Jonathan S. Tobin
JNS, May 7, 2024
“Biden has essentially been playing a double game on the war with Hamas since Oct. 7.”
When President Joe Biden wants to say the right things about Israel and antisemitism, he knows how to do it. Much like his comments immediately after the Oct. 7 massacres, his speech at a Holocaust commemoration held in the U.S. Capitol on May 7 struck all the right notes. He not only spoke appropriately about the Six Million slain by the Nazis, he correctly noted that, “This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust. It didn’t end with the Holocaust either. Or after—even after our victory in World War II. This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world and requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness. That hatred was brought to life on October 7th of 2023.”
Going on, he acknowledged that the current war has unleashed a surge of antisemitism in the United States that has been particularly felt on college campuses. He even detailed the unspeakable atrocities of Oct. 7 (which, according to a live New York Times update about the speech, offends “pro-Palestinian” protesters who deny Hamas’s crimes). And unlike his first comments about the antisemitic campus protests, he didn’t try to balance that with either bogus concerns about a largely mythical problem of Islamophobia or discussions about the alleged sufferings of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. He also placed the blame for the current war squarely on the Hamas terror organization.
Yet, the president said, “people are already forgetting. They are already forgetting. That Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas that brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten nor have you. And we will not forget.”
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