Biden equated antisemitism and Islamophobia amid rise in Jewish assaults

[ad_1] NEW Now you can hearken to Fox Information articles!

As violent cases of antisemitism escape across the nation this yr, Fox Information Digital took a glance again at former President Joe Biden 's penchant for equating antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Whereas the previous president rightly condemned hate directed at Jews within the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, bloodbath of Israelis and the next struggle in Gaza, Biden was virtually all the time certain to attract an equivalency with anti-Muslim sentiment.

"Lately, an excessive amount of hate has given an excessive amount of oxygen, fueling racism, the rise of antisemitism, Islamophobia proper right here in America," Biden stated, days after the struggle broke out, in a prime-time tackle from the White Home. He added: "We will not stand by and stand silent when this occurs. We should, with out equivocation, denounce antisemitism. We should additionally, with out equivocation, denounce Islamophobia."

Biden added throughout a Human Rights Marketing campaign occasion in October 2023: "Now we have to reject hate in every thing, as a result of historical past has taught us repeatedly, antisemitism , Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, they're all related. Hate towards one group left unanswered opens the door for extra hate towards extra teams, extra usually, often."

Cases of antisemitism spiked to new highs final yr, with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) discovering in a brand new report that there have been 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, a 5% improve from 2023 and a staggering 926% improve because it started monitoring such knowledge in 1979.

TRUMP ADMIN CRACKS DOWN ANTISEMITISM AS DOJ OFFICIAL EXPOSES 'VIOLENT RHETORIC' OF RADICAL PROTESTERS

Former President Joe Biden speaks at a information convention on the ultimate days of workplace. (AP Picture/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

The struggle in Israel initially fanned the flames of antisemitism on campuses within the type of protests, menacing graffiti and college students reporting that they felt as if it was "open season for Jews on our campuses." The protests heightened to the purpose that Jewish college students at some colleges, together with Columbia College, had been warned to depart campus for their very own security.

Agitators and pupil protesters flooded faculty campuses nationwide final college yr to protest the struggle, which additionally included spiking instances of antisemitism and Jewish college students publicly talking out that they didn't really feel secure on some campuses.

Protesters on Columbia University’s campus in New York Metropolis, for instance, took over the varsity's Hamilton Corridor constructing, whereas colleges equivalent to UCLA, Harvard and Yale labored to clear spiraling pupil encampments the place protesters demanded their elite colleges utterly divest from Israel.

ANTISEMITIC VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN AMERICA AS SOME INVOKE INTIFADA AND TARGET JEWS

Anti-Israel protesters hyperlink arms on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, Could 6, 2024, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (AP Picture/Steve LeBlanc)

Because the protests hit a fever pitch final yr, Biden once more equated antisemitism with Islamophobia, despite the fact that it was clear that Jews had been the group being focused with harassment and violence.

"There needs to be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence towards Jewish college students. There isn't a place for hate speech or violence of any form, whether or not it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination towards Arab Individuals or Palestinian Individuals," Biden stated from the White Home in Could 2024 because the protests on faculty campuses continued.

"It’s merely unsuitable. There isn't a place for racism in America."

Biden confronted condemnation from conservatives and different critics for not merely denouncing antisemitism as Jews within the U.S. confronted protests and cases of antisemitism.

JEWISH STUDENTS WELCOME TRUMP ADMIN'S CRACKDOWN ON ANTISEMITISM, HAMAS SYMPATHIZERS ON CAMPUSES

"At a time when no faculty campus is on lockdown over Islamophobia, Joe Biden felt the necessity to spend as a lot time in his speech denouncing Islamophobia and ‘discrimination towards Arab Individuals’ as he did antisemitism. He's by no means capable of simply call out antisemitism ," radio host Erick Erickson commented on X in Could 2024 as campus protests towards Israel raged.

Anti-Israel protesters rally outdoors of New York College’s campus in New York Metropolis on Could 3, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox Information Digital)

"Biden repeats his both-sideisms," veteran James Hutton wrote final yr of Biden's earlier feedback. "Solely the Jewish college students are being violated. Biden is aware of that, however he actually needs these votes in Michigan."

"Biden is incapable of merely condemning antisemitism. One more equivocation. This administration is a humiliation," Kerry Rom, deputy communications director for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote on X final yr.

ISRAELI COLUMBIA PROFESSOR WANTS TRUMP TO BLOCK CERTAIN INSTITUTIONS FROM RECEIVING FEDERAL FUNDING

Household and mates collect outdoors Congregation Beth Torah after a funeral for Sarah Milgrim, a staffer on the Israeli Embassy who was killed outdoors a Washington Jewish museum, Could 27, 2025, in Overland Park, Kansas. (AP Picture/Charlie Riedel)

This yr, the Trump administration is cracking down on antisemitism and assaults on American Jews, which had been underscored by a capturing that left a Jewish couple lifeless on the streets of Washington, D.C., final month outdoors of a Jewish museum, in addition to a terror assault in Boulder, Colorado, final Sunday when an Egyptian nationwide recognized as Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly hurled Molotov cocktails at individuals collaborating in a solidarity occasion for Israeli hostages nonetheless in Hamas captivity.

Boulder firebomb assault and suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman (Storyful/KDVR)

Soliman's charging paperwork said that he "traveled to Boulder, Colorado, in his car with the Molotov cocktails and threw two of the cocktails at people collaborating in a pro-Israel gathering. He additionally said that he picked up fuel at a fuel station on the way in which to Boulder. He said that he wished to kill all Zionist individuals and wished they had been all lifeless."

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION LAUNCHES NATIONAL STRATEGY TO COMBAT ISLAMOPHOBIA, ANTI-ARAB HATE

Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro – the Keystone State's third Jewish governor – confronted his personal occasion of antisemitism when a suspect set hearth to the governor's residence whereas he and his household had been asleep on the primary night time of Passover.

President Donald Trump's administration has taken steps to crack down on antisemitism within the U.S. (AP Picture/Evan Vucci)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

President Donald Trump in the meantime, signed an executive order on "Extra Measures to Fight Anti-Semitism" in January as his administration launched its crackdown on antisemitism. Whereas federal legislation enforcement officers have arrested people allegedly tied to the widespread anti-Israel protests final yr, the White Home has threatened to finish federal funding to universities that permit violent anti-Israel protests and is investigating immigration standing of these accused of main campus protests or finishing up antisemitic assaults.