NFL linebacker begs US government to get his parents in Israel home safely

An NFL linebacker counted himself among those stateside impacted by the attack on Israel as he issued a plea to President Joe Biden to “Please get my parents home.”

When Hamas launched their offensive, striking civilian targets in Southern Israel that included a festival where an estimated 260 were killed of the more than 700 now counted among the dead, a group from the First Naples Church in Naples, Florida had already been in the country for several days.

Speaking with The Detroit News Sunday, Detroit Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone expressed his concern for their safety and for his parents counted among those 53 Americans abroad.

“It’s hard,” the 29-year-old player said. “[It’s] really all I’ve been thinking about.”

Detailing how troubled his thoughts were during his team’s 42-24 victory over the Carolina Panthers hadn’t been Anzalone’s only remarks on the matter as he also reacted to a video posted by his parents’ congressional Rep. Byron Donalds (R).

In his since-deleted post on X, reacting to the video of Donalds’ appearance on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Anzalone wrote and tagged Biden, “My parents are in this group. Please get my parents home… @POTUS.”

Donalds had said, “I have 53 members of my constituency who are in Jerusalem right now. Obviously, they are panicked, trying to find their way to get back to America.”

“We need to provide every assistance possible to Israel to get Americans back. And listen,” the Florida lawmaker continued, “let me be very clear with Hamas — touch an American’s head and see what happens to you. That’s my position. That needs to be the position of the president of the United States right now. We need to get those people back and support Israel in every way possible to see that happen.”

Initially, the church’s pastor Alan Brumback had posted to Facebook, “Thank you to everyone who has been reaching out. God is good. We are doing good at our hotel in Jerusalem. Continue to pray for Israel and for this to be resolved as peacefully and quickly as possible. We are trusting in the Lord and we know that God’s got this.”

As they awaited a scheduled flight out of the country from Tel Aviv on Thursday, according to The Detroit News, Brumback went on to provide additional updates that noted where the group is, they have been able to continue to visit some of the sites including the Western Wall.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had also commented on the situation and provided links for citizens of the Sunshine State who might be trapped abroad to stay “up-to-date as new information becomes available.”

The candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination held nothing back when he criticized Biden’s immediate response to the attack on Israel, particularly as it pertained to the president’s admission that he hadn’t woken until hours after the atrocities had begun.

“I saw the president’s comments with respect to the attacks on Israel. He said that he was up at 7:30 in the morning, but, you know, this was happening late, late last night into the early morning and, you know, the president needs to be there answering the call when our top ally in the Middle East is under the gun,” DeSantis had said. “You can’t be sleeping on the job. You gotta get there, you gotta do it, and you gotta engage.”

While Biden was said to have had a number of calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the initial attack and the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group had been repositioned to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea as a show of support, the potential of Americans being held hostage and among the dead did not appear to be taken seriously by the president who went forward with a planned BBQ picnic near the Rose Garden.

Kevin Haggerty

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