President Joe Biden on Tuesday called out what he described as a "ferocious surge" of antisemitism, using a somber speech to tie together two grim anniversaries: his nation's annual commemoration of the Holocaust, and the beginning of the seventh month of hostilities in Gaza.
"This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world," Biden said as he delivered the keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony.
He spoke at the U.S. Capitol before a group of legislators and a few elderly survivors of Nazi Germany's move to systematically exterminate 6 million Jews during World War II.
In his remarks, Biden sought to tie that event to militant Palestinian group Hamas' stunning attack that killed about 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7. The attack provoked a conflict that is ongoing to this day and has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.
"We've seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world," since the October attack, said Biden. "Now here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting, already forgetting, that Hamas unleashed this terror."
'You belong'
Biden assured the Jewish community: "You belong. You always have, and you always will. … My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree."
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, applauded Biden's speech and said in a statement that antisemitism is everybody's problem, not just one for Jews.
"Rising antisemitic conspiracy theories and hate are a threat that undermines each and every American's safety and our core democratic norms and values," Spitalnick said. "We're grateful for President Biden's clear moral leadership confronting this threat, including through the historic U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
"We urge Congress to quickly move the Countering Antisemitism Act forward for a vote, support robust implementation of the National Strategy, and significantly increase funding for the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to investigate fully and address acts of antisemitism — and all civil rights violations — on campus. It's time to make clear that just, inclusive societies are ones in which Jews and all communities are safe and free."
Mounting pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. college campuses have raised questions about whether criticizing the world's only Jewish state as it continues to besiege Gaza should be seen as antisemitic speech.
"It is perfectly OK to object to the policies of a state," said Mirette Mabrouk, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. "It is never OK to be a bigot. So, when the state of Israel conflates the two — conflates being Jewish with the policies of the state of Israel — it makes it significantly more difficult for people to object to the policies of Israel, because you don't want to come across as being antisemitic. That is absolute nonsense."
VOA asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre where the Biden administration draws that line.
"I shouldn't have to talk about a line," she replied. "It's very clear. It presents itself in the most hateful, abhorrent way. And antisemitism is hate speech. It is just hate speech. I'm not going to stand here and give examples. That's not something I'm going to do — it is obvious."
