President Joe Biden said that he is a strong supporter of Israel, identifying himself as a “Zionist” in an interview on Monday.

“If there weren’t an Israel, every Jew in the world would be at risk,” Biden told Complex magazine, a US news outlet with a mostly black readership. “And so, there is a need for it to be strong and the need for Israel to be able to have, after World War II, the ability for Jews to have a place that was their own.”

When asked by the journalist directly if he is a Zionist, the president answered “yes.”