Biden readies for crucial address on antisemitism

President Joe Biden‘s political sensibilities and public speaking skills will be tested next week when he delivers a highly anticipated speech denouncing antisemitism.

But critics contend the speech, scheduled to take place one week after colleges requested that police respond to student protest encampments over the Israel-Hamas war, could be too little, too late as Biden tries to assure the Jewish community and those sympathetic toward the Palestinian cause that he stands with them both.

Biden’s task with the speech, to be delivered as part of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance ceremony, is a “tough one,” according to Colby College government professor emeritus Sandy Maisel.

“This is a speech that has to be carefully crafted,” Maisel told the Washington Examiner.

For Maisel, condemning antisemitism is the “easy” part. What is more difficult is “differentiating criticism of Israel and/or of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu from antisemitism,” he said.

“Do they oppose the [Israel Defense Forces] attacks on innocent civilians in Gaza for humanitarian reasons?” Maisel asked. “Or, do they oppose the IDF actions because they think Hamas was right in their attack and that the IDF actions are just more proof that Israelis have no right in Israel and must be driven out?”

Maisel is confident Biden “can direct the national conversation” where “context matters.” But Rutgers University history, media studies, and journalism professor David Greenberg encouraged Biden and other Democrats to stop being “in denial about the depth and virulence of antisemitism on the left and within the anti-Israel movement, including among some members of Congress.”

“Biden needs to rediscover the inner Joe who gave such heartfelt remarks back in October and who showed such appreciation for the historic plight of the Jewish people,” Greenberg told the Washington Examiner. “He needs to transcend politics and speak to the fear that Jews in America, in Israel, and around the world are experiencing right now.”

Greenberg compared the current political moment to the one in the summer of 2020 after the choking death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the shooting of Jacob Blake by officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin, both incidents resulting in unrest.

“In 2020, there was a similar moment when he went to Kenosha and denounced the violence,” Greenberg said. “It helped reassure voters that he was not captive to the party’s left wing. The extreme left has always been anti-Semitic, and Biden needs to call them out.”

Despite how loud the protests are, with demonstrators disrupting former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s memorial service last November and ⁦101,000 Democrats voting uncommitted ballot in Michigan’s ⁩primary in February, a YouGov-Economist poll published this week found a plurality of respondents were more sympathetic toward Israel (31%) than Palestinians (17%), though 28% were equally sympathetic and another 24% were not sure. In addition, 30% considered the Israeli reaction to be “too harsh,” 22% “about right” and 15% “not harsh enough”, though 32% were unsure.

But the political pressure exerted on Biden by the protesters and their allies in Congress when former President Donald Trump has an average national polling lead of 3 percentage points is also pointed, with Biden’s original condemnation of unpeaceful protests including a Disclaimer that he disagreed with “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” Biden has particularly become more publicly critical of Netanyahu after IDF drones attacked a humanitarian aid convoy organized by restaurateur Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen non-profit group.

As Biden attempts to appease more liberal Democrats, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, has supported him with Jewish Democrats. Emhoff has, for example, been conducting outreach with Jewish students and Hillel leaders, including Rabbi Elie Buechler, director of the Orthodox Union-Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Columbia University and Barnard College, as well as Brian Cohen, Levine Family executive director at Columbia/Barnard Hillel.

Biden previewed his speech this week during his Roosevelt Room address about the protests, which included Columbia University students occupying a campus building, demonstrations becoming violent at the University of California Los Angeles, and reports of anti-Semitic rhetoric across the country.

In that statement, Biden underscored that “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” “but neither are we a lawless country.”

“In moments like this, there are always those who rush in to score political points,” he told reporters. “But this isn’t a moment for politics. It’s a moment for clarity.”

But although scheduling a speech a week after the protests reached fever-pitch may improve the president’s chance of delivering a more nuanced message, critics have, first, scrutinized the Roosevelt Room comments’ contents and, secondly, questioned the delay.

“Biden spoke for just over three minutes about the antisemitic rioting on college campuses,” Bob LaValley, a spokesman for House Speaker Mike Johnson, told reporters Friday after Biden’s appearance in the Roosevelt Room. “The one word that he fails to mumble or even mention is ‘condemn.’”

“He failed to denounce the pro-Hamas rioters for the devastation and anarchy that occurred on college campuses across the country,” LaValley said. “He failed to denounce their hatred of Jews. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, our first President George Washington was covered in graffiti and a Palestinian flag not far from the White House. He has the power to end it, but he won’t.”

The White House has defended Biden’s approach to the protests, reminding reporters that the deadly 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally spurred his presidential campaign.

“Fighting antisemitism is at the core of who this president is,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday. “When it comes to speeches, important, big moments like this, the president obviously takes this very seriously. He knows that this is going to be an important moment for the country to hear from him.”

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Biden’s speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will be next Tuesday during its Days of Remembrance ceremony, held to “remember and mourn the 6 million Jews who were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II,” per the White House.

“The president will discuss our moral duty to combat the rising scourge of antisemitism and the Biden-Harris administration’s work to implementing the first-ever national strategy [to] counter antisemitism to make real the promise of never, ever, ever again,” Jean-Pierre added.