Pence uses biblical justification to underscore support for Israel at Grove City College
GROVE CITY, Mercer County — A conference on combating antisemitism at Grove City College’s Institute for Faith & Freedom featured former Vice President Mike Pence as keynote speaker Thursday, April 11.
Pence, who has a long-standing record of supporting Israel, took the stage at the self-described conservative college to maintain support for the Israeli government amid the Israel-Hamas war, using biblical justification for Israel’s military response in Gaza and the United States’ aid to the country.
Pence also criticized members of both political parties, including President Joe Biden, for critiquing Israel’s military response following the terror attacks led by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 that killed 1,143 Israelis and took more than 100 people hostage, including U.S. nationals in the largest targeted killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“Now is not the time to make concessions,” he said.
Pence, an evangelical Christian, has been vocal about his faith shaping his policy stance on Israel.
As he spoke about antisemitism Thursday, he likened pro-Palestine protests, waving a Palestinian flag, and critiquing the Israeli state as forms of anti-Jewish rhetoric.
Pence also used Bible verses and scripture, including the story of Exodus, to underscore Israel’s “right to fight this war” and U.S. support of its government.
“This is not a new issue for me,” Pence said. “I’m a Bible-believing Christian.”
“Those who bless (Israel), will be blessed,” he said, quoting Genesis 12:13. “Those who curse her will be cursed. And the American people cherish that principle since the founding of our nation.”
As he spoke about a Jewish mayor of a community who was shot and killed, and a playground that was destroyed by Hamas militants near a kibbutz on Oct. 7, Pence called Palestinians “the serial killer next door.”
Bobby Hershey, a sophomore at Grove City who attended Pence’s keynote address, called antisemitism a nationwide, pressing issue, but said he did not entirely agree with Pence’s sentiments that to stand against antisemitism, one must unequivocally support the Israeli government.
“To completely denounce the Palestinian people is not great,” Hershey said after the lecture. “There needs to be a balance of — you can’t support the hatred and horrors of what Hamas has done, but you can’t completely blow up an entire nation out of this world …”
Hershey, who visited Israel last year and has both Israeli and Palestinian friends, said reflecting on the destruction of Palestinian neighborhoods and towns has helped him understand more about the war.
“Hosting a conference on antisemitism is so vitally important because — it grieves me to say it — we do gather at a time of a rising tide of antisemitism in this country,” Pence said.
As college campuses continue to be the site of both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protests, Pence told students in the crowd to “seize every opportunity” and “speak up” about Israel and antisemitism.
“I think the time has come for states across the country, including Pennsylvania, to enact legislation that defines antisemitism and prohibits antisemitic rhetoric in our public schools and universities,” he said.
“We stand with Israel because Israel’s very existence is proof that the promises of God are true,” he said.
“That’s the American sentiment,” he said after reading an excerpt from a letter written by George Washington to a Hebrew congregation. “That’s the sentiment that proceeds from our faith and our common Judeo-Christian heritage.”
Both in his address and in conversation with college president Paul McNulty on Thursday, Pence described his experience visiting Israel in January, where he saw some of the sites that were attacked by Hamas militants and spoke with survivors.
“I spoke to a father who literally saved his family in a kibbutz by holding the bomb shelter door shut with his own hands while his young family cowered in a corner, and the terrorists tried to break in,” he said. “And then I saw him say, with tears in his eyes, that his elderly neighbors who had similar shelters … did not have the strength to hold the door shut and were slaughtered.”
“You look back in history — no one second-guessed America’s use of overwhelming force after … Pearl Harbor,” he said. “No one questioned the use of force during my early days in Congress, when the (World Trade Center) fell in New York City and the Pentagon was struck.”
Pence’s keynote address was preceded and followed by several panels exploring antisemitism, foreign policy and culture. The conference continued until 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
