As Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza to root out Hamas terrorists appears imminent, Rep. Matt Gaetz has come out forcefully against the notion that the United States could and should welcome Gazan refugees trying to escape the war.
"No Gaza refugees in the United States. We are already being invaded by people from our own hemisphere,” stated Rep. Gaetz as Republican lawmakers have already filed a measure to prevent Gazan refugees from being brought to the U.S.
Rep. Gaetz’s pro-Israel and anti-Hamas position is widely supported by American lawmakers.
Earlier in the week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that if he was president, “the number of. People we will bring in from Gaza is zero.”
No Gaza refugees in the United States.
We are already being invaded by people from our own hemisphere.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 16, 2023
Gov. DeSantis went on to say that anti-semitism runs rampant in Gaza and in the Middle East, questioning why would Americans bring in refugees that do no have or support the same values as them.
“I will challenge anyone to say that in some of these countries that virulent anti-Semitism is not the norm if you're not willing to acknowledge that then you've got your head in the sand that is how folks think in many of those countries in this part of the world. That's just the fact. I think it's sad. I think it's unfortunate,” said DeSantis. “But to act like a lot of those people are really there and that they acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, and all that that's just not true that's just not what we're dealing with here.”
Aside from sending two Naval battle groups to the region and calling up military personnel to assist in an “non-combat” mission, the Biden Administration has been criticized for not doing enough to assist Americans.
Rep. Cory Mills (R) took it upon himself to evacuate about 100 Americans out of Israel, while DeSantis chartered a flight to transport another 300 stranded Americans in Israel back to Florida.
Meanwhile, the U.S. appears to be inching closer to direct combat operations against Hamas.
