Next year, when President Joe Biden delivers a extremely anticipated statement condemning racism, his political tastes and public speaking abilities will be tested.
As Biden tries to reassure the Jewish community and those who support the Palestinian cause, critics claim that the speech, which was scheduled to take place one month after colleges demanded that police respond to student protests over the Israel-Hamas war, may be too much or too late.
Biden’s job with the conversation, to be delivered as part of the U. S.  , Holocaust , Memorial Museum’s monthly Days of Memory meeting, is a” tough one”, according to Colby College state professor professor Sandy , Maisel.
” This is a statement that has to be thoroughly crafted”, Maisel told the Washington Examiner.
For Maisel, condemning hatred is the “easy” piece. What is more challenging 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 would they reject the IDF because they believe Hamas was correct in attacking Israel and that it needs to be exterminated?
Maisel is comfortable Collins” can direct the nationwide conversation” where” framework matters”. But Rutgers University past, media studies, and media professor , David , Greenberg encouraged Trump and other Democrats to prevent being “in neglect about the level and virulence of antisemitism on the left and within the anti- Israel movement, including among some members of Congress“.
According to Greenberg,” Biden needs to recover the inner Joe,” who made such touching comment in October and showed such respect for the Jewish people’s traditional situation. He needs to go beyond politics and address the concern Jews in America, Israel, and other parts of the world are currently experiencing.
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 provided some assurance to voters that he was not confined to the left-wing of the party. Biden needs to call out the extreme left, who has always been anti-Semitic.
A YouGov- Economist poll released this week revealed that despite the volume of the protests, 28 % of respondents were equally sympathetic to Israel as well as 24 % of respondents were not sure, with demonstrators disrupting former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s memorial service in November and 11,000 Democrats casting uncommitted ballots in Michigan’s primary in February. In addition, 30 % considered the Israeli reaction to be” too harsh”, 22 %” about right” and 15 %” not harsh enough”, though 32 % were unsure.
However, Biden’s political pressure on him and their allies in Congress is also apparent given that former president Donald Trump has an average lead in the nation’s polls of 3 percentage points, and that he was the first to denounce peaceful protests, including a disclaimer that he disagreed with” those who do n’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” After IDF drones attacked a humanitarian aid convoy organized by restaurateur Jose Andrés ‘ World Central Kitchen non-profit group, Biden has recently grown more outspoken in the media.
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.
This week, Biden addressed the protests in his Roosevelt Room about the incidents that included the arrest of Columbia University students on campus, violent demonstrations at the University of California Los Angeles, and reports of anti-Semitism in 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 is n’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.
After Biden made an appearance in the Roosevelt Room on Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s spokesman, Bob LaValley, said to reporters that” Biden spoke for just over three minutes about the antisemitic rioting on college campuses.” ” 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 did not deny that Jews were hostile. 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 wo n’t”.
Biden’s strategy toward the protests has been defended by the White House, bringing up the fact that his campaign for president was sparked by the deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated on Friday that “fighting antisemitism is at the heart of this president’s identity.” ” When it comes to speeches, important, big moments like this, the president obviously takes this very seriously. He is aware that the country will need to hear from him at this time.
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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.
