President Joe Biden speaks onstage during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 19, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

(JTA) — In the face of right-wing criticism, Joe Biden’s pro-Israel backers said they aren’t concerned after he said pro-Palestinian protesters “have a point” in his speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The remark, made in the middle of Biden’s address Monday night, has become fodder for attacks on the president. A social media account associated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is sharing the clip, and other accounts on X are posting Biden’s quote above videos of protesters who declare support for Hamas or call for Israel’s destruction.

Biden made the statement in the middle of a longer discussion of his efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. He said he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were working to head off a regional war, free hostages, deliver increased aid to Gaza “and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war.”

He added, “Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides.”

Biden’s omission of the word “Israel” from the speech, and his apparent acknowledgement of the pro-Palestinian protesters outside the convention, were a departure in tone from previous speeches he’s given in which he has declared his support for Israel even as he seeks a ceasefire deal that would free hostages held by Hamas. Since Oct. 7, he has also rebuffed calls to end his backing for Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he “immediately” took note of Biden not mentioning Israel. But he said he did not expect the speech to reflect how Biden is approaching ceasefire talks.

“Biden is not, in campaign mode, going to have an impact on the negotiations,” Makovsky told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It’s a matter of pride for him to [have] hostages get out. He’s going to do whatever it takes to get a deal. He will be making campaign speeches all along, as he did last night, but when he is governing he will be laser focused on getting a deal.”

Jewish Democrats dismissed concerns about the speech, rejecting the idea that Biden, who has trumpeted his pro-Israel bona fides for decades, is now ceding rhetorical territory to Israel’s adversaries.

“The president’s been very clear, not just for the past three and a half years, but for the past 50 where he stands on the issue of Israel,” Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told JTA. “We have no doubt, not only that he but also that the vice president stands strongly with Israel. His reference to the protesters was clearly that there must be a ceasefire, and that’s something this administration has been calling for, but not just in a vacuum, a ceasefire that ensures the release of all of the hostages.”

One of Biden’s critics said the larger concern was that Biden’s words reflected the mood of Democrats. Rich Goldberg, who worked in the National Security Council during the Trump administration, called Biden’s remarks “a gut punch to Jewish Americans.”

Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JTA that Biden’s statement had the effect of “legitimizing rioters who pledge support for Hamas and call for a genocide of Jews. No, the people who say they support Oct. 7 don’t have a point — and Biden’s need to say that speaks volumes about what the base of the party wants to hear.”

At least one Jewish Democratic official — though he did not directly criticize Biden or refer to his speech — slammed the anti-Israel protesters the morning after the speech and called for them to be condemned. Rep. Brad Schneider, who represents a suburban Chicago district, said in response to a question about “alienation from Israel” among Democrats that protesters have demonstrated outside his house.

“They scream and they yell,” Schneider said at an event on the convention sidelines hosted by the American Jewish Committee. “They’re calling for [the] end of aid to Israel. What they’re really calling is for the elimination of Israel and the exclusion of the Jewish people from the American political body. They are a minority. They are wrong, and we have to call them out as such.”

Progressive critics of Biden’s Israel policy also looked askance at his remarks on the conflict — because they feel that his actions do not match his words. Simone Zimmerman, a founder of the Jewish group IfNotNow, which is harshly critical of Israel, called his statement about the protesters “absolutely unconscionable and enraging” because his government is still providing military aid to Israel.

Matt Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, echoed that idea.

“It’s good that the president acknowledged that protesters have [a] point about the huge number of civilians being killed, but that’s not enough,” he told JTA. “He needs to stop sending the bombs that are killing them.”

Aaron David Miller, a former Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiator at the State Department, said Biden’s statement doesn’t reflect an ideological shift.

He attributed the president’s remarks, which were made in the keynote address of a night meant to project Democratic unity, to sentiments across the party, which he said is anxious for the war to end and would not be receptive to what he called Biden’s “I love Israel talking points.”

Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told JTA, “For a guy who describes himself as a Christian Zionist, who says if there were no Israel we’d have to create one, and who’s had Israel’s back for last 11 months, he could be forgiven for getting caught up in the political moment in front of a Democratic Party — and demonstrators outside — many of whom want a cease-fire yesterday and are appalled by Israeli military tactics and the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza.”

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