Ron DeSantis, Florida Governor and Republican candidate for the 2024 Presidential election, has recently decided to assert executive authority as Governor to provide weapons to Israel while at the same time cracking down pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel speech on college campuses.
Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for DeSantis, explained last week that the state is sending cargo planes with healthcare supplies, drones, body armor and helmets, along with an undisclosed number of weapons and ammunition that were privately funded, including some drones.
But there were some contradictions in the story. As the Associated Press reported, ‘The governor’s office said it acted at the request of Israel’s consul general in Miami. Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the consul general, initially said Thursday he did not request drones, body armor or helmets, nor had he talked to the governor about help getting weapons or ammunition through private parties.’
The AP added: ‘Elbaz-Starinsky said later Thursday that others in the Israeli government had communicated with DeSantis’ office to determine what would be sent to Israel.’
Days later Elbaz-Starinsky provided some clarity, the Miami Herald reported.
They asked me to help. I approached a few contacts, including the governor’s office, to get the final approval. It went through all the process. I’m not even sure, at the end of the day, which one untangled this thing and made the shipment be approved.
The stakeholders who did the shipment upon the request of Israel had all of the approvals needed to send the shipment, and they were just missing the final approval.
Usually I don’t get involved in these things, but it was really the first days of the war, everyone was panicked and stressed — everything was urgent.
Elbaz-Starinsky said, noting that the party needed approval from the Transportation Security Administration.
‘When pressed for more details, Redfern declined to disclose the private parties or specify what the federal hurdles had been,’ the Herald wrote. He eventually did reveal that the the Florida government did not purchase the weapons and ammunition, and that those items “were transported separately” to Israel, without providing details on the transportation to get them them or means of funding.
‘An initial shipment of medical equipment and protective vests donated to Israel by U.S. citizens was also sent last week on two cargo planes funded by the state of Florida,’ the paper wrote.
The secrecy surrounding how the weapons were acquired and shipped comes as the DeSantis administration has also been slow to provide information about how much the state has spent to rescue hundreds of U.S. citizens from Israel to the United States and which vendors were involved in the rescue operations. The Florida Division of Emergency Management on Thursday – nearly two weeks after the first rescue flight arrived in Florida — said that the rescue flights are expected to cost Florida taxpayers approximately $32 million.
The Miami Herald reported
First Ban On Pro-Palestinian Speech
On top of pledging to send weapons and foreign aid to Israel, DeSantis has enacted the country’s first impediment on speech concerning Pro-Palestinian groups on state universities.
The State University System of Florida issued a statement that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), whose leading body endorsed Hamas’, was forced to be dismantled per statewide “crackdown.” The group was active at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated.
The system’s Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote in a letter to university leaders.
DeSantis also bragged about this during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Annual Leadership Summit on October 28th.
Well, you know you may have a First Amendment right to say a lot of dumb things, but you do not have the right to give material support to terrorists, so we deactivated the Students of Justice in Palestine in the state of Florida, it’s done!
DeSantis proclaimed
The Intelligencer explained where DeSantis got his justification to enact this order, which he asserts this movement is directly tied to Hamas itself – which was based on a lone statement in the chapter’s toolkits, which read: “We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement” — meaning Hamas and affiliated terror organizations — “not in solidarity with this movement.”
‘DeSantis uses this line to treat SJP as literally part of Hamas, as if its members were themselves going to carry out terrorist attacks,’ the Intelligencer notes. But the outlet explains SJP is not advocating for what DeSantis claims they are. Their documents go on to encourage members to take: “Table/Flyer on campus,” “Teach-ins,” “Sign onto statement from Bears for Palestine,” “Write a local statement of solidarity,” “Share within your network/region,” and “Help spread the word by sharing widely on your campuses and in your communities.” And it defines the Palestinian struggle as taking place “within historic Palestine,” which means Israel proper and the occupied territories. There is nothing within the chapter’s guidance that explicitly or implicitly is endorsing violence outside Israel.
Howbeit, to clarify, the Intelligencer does note that “free speech often protects people with awful beliefs, and the beliefs promoted by SJP are genuinely horrific.
The reasoning DeSantis employs to close down SJP could be used to shut down almost any student group — or any political group at all. If they support abortion rights, you could say they advocate murder. If they support Trump, you could say they endorse violent authoritarianism.
DeSantis’s brand of authoritarianism is nonviolent, but this comes as little comfort. The hallmark of his governing style has been to use the powers of government to crush political enemies without any concern for democratic rights. He held up his crude retaliation against Disney for having the temerity to make a statement opposing one of his policies as a model for his plans as president to intimidate the opposition. His “Stop WOKE” law has already been struck down as a First Amendment violation. And his education agenda has revolved around naked partisan control of both primary and higher education, seeking to turn schools into propaganda factories.
The Intelligencer argues, adding that DeSantis’ edict will most likely fail in court
Comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore also weighed-in, blasting the Governor for his hypocrisy in that the U.S. are the biggest promoters and funders of terrorism, he argues, and that DeSantis is creating a double-standard where Americans won’t be canceled for “good terrorism” via the number of proxy wars the U.S. has been involved in, versus the “bad terrorism” like Hamas.
One of Dore’s co-hosts also brought up that people like DeSantis did not deploy the same type of measures against the likes of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, which did commit acts of terrorism and anarchy across the U.S.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.
Proverbs 10:32
I have covered just how evil and despicable DeSantis really is in a number of reports, and this just only adds to it. You can read up on them here.
SEE: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Passes Law That Allows Forcible Vaccination By ‘Any Means Necessary’
Let me be perfectly clear here: I am by no means defending and condoning Hamas for a nanosecond, neither am I “pro-Palestine.” As a matter of fact, the King James Bible says in Proverbs 4:27: “Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”
That being said, what DeSantis is doing, out of his own mouth, is overthrowing the 1st Amendment, based on a statement he thinks he can twist. What DeSantis has done again displays how this jerk is a vindictive authoritarian, who will seek to ban basic civil liberties and speech whenever it disagrees with him, and when bribes are on the line.
Not only that, all these people continue to showcase that could give a rat’s behind about America. Instead of doling out cash and aid for its own people that could seriously use it, they all instead throw cash at everything else without hesitating.
As I have been warning and pointing out, this war is being used to justify a whole new wave of censorship under the guise of “fighting terrorism.” This is literally the same thing that was done under George Bush post-9/11; but just like then, the people are walking right into it all over again, just as they did with The Covid War and the Ukraine war.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Sounds good; but what is the next thing to go, as our rights go by the roadside
All the same corruption
To know who controls you, learn who you can’t criticize.
Interesting that the name of the attack was called “ Al-Aqsa FLOOD.” Brings to mind Revelation 12:15
And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
I wondered if Florida was a seperate country as the governor was usurping federal powers to export to a foreign government.
I don’t think he shall lead the all-right tradcat movement as he lacks finesse with his speech and actions. He is like the big dumb jock turned into a politician. He is like Ernst Rohm.
Technically what he did is not illegal but I agree, he’s just a big man-baby. I have heard he is Skull & Bones but I cannot confirm that. However, he is a product of barbaric U.S. military, and was a complicit torturer in Guantanamo. He’s a sicko.
“…..but you do not have the right to give material support to terroists.” Hypocrite. That’s
exactly what he did when he se sent aid to Israel.