Biden Condemns Recent Rise of Anti-Semitic Attacks: ‘Despicable, Unconscionable, Un-American’

 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden put out a statement Friday on the alarming rise of anti-Semitic attacks in recent weeks.

Multiple anti-Semitic attacks have been reported across the country, from New York to Los Angeles. The New York Times reported, “During the two weeks of clashes in Israel and Gaza this month, the Anti-Defamation League collected 222 reports of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and violence in the United States, compared with 127 over the previous two weeks.”

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt recently likened the attacks to “a Charlottesville every day and brought up recent tweets that made comments like “Hitler was right for slaughtering the Jews.”

In his statement Friday, Biden brings up some of these horrific attacks, including the vandalism at a synagogue in Utah, and says, “These attacks are despicable, unconscionable, un-American, and they must stop.”

“I will not allow our fellow Americans to be intimidated or attacked because of who they are or the faith they practice,” the president says. “We cannot allow the toxic combination of hatred, dangerous lies, and conspiracy theories to put our fellow Americans at risk.”

He points to recent statements from Attorney General Merrick Garland about combating hate crimes. During his confirmation hearing February, Garland got emotional as he talked about how his family “fled anti-Semitism and persecution.”

Biden’s statement says that “we must all stand together to silence these terrible and terrifying echoes of the worst chapters in world history, and pledge to give hate no safe harbor.”

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Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac