Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, America has witnessed a distressing surge in antisemitic incidents nationwide, from hate speech to violent attacks targeting Jewish communities across the nation to the ongoing protests and riots at college campuses. In the face of this alarming rise in hatred, one would expect unequivocal condemnation and decisive action from our nation's leaders.
However, Joe Biden's response has been anything but reassuring.
On Thursday, he gave an absurdly weak speech regarding the unrest that is taking place on college campuses — his first statement on the situation — and couldn't even stay on point.
"There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students," he said. "There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans. It’s simply wrong. There’s no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong. It’s un-American."
Why would Biden bring up Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab and Palestinian Americans? As Fox News Digital notes, law enforcement officials say there has not been a surge in Islamophobia in the United States. So why bring it up? Why can't he just address the scourge of antisemitism in America without bundling it with something that isn't experiencing the same problem right now?
In times of crisis, the true measure of leadership lies in moral clarity and the willingness to confront difficult truths head-on. Unfortunately, Biden's response to the surge in antisemitism in America falls short of this standard. A stark example of this failure can be seen by comparing his approach to that of the Bush administration following the aftermath of 9/11 when there was a surge in Islamophobia. Despite the gravity of the situation, the Bush administration didn't dilute its condemnations of Islamophobia by simultaneously addressing other forms of discrimination, such as antisemitism.
"Why can’t President Biden simply denounce antisemitism without pandering to Muslims and Arabs," Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz said in a post on X. "Why won’t he just condemn Jew hatred?"
I think we all know the answer. This is shameless whataboutism. By doing this, Biden is sending a troubling message that the suffering of Jewish communities is somehow less important than the feelings of the antisemitic wing of the Democratic Party he is struggling to keep in his camp before the election.
"To have any chance of winning Michigan in November, Joe Biden has made the political calculation that he needs to equivocate on Israel, equivocate on defending American Jews, and equivocate on protecting Jewish students at universities," former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) told Fox News Digital in a statement. "Hamas sympathizers have taken over college campuses across this country calling for the death of Jews. Weak leadership is the play call at the White House, demonstrating an incredible lack of moral clarity and courage. This is a time to singularly, emphatically, and powerfully condemn antisemitism."
Related: When It Comes to Antisemitic Protests, Joe Biden's Rhetoric Comes Back to Haunt Him
"What people need to understand is that the Biden administration itself is like one of these college campuses. You have a protest movement inside the government with leaks, anonymous letters, [protesters] outside the White House wearing masks, resignations, threats of resignation, shouting, staffers at town hall meetings and more," Rich Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) said. "And Biden is sort of like that weak college president who is afraid of the Hamasniks on his campus. So when he condemns antisemitism, he makes sure to balance it out, so his own Hamas encampment doesn’t get agitated."
Pretty much.
