. Of course, during such interaction, we get to know our partners better and better, and they get to know us better, that is, there is a process of mutual understanding, in which we see both our positive and negative sides. In such cooperation, our partners help us get rid of shortcomings in the existing realities, and, on the contrary, are grateful to us for our feedback. Today, it is no coincidence that Ukraine is at the center of bipartisan discussions both in the US Congress and between Congress and the administration of US President Joe Biden. After all, it is the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war that will determine the military-political situation not only in Europe, but throughout the world for many years in the 21^st century.

What is observed today in the US Congress regarding the provision of financial and military support to Ukraine in the war against the Russian Federation is, to put it mildly, surprising. As you know, on October 20, 2023, President of the United States, Joe Biden, submitted a request to Congress for more than $105 billion, most of which — $61.4 billion — was supposed to be allocated to Ukraine; $14 billion for Israel; $10 billion for humanitarian aid; $7 billion for Taiwan and $14 billion to strengthen the US border with Mexico. A request was submitted to Congress in one package in order to minimize the opposition of part of the Republican faction in the US House of Representatives. Combining completely different, unrelated problems in one request is a traditional practice for the US Congress, so to speak, a compromise in achieving the goals of the Republican and Democratic factions. But consideration of President Joe Biden’s request has been going on for more than two months, and the discussion of this issue in Congress has been postponed to January 2024.

At a time when a large European nation in the center of Europe has been bleeding for almost two years (excluding the previous 8 years), heroically holding back the Russian invasion, US congressmen are pondering: whether to provide assistance to Ukrainians or not? And these are the congressmen of that Great America, which has always unconditionally sided with the nations that are fighting for their freedom, defending sovereignty and independence — the highest values in the world, which are enshrined in the UN Charter? Is this the America that during World War II helped dozens of European nations resist German fascism? What happened to that America today?.. Why can a partisan struggle blind the eyes of US congressmen so that they do not see or do not want to see what is happening in the East of Europe, on the border with NATO countries? For US congressmen, the war in Ukraine against the “second army of the world” is a kind of local war, somewhere across the ocean, far from America, and for them the most important thing is to throw billions to complete the wall on the border with Mexico, which began to be built back in 2005?..

It seems that US politicians do not have even a basic understanding of the events in Ukraine. Probably, knowing that Christopher Columbus discovered America three times from 1492 to 1504, most likely they have no idea that the capital of Ukraine — Kyiv — was founded in 482, that is, 1000 years before the mentioned Columbian discovery. And without exaggeration, they don’t even know for sure that over the past 500 years, Rus-Ukraine has had more than two dozen wars with Muscovy. For example, in 1514, the troops of the Ruthenian prince Kostiantyn Ostrozkyi in one of the first battles near Orsha defeated the army of the Moscow prince Vasily III and stopped for some time the seizure of Rus’ lands by Moscow, which, unfortunately, began again and continues today.

It is known that in the United States, the two leading parties — the Republican and the Democratic — have been competing for power for about two hundred years. The Republican Party has 35 million members, while the Democratic Party has 47 million. Democrats and Republicans together number 82 million — a quarter of the country’s adult population of 260 million citizens. Thus, three-quarters of the adult non-partisan population can only testify to their commitment or indifference or contempt for a particular party during the voting. As for the Americans’ attitude to Ukraine, according to surveys conducted on December 10–13, 2023, by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research, 66 % of Americans believe that the level of support provided by the United States to Ukraine is sufficient or should be higher. Moreover, this figure has been growing in recent months. Let’s hope that congressmen from both parties will pay attention to these data and draw appropriate conclusions.

The USA Between Ukraine and Israel

I consider it appropriate to analyze the assistance that Biden administration intends to provide to Ukraine and Israel, respectively $61.4 billion and $14 billion. If we compare the size of Ukraine and Israel, then, in my opinion, Israel will obtain much more than Ukraine. However, there have been similar precedents before, when the United States provided Israel with much larger funds to support its defense capabilities. In particular, on September 14, 2016, a bilateral agreement was signed, according to which the United States provided that country with $38 billion. With those funds, Israel undertook to purchase American military equipment for 10 years, until 2026. It should be noted that in the same year, only $600 million was allocated to Ukraine, although it had been at war with Russia for three years. By the way, at that time, US President Barack Obama consistently refused to supply Ukraine with any weapons, trying to resolve the conflict in Ukraine through diplomatic means. And in this he was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But let’s go back to 2023 and think about why $61.4 billion is not enough for Ukraine and $14 billion is too much for Israel?.. Firstly, the territory of Ukraine is about 30 times larger than the territory of Israel (22,072,000 square kilometers). Secondly, at the beginning of 2023, the population of Ukraine (36 million people) was four times larger than the population of Israel (9 million people). Thirdly, the occupied territory and, accordingly, the war zone in Ukraine is about 20 % of its total area, i.e. 120 thousand square kilometers, which is 6 times the territory of Israel. At the same time, the area of the Gaza Strip is only 365 square kilometers, approximately the same as the city of Kharkiv. Fourthly, today the Defense Forces of Ukraine are confronted by about 600 thousand Russian troops, which in terms of the number of various weapons far exceeds the number of weapons in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, especially with regard to armored vehicles and aviation. Currently, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have 169.5 thousand regular military personnel and 465 thousand reservists, of whom 300,000 were mobilized during combat operations in the Gaza Strip. Such a large Israeli army is opposed by only 20–30 thousand Hamas militants, armed mainly with small arms and ATGMs. Fifthly, despite its rather modest size, Israel is significantly superior to Ukraine economically and militarily. Let’s compare 2021, the “pre-war” year. While Israel’s GDP was $488.5 billion, Ukraine’s GDP was only $200.1 billion. And this is despite the fact that in Ukraine we have 30 % of the world’s black soil, while 62 % of Israel’s territory is the Negev Desert.

While Israel’s military budget in 2021 was $24.3 billion, almost as much as in huge Canada, Ukraine’s defense budget was much smaller — $6 billion. The IDF is armed with 3950 tanks, 583 combat aircrafts, 95 combat helicopters, 56 warships and boats. Israel has a strong defense industry, which largely satisfies the IDF’s needs for weapons. Israel has long mastered the production of F-16 fighters, and US fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters began to arrive there. Now there are 39 of them. Products of the Israeli defense industry are supplied to 80 countries around the world, but the Israeli government refuses to supply weapons and military equipment to Ukraine. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons.

Since 1949, the United States has been financially supporting Israel annually, averaging $2–3 billion. For more than 30 years, Israel has had the status of a major non-NATO ally of the United States. There are about 8 million ethnic Jews in the United States, who play a significant role in politics, economics and finance. Israel has a powerful lobby in the US Congress. There are Ukraine’s support groups in the House of Representatives and the Senate, but there is not a single ethnic Ukrainian among them. In my opinion, historically, for the United States, relations with Israel are in the first place, and not only in the Middle East, but also in the world. And it is unlikely that they may weaken in the coming decades. So, we should take this reality for what it is.

Ukraine and the “Mexican Border Wall”

Another American reality, to which we also need to respond adequately, is the problem of illegal immigration to the United States, which to many of us does not seem as significant as providing assistance to Ukraine in the war with Russia. But, when considering Joe Biden’s request, Republican congressmen emphasize that the United States should take care not only of protecting Ukraine’s borders, but also, above all, of protecting US borders. For ordinary Americans, illegal immigration is a daily problem they have faced for at least the last 50 years, while the war in Ukraine which is over 10,000 km from the United States for them is one of many continuous local wars around the world. But let’s briefly consider the main aspects of the problem of illegal immigration to the United States.

To understand the current problem of illegal immigration, it is worth making a short excursion into the history of the problem. Illegal immigration to the United States intensified in the 1950s. From the second half of the 20^th century, a mass invasion of immigrants began in the United States as a result of the liberalization of immigration policy there and the adoption of the Immigration and Nationality Act on August 25, 1965. In the second half of the 20^th century, US administrations have taken various government measures to contain the influx of refugees, including the Bracero program and Operation Gatekeeper. However, those measures only partially reduced illegal immigration. At the end of the 20^th century, immigration to the United States from European countries has sharply decreased, while immigrants from Latin America, who traditionally settled in the Southwest of the country in the states of California, Texas and Arizona, began to prevail among immigrants. In 1986 through 2008, the number of illegal immigrants increased from 3 million to 12 million.

Central American countries are among the poorest in the world and, especially in El Salvador and Honduras, for years there has been a network of criminal gangs, including the MS-13 gang. According to the UN, those two countries are world leaders in the number of murders committed. In the 1980s, the MS-13 gang embraced immigrants in 46 states of the United States, at the same time the number of thieves and drug addicts increased, infectious diseases and social instability spread. But, on the other hand, according to many estimates, working immigrants give the US economy a net profit.

Currently, the number of illegal immigrants in the United States is approximately 11 million people. In 2022, 2 million 214 thousand 652 detained and deported foreigners were registered. Over the past 3 years, more people have entered the United States across the border with Mexico than the population of 33 of the 50 American states. Over the past two years, the number of illegal immigrants from Russia also has increased, who, thanks to the visa-free regime with Mexico, arrive on its territory and then go to the United States.

Today, on the 3,145 km-long border with Mexico, more than 1000 km of steel and concrete fencing with a height of 5 to 8 meters has been installed, on which several billion dollars have already been spent. According to some reports, if the wall is built to its full length, namely, 2,940 km, then its cost will be from 22 to 66 billion US dollars. Before the construction of the wall began, its cost was estimated at about 1–1.5 million US dollars per 1 km. In the spring of 2014, the Israeli company Elbit Systems Ltd. won a contract to manufacture and install surveillance equipment along the wall between the United States and Mexico. The value of the contract may eventually reach $1 billion. The wall is guarded by more than 18,000 employees of the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidential term in 2017, the issue of building a complex of barrier structures along the border between the United States and Mexico has become a bone of contention. The Republicans, led by Donald Trump, insisted on further construction, while the Democrats, as today, were against it. But since the Democrats were in the majority in the House of Representatives at that time, they could block this project. In January 2017, Speaker of the House, Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, called the border wall “immoral” and vowed that “We’re not doing a wall, so that’s it”.

At the beginning of 2017, US President Donald Trump demanded that Congress provide $5.6 billion for the construction of the “Mexican Border Wall”, but the Democrats agreed, as in the previous year, to only $1.3 billion for total border security spending. February 15, 2019, Donald Trump introduced a state of emergency in the country, under which he demanded to allocate $8 billion for the completion of the above-mentioned wall. When Joe Biden took office in 2021, he promised that “no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall”.

But let’s return to the present day. Proposed by President Joe Biden on October 20, 2023, $14 billion to strengthen the US border with Mexico, is so significant that it would seem that it will fully satisfy the Republicans in the House of Representatives. However, in early November 2023, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson proposed to vote on aid to Israel separately, but to combine the provision of assistance to Ukraine in one package with expenditures to strengthen the security of the mentioned border. In other words, Republicans in the US Congress would like to make additional assistance to Ukraine dependent on increased security measures on the border with Mexico. In particular, they demand to renew the construction of a wall, as well as complicate the rules for obtaining asylum for immigrants. Thus, the Republicans threaten to refuse to provide aid to Ukraine if the Democrats do not agree to tighten US immigration laws.

But the White House believes that the issues of support for Ukraine and Israel are so intertwined that the separation of funding for the two countries will not meet the interests of US national security. Biden administration urges Republicans not to hold funding for Ukraine hostage to an internal political rivalry in the United States that has exhausted presidents and lawmakers over the past three decades. Administration officials also remind of the threats to peace and national security of the United States in case of Russia’s victory due to Ukraine’s loss of American support.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson sent a letter to Joe Biden on December 21, 2023, in which he blamed the US President for the crisis on the border with Mexico and urged him to take a number of measures to “stem the record tide of illegal immigration”. Referring to CBP data, Mike Johnson stressed that on average more than 8 thousand migrants illegally enter the United States every single day, noting that this is a direct result of Biden administration policies. Mike Johnson ‘s letter also refers to a record amount of the narcotic substance fentanyl seized at the border. During FY2023, CBP seized “enough fentanyl to kill the entire US population”, he said. Among the precautionary measures, the Speaker of the House of Representatives suggested that the US President renew construction of the border wall and called for speeding up the deportation of migrants who cannot prove their right to asylum.

On December 23, 2023, the US Congress went on Christmas holidays without making a decision on aid to Ukraine. It is expected that American lawmakers may return to discussing this problem in January 2024. Given that the discussion of strengthening security on the border with Mexico may last for months, the discussion of another issue — the provision of financial and military assistance to Ukraine — will slow down indefinitely.

* * *

After the ruscist horde’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, ordinary Ukrainian citizens began to get rid of certain illusory ideas about Western countries, in particular, this concerns the activities and interaction of various branches of government, political parties, the role of civil society, etc. Of course, we are most concerned about the reluctance of some political parties and leaders in Western countries to help Ukraine in its confrontation with Russia. Much can be said about the domestic political problems for the American leadership in the world, but, in my opinion, the main reason for them at the moment is the prevalence of narrow party and corporate interests among the American establishment over the ideas of national solidarity and world leadership.

On October 19, 2023, in his historic address to the American nation, President Joe Biden emphasized that the world is facing an “inflection point in history”. In my opinion, the nature of this inflection point will largely depend on how the domestic and foreign policy of the United States will change, and how its leadership will be strengthened in order to consolidate all democratic forces and isolate autocratic regimes in the world. In this article, only a few of these problems were touched upon, which in some way have a negative impact on US-Ukrainian relations and specifically on Ukraine’s military potential in its national liberation war against Russian neo-fascism. As it seems, the two main trends that destabilize the domestic political situation in the United States are the rivalry between isolationists and internationalist integrators. It would be good if there were some consensus between these two trends on the basis of mutual concessions and compromise. The unity of the American nation will contribute to the consolidation of all the democracies of the world.

It seems that in recent years, representatives of the American establishment, regardless of their party affiliation, are increasingly beginning to realize that in case of a Russian military occupation of all of Ukraine due to insufficient supply of Western weapons, Russia would deploy its troops along the borders of eastern NATO countries from the Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean. In such a situation, the West would be forced to take large-scale defense measures, the cost of which would be astronomical and incomparably greater than providing the necessary military assistance to our country. Thus, the West’s support for Ukraine has, in addition to a manifestation of solidarity, elementary pragmatic calculations, since it will allow the United States and other NATO countries to avoid huge defense spending and a direct armed confrontation with Russia with possible incredibly difficult consequences for the countries of Europe and the whole world. I would like to hope that the awareness of these realities will be transformed in the US Congress not only into the unblocking of US military assistance to Ukraine, but also into its significant increase.

You can read the full article in “BINTEL” Journal, No. 4–2023