(VitalNews.org) – President Joe Biden dealt with a heckler calling for a cease-fire last week while addressing the ongoing conflict between Israel and the radical Palestinian militant group Hamas, after which Biden called for a “pause” from the two sides.
The president appeared in Minnesota at a fundraiser on Wednesday last week where he addressed a small crowd. Among the audience was someone who identified themselves “as a rabbi” and interrupted Biden. The heckler asked Biden to “call for a cease-fire” in Gaza immediately.
Biden addressed the heckler’s comment and said he thinks there needs to be “a pause” in order to “give time” to secure the release of prisoners. Biden touted that he’s “the guy that convinced” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to call for a cease-fire to let the prisoners out,” and that he’s “the guy” who convinced Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi “to open the door.”
John Kirby, a national security spokesperson for the White House, says that the US is convinced a cease-fire would only benefit Hamas. Kirby says that despite this position, a pause is generally supported to provide time for Palestinian civilians to leave the areas of Gaza currently targeted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Biden is stuck between a rock and a hard place with this issue, at risk of losing supporters among Democrats who generally support a cease-fire in Gaza and view the president’s hesitancy to criticize Israel as a betrayal, while Republicans are pressuring him to provide more aid to Israel to continue their military intervention following Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Biden addressed the issue as “complicated” for both “the Israelis” and “for the Muslim world as well.” The president then stated he’s “supported a two-state solution… from the very beginning,” but then clarified that he also believes “Hamas is a terrorist organization.”
It was later revealed that the “rabbi” heckler is a trans-identifying male named Jessica Rosenberg. The clip went viral and podcast host Megyn Kelly caught wind of it. The commentator said on her show that “Jessica is a man pretending to be a woman” and questioned whether or not Jessica was also “pretending to be a rabbi.”
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