Biden, please don't betray American values
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden addresses the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony, at the Capitol building in Washington, earlier this month.
Last Tuesday, I attended the annual Holocaust Memorial commemoration in Washington, DC, a powerful and inspiring event. Watching the battalions that liberated the Nazi concentration camps presenting their colors in front of Holocaust survivors lent an air of solemnity to the occasion. It served as a reminder of the millions of Jews and others systematically murdered by the Nazi’s genocidal hatred.
President Joe Biden’s remarks at the event reinforced America’s commitment to stopping such hatred. As he spoke about the evils of antisemitism, his statements were more relevant and important than ever, as the Jewish community has been gripped in fear witnessing campus riots and seeing swastikas painted all over so-called “peaceful” demonstrations where violence and antisemitism are rampant.
Biden made many positive statements expressing support for Israel and related to fighting antisemitism. I left the ceremony feeling uplifted at the commitment of the moral leadership of our country to fight the violent extremism that enables abhorrent acts of persecution. Tragically, this sensation was crushed when it was announced that the Biden administration was holding back crucial armaments from Israel that are needed to rescue Jewish civilians being held hostage by Hamas terrorists.
US is denying Israel's duty
There is evidence that these innocent hostages are imprisoned in conditions similar to those in the concentration camps, undergoing starvation, rape, torture, and murder. The evidence of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was documented by Hamas itself, similar to the way the Nazis documented their own crimes. And yet, it is denied by many in the world, just like the Holocaust was, despite the evidence. This is one of the most hurtful things to the Jewish community.
The democratic State of Israel was founded as a safe haven for Jews worldwide. It has a moral obligation to protect Jews, just as America took upon itself the moral obligation to protect democracies. Yet this US administration appears willing to impede Israel from fulfilling its duty in Gaza by denying Israel the means to save its citizens.
Israelis gather in Tel Aviv for the release of Gaza hostages on November 25, 2023 (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
Israelis gather in Tel Aviv for the release of Gaza hostages on November 25, 2023 (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
No one is asking the US to sacrifice its sons and daughters simply to provide the armaments that would enable Israel to execute its operation with minimal civilian casualties. It is the minimum support owed to a faithful ally engaged in a righteous conflict. What message is the administration sending by obstructing its ally’s effort to save its people [four of whom are US citizens] from terrorists?
The historical parallels are chilling. The administration evokes gut-wrenching memories of the MS St. Louis, the ship of Jewish refugees that reached US shores but was denied entry and forced to return to Europe, where its passengers were murdered. Have we learned nothing from past failures of courage and conscience? When the Jews had no nation for sanctuary, millions perished. Today, Israel is taking a stand against terror – and America is denying it the tools it needs to do so [as humanely as possible].
This policy represents an unimaginable affront to the millions who perished in the Holocaust, to the liberators who ended those atrocities, and to the values and democratic principles the US has struggled to uphold in the past. To deny an ally the ability to halt clear acts of industrial-scale persecution when it has the capability to intervene is an unconscionable betrayal.
Antisemitism has metastasized into a global scourge once more. We have seen sickening outbursts on college campuses, the open and unapologetic display of swastikas and Nazi iconography, and administrators who have idly deemed these “peaceful protests.”
Eurovision participation stirs up protests
Abroad, tens of thousands protested the inclusion of Israel in the recent Eurovision Song Contest; many Jews are afraid to walk openly in the streets of major cities. Jews the world over have been physically attacked and verbally abused in public spaces and synagogues are being and damaged – all of these are reminiscent of November 1938 in Berlin.
AMERICA NOW risks sending an unmistakable message to its allies, and foes, that it can no longer be relied upon to uphold its founding ideals. Democracy, human rights, human dignity – these values have formed the bedrock of the postwar order. They will now be seen as negotiable, empty slogans unable to be upheld when most needed. As long as safe harbor is guaranteed for a terrorist, terror will continue to consume the world.
If anyone thinks that the people who are talking about death to Israel, are not in the same breath talking about death to America, then they don’t really understand what’s going on.
This is an attack on democracy. It is an attack on Western values. We are in this together. And if the administration cannot stand with Israel, then America’s future is very dim.
Israel will not suffer another Holocaust. It will fight to save the Jews in captivity even though it is being told to hold back. Israel won’t hold back. Jews have been saving Jews for 3,500 years and will continue to do so.
The Biden administration has a choice. It can reaffirm its commitment to the memory of the Holocaust by empowering democratic allies to confront the violent hatred of Jews. Or it can imperil that sacred vow, undermining US credibility while allowing the ground to be laid for future atrocities.
I pray it makes the moral choice. Too many souls were lost for us to repeat those mistakes.
The writer, a rabbi, is the CEO of Aish. He also serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, as an executive board member of the Rabbinical Council of America, and a board member of Yeshiva University High Schools and Naaleh High School. Prior his appointment at Aish, he was the eastern director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, where he oversaw the Museum of Tolerance in New York City and contributed to the center’s fight against antisemitism.