President Joe Biden said he supports a “pause” in the fighting between Israel and Hamas after a heckler demanded he call for a “ceasefire.”
The president also seemed to take credit for influencing Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he responded to a rabbi who interrupted his speech at a Minneapolis fundraiser on Wednesday.
“Mr, President, if you care about the Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now,” Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, who was described by Daily Mail as “a bearded Reconstructionist rabbi and activist,” spoke out as Biden spoke to about 200 donors gathered at the Minnesota event.
Members of the audience could be heard shushing the rabbi and saying “Sit down.”
“I think we need a pause. A pause means give time to get the prisoners out,” Biden replied.
“I’m the guy that convinced Bibi to call for a cease-fire to let the prisoners out. I’m the guy that talked to Sisi to convince him to open the door,” the president added, referring to Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
“The White House later clarified that Biden was referring to the hostages – not prisoners – held by Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage,” Daily Mail noted.
The rabbi was escorted out of the private event by security, reportedly singing “cease-fire now.”
The president went on to tell the crowd that he understood the emotions involved.
“This is incredibly complicated for the Israelis. It’s incredibly complicated for the Muslim world as well … I supported a two-state solution; I have from the very beginning,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that Hamas is a terrorist organization. A flat-out terrorist organization.”
