00:00 The two Republican candidates appeared to diverge on attitudes toward civilians in the Gaza Strip,
00:05 who are bracing for an invasion by Israel. The deepening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip
00:12 is driving a wedge between Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, two of the leading Republican
00:18 presidential candidates, who deviated sharply on Sunday over whether the United States
00:24 should help Palestinian refugees from the region ahead of an expected Israeli invasion.
00:30 In an appearance on the CBS morning show "Face the Nation," Mr. DeSantis,
00:35 the Florida governor, doubled down on remarks he had made one day earlier in Iowa, espousing a
00:41 hardline opposition toward helping civilians who have been thrust into the middle of the conflict.
00:47 "They teach kids to hate Jews," he said. "The textbooks do not have Israel even on the map.
00:55 They prepare very young kids to commit terrorist attacks. So I think it's a toxic culture."
01:02 Ms. Haley, the former United Nations ambassador under President Donald J. Trump, pushed back
01:10 against that view during a CNN interview on Sunday with Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
01:15 "America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists,"
01:22 she said after being shown a clip of Mr. DeSantis's initial comments on Saturday.
01:28 Nearly one million people are grappling with shortages of food,
01:33 clean water, and shelter in Gaza, which is bracing for a land invasion by Israel in
01:38 retaliation for the October 7 attacks and the taking of hostages by Hamas,
01:43 an Iran-backed militant group. Mr. DeSantis argued on Sunday that it would be detrimental
01:50 to the United States to import large numbers of refugees and would fuel anti-Semitism,
01:56 echoing comments he made about people in Gaza the day before that drew scrutiny.
02:00 At a campaign event on Saturday, Mr. DeSantis said, "If you look at how they behave,
02:07 not all of them are Hamas, but they are all anti-Semitic. None of them believe in Israel's
02:13 right to exist." He added, "The Arab states should be taking them. If you have refugees,
02:21 you don't fly people in and take them into the United States of America."
02:25 When the CBS anchor Margaret Brennan pointed out to Mr. DeSantis that Arabs are Semites and
02:32 replayed his remarks, he stood by his words. "There was a lot of celebrating of those attacks
02:38 in the Gaza Strip by a lot of those folks who were not Hamas," he said. Ms. Brennan suggested
02:45 that it was a remote possibility that refugees from Gaza could resettle in the United States,
02:51 saying that they could not even evacuate from their immediate area.
02:54 Still, Republicans have used the broader conflict to frame their postures on military action and
03:02 humanitarian aid. In the House, Representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin and Andy Ogles of Tennessee,
03:10 both Republicans, have announced that they plan to introduce a bill they say would block the Biden
03:15 administration from issuing visas to Palestinian passport holders. Mr. DeSantis, who served in the
03:23 Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps in Iraq, was also asked whether he would advise the Israeli
03:29 military to stop its attacks on the infrastructure that provides water and electricity to Gaza.
03:35 "I don't think they're under an obligation to be providing water and these utilities while
03:40 the hostages are being held," he said. Ms. Haley struck a more sympathetic chord earlier on Sunday,
03:47 saying that large percentages of Palestinians and Iranians did not support the violence being
03:53 perpetrated against one another. "There are so many of these people who want to be free from
03:59 this terrorist rule," she said. While the Republican candidates have expressed solidarity with
04:06 Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks, they have also clashed with one another over who is most
04:11 loyal to Israel, America's closest Middle East ally, and what the role of the United States
04:17 should be in conflicts overseas. Ms. Haley on Sunday continued to condemn Mr. Trump,
04:24 her former boss and the Republican frontrunner, for referring to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed
04:30 militant group, as "very smart" while criticizing Israel's prime minister and Israeli intelligence.
04:36 She accused Mr. Trump of emboldening US adversaries and drawing attention to himself.
04:43 "You don't go and compliment any of them because what that does is that makes America look weak,"
04:48 she said on CNN, adding, "This isn't about Trump. It's not about him."
04:54 A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment
05:00 on Sunday. Ms. Haley also leveled fresh criticism toward President Biden,
05:06 saying that he should never have agreed to free up $6 billion in frozen oil revenue money for Iran
05:13 for humanitarian purposes as part of a hostage release deal that was announced in August.
05:18 Facing blowback over the money's release, the Biden administration in Qatar agreed last week
05:25 to deny Iran access to the funds, which White House officials had said had not been spent.
05:31 "You empowered Iran to go and strengthen Hamas,
05:35 strengthen Hezbollah, strengthen the Houthis to spread their terrorist activity," Ms. Haley said.
05:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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