Biden sees ‘ferocious surge of antisemitism’
President Joe Biden declared on Tuesday that hatred of Jews “continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people,” saying there has been a “ferocious surge of antisemitism” in the United States following the attacks by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7.
Speaking at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance, Biden demanded that Americans learn the lessons of what he called one of the “darkest chapters in human history” by opposing attacks on Jews.
“People are already forgetting, are already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror,” Biden said from Emancipation Hall on Capitol Hill. “It was Hamas that brutalized Israelis. It was Hamas that took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten.”
Biden’s address came during weeks of protests on U.S. college campuses against Israel’s war in the
Gaza Strip, with students demanding that the Biden administration stop sending arms to Israel. In some cases, the demonstrations have included antisemitic rhetoric and harassment targeting Jewish students.
“I understand people have strong beliefs and deep convictions about the world and America,” the president said, referring to the protests. But, he added, “there is no place on any campus in America, any place in America, for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind.”
He said destroying property does not constitute a peaceful protest.
“It’s against the law,” he said. “We’re a civil society. We uphold the rule of law, and no one should have to hide or be brave just to be themselves.”
The president vowed that his commitment to the security of Israel “and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad. Even when we disagree,” a reference to the arguments his administration has had with Israel’s right-wing government about the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Gaza.
But he focused most of his remarks on the responsibility that Americans have to push back against what he called an “ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people off the face of the Earth.” He said that desire was the driving force behind the Oct. 7 attacks.