Biden makes a muddle with off-the-cuff comment

President Joe Biden got it right on paper — condemning the surge of U.S. anti-Semitism — but tripped over his tongue in an off-the-cuff remark to a reporter.

His critics are calling it his “Charlottesville moment,” but that’s not quite right.

The “Charlottesville moment” refers to the statement made by President Donald J. Trump after the neonazi torchlight parade that resulted in the unfortunate death of an innocent woman.

When Trump was quoted as saying “there are very fine people on both sides,” his critics said he was siding with the far-right extremists, which he actually had rejected.

His comment was about the issue that created the flash point, the removal of Confederate statues. That was the issue for which he saw very fine people on both sides.

Biden’s oral statement was different from the anti-Semitic statement that had been put out by the White House. That statement spoke of “the alarming surge of anti-Semitism — in our schools, communities, and online. Silence is complicity. Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant anti-Semitism is reprehensible and dangerous — and it has no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.”

He prefaced this by noting “the horror of Hamas’ despicable atrocities” on Oct. 7, along with America’s efforts to free the hostages through a ceasefire and to deliver “desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.” Keep this in mind.

Following remarks on Earth Day a reporter asked Biden if he condemned anti-Semitism on campuses. He said he did, but then added, “I also condemn those who don’t understand what is going on with the Palestinians.”

Splat.

First off, he is equating anti-Semites who chant “We are Hamas,” with people (and there are a lot of them) who are unschooled in the decades-long mess in the Mideast. Theirs is passive ignorance, as opposed to the sincere, active, willful hate of the anti-Semites.

The two parties are nothing alike.

While I did explain what Trump actually was talking about, I am puzzled by precisely what Biden meant when he said “what is going on with the Palestinians.”

Was he trying to be even-handed?

Did he mean the Oct. 7 atrocities that he had condemned?

Did he mean the 33,000 killed by Israel in its efforts to hunt down and kill the perpetrators of the greatest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust — words that Biden himself used in his written statement?

Did he mean the starvation that is facing Gazans?

Connecting the statement about anti-Semitism with the Palestinians was a kind of whataboutism, which can be used to put things in context.

That’s not how it came out.

It was kind of like, “Slavery was bad, but…”

Never a good look.

Even worse, Biden closed with a mention of the Palestinians, and any writer will tell you to choose how you close very carefully, as that is the thing most people will remember.

It was mentally careless, and now it is being used against him.

At the very least, he’s being accused of being political, and thinking about the Muslim vote, especially in the swing state of Michigan.

I have no doubt that Biden is a sincere friend of Israel, he always has been. His voting record proves that.

He is not a sincere friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, whose heavy-handed conduct of the war has resulted in more deaths in Gaza than it had to.

And those deaths have ignited protests on college campuses and elsewhere, causing Israel a loss of prestige and public opinion.

And while all that is true, it does not justify anti-Semitism, and Biden can do himself a favor by making a public, in-person statement saying just that, and nothing more.