When a Texas schoolboy, 9, wrote to Biden about Israel

When Texas third-grader Ethan Rozental penned a letter to US President Joe Biden in November as part of a school assignment, asking the leader to support Israel following Hamas’s October 7 attack, he didn’t expect to hear back.

But this week, when he went to school on the first day of the new year in Houston, Texas, on Monday, a letter from the White House was waiting for him.

“We will continue to ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself,” Biden wrote in the letter, which was sent in July.

When Rozental was asked last year at school to write a letter to a recipient of his choice, he chose to aim high and plead with the president for support for the Jewish state at its darkest hour.

His Israeli mother, Hagit Pariente, told Channel 12 on Tuesday that her son had run to her in excitement after returning from school to tell her he had received a letter from the White House.

She said the letter reassured her that the White House acknowledges what happened on October 7 and that he supports Israel.

The letter, signed by the president, states: “The people of Israel lived through a moment of pure evil on October 7 when more than 1,300 civilians, including Americans, were murdered by the terrorist organization Hamas.”

Biden went on to say that the attack triggered memories of “millennia of antisemitism and genocide.”

"I want you to know: I will not be silent. The United States stands with Israel."

President Biden sent this letter to a 9-year-old boy named Ethan after he wrote to ask the president to help Israel in its war. President Biden assured Ethan that the United States would stand with… pic.twitter.com/ia0MNNjS2R

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) August 14, 2024

The president promised the boy that he would “bring all resources to bear to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas — including our fellow Americans” and do “everything possible to ensure civilians are protected, provide humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinians, and prevent this conflict from spreading across the region.”

Biden also asserted that he would “continue to work steadfastly with partners to pursue peace and a two-state solution so that the Israeli and Palestinian people can both enjoy equal measures of security and dignity.”

Biden has maintained close ties with Israel throughout his decades-long political career. As a 30-year-old freshman senator, he visited Israel in 1973, where he met then-prime minister Golda Meir. He has noted his encounter with Israel’s only female premier several times, and once called it “one of the most consequential meetings I’ve ever had in my life.”

After Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border on October 7, murdering some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza, Biden spoke in detail of the brutal atrocities carried out during the massacre and provided Israel with a boost in weapons shipments to help carry out its mission of eliminating the terror group and freeing the captives.

Biden also made a solidarity visit to Israel in October in the aftermath of the massacre.

In July, he reiterated his identification as a Zionist in an interview, adding that he has also “been very supportive of the Palestinians” and slamming Hamas as “a bunch of thugs.”

Michael Horovitz and Jacob Magid contributed to this report.