President Biden kicked off a fifteen-city tour on Wednesday with a speech at Dutch Creek Farm in Northfield, Minnesota. His speech was intended to highlight his administration’s investments in rural communities but the president was sidetracked when a person in the audience shouted out, “Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now.” 

The heckler was met with derisive cries of “get out” but continued interrupting by saying, ” Palestinians and Israelis have died. Please explain to me why.”

Biden answered the question, saying, “I think we need a pause…A pause means give time to get the prisoners out. Give time.”

The “rabbi” then called for the audience to join in a song of “Ceasefire Now”.

Biden insisted that he had told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to call for a ceasefire.

“And, you know, I’ve—I’m going to say something that’s both revealing and self-serving at the same time,” Biden said. “I’m the guy that convinced Bibi to call for that ceasefire to let the prisoners out. I’m the guy that spent all the time talking to El-Sisi to let him open the—open the door into Egypt.”:

The media took this as a call by the president for Israel to initiate a ceasefire, though this was the first time the president had made such a statement.

Israel has refused to negotiate a ceasefire as it would allow Hamas to remain intact and in power in Gaza.

The “rabbi” who heckled the president was Jessica Rosenberg who was ordained by the Reconstructionist Movement. Rosenberg, who has a beard, is transgender and identifies as female. Rosenberg is a National Organizer at Bend the Arc, an anti-Israel advocacy group funded by George Soros.

“Rabbi” Jessica Rosenberg (screenshot)

It is also interesting to note that Dutch Creek Farm raises hogs, making it an appropriate setting for the “rabbi’s” anti-Israel tirade.