TALLAHASSEE, FL—Governor Ron DeSantis has come out in full force against pro-Palestine protesters across the nation, an action prompted by a deepening divide amongst Americans that caused an Israeli Minister to call certain supporters an "enemy of the state".
"When you're chasing Jewish students around, and when you're not letting a Jewish professor enter a building, and you're targeting people like that, that's not free speech; that's harassment that violates appropriate conduct," DeSantis said at a Wednesday press conference.
"And yet at Columbia, at Yale, those folks rule the roost—they do whatever they want. And these administrators and the presidents of these universities are weak. They're scared and they don't do anything," he continued, referencing Ivy League students setting up encampments on and near campus, calling for President Biden to cut off support to Israel.
Wednesday, Biden signed a bill both allotting $26 billion in funds for Israel and including humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Heightened tensions have raged since the terrorist group Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis in an October 7th attack. Since then, parties and citizens alike have butted heads over supporting Palestine in becoming a free state or supporting Israel in taking out the terrorist organization that assumed control over Palestinian territory.
These Israel-Palestine relations have caused a series of liberal infighting, with Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib getting censured for posting "From the River to the Sea", a slogan Palestinian activists say is a call for peace and equality after years of Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians. Jews, AP News reports, hear a clear demand for Israel’s destruction.
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, called Tlaib an "enemy of the state", saying, "If you support Hamas, you are not an enemy of the state of Israel, you are an enemy of America. You're not an enemy of just America, you are an enemy of Western civilization."
In November of last year, Tlaib was censured by 22 other Democrats for her comments. One of her censurers, Jared Moskowitz, has been in strong support of Israel, facing backlash of his own for posting about Israel warning Palestinians in Gaza to leave as it prepared to launch attacks.
"This is Hamas' fault and only Hamas. Israel gives a warning to save lives. The women and children that were murdered in Israel got no warning."
He was joined in his support by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who said members who wouldn't back a resolution affirming support of Israel don't "have a soul."
