Florida Leads In Getting Stranded American Citizens Out Of Israel

BEN GURION AIRPORT — Israel’s main airport has been busy the past few weeks with foreigners trying to leave the country amid the reignited war with Hamas. The biggest problem travelers have been facing has been the number of airline companies who are not flying in or out of the country anymore while the conflict is still active, along with the airport being targeted with rockets, stranding many with few options.

U.S. citizens were not immune to the lack of flights during the beginning stages of the war. This frustrated Americans here and back in the United States due to the fact many other countries organized flights, often through their militaries, to get their citizens out. Countries such as Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and Poland conducted airlifts to get their people out of the country.

The Biden administration made no such effort to get U.S. citizens back home after flights were canceled. Instead, half measures were done, such as charting a ship leaving the port city of Haifa to Cyprus. Those who left Israel via the ship still had to pay out of pocket to fly back to the States once they got to the island.

Governor Ron DeSantis, in charge of a state with a large Jewish population, ordered flights to get Americans out of Israel free of charge, whether they live in Florida or not. Those I spoke with who were taking the Florida flight were happy to be going home during a great time of uncertainty.

Second-year medical students Ariel and Yaron were passengers for the flight leaving early Friday morning. Yaron told Ariel about the flight after Ariel’s other flight had been delayed. Ariel thought it was a scam at first because he could not find much information about the flight program in the news.

“Personally, I really appreciate it,” Ariel said of the DeSantis-ordered flights. “This makes it much simpler for us” as opposed to the boat to Cyprus.

“I feel the same way. I know in the past I haven’t necessarily agreed with DeSantis’ politics…but it feels really good as a Jewish person, as an American Jewish person, to feel like there’s somebody back home that’s supporting you and thinking about you and wants to get you back home safely. It feels good,” said Yaron.

Ariel said while was nice for Florida to be doing something to help U.S. citizens, it would have been great to see more effort from the federal government.

Bernie was with his wife in Israel visiting their children and grandchildren when Hamas’ terrorist attacks were carried out. Now, almost two weeks later, they were getting ready to leave, worried about what might happen should the war escalate. They did not want to appear on camera due to fear of the overt anti-Semitism within the United States.

“Here we go again, was what was going through my mind,” Bernie recalled thinking when he first heard of the attacks. “But I had no idea it was of this magnitude, how bad it was…We didn’t know [at first] how bad it was.”

The couple’s original flight through Turkish Air for Monday had been canceled.

“We find out Governor DeSantis was offering free transportation for Florida residents…so we checked it out and here we are,” said Bernie, adding he has been
”impressed” with the program. “It’s really quite helpful. It’s not that we didn’t want to leave Israel but we’re a little bit fearful that if, God forbid, things get worse, we might have even more trouble getting out.”

DeSantis is not the only Florida man who has been getting Americans back to the States. Rep. Cory Mills personally traveled to Israel multiple times within a week to help organize evacuations. In his most recent update, his office said they were able to get 96 Americans out of Israel. Mills had to stay in the U.S. in order to participate in the new round of votes for Speaker of the House, but said the missions will continue:

Having been a part of the first successful overland rescue mission in Afghanistan and seeing the failure of the State Department under the Biden admin, I knew I had to quickly mobilize and be on the ground to bring these stranded Americans home. I'm honored to have been able to evacuate 96 Americans out of Israel thus far, with a charter of over 200 more returning home tomorrow- which unlike Biden, is FREE of charge! While I may be temporarily back in D.C. for the Speaker vote, the mission is far from over. #AmericaFirst

While Ben Gurion Airport is still busy with people leaving or entering the nation, it is not as hectic as it was when I landed on October 11. It remains to be seen when things will return to normal. It all depends what happens once Israel fully commits its military to enter the Gaza Strip and how the northern border fares.

Watch the video below: