by I read this morning that the US Department of State is finally getting around to evacuating American citizens stranded in Israel. They have chartered the Royal Caribbean ship Rhapsody of the Seas. American citizens will be taken from the port of Haifa to Limmasol, Cyprus. From there, they must make their own arrangements to get home to the United States. They are reported sailing today.
Given other such as Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), TV host Glenn Beck, and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) have already chartered planes to return Americans to our shores, I guess it is better late than never. As Emily Miller wrote in her blog, private rescue groups learned their lessons from their experiences in Afghanistan two years ago.
Not only is the State Department slow to act but they have the unmitigated gall to expect evacuees to sign promissory notes agreeing to pay for their evacuation to Cyprus.
As Cdr Salamander wrote:
I would really like to know what requires the State Dept. to ask for a promissory note in order to be evacuated from a war zone. I mean, really. All the taxes you pay – and all the BS junk DOS spends money on, you are running ways from 7th Century rapists and child murderers – and they want you to fill out this?
He goes on to add that he hoped a US destroyer or two would accompany the cruise ship on it way to Limmasol along with having a company of Marines on board the cruise ship. We would not want another Achille Lauro, now would we?
Getting back to the promissory note, I have to say WTF! We spend boatloads of money to house, feed, and provide medical aid to illegal aliens who cross our Southern border. Taxpayers are subsidizing small businesses in Ukraine. Yet we expect Grandma and Grandpa who were visiting the Holy Land with their church group and who are now stuck because US airlines don’t want to fly into a war zone to sign this promissory note. This is just disgusting.
Apparently, the promissory note thing has been US policy for decades. Cdr. Salamander is not a reliable source on anything.
I could understand if you chose to go to Syria and now have to be evacuated. But Israel?
I might disagree about the reliability of Cdr Salamander on naval issues. On this, I do think he is correct and he pulled the information directly from the US Embassey in Jerusalem’s website.
As to the promissory note thing, I think it is stupid policy when applied to evacuations from a friendly state. As Heresolong noted, it is not like you are being evacuated from Syria.
I didn’t say it was a good policy, merely that the Biden junta didn’t invent it.