'I come as a Jew': Blinken invokes Jewish roots during meet with Israel PM Netanyahu

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken invoked his Jewish roots addressing a joint press conference with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Thursday (October 12). He stated that his grandfather and stepfather survived mass massacres of the Jews in Russia and various Nazi concentration camps respectively.

“Mr. Prime Minister, I’m grateful to be back in Israel in this incredibly difficult moment for this nation – but, in fact, for the entire world. If you’ll permit me a personal aside, I come before you not only as the United States Secretary of State, but also as a Jew. My grandfather, Maurice Blinken, fled pogroms in Russia. My stepfather, Samuel Pisar, survived concentration camps – Auschwitz, Dachau, Majdanek. So, Prime Minister, I understand on a personal level the harrowing echoes that Hamas’ massacres carry for Israeli Jews – indeed, for Jews everywhere,” said Antony Blinken.

Antony Blinken's Jewish roots 

Notably, US Secretary of State Blinken’s paternal grandfather, Maurice Henry Blinken, was an early backer of Israel who studied its economic viability and his stepfather Samuel Pisar was the only Holocaust survivor of the 900 children of his school in Poland. Pisar found refuge in a U.S. tank after making a break into the forest during a Nazi death march.

Notably, Blinken arrived in Israel on October 12 and met Netanyahu on the sixth day of the raging war with the Palestine extremist outfit - Hamas.

Addressing a joint press conference with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken said "Our humanity, the value that we place on human life and human dignity, that's what makes us who we are. And we count them among our greatest strength. That's why it's so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. And that's why we mourn the loss of every innocent life, civilians of every faith, every nationality who've been killed. Tragically, the number of innocent lives claimed by Hamas' heinous attacks continues to rise among those we now know that at least 25 American citizens were killed. We joined families in Israel, in the United States, around the world, in mourning their immeasurable loss," Blinken said during the conference.

"We must provide an alternative to the vision of violence and fear, nihilism and terror presented by Hamas. That is what the United States will do, standing with Israel, working together with its people, and all those in this region who remain committed to the vision of a more peaceful, more integrated, a more secure, a more prosperous Middle East," he said.