WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris marked the anniversary of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust as the presidential candidates approach the final weeks of the campaign during a widening conflict in the Middle East.
Hamas killed 1,200 people, including 46 U.S. citizens, and took about 250 hostages during its surprise attack on Oct. 7 last year. Harris described it as “an act of pure evil.”
She cited the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer in mourning, to talk about “our enduring belief in God, even in our darkest moments.”
Harris said she would remain committed to Israel’s security and the release of hostages held by Hamas, naming several of them in her remarks. She also mentioned a need to to “relieve the immense suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza who have experienced so much pain and loss over the year.”
Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, spoke after Harris to say “this is an incredibly challenging day for Jews around the world, myself included.”
“Today feels just as raw as it did one year ago,” he said, describing the attack as “seared into our souls.”
A fledgling pomegranate tree was placed in a hole nearby at the vice president's residence, and Harris and Emhoff used shovels to cover the roots with dirt. When they finished, they paused and bowed their heads.
On Monday morning, Republican candidate Trump visited the New York City gravesite of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Orthodox Judaism from 1951 until his death in 1994.
Schneerson was the movement’s seventh leader, known as Lubavitcher Rebbe, and was regarded by some as a messianic figure, though the Chabad movement has disavowed any teachings suggesting he was the messiah. His image remains ubiquitous around the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, which is home to Chabad-Lubavitch’s world headquarters.
Wearing a black kippah, or skullcap, Trump left a stone atop the headstone of Schneerson’s grave in a traditional Jewish custom.
Later in the day, he held a remembrance event at his Doral golf resort in Miami. Jewish community leaders, Republican members of Congress and others, including three Holocaust survivors, were called to the stage to light candles in memory of those killed during the attack a year ago.
Noting Hurricane Milton zeroing in on the state, Trump said, “I think I am the only person who flew into Florida today.” But he added, “I wouldn't have missed this, regardless.”
While honoring the lives lost in last year's Hamas attack as well as the hostages remaining in captivity, Trump said the November election would not only be the most important day in the history of the United States but also in Israel.
“This attack should have rallied the entire world in support of the Jewish people and the Jewish homeland,” he said. “The anti-Jewish has returned even here in America in our streets, our media and our college campuses and within the ranks of the Democrat Party in particular. Not in the Republican Party.”
Trump, however, has associated himself with people who spew antisemitic rhetoric. Just days after announcing his 2024 bid for the presidency, Trump dined with Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white nationalist, and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.
The Democratic Party has remained divided over fallout from the Hamas attack. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since then has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians.
Trump has repeatedly said that Jewish voters who vote for Democrats “should have their head examined” and recently said that if he loses the presidential election to Harris, “the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that.”
“I did more for Israel than anybody. I did more for the Jewish people than anybody. And it’s not a reciprocal, as they say,” Trump said earlier Monday in a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. He also said developers could make Gaza “better than Monaco” because it has “the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything.”
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden also hosted a memorial ceremony at the White House Monday to mark the anniversary of the attack. The Bidens looked on as Rabbi Aaron Alexander of Washington’s Adas Israel Congregation recited the Jewish remembrance prayer for those killed on Oct. 7. The president then lit a lone memorial candle placed on a small table at the center of the Blue Room before they observed a moment of silence.
Earlier in the day, Biden spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, the White House said.
The Oct. 7 attack sparked a deadly war in Gaza, as Israel moved to root out Hamas' control over the territory and try to return those taken captive.
Another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah, has fired thousands of rockets at Israeli territory in the same period from Lebanon, and Israel last month expanded a campaign of sabotage and assassination and launched a ground incursion into Lebanon to combat the threat from the group.
Iran, meanwhile, has fired large missile salvos at Israel, most recently a week ago. The U.S., which maintains troops and weaponry in the region, helped Israel shoot them down.
In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Monday night, Harris appeared to avoid answering a question about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considered “a real close ally,” and said, “The better question is: Do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is yes.”
Trump’s own relations with Netanyahu have been rocky. They soured after the Israeli prime minister became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Biden for his 2020 victory, which Trump continues to deny. A few days after the Oct. 7 attack last year, Trump publicly criticized Netanyahu and said he “was not prepared” for the deadly incursion from Gaza. Trump said Netanyahu had let the U.S. down just before the U.S. killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Since then, the two have met to talk about a cease-fire deal for Gaza.
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Gomez Licon reported from Miami.