USA. Joe Biden: We will defend Israel, even when we disagree with it

US President Joe Biden delivered a speech on Capitol Hill on the occasion of the annual commemoration of the Holocaust organized by the Washington Holocaust Museum. He recalled the opinion of former British rabbi Jonathan Sacks that “anti-Semitism is a virus that has mutated over time” and that after the Hamas attacks it is “flourishing”.

– We are seeing a vicious wave of anti-Semitism in America and around the world. Propaganda on social media, on college campuses, Jewish students are blocked, harassed, attacked when they enter the classroom. Anti-Semitic posters and slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel, the only Jewish state, he said.

– Too many people rationalize, minimize or deny the horror of the Holocaust and October 7, said the president, referring to pro-Palestinian protests at universities and the Hamas attack on Israel.

Biden assured that he supported the right to demonstrate, but added that “there is no place in America for hatred and anti-Semitism and for violent protests.” He also assured support for both American Jews and Israel.

– My commitment to the security of Jews, the security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent state is ironclad, even when we disagree, said the president, referring to the growing tensions between the authorities of both countries over the war in the Gaza Strip.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson commented on the situation more directly during the ceremony, expressing his pride in the aid package for Israel recently passed by Congress and calling for weapons to be delivered to Israel “without any delay.” Johnson referred in this way to reports that the administration has suspended arms supplies to Israel by two parties.

Meanwhile, in his speech, the head of the Washington Holocaust Museum, Stuart Eizenstat, recalled the suffering of Ukrainians and the distortion and use of the memory of the Holocaust by Russia ruled by Vladimir Putin.