The words were quite strong on Tuesday when President Joe Biden rightly condemned the current “fierce rise in anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world.”
He was speaking, appropriately enough, at a Holocaust memorial ceremony at the US Capitol on May 7, seven months to the day of Hamas’ barbaric and unprovoked attack on Israel.
Biden was even explicit about Hamas’ crimes and its responsibility in the war that inevitably followed October 7.
“I have not forgotten it,” said the president.
But the most notable feature of his speech was how little his words seemed to matter. They disappeared with the wind almost as soon as they were uttered.
There was a time when America (indeed, the world) paid close attention to what an American president said. Biden, it seems, can be safely ignored.
Certainly few seem to heed his warnings these days.
He told Iran “not to do it” as he threatened to retaliate for Israel’s fatal attack on its Revolutionary Guard headquarters in Damascus, Syria. Tehran proceeded to launch more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel, almost all fortunately shot down before reaching their targets.
Biden was speaking, appropriately enough, at a Holocaust memorial ceremony at the US Capitol, seven months to the day of Hamas’ barbaric and unprovoked attack on Israel. (Above) President Biden at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance ceremony on May 7
The words were quite strong on Tuesday when President Joe Biden rightly condemned the current “fierce rise in anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world.” (Above) Pro-Palestinian protester in lower Manhattan on April 15, 2024
He informed Israel that eradicating what remains of Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was a “red line” that the Jewish state should not cross due to the possibility of further civilian casualties. This week Israel began rooting out Hamas in Rafah.
On Tuesday he addressed the poisonous anti-Semitism now rampant on college campuses.
He highlighted the “ruthless propaganda on social media…Jews forced to hide kippahs under baseball caps, to stuff Jewish stars on their shirts…Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked while walking to class…anti-Semitic posters, slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel… Too many people deny, rationalize and ignore the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7th… it is absolutely despicable… and it must stop.’
Of course, you are absolutely right to denounce this. The shame is that it took so long to do it. Even now, he doesn’t dare to be specific.
The so-called National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), instigators of many of the camps, have described October 7 as “a historic victory for the Palestinian resistance.”
The SJP at Columbia University in New York has declared “full solidarity with the Palestinian resistance,” praising the “historic” attack “despite the odds.”
These are not protesters asking for peace to be given a chance. They want to see Israel destroyed and Hamas victorious.
Biden’s own campaign supporters are funding this pro-war mob.
Money from Democratic mega-donor George Soros has gone to a group called Jewish Voice for Peace that immediately after October 7 blamed “Israeli apartheid and occupation, and US complicity” for the massacre.
Biden, again rightly, said there are disturbing echoes in all of this of how Hitler and the Nazis prepared Germany for the eventual annihilation of the Jews.
The SJP at Columbia University in New York has declared “full solidarity with the Palestinian resistance,” praising the “historic” attack “despite the odds.” (Above) New York City police officers enter Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall after pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves on April 30.
On Tuesday, Biden finally addressed the poisonous anti-Semitism now rampant on college campuses. (Above) The George Washington statue at GWU was defaced with Palestinian flags on May 7.
But he doesn’t dare name names or mention specific campuses, unlike what happened after Charlottesville, when he was quite specific about the evil of the torch-wielding neo-Nazis who tried to storm the University of Virginia eight years ago. He has even claimed, unconvincingly, that Charlottesville is the reason he decided to run for president.
However, as president, Biden did not even dare to condemn the notorious anti-Semitic chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” so beloved by protesters.
Even his hapless White House press secretary, Karine Jean Pierre, has managed to do it. But not her boss.
In truth, Biden is struggling to straddle a Democratic Party deeply divided between its pro-Palestinian progressives and its pro-Israeli establishment. He believes he needs both for his re-election. That explains why he gave the blow to him… and the double talk.
When Biden stated that his support for Israel is “strong even when we disagree,” we learned that his administration was delaying shipments of precision bombs to Israel to signal to the Israeli government that Washington really does not want it to pursue total defeat . of Hamas.
For all its strong words, it is clear that the Biden administration fears further explosions of protest at American universities if Israel stages a large-scale invasion of Rafah, protests that have already led to more than 2,000 arrests at 40 universities.
As a result, Biden is forced into contortions.
“We must give hate no safe harbor,” he intoned Tuesday. Except, it seems, in Rafah.
In truth, Biden is struggling to straddle a Democratic Party deeply divided between its pro-Palestinian progressives and its pro-Israeli establishment.
Biden informed Israel that eradicating what remains of Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah was a “red line” that the Jewish state should not cross due to the potential for further civilian casualties. This week Israel began rooting out Hamas in Rafah. (Above) Israeli artillery fire at an undisclosed location near the border with the Gaza Strip on May 7.
He and his senior cabinet ministers lecture Israel on the need to avoid further mass civilian casualties. A perfectly reasonable position. Except they then deny Israel the kind of precision munitions that would reduce civilian casualties.
All of this adds to the growing impression, here and abroad, that the Biden administration is adrift and increasingly impotent.
The president’s physical illness and his verbal incoherence when he goes off-script on his teleprompter (sometimes he is incoherent even when he sticks to the script) are visible signs of a president struggling to maintain control. But policy failures are also tangible evidence that a president is losing control.
Almost everything he touches these days turns to dust.
Its anti-Semitism task forces have done nothing to stop the worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism since World War II. Its humanitarian aid dock for Gaza has yet to be built and remains fraught with danger. His hopes of bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords, which he could have done three years ago, thereby getting ahead of October 7, are going nowhere fast.
His efforts to micromanage Israel’s military strategy in Gaza are simply ridiculous and win him no friends on either side of the war. In fact, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters are now shouting ‘F*** Joe Biden’ in unison.
Democratic Party strategists are increasingly concerned about the political consequences of all this. Republicans are already far ahead on the most important issue for voters: the economy.
Democrats fear they will also run with a tough law-and-order formula as the second most important issue on voters’ minds, claiming it’s all part of the same chaotic Democratic picture: uncontrolled borders, lawless cities, police departments. deteriorated, anarchy on campus.
Relatives and supporters of the hostages held in Gaza call for their release from Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 6, 2024.
Republicans will claim that America is falling apart and Biden can’t stop it.
Obviously, this would have great appeal to the independent and suburban voters that Republicans need to win to take back the White House, keep the House, and take the Senate.
It could be countered by a president who shows determination and strength. But Biden is inching in the opposite direction, looking increasingly weak and conflicted.
To be fair, Biden’s intervention, well-intentioned and heartfelt — as it undoubtedly was for all its shortcomings — was overshadowed by Stormy Daniels’ testimony at Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York.
The media was more obsessed with that than with Biden’s important words about anti-Semitism, which is not the president’s fault.
But you can’t help but feel that a president with more authority and respect would also have attracted more attention.
However, that is difficult, perhaps impossible, to achieve when the most telling metaphor for Biden’s presidency is now an empty Oval Office.
