Sunday, October 15, 2023


'All Arabs are Semites': CBS host schools DeSantis for calling Palestinians anti-Semitic

David Edwards
October 15, 2023 

CBS/screen grab

CBS host Margaret Brennan grilled Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis after he suggested 2.3 million Palestinians were all anti-Semitic.

During a Sunday interview on Face the Nation, Brennan noted that DeSantis had recently announced Florida, where he is governor, would not accept refugees from Israel's war on Gaza.

"If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all anti-Semitic," DeSantis said in remarks over the weekend.

"I'm sure you know all Arabs are Semites," Brennan jabbed, "but how can you paint with such a broad brush to say 2.3 million people are anti-Semitic?"

"I think the culture, so they elected Hamas," DeSantis replied. "Let's just be clear about that."

But Brennan pointed out that most Palestinians were not members of Hamas.

"Most probably aren't, but they did elect Hamas," DeSantis agreed. "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."

Watch the video below from CBS or at the link. .



DeSantis: US Shouldn't Take in Gaza Refugees


By Jim Thomas | Saturday, 14 October 2023 | NEWSMAX

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis asserted on Saturday that the U.S. should abstain from accepting refugees from the Gaza Strip.

"If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel's right to exist," the candidate said while campaigning in Iowa for the GOP presidential nomination, according to The Washington Post.

"We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees," DeSantis told the audience, Politico reported.

"Arab states" should provide refuge for individuals from Gaza, he said.

"You don't fly people and import them into the United States of America."

His comments come as Israeli officials urged more than 1 million Palestinians to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military is conducting airstrikes in response to Hamas' recent terror attacks and reportedly is readying a ground assault to terminate the terrorist group's control in the region.

Along Gaza's southern perimeter, Egypt has been reluctant to open its border to Gaza refugees, citing concerns about potential political repercussions and security hazards.

Furthermore, the United Nations has objected to Israel's large-scale evacuation mandate, deeming it unfeasible.

DeSantis, a steadfast advocate of Israel, has called for a "swift and lethal response" in the wake of Hamas' attack last week.

The governor also seized upon the recent attacks by Hamas, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., to advocate for heightened restrictions on migrants entering the United States from Mexico.

"I've said publicly many times prior to [these] terrorist attacks against Israel: There will be a terrorist attack in this country that we'll be able to link to that southern border," he said.

 

Margaret Brennan presses DeSantis for calling all Palestinians in Gaza ‘antisemitic’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the California Republican Party, Convention Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

CBS “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan on Sunday pressed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over remarks he made on the campaign trail in which he called all Palestinians in Gaza “anti-Semitic.”

DeSantis on Saturday argued the U.S. shouldn’t take in any Palestinian refugees fleeing from Gaza or any Palestinian Arabs.

“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 anti-Semitic,” DeSantis, a GOP presidential candidate, said Saturday during a campaign stop in Iowa.

Playing his remarks on “Face the Nation,” Brennan asked DeSantis, “I’m sure you know, all Arabs are Semites. But how can you paint with such a broad brush to say 2.3 million people are anti-Semitic?”

“Well, first of all, my position is very clear. Those [in] Gaza are refugees; Palestinian Arabs should go to Arab countries. The U.S. should not be absorbing any of those,” DeSantis said. “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.”

Brennan then noted Hamas won the elections in 2006 before violently seizing control of the Gaza Strip from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which administers semi-autonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. No elections have taken place in Gaza since.

“There was a lot of … celebrating of those attacks in the Gaza Strip by … a lot of those folks who are not Hamas,” DeSantis pushed back.

DeSantis then took aim at the Gaza Strip’s education system, claiming it teaches “kids to hate Jews.”

“The textbooks do not have Israel even on the map,” DeSantis continued. “They prepare very young kids to commit terrorist attacks, so I think it’s a toxic culture.”

The 2024 White House hopeful says importing large numbers of Palestinian refugees would “increase anti-Semitism” and “anti-Americanism” in the country.

“And that’s something after seeing those demonstrations pop up in our country, just with … blood still flowing amongst Israel citizens over the weekend. You had people taking to the streets cheering on the barbarism of Hamas in our country,” DeSantis said. “That was a chilling thing to see, and I don’t think that that’s something that we should ever think is acceptable.”

Brennan then noted “no one’s talking about getting Gaza and refugees here right now,” to which DeSantis said some on the far left have mentioned it.

The Israeli military Friday gave an estimated 1.1 million Palestinian civilians just over 24 hours to evacuate the area ahead of an expected ground offensive on northern Gaza, the area controlled by Hamas.

The order came nearly a week after Hamas launched an onslaught of surprise attacks on Israel, invading several Israeli towns by land, sea and air. Israeli forces have since launched a major counteroffensive, sending hundreds of airstrikes into Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have already fled their home after airstrikes destroyed dozens of neighborhoods. Adding to the growing humanitarian crisis is Israel’s “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip early last week, which halted the supply of food, electricity and water to the territory that already had run low on supplies.

Brennan addressed the argument of some that Israel’s counteroffensive could be seen as “collective punishment” for the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.

“It’s not collective punishment. Hamas is the one that is creating this predicament. Hamas is the one who always uses civilian targets to conduct operations,” DeSantis responded.

Fighting in Israel and Gaza has claimed more than 3,600 lives — mostly civilians — from both sides, with thousands more injured since the militant group Hamas’s multipronged surprise attack on Oct. 7. At least 27 Americans are among the dead, the State Department said Saturday.


RIGHT WING CANCEL CULTURE

Donald Trump Wants to Ban Palestinian Supporters From Universities

BY NATALIE VENEGAS ON 10/14/23 AT 6:16 PM EDT

As tensions across U.S college campuses continue to rise amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, students, staff, and administrators have struggled with how to respond, prompting former President Donald Trump on Saturday to call for a ban against Palestinian supporters from universities.

On October 7, Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest ever airstrikes on Gaza. As of Saturday at least 1,300 people had been killed in Israel, the Associated Press reported, citing the Israeli military. More than 1,500 people had been killed and more than 6,600 had been injured in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Since the attack, many college students have taken to social media to voice their thoughts and concerns as both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian student groups across the country have weighed in with statements. However, those statements were soon met with in-person protests, provoking strong reactions from each side.

In a post shared to Truth Social, Trump's social media platform, the former president on Saturday criticized universities for how they are handling students' response to the conflict, alleging the deans of the universities are allowing an "open hatred against Israel" to take place.

"What happened in Israel was barbaric! Now American Universities are allowing or enabling the open hatred against Israel and America! Instead of educating our young Americans, Deans stand idly by while subversive groups are calling for a National Day of Resistance. Not only is this antisemitic, it is also anti-American. Students have begged Deans to throw these subversive groups off campus. We banned Nazis, banned Communists, it is about time that we remove these antisemites from our schools or is the Cancel Culture only used against Conservatives?" Trump wrote.

The former president's response comes after widespread backlash at Harvard garnered attention as dozens of student groups signed a letter last Saturday from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), holding Israel "entirely responsible for all unfolding violence."

The letter has since faced growing backlash from students, faculty, high-profile alumni, politicians, and even Harvard's president, leading to several groups retracting their support of the letter.
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While statements by student groups supporting Palestinians have prompted outrage and fear among the Jewish community, there have been reports of harassment and assaults of both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students, according to Reuters.

Trump, who seemingly refers in his Truth Social post to the 1952 Feinberg Law, which prohibits communists from teaching in public schools, but has since ended in 1967, continues to state banning Palestinian supporters from universities is a way to "remove these antisemites from schools."

However, according to National Public Radio (NPR) who spoke to Eboo Patel, the founder and president of Interfaith America, an organization that works with nearly 1,000 campuses on interfaith issues, the two important things colleges need to do is to recognize "communities of care and cooperation. People are hurting, and words matter," Patel said.

"We're not going to minimize the conflict, we're simply going to say that we are not going to allow the conflict to prevent us from cooperating on other things," Patel added. "That's the genius of American college campuses. That's what college presidents and athletic directors and faculty and staff and students need to keep their focus on right now."

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for further comment.

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