Interview with Governor Ron DeSantis on Israel and Hamas | Oct. 15
Interview
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"Good morning.
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Well, one, Israel has a right to defend itself to the hilt. And that means the complete elimination of Hamas, the eradication of their terrorist infrastructure.
Israel has put out warnings to civilians about where Israel is going to conduct operations and has told civilians there to leave the area. Hamas is telling those civilians to stay in the area. So, they're using the civilians as human shields.
So, of course, when you're in war, you want to avoid that. But if there are civilian casualties, that's the fault of Hamas. That's not going to be the fault of Israel.
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Well, Margaret, the Hamas is holding people hostage still.
You have Israelis being held hostage as well, as Americans being held hostage.
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It's not a collective punishment.
Hamas is the one that is creating this predicament. Hamas is the one who always uses civilian targets to conduct operations. And we dealt with this some in Iraq, where al Qaeda in Iraq would commandeer mosques. So, under normal circumstances, of course, you don't target a religious institution.
But if you have terrorist groups that are converting that into a base of operations, then you absolutely treat that as military targets. But that's because Hamas is making those decisions to convert that infrastructure into the use for terrorist purposes.
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Well, look, I think that that's something, in terms of those that, of course, you would have discussions with.
We would be willing to do, if I was president, apply resources to be able to help any American who was either being captured or in harm's way. I would note, I, as governor of Florida, have actually launched flights to bring Americans home from the war zone now. We're going to have the first flights landing in Florida today.
We're going to bring hundreds of people back from Israel to the state of Florida, and they've had trouble dealing with the federal government. So, of course, that's an important thing that you want to consider.
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We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees. I am not going to do that. If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic.
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Well, first of all, my position is very clear.
Those Gaza refugees, Palestinian Arabs, should go to Arab countries. The U.S. should not be absorbing any of those. I think the culture -- so, they elected Hamas. Let's just be clear about that. Not everyone's a member of Hamas. Most probably aren't. But they did elect Hamas.
If you look at their education system
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Well, look, let me finish. Let me finish.
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I know, but there was a lot of -- there was a lot of -- there was a lot of celebrating of those attacks in the Gaza Strip by -- by a lot of those folks who are not Hamas.
But if you look at their education system, this has been an issue for a long time. They teach kids to hate Jews. The textbooks do not have Israel even on the map. They prepare very young kids to commit terrorist attacks.
So, I think it's a toxic culture. And I think, if we were to import large numbers of those to the United States, I think it would increase antisemitism in this country, and I think it would increase anti- Americanism in this country.
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And that's something, after seeing those demonstrations pop up in our country, just with -- with blood still flowing amongst Israeli citizens over the weekend, you had people taking to the streets cheering on the barbarism of Hamas in our own country.
That was a chilling thing to see. And I don't think that that's something that we should ever think is acceptable.
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Well, people have mentioned it. I think some of the far left have said, this is something that we should do. The U.S. has done -- done similar things in the past.
And so I just put my stake in the ground. That's where we're going to be. And I think that everyone running for president on the Republican side should follow suit.
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No, I think that there's actually two different things. One, with Israel, we've provided a lot of support since its inception, about $158 billion in the last 75 years. We've done over $120 billion just for Ukraine in two years. So, it's a different level that we're talking about.
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No, but, Margaret, what Biden's policy is, is - is a blank check, in his own words, for as long as it takes. They have not articulated what the concept of victory is going to be. In fact, people have said, this is going to go on for another five or six years.
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That would require potentially hundreds of billions of dollars more. We're not just sending weapons, we're paying salaries for Ukrainian bureaucrats, funding small business ventures, all kinds of things. So, I think if you look, as you mentioned Iraq, and I served there, our foreign policy the last 20, 30 years has suffered when we don't have a clear concept of victory, when we have conflicts like Iraq, and like Afghanistan, where we don't have a clear resolution.
So, he owes a strategy to the Congress. And I think most Republicans, or a lot of the Republicans in the Congress -
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Are going to insist on that before they authorize additional money.
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Well, I actually think we do. I think we do, with all respect. I mean, I think - I think he has said that it is the -- the total and complete defeat of Hamas where they're no longer existing as a functioning entity. I think that that is achievable. I think Israel can do that. And I think they have every right. And indeed I think they have the duty to do that.
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Well, Israel is not occupying it. They pulled out in 2005.
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Now, they're obviously - well, no, no. Well, of course. Well, I -- we'll have to see how that goes. I mean I would say this, there have been generous offers by Israel to provide Palestinian Arab states. Of course you go back to 1948, they had an opportunity to have an Arab state, and the Arabs rejected it and went to war. So, they've always cared more about eliminating the Jewish state than they have about receiving their own state. And I'm not sure that that's changed in terms of their outlook. So, we'll see what happens as this -
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Excuse me?
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The Palestinian Arabs in both the West Bank and Gaza. Their view has always been -
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Well, they've rejected that in the past. Arafat rejected it in 2000.
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It was a ridiculous deal. It probably would have put Israel in situations where they would have had some serious security concerns. But they were willing to go forward. And I think the history of the last 75 years, Israel has always been willing to take tough steps for peace and they've always had rejection on the other side and the other side has typically chosen war. So, that's the cycle. So, I would not push Israel to grant statehood to people that don't recognize their right to exist as a Jewish state.
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Well, first, cartels are invading this country and they are killing tens of thousands of our fellow citizens with fentanyl. And this is happening in communities all across our country. We have every right and duty to fight back against that. It's typical how you would have, with law enforcement or military, you define rules of engagement. They have positively identified somebody that's hostile, either action or intent, and they engage. But we are going to engage. The days of our communities being ravaged by fentanyl are going to be over.
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Yes, we're going to stop the invasion. Yes, we're going to build the wall. We're going to do all those things. We'll deport people when they come illegally. But you have to hold the cartels accountable. And I'll do that as commander in chief.
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Well, be -- Margaret, when you're down at the border, I mean you see, like, the cartels will actually have lookouts where they'll just bring people across. They will have, yes, they will be carrying different types of --
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Well, you have to make those judgments based on intelligence and all the other things that you do.
But I can tell you this, once you show the willingness to actually take this threat seriously, you are going to change their behavior. They're eating our lunch at the border right now because we don't do anything to fight back. That's going to change on January 20, 2025."
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