During President Biden’s speech last night, he is to be commended for his strong support of Israel and Israeli defenses, including the Iron Dome. If he had stayed on the message of Israeli support, it would’ve been a truly powerful speech. 

Where the speech goes wrong is his coupling of Israel and Ukraine. He spent as much time on Ukraine as on Israel. Big mistake. Mr. Biden tries to create a moral, diplomatic, and military equivalence between the Hamas terrorist massacre in Israel on October 7 and President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine 20 months ago. Big mistake. 

Here’s a key point from the speech: “Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.” This is wrong. This is factually wrong. 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine — brutal as it has been, and as much as I completely oppose it — is fundamentally a matter of Ukrainian statehood and sovereign boundaries. The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel is fundamentally about Israel’s right to exist. Hamas and its sponsor, Iran, want to drive Israel off the map and into the sea. 

Mr. Biden gets this right when he says Hamas’s “stated purpose for existing is the destruction of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people.” That is correct.  

Yet, evil as Vladimir Putin may be, he is not attempting to annihilate Ukraine altogether, or somehow drive it into the Black Sea. Mr. Putin wants to conquer Ukraine and govern it — not destroy it. Hamas wants to destroy Israel. This is a very big difference. 

This is not the place to critique the $60 billion proposed security funding supplemental for Ukraine, but I do think conservatives in Congress should ask for some kind of exit-ramp, diplomatic strategy before they approve any additional funding. 

It is odd that after returning from the Israeli war zone and addressing the nation, Mr. Biden is asking that 60 percent of his funding request go to Ukraine. Another omission in Mr. Biden’s speech: Having correctly defined Hamas’s goal of destroying Israel, he neglected to endorse Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas. I think he should have, for purposes of both moral and military clarity. 

Then, in the weakest part of the speech, Mr. Biden turns to Iran, one of only two Iranian mentions in the address: “Iran is supporting Russia in Ukraine and supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region. And we’ll continue to hold them accountable, I might add.”  

“I might add?” “Hold Iran accountable?” There’s no credibility here. 

One of the key points in understanding the Mideast blow-up is the fact that in the last three years, Mr. Biden has never held Iran accountable for its state-sponsored terrorism, its goal of destroying Israel, and its goal of destroying the United States. 

President Trump left Iran nearly broke. Mr. Biden has let Iran build up huge oil revenues and foreign exchange reserves, largely through energy sales to our enemy, China. 

Mr. Biden has not implemented the Iranian energy, economic, and commercial sanctions. Nor has he implemented the ballistic missile or nuclear sanctions. In fact, from Day 1, Mr. Biden has attempted to cut a new nuclear deal with Iran that would shower it with even more money. 

Here’s historian Walter Russell Mead in today’s Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Biden has yet to grapple with the painful truth that America’s core problem in the Middle East is the march of an unappeasable Iran toward regional power regardless of moral or human cost.” 

Mr. Biden repeats the same mistake in last night’s speech, when he says: “The United States and our partners across the region are working to build a better future for the Middle East, one where the Middle East is more stable, better connected to its neighbors….” 

The point Mr. Biden and his administration do not understand is that Iran doesn’t want a more stable, better-connected relationship with its neighbors. Iran is a rogue terrorist nation, and that’s that. It has no desire to be integrated into some peaceful Middle East. 

The other Arab states do have a desire for peace and prosperity and integration in the Middle East. That was the success of Mr. Trump’s Abraham Accords. The world was a far safer place under Mr. Trump. Iran doesn’t want this — not now, not ever. 

This is the tragic failure of the Biden policy. Mr. Biden’s speech last night repeats that tragic error. Mr. Biden does not have the strength of character to acknowledge that his policy has failed and it’s time to seek another policy. Because of this, the world is a far more dangerous place. 

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.