Biden tells US rabbis Hamas’s October 7 attack was a ‘second, smaller Holocaust’

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

US President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Rabbi Aaron Alexander of Adas Israel Congregation mark one year since Hamas's attack on Israel during a candle lighting in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, DC, October 7, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
US President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Rabbi Aaron Alexander of Adas Israel Congregation mark one year since Hamas's attack on Israel during a candle lighting in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, DC, October 7, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

US President Joe Biden calls Hamas’s October 7 onslaught a “second, smaller Holocaust,” during a High Holidays call with American rabbis.

During his call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today, he offered his condolences over the somber, one-year anniversary of that attack, Biden tells the rabbis.

Biden says the call with Netanyahu lasted about an hour. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier that it lasted roughly 30 minutes and Netanyahu’s office said it lasted 50 minutes.

“As you saw just last week, the United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and all its proxies, [including] Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” Biden tells the rabbis, highlighting US involvement in thwarting Iran’s missile attack against Israel.

He goes on to reiterate his pledge to secure the release of the remaining 101 hostages in Gaza, while lamenting the price Palestinian civilians have been paying throughout the war.

Biden speaks at length regarding the “absolutely despicable” rise of antisemitism at home and abroad, and details the steps his administration has taken to combat the phenomenon.

“We respect and protect the fundamental right to free speech and to protest peacefully, but there is no place anywhere in America for antisemitism, hate speech or threats of violence of any kind against the Jews or anyone else,” Biden says in an apparent reference to some of the anti-Israel protests on college campuses.

The president urges American Jews to report incidents of antisemitism to his administration, where the Education and Homeland Security Departments are taking actions to prosecute such actions.

Biden also calls out the “vile” antisemitic harassment that some of his Jewish aides involved in the hurricane response effort have been enduring.

“It must end now,” he says. “My administration is calling on social media companies to adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward antisemitism and other hateful content.”

The US president reflects that the High Holidays present “a delicate yet profound balance between joy and pain,” which embodies the spirit of the Jewish people more broadly.

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