{"id":10614,"date":"2023-10-25T02:50:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T02:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/25\/desantis-haley-target-president-biden-over-humanitarian-aid-to-palestinians-doubly-problematic\/"},"modified":"2023-10-25T02:50:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T02:50:42","slug":"desantis-haley-target-president-biden-over-humanitarian-aid-to-palestinians-doubly-problematic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/25\/desantis-haley-target-president-biden-over-humanitarian-aid-to-palestinians-doubly-problematic\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis, Haley target President Biden over humanitarian aid to Palestinians: \u2018Doubly problematic\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

CONCORD, N.H. \u2013 <\/span>Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is spotlighting his opposition to President Biden\u2019s humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u2018They were wrong on the humanitarian aid to Hamas because Hamas is going to use that for terrorism,\u2019 DeSantis said on Tuesday in an interview with Fox News Digital when asked about the $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

The president, in announcing the aid last week, said the funding would help support \u2018over a million displaced and conflict-affected people with clean water, food, hygiene support, medical care, and other essential needs. The United States provides humanitarian assistance through trusted partners, including U.N. agencies and international NGOs.\u2019<\/p>\n

After Hamas militants launched a horrific sneak assault on Israel two and a half weeks ago \u2013 in which more than 1,400 Israelis were killed in the worst attack on the Jewish state in a half century \u2013 Israel responded with relentless airstrikes on the Gaza Strip that have left nearly 5,000 people dead.<\/p>\n

The top contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination \u2013 including former President Donald Trump, who\u2019s the commanding frontrunner, DeSantis, former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina \u2013 have all been calling out Biden for what they charge is backdoor assistance to Hamas, which aims to wipe out Israel.<\/p>\n

\u2018No U.S. tax dollars to the Gaza Strip. Hamas is holding American hostages and Biden wants to fund them?\u2019 DeSantis charged last week.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, DeSantis reiterated \u2018you shouldn\u2019t be doing that\u2019 regarding the aid, \u2018knowing that Hamas rules the streets.\u2019<\/p>\n

Pointing to the over 200 Israelis and some Americans held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, DeSantis said \u2018it\u2019s doubly problematic when they still are holding all these people hostages. So wait a minute. How is it humanitarian to be holding these people hostages? That should have been a precondition before they even discussed anything else.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The president has a responsibility to look after Americans, and that includes Americans overseas. And in this case, you need to be engaged in that,\u2019 DeSantis said. \u2018Most of what will go on will be things that are not going to be publicized. There\u2019s going to be a lot of things that are going to rely on intelligence. I\u2019d work closely with the Israelis, but I think we both have common interests in this to be able to recover all those hostages.\u2019<\/p>\n

DesSantis was interviewed during his latest campaign swing in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP nominating calendar.<\/p>\n

Haley has also spotlighted her opposition to the humanitarian aid, noting how easily the assistance could fall into the hands of Hamas.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nikki opposes taxpayer dollars for Gaza just like she did when she helped eliminate it at the U.N. The money is too easily diverted to Hamas and is not a good use of tax dollars. Arab countries should step up if they want to help Palestinians as much as they claim,\u2019 Haley\u2019s campaign told Fox News.<\/p>\n

And in an interview Monday on the Fox News Channel, Haley reiterated \u2018no more money to countries that hate America.\u2019<\/p>\n

During her tenure as ambassador to the U.N., Haley slashed U.S. funding to Palestinians in Gaza by defunding the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. The aid was later restored under the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\u2018I stopped all U.S. taxpayer money going to the Palestinian refugees when I was at the United Nations. This is something that I always said \u2013 the Arab countries, it was their responsibility, not the American taxpayer\u2019s responsibility,\u2019 Haley said in an interview last week on Fox News\u2019 \u2018Hannity.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Scott told Fox News in a statement that \u2018there should not be a single U.S. dollar that risks ending up in the hands of Hamas. The terrorist organization brutally murdered innocent Israelis and dozens of Americans.\u2019<\/p>\n

And Scott vowed to take steps \u2018to ensure no future taxpayer dollars make their way into the hands of Hamas.\u2019<\/p>\n

Trump has slammed the aid as \u2018totally inappropriate.\u2019<\/p>\n

The White House has said the aid will be distributed through the United Nations and non-government organizations. But Hamas has a long track record of seizing assistance funneled through the U.N. or relief agencies.<\/p>\n

While the Republican presidential contenders are mostly on the same page in criticizing the Biden administration over the humanitarian aid, they\u2019ve traded blows on other aspects of the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n

Most notable is the verbal fireworks between DeSantis and Haley and their campaigns and allied super PACs over whether the U.S. should accept any Palestinian refugees fleeing the fighting.<\/p>\n

\n
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CONCORD, N.H. \u2013 Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is spotlighting his opposition to President Biden\u2019s humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. \u2018They were wrong on the humanitarian aid to Hamas because Hamas is going to use that for terrorism,\u2019 DeSantis said on Tuesday in an interview with Fox News Digital when asked <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}