Since the breakout of the Israel-Iran conflict, the Florida governor can add “hotspot evacuations” to his resume as well.
The State of Florida has begun operating flights to and from Israel to bring home stranded U.S. citizens, many of them Floridians, many not.
One recent 13-hour operation evacuated about 1,500 people, mostly U.S. Jewish-Americans, who were taken to neighboring Cypress before being flown to Tampa.
The group crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Cypress on a cruise chip guarded by the Israeli Navy, according to Birthright Israel, a U.S. nonprofit that helps young Jewish adults around the world visit Israel.
Those Americans were nearing the end of a 10-day trip sponsored by Birthright Israel, according to BayNews9.com.
The state is chartering four wide-body airplanes to fly any U.S. residents in that group back to Tampa in the coming days.
It’s not the first rescue rodeo for DeSantis.
The rescue idea came to fruition in the fall of 2023 when Gov. DeSantis issued Executive Order 23-208. It authorized the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) to conduct logistical, rescue and evacuation operations for Florida residents in Israel and to send supplies outside traditional federal coordination.
Just eight days after Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians, and kidnapped many others, a Florida-led effort named “Project Dynamo” safely returned almost 300 Americans from Israel.
The state is partnering in the current effort with the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, a Tampa group, most with military experience, that focuses on rescuing Americans from conflict zones.
“We're escorting a flight back to the United States, and we'll have people on the ground there. Just yesterday, we were picking up people, and we had rockets incoming. We had to run the bomb shelters. We had to get inside there, and they were close enough that we could see the explosions. It's very real. And these are American citizens in harm's way,” Jay Collins, a state senator in Florida, said on American Family Radio Monday.
Some of the evacuees, so stressed by the explosions they were seeing, decided not to move forward with the evacuation, Collins said.
Those were far fewer in number than those who moved ahead.
Evacuation includes a 100% verification of each passport.
“We’re not moving people who we can’t confirm,” Collins said.
DeSantis’ “moral compass” deserves a lot of credit for the operation, Collins told show host Jenna Ellis.
“He knows what matters. This is exactly why leadership like Governor DeSantis is so incredibly important, and frankly, it’s his entire team,” Collins said.
The Israeli government worked equally hard to safely move the evacuees, said Collins, a former Green Beret.
Conflicting signals from U.S. evacuation efforts
The federal government had sent mixed signals about evacuating U.S. citizens.
Initially it had held off on organizing flights out of Israel as Israel and Iran attacked one another.
In the early morning house of June 18 the official X account for the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem wrote that out of respect for the “security situation” and in compliance with Israel Home Front Command guidance, “We have no announcement about assisting private U.S. citizens to depart at this time.”
“This U.S. Embassy is aware that third parties are assisting U.S. citizens in departing Israel. While we are not able to endorse any providers, we understand some have been able to successfully help U.S. citizens.”
Roughly eight hours later, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, announced via X that the embassy was in fact working on evacuation flights and cruise ship departures.
Collins would not speculate as to why the federal government is not more involved in the evacuation process but focused on the Florida efforts.
“We don't do what's easy. We do what's right, no matter how hard it might be, and we're not going to leave Floridians sitting in harm's way,” Collins said. “It’s not politics, it’s people, and there are a lot of people there.”
Collins estimated that between 4,000-5,000 Americans remain on the project’s list for evacuation.
“This is what government is supposed to look like, right? This is government working with nonprofits to accomplish incredible things,” he said.
