Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that the United States has the means to help bankroll both the war in Ukraine and Israel’s war against Hamas.
Yellen, who is in Luxembourg for the Eurogroup finance ministers meeting, made the remarks during an interview with Sky News. She said that the U.S. government can “certainly” afford to assist the militaries of both Ukraine and Israel simultaneously. The U.S. has been backing Ukraine for over a year in its fight against Russia and is a stalwart ally of Israel, which is now embroiled in the most consequential conflict with Palestinian terrorists in decades.
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Yellen reiterated U.S. support for Israel and said that the U.S. has made it clear that it is “working very closely with the Israelis” in their fight against Hamas, which began after terrorists invaded southern Israel and killed more than 1,200 Israelis, primarily civilians.
“America can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel’s military needs and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia,” Yellen said.
Yellen also emphasized that it is crucial that as part of Israel’s war against Hamas that civilian lives should be spared to the “maximum extent possible.” After the Hamas attack, Israel began an intense military bombardment of the Gaza Strip that has resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 people there, according to the Associated Press.
The Treasury chief also addressed the issue of congressional funding for more support for Israel. She said it is critical that Congress elect a new speaker of the House, a position that has remained vacant since Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from the role by hard-liners in his own party.
“We do need to come up with funds, both for Israel and for Ukraine. This is a priority,” Yellen said. “It’s really up to the House to find, seat a speaker, and to put us in a position where legislation can be passed.”
After McCarthy was voted out as speaker on Oct. 3, there was a hurried scramble to fill the vacancy, an effort that was made even more pressing by the war in Israel.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) won the nomination for speaker in the conference, although he later bowed out after it became apparent he didn’t have enough votes to secure the speaker’s gavel in a floor vote. Since then, Republicans have coalesced around Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), although with such a slim House majority the conference can only afford to lose a few votes.
Jordan has spent the last few days trying to shore up support among some of the more centrist House Republicans. That strategy appeared to be gaining a bit of traction after holdout Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, announced his support for Jordan’s bid on Monday.
Yellen also addressed the broader economic fallout emanating from the Israel-Hamas war. She said on Monday that it is still too early to understand the full economic ramifications of the conflict.
Immediately following the Hamas attack, global oil prices lurched upward, although they haven’t gotten out of control and are only slightly higher now than in the days following the war’s outbreak.
The Middle East region is one of the world’s largest oil exporting areas. There have been reports of Iranian involvement in the planning and execution of the assault. If Israel and Iran get enmeshed into a direct conflict, oil prices would be expected to explode.
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“The crude oil market remains hyper-alert to any indication that the conflict between Israel and Hamas is poised to expand into the oil producing region in the Middle East,” Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial, said after the conflict began.
On the Ukrainian side of things, Congress has allocated billions of dollars in humanitarian and military spending to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia, which invaded the country to international condemnation in February of last year.