‘I’m a Zionist’ – Biden defends Israel record in pre-Yom Kippur call to US rabbis

Biden reaffirms support for Israel, saying Jews worldwide would be endangered if Israel did not exist.

By World Israel News Staff

President Joe Biden spoke with American rabbis Wednesday ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday, which begins Friday at sundown.

Continuing the tradition of annual High Holiday conference calls with Jewish spiritual leaders, the president defended his record on Israel and reiterated his support for Zionism.

“You’ve heard me say before that I got very badly criticized as a young senator, saying, ‘I’m a Zionist.’ You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, that’s not necessary, and the idea, I firmly believe, without an Israel, every Jew in the world’s security is less stable – I mean that,” Biden said.

“It doesn’t mean that Jewish leadership doesn’t have to be more progressive than it is, but it does mean it has to exist, and that’s what worries me most about what’s going on now.”

“You’ve heard me say before that my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people and the security of Israel as the right to exist is independent — independent of that — of everything else. The Jewish state has to remain. It has to remain — the ironclad commitment to it,” Biden continued.

Biden highlighted last Tuesday’s ballistic missile attack on Israel, in which some 200 missiles were launched, and the role of the American military in aiding the IDF in intercepting the projectiles.

“You know, at my direction, last week, the United States military took unprecedented action again to actively assist the successful defense of Israel.”

The president called October 7^th a “second, smaller holocaust,” and recalled his visit to Israel after the Hamas invasion.

“But when I went over shortly after… I saw the remnants of what had happened 10 days earlier.  I saw — and the — anyway, you all know; you understand it.”

Biden said the White House “will not rest” until all Israeli hostages taken captive on October 7^th are returned.

“My administration is doubling down on our work to secure the release of the remaining hostages, just as we have freed hostages already. And we will not rest until they’re all home.”

“As you saw just last week, the United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and all its proxies — Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. We’re doing everything we can to ease the suffering of all the people from this war against Hamas and that Hamas started.”