Hamas attacks were personal in South Florida. DeSantis’ swift action pays off | Opinion
The ties between South Florida and Israel run deep. As we watched in horror Israelis being murdered and kidnapped last weekend, Gov. Ron DeSantis did the right thing afterward.
On Sunday night, 270 evacuees landed at Tampa International Airport, the result of an executive order DeSantis signed on Thursday to charter flights for Florida residents stranded in Israel. Another flight carrying seven people landed in Orlando earlier in the day.
DeSantis, who’s running for president, and his wife greeted the evacuees in Tampa, where they shook hands posed for photos.
Hostages taken
The Herald Editorial Board has criticized DeSantis for exploiting politically fraught moments, as he did with the Southern border crisis when he flew migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. This time, however, the governor’s actions have real consequences and benefits for Floridians and Americans caught up in the unprecedented attacks by Hamas, which the United States rightly labels a terrorist organization. The group murdered entire families, children, the elderly and music festival goers, hunted down and executed in cold blood. Almost 200 others were taken hostage, the Israeli military said Monday.
The attacks feel personal for South Florida and other areas of the country with large Jewish populations who contribute to every facet of our communities and whose traditions have made our melting pot more vibrant.
Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy lost five relatives — a mother, father and three children — killed as they tried to flee after terrorists set their home on fire. A Miami-Dade County family lost a father of four, a commander in the Israeli military. Local synagogues have been collecting donations to ship to Israel.
The Herald Editorial Board stands in solidarity with them, and we share their pain.
Unfortunately, the threat to their communities isn’t only coming from overseas. Antisemitic incidents have been on the rise across the United States, growing at an even faster pace in Florida, according to an Anti-Defamation League report released last year. Between 2020 and 2022, there were 400 instances of white supremacy propaganda distribution in the state. Fliers containing hateful messages have been dumped in people’s yards in Miami Beach, and swastikas have been projected on the side of buildings in West Palm Beach and Jacksonville.
A new law
DeSantis signed a public-nuisance law this year that police used to arrest a Cape Canaveral man in September who hung swastikas and other antisemitic banners on a bridge. The law prohibits the display of messages on a property without the written consent of its owner. But the governor failed to condemn neo-Nazis who marched in Orlando last year, and the Republican Party as a whole has not rooted out extremism from within its ranks.
In the week after Hamas’ attacks, the Anti-Defamation League said that reports of antisemitic incidents have spiked almost 300% year over year in the United States, NBC News reported. White-supremacist groups have openly celebrated the Hamas attacks, and the ADL has flagged several instances of misinformation and conspiracy theories spread online.
How our leaders react to expressions of hatred within our own communities is crucial at this moment. We urge them to use their platforms wisely.
Hatred of all forms must be condemned. When DeSantis said over the weekend he wouldn’t accept Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip into the United States because they are “are all antisemitic,” he painted 2.2 million civilians, including children, with the same brush. Their suffering cannot be ignored as many desperately try to evacuate their homes ahead of an expected invasion by the Israeli military.
Generalizing entire groups of people risks further inflaming the heated, decades-long debate over Israel’s relations with Palestinians. A Chicago-area landlord has been charged with fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy, triggered by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, authorities said.
This, more than ever, is a moment for America’s leaders, including Florida’s governor, to soothe and unite the nation, both through their words and deeds.
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