While visiting Michigan on Tuesday, Joe Biden praised Squad member and prominent critic of Israel Rep. Rashida Tlaib and told her he was praying for the safety of her family in the West Bank as Israel responds to attacks from the terrorist group Hamas.
“I admire your intellect, I admire your passion, and I admire your concern for so many other people,” Mr. Biden told Tlaib at a Ford plant in Dearborn. “From my heart, I pray that your grandmom and family are well. I promise you that I’m to do everything to see that they are. … You’re a fighter, and God, thank you for being a fighter.”
Tlaib, a Palestinian American, is a supporter of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and was a special guest of a known anti-Semite at a fundraiser earlier this year. An anti-Semitism watchdog group called Stop Antisemitism blasted Tlaib last year after she called for Palestinian freedom “from the river to the sea,” a phrase interpreted by the Anti-Defamation League as meaning the elimination of the State of Israel.
Screenshots are forever. https://t.co/tCfluFxnCB pic.twitter.com/SPR3z5VGAT
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) November 30, 2020
It’s hard to imagine how Biden thinks praising someone like this as “a fighter” is appropriate, or how he thinks such praise should be interpreted by Israel or American Jews.
Biden himself is no stranger to accusations of anti-Semitism. In 2014, he was called out for using the term “shylocks” in reference to mortgage lenders.
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