(NewsReady.com) – The Biden Administration has been facing criticism for its failure to evacuate US citizens from Israel, including from Representative Cory Mills (R-FL), who mounted his own rescue mission days after the brutal Hamas attack that killed at least 1,300 people. Finally, almost a week after the terrorists triggered a new war, the White House is now trying to do something. Charter flights have begun to evacuate any American who wants to leave Israel.
On October 12, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced that the US government would charter planes to collect American citizens from Israel. An estimated 16,000 Americans are currently in the Jewish state, and since the October 7 attack by Hamas, they’re effectively stranded there; most airlines, including the big three US ones, have canceled all commercial flights in and out of the country.
Kirby said the US was also looking at how to get Americans out by other routes, “by land and sea.” When Mills rescued 77 US citizens on October 11 and 12, he hired a bus to take them across Israel’s land border to neighboring Jordan, where they were able to get flights; that’s an option the government could also use.
Many of the Americans in Israel are dual nationals, and they might not want to leave; some will be regular or reserve members of the Israeli Defense Forces and may not even be able to. However, for others, getting out seems like a sensible option.
While Israel has captured or wiped out the Hamas terrorists that swarmed across its border on October 7, the country is now fighting a war with the Islamist group in its Gaza stronghold — and there’s a risk of other enemies, including Lebanon-based Hezbollah, getting involved. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country is in an “existential” fight, and while Israel will survive this war, it could be a dangerous place for a while.
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