President Joe Biden supports a “pause” in the fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow hostages to be released, he told reporters during a press conference on Nov. 1.
The president made the comments after he was questioned by a female protester, who claimed to be a rabbi, during the campaign fundraiser event in Minnesota.
“Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now,” the individual said, to which President Biden responded: “I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out,” referencing the roughly 200 hostages being held by Hamas.
President Biden went on to state that he understands emotions are running high amid the ongoing conflict, noting the issue is also “complicated for the Israelis.”
“I can thoroughly understand the emotions on the Palestinian side of the argument and the Jewish side of the argument,” he said. “It’s incredibly complicated for the Muslim world as well ... I supported a two-state solution, I have from the very beginning.”
President Biden later went on to stress that “Hamas is a terrorist organization—a flat-out terrorist organization,” but stressed that he has been working on granting humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza, telling reporters that he had put pressure on both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to allow aid into Gaza.
The protester was later escorted out of the event by security while singing “ceasefire now,” The Hill reported. She also identified herself to reporters at the fundraiser as rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, according to the publication.
Rafah Border Crossing Opens
A biography for Ms. Rosenberg on the website of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations states that she became a “reconstructionist rabbi” in order to “learn our people’s diverse and nuanced histories, and create spaces, ritual and organizing that help transform our relationships to past, present and future.”According to the biography, Ms. Rosenberg has worked as a national organizer at Bend the Arc: Jewish Action and as a collective member of the Radical Jewish Calendar project, and has “served and learned” from young people at Keshet’s LGBTQIA Teen Shabbatonim, the rabbis and members of Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Jewish Congregation at SCI-Phoenix Prison.
The Epoch Times has contacted Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations for further comment.
President Biden’s comments came as limited evacuations of foreign nationals and wounded Palestinian civilians from Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah crossing began on Wednesday; the first time since the conflict began last month.
American, British, and Australian citizens were among the first to leave the war-torn Gaza strip, according to officials, with more expected to follow in the coming days.
The White House initially resisted calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, arguing it would only aid Hamas and allow the terror group to “rest, to refit, and to get ready to continue launching terrorist attacks against Israel.”
However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters during an Oct. 24 press briefing that “humanitarian pauses must be considered” to allow food, water, medicine, and other essential humanitarian assistance to reach Palestinian civilians and allow civilians “to get out of harm’s way.”
More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed during the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, while the death toll in Gaza following Israel’s retaliatory attacks has risen to over 9,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry.
