DeSantis says US should not accept refugees from Gaza

As I blogged about the other day, candidates in the 2024 presidential campaign are talking tough on immigration.  CNN  reports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said yesterday that the United States should not accept refugees from Gaza.   Tens of thousands are fleeing Gaza after the Israeli government issued an evacuation order.

“I don’t know what (President Joe) Biden’s gonna do, but we cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees. I am not going to do that,” DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, said at a campaign stop in Creston, Iowa.

“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,” he continued.

DeSantis argued that Arab states should accept refugees from Gaza, who are attempting to cross south into Egypt, rather than refugees being “import(ed)” to the United States.

DeSantis’ claims about Gaza residents are not supported by public opinion polls In a July poll by Washington Institute, 50% of Gazans agreed that “Hamas should stop calling for Israel’s destruction and instead accept a permanent two state solution based on the 1967 borders.”

KJ