Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden on Tuesday, vowed to fight anti-Semitism if elected.
"Anti-Semitism is a cancer that has fueled a dangerous rise in hate crimes over the past four years," Biden said on the second anniversary of the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that killed 11 members of the Jewish community and wounded six others.
3 View gallery
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during the first presidential debate in September
(Photo: AFP)
On October 28, 2018 a gunman stormed the synagogue during Saturday services yelling "All Jews must die" before opening fire using an AR-15 rifle and two handguns.
He then barricaded himself on the third floor of the building as police arrived at the scene. The gunman, as well as the four police officers, were wounded in the exchange of fire that ensued before he surrendered himself to police.
3 View gallery
Flowers and signs in memory of the victims of the deadly attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018
(Photo: AFP)
"If I have the honor of being elected, you have my word: we will forcefully denounce this evil, no matter the source," Biden pledged, promising more funds for security for places of worship and programs against homegrown extremism.
In an editorial published in the Jewish Telegraph Agency the former vice president said that anti-Semitism at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in August 2017 as well as US President Donald Trump's ensuing statement that there were "very fine people on both sides," was what brought him into the US presidential race.
3 View gallery
White supremacist's chanting 'Jews will not replace us' in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017
(Photo: AP)
Trump made that statement at a press conference following a deadly car-ramming attack on Charlottesville counter-protesters.
Biden said the president has yet to clarify that "neo-Nazis and the white nationalists" were nowhere near being very fine people and "should be condemned totally."
In his editorial, Biden also said he would work with Israel, "to ensure it can always defend itself and to pursue the lasting security of a two-state solution," He said.
Recent polls have Biden leading in the race against Trump by 10 points nationally.
According to a poll conducted by the American Jewish Committee earlier this month, at least 75% of U.S. Jews support the Democratic candidate in the upcoming election.