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Of all the speeches, condemnations and reflections offered by politicians in the aftermath of the violence in Israel, the one that seemed to strike the most emotional chord — and may, as a result, have the most permanence — was a single line tucked into larger remarks from JOE BIDEN.

Speaking to a gathering of Jewish leaders on Wednesday, the president listed the ways in which his administration had sent support to Israel. Over time, his comments meandered, as they tend to do, away from the technical and into the autobiographical.

Looking out at the crowd assembled around a rectangular-shaped series of tables, Biden recounted how he brought his children to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany after each turned 14. He then made a fist with his right hand, lifted it ever so slightly and pounded the lectern in front of him. 

“I wanted them to see,” he yelled.

Who knows. It may have been for effect. Biden has told the story before. But at that moment, he didn’t seem to be playing the role of statesman or president, so much as a moral arbiter. He seemed genuinely furious. The crowd before him froze.

“I lost it emotionally and started tearing up,” said AMY SPITALNICK, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, who was there. “I’m the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. The pain in that room was palpable.”

I’ve thought a lot about those five words since then — “I wanted them to see” — and the simple power of that basic idea. To see. To understand. To believe.

When I was 16, I, too, took a journey to the concentration camps to see. Not to Dachau, but the ones where the Jews were shipped afterwards: Auschwitz, Birkenau and Treblinka. It was all extremely difficult to process — to walk through the grounds where my ancestors were systematically slaughtered because of nothing more than their faith.

But an equally profound image sat outside the fences. At one stop (I can’t recall which), the neighboring village had begun to encroach on the camp — like unkempt vines obscuring a garden door. The fields nearby had become gathering places. Kids were kicking soccer balls.

There was nothing malicious to it.

But there was something unnerving, as if history was somehow fading from our collective view.

That failure to see and, perhaps more importantly, the fear of no longer being seen has defined this intractable mess over a small strip of land tucked next to the Mediterranean Sea.

It is at the heart of the push for Palestinian sovereignty, whose proponents note how few seem to understand, let alone witness, the conditions in Gaza or the hardships endured because of the economic sanctions and the land and sea blockades applied there.

And it is at the existential core of the Jewish existence, too. The very foundation of Israel is justified by that fear: that without a state there may not be a being. “Never forget” is not just a heraldic device for Jews in the post-Holocaust world but the culmination of the trepidation felt as the last of that generation nears death.

On the 2015 trip that Biden took to Dachau — with his granddaughter FINNEGAN BIDEN in tow — he was greeted by MAX MANNHEIMER, a camp survivor and top official at the Comité International de Dachau, an organization of former Dachau prisoners.

David Lienemann/White House photo

Mannheimer had been haunted by his time at Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Dachau. But he spent the later part of his life trying to make something of it, urging younger generations of Germans to understand the burden they now possessed.

“You are not responsible for what happened, but you do have responsibility to ensure that it doesn't happen again,” he once said.

Mannheimer was 95 when Biden visited. He was in a wheelchair, a blanket placed over his lap to protect him from the cold as he accompanied the then-vice president and his granddaughter around the camp where he’d once been imprisoned. He would die a year later, another person who had seen now gone.

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Thanks to the White House Historical Association for this question!

Which president was the first to have a presidential visit to Japan?

(Answer at bottom.)

ANOTHER GOODBYE: The White House comms team is losing a staple this week with the departure of JESSE LEE, its senior adviser for communications to the National Economic Council. At its most basic level, the move is a natural progression for any administration: staff leaving in anticipation of an election and — they hope — a second term with a fresh team.

But Lee’s exit also underscores the generational shifts that have redefined Democratic politics and the way it is conducted. When he started out at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2004, he helped launch the committee’s online program. When he joined the Obama White House in 2009, he spearheaded the building’s first ever new media department. Those functions made Lee seem, at times, like the anomaly in the press shop — the blogger whisperer in the corner. Today, they’re the main components of the operation.

“Jesse has a rare combination of skills, being among the first to understand the evolving nature of communications early on as digital media was on the rise while being able to translate complex policy into easy to understand language,” said BEN LABOLT, the White House communications Director.

Lee, in his goodbye message to staff, made the point to note how politics can’t be defined by a snapshot in time, both in how it is practiced and perceived. “Politics is a mess, and it’s rarely instant-karma, but just keep doing what you know is right with this unbelievable opportunity you have to move America forward and change the world,” he said.

He is moving with his wife to New York City. Friday is his last day.

NO EASY ANSWER: The Biden administration has decided against sending U.S. troops, including special forces, into Gaza for hostage rescue operations, our JONATHAN LEMIRE reports. But that doesn’t mean the decision is a final one.

The situation is evolving quickly and incredibly complex as the U.S. and Israel grapple with the hostage crisis. As of now, the U.S. doesn’t know precisely how many American hostages are in Hamas custody or where they’re being held: “It’s a difficult place to fight, it’s an easier place to hide. It’s an intelligence problem, how do you actually find these people? And once you do find them, if you do find them, how do you negotiate their release or try operationally to remove them?” said JON FINER, principal deputy national security adviser.

During Thursday’s White House press briefing, National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY said the number of Americans confirmed dead has risen to 27, while 14 remain unaccounted for.

RELATED: As we noted in Wednesday’s West Wing Playbook, there’s a lot of confusion about what the White House will include in its supplemental. Kirby remained tightlipped on its components during the briefing, but White House press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE did confirm that it’s coming next week.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about former President DONALD TRUMP’s comments at a Florida event describing Hezbollah as “very smart.” In a statement, deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES, noting that he typically doesn’t comment on the 2024 race, called Trump’s remarks “dangerous and unhinged.”

Biden also shared a clip of Trump’s speech on X. “Our nation’s support for Israel is resolute and unwavering,” the president tweeted. “And the right time to praise the terrorists who seek to destroy them is never.”

ALSO THIS…. A Fox News clip of Rep. DERRICK VAN ORDEN (R-Wis.) saying that amid U.S. efforts to support Israel, “now is not the time to attack the Biden administration.”

“Now is the time to stand with the United States of America — that means the executive branch and the military — to make sure that Israel understands they have our unwavering support,” Van Orden said.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by CNBC’s JEFF COX about how although the latest Consumer Price Index report released Thursday shows inflation remaining relatively stable for now, getting to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target “could be harder than it looks.” Cox writes that the “main culprits are related to services and shelter costs,” which have “proven to be stickier than some other things like food and gas.”

“[G]etting better control of rents, medical care services and the like could take ... well, you might not want to know.”

A message from the Clean Hydrogen Future Coalition (CHFC):

How to stall American clean hydrogen with one rule: Hourly matching and additionality would delay a new clean hydrogen industry by years. Our economy needs clean hydrogen and all it has to offer. It’s time to say no to hourly matching and additionality.

FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: ZAYN SIDDIQUE is leaving the White House, where he has been deputy assistant to the president for economic mobility and principal deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. Before his role at DPC, he was senior adviser to deputy chief of staff BRUCE REED.

MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: MIRO KORENHA is leaving the Biden-Harris administration, where she served as a senior communications adviser and speechwriter to the NOAA administrator, to join the Wildlife Conservation Society as its executive director of executive communication.

‘UNEQUIVOCAL SUPPORT’: Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN met Thursday with Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU in Israel to show Washington’s complete support for Israel following attacks by Hamas, our MATT BERG reports. “As Israel’s defense needs evolve, we will work with Congress to make sure that they’re met. I can tell you there is overwhelming, overwhelming bipartisan support,” he said.

While visiting a donation site, Blinken embraced a woman who expressed concern for Israeli hostages in Gaza.

A message from the Clean Hydrogen Future Coalition (CHFC):

CRACKING DOWN AT A COST: Deputy Treasury Secretary WALLY ADEYEMO told House Democrats that Iran will no longer have access to $6 billion funds the U.S. recently released as part of a prisoner exchange, the New York Times’ MICHAEL CROWLEY and ALAN RAPPEPORT report.

Biden has faced growing bipartisan pressure to sanction Iranian oil exports following Hamas’ attacks on Israel, even though doing so could shake global energy markets, our MANUEL QUIÑONES and BOB KING report.

An assessment from financial services firm Macquarie Group found that the administration is unlikely to target Tehran’s oil sector with penalties because “policy objectives did not target Russian oil flows even at the height of the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” the pair write. However, lawmakers argue that inflation concerns shouldn’t constrain Biden’s response to cracking down on Iran.

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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tries to turn Biden’s age into an asset (NBC’s Natasha Korecki)

Biden says the border wall is ineffective. Here are key things to know. (WaPo’s Nick Miroff)

A Left That Refuses to Condemn Mass Murder Is Doomed (New York Mag’s Eric Levitz)

SCOTT PELLEY’s interview with Biden airing Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” In a tweet, the program said the pair would discuss Israel, Gaza and Ukraine.

First lady JILL BIDEN has always looked for ways to stay active, whether it was roller skating as a child, ice skating in college or becoming an avid swimmer while pregnant with her daughter ASHLEY BIDEN.

She eventually began running marathons and participated in the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C., an experience that she says gave her an “endorphin high” for three days, she told Women’s Health Magazine’s LIZ PLOSSER. From spin classes to running 5Ks, it’s safe to say that we at West Wing Playbook are a bit intimidated by the first lady.

GERALD FORD became the first sitting American president to visit Japan during his 1974 trip. Later in 1975, he and first lady BETTY FORD hosted Emperor HIROHITO and Empress NAGAKO for a State Visit, according to the White House Historical Association.

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.

A message from the Clean Hydrogen Future Coalition (CHFC):

This is the moment to add tens of thousands of jobs to the US economy and jump start a new industry. Don’t let it pass America by. See why it’s not the right time for hourly matching and additionality.

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