White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre again condemned the ‘alarming rise’ of antisemitic threats in the U.S. as tensions boil over in the Middle East – but stopped short of labeling anti-Israel protesters ‘extremists’ when asked to put a label on them.
Jean-Pierre last week said she ‘misheard’ a question when she got asked about rising reports of antisemitism and answered by focusing her comments on Muslims and those ‘perceived to be Muslim.’
On Monday, she began her daily briefing by speaking about an ‘an alarming rise in reported antisemitic incidents at schools and on college campuses.’
The Anti Defamation League has reported a more than fourfold spike in antisemitic attacks in the U.S. since the Hamas terror attack inside Israel on October 7, and Israel’s subsequent withering military attacks on targets in Gaza. That comes amid antisemitic violence at hotspots around the world.
‘There’s no place for hate in America and we condemn any antisemitic threat or incident in the strongest, in the strongest terms,’ Jean-Pierre said.
‘There’s no place for hate in America, said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at Monday’s press briefing, following reported threats to Jewish students at Cornell University
She said the administration was ‘closely monitoring and concerned’ by the reports of anti-semitic threats at Cornell University.
Anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted onto campus sidewalks there last week, and prior to that a professor – who has now taken a leave of absence – publicly called the Hamas terror attack ‘exhilarating’ and ‘energizing.’
Jean-Pierre then gave a message to college students. ‘To the students at Cornell, and on campuses across the country, we’re tracking these threats closely. We’re thinking of you and we’re going to do everything we can on both at Cornell and across the country to counter – to counter terrorism, anti semitism.
She was less direct when Peter Doocy of Fox News asked her if President Biden thinks anti-Israel protesters are extremists.
‘What I can say is what we’ve been very clear about this. When it comes to antisemitism, there is no place. We have to make sure that we speak against it very loud, and be and be very clear about that.
Jean-Pierre, who attended a Halloween celebration on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington Monday, condemned antisemitic threats at the top of Monday’s White House briefing
Students from Baruch College march to join a demonstration in Times Square to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in New York City, U.S., October 13, 2023
A New York State Police Department cruiser is parked in front of Cornell University’s Center for Jewish Living, in Ithaca, NY, on Monday
Gov Hochul met with Jewish Cornell students on Monday morning and called out ‘vile’ antisemitic threats
Doocy then tried to counter that President Biden and the White House regularly call out ‘MAGA extremists.’
‘We are calling out any form of hate, any form of hate, it is not acceptable. It should not be acceptable here. And we are going to continue to call that out,’ she said.
Then Doocy tried again, asking if Biden looked at anti-Israel protests and thought, ‘It’s nice to see that the country’s youth are so involved’ or felt otherwise.
She didn’t take the bait, and again told him ‘there’s no place for hate in America.’
Biden himself has been a longtime supporter in Israel, and has lately told of meeting every Israeli Prime Minister back to Golda Meier.
He said emphatically after Oct. 7 that the U.S. has ‘Israel’s back’ and has proposed billions in additional military aid, and his administration has avoided telling Israel publicly how to respond to the attacks, beyond general comments urging it to follow the ‘rules of war.’
Jean-Pierre also on Monday blasted House Republicans called for offsetting $14 billion in funds for Israel by taking the funds away from IRS enforcement funds. Those funds are used to go after tax cheats and boosting taxpayer services. New Speaker Mike Johnson has demanded offsets to avoid adding to the deficit, and says Israel aid shouldn’t be coupled with Ukraine aid as President Biden has proposed.
‘Politicizing our national security interests is a nonstarter. Demanding offsets for meeting core national security needs of the United States—like supporting Israel and defending Ukraine from atrocities and Russian imperialism—would be a break with the normal, bipartisan process and could have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead,’ she said.
‘Threatening to undermine American national security unless House Republicans can help the wealthy and big corporations cheat on their taxes—which would increase the deficit—is the definition of backwards,’ she added.