President Joe Biden took an apparent shot at his predecessor while condemning Kanye West’s anti-Semitic statements Friday, but Biden has been silent on anti-Jewish bigotry from members of his own party while many Jewish leaders deem Trump a friend of Israel.
West has been spouting anti-Semitic hate since an apparent dinner ambush of Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home two days before Thanksgiving. West, who brought a pair of uninvited guests known for their anti-Semitic views, followed up the dinner with interviews including a Thursday session with Alex Jones in which he lavished praise on Adolf Hitler. In condemning West’s comments, Biden appeared to accuse Trump of giving the spiraling rap and fashion mogul a forum, although he did not use his name.
“I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened,” Biden tweeted. “Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity.”
Trump, whose daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, are Orthodox Jews, has said he only agreed to meet with West because they have known each other for years and West appears to be in the throes of a meltdown that some believe was brought on by mental illness.
I just want to make a few things clear:
The Holocaust happened.
Hitler was a demonic figure.
And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides.
Silence is complicity.
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 2, 2022
Biden had no such rebuke last year for the far-Left Democrat lawmakers known as “The Squad” when they accused Israel of imposing “apartheid” and committing acts of “terrorism” against Palestinians, The Times Of Israel reported. Those claims from Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Cori Bush (D-MO) prompted four Jewish House Democrats to write Biden seeking his response. If he offered one, it was never made public.
Trump, on the other hand, made no secret of his pro-Israel agenda during his presidency. Rabbi Dov Fischer, in a November 30 article in The American Spectator, praised Trump for a host of pro-Israel actions.
“After nearly half a century of broken promises by other American presidents, Trump formally declared and America recognized United Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” wrote Fischer. “He moved America’s Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
Fischer went on to praise Trump for recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; affirming Jewish communities and cities in Judea and Samaria; cutting off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the Palestinian Authority over its payments to the families of terrorists; closing down the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, D.C.; pulling the U.S. out of the anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council; and cutting off $300 million in funding to the UNRWA, a UN agency that runs schools where Muslim children are taught to hate Jews.
Trump also helped bring about the Abraham Accords, a deal in which several key Arab Muslim countries entered into peace agreements with Israel.
Biden, in his current administration and in his role as former President Obama’s vice president, has been accused of leaking information damaging to Israel. As a senator from Delaware 40 years ago, Biden was famously dressed down by legendary Prime Minister Menachem Begin when he pounded a table at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing to underscore his demand that Israel stop establishing new Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.
“This desk is designed for writing, not for fists,” Begin replied. “Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the U.S. lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats.”
Related: Biden Administration Leaks Info About Israel. The Obama-Biden Administration Was Infamous For That.