U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a powerful defense of Israel and the Jewish people in a video message to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Minister’s Conference in Jerusalem.
“There can be no compromise with antisemitism,” Rubio declared. “There can be no nuanced separation of hatred of Israel and hatred of the Jewish people.”
Rubio opened with a bit of dry humor. “Golda Meir once said, ‘It took Moses 40 years to find the only place in the Middle East with no oil,’” he said. Then he pivoted. “Israel’s wealth lay not under the ground, but in its people… who made the desert bloom into a high-tech superpower.”
He blasted Israel’s adversaries for choosing violence over prosperity. “They decided to impoverish their people in a futile effort to destroy Israel,” Rubio said. “They succeeded in the former while failing in the latter.”
Turning to history, he called antisemitism “the world’s oldest bigotry” and “the world’s most futile.” Pharaohs, emperors, and dictators have all tried—and failed—to wipe out the Jews. “Today, these regimes and empires have crumbled into dust,” he said. “But Israel stands, and the Jewish people prosper.”
Rubio spoke solemnly about Yaron Lischinski and Sarah Milgrim, murdered near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. “They dreamed of marrying in Jerusalem,” he said. “Instead they were cut down in cold blood by a monster… who proudly screamed, ‘Free, free Palestine.’”
He made no apologies for his stance. “Those who call for the destruction of Israel are calling for the destruction of the Jewish people,” Rubio said. “There can be no coexistence with evil. There can be no nuance to hatred.”
Rubio praised President Trump’s administration for taking a hard line. “We have implemented a vigorous new visa policy,” he noted. “We are holding international organizations and nations accountable for rhetoric against Israel.”
He ended on a hopeful note. “We do see an eventual light at the end of this long tunnel of suffering,” Rubio said. “One can imagine the Middle East in which the Abraham Accords eventually reign.”