Hernando County, FL Commissioners Conduct US Foreign Policy

Note: Mr. Benson supports Israel's right to exist and no statement herein should be construed to indicate that he endorses Hamas, terror attacks on Israel, or retributive violence, by Israel against Palestinian non-combatants. Mr. Benson objects to US intervention in foreign wars--especially by political players who put their communities in danger when they support one side or the other in any of these conflicts--especially when we have wide open borders.

At the November 7, 2023 Hernando County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting, citizen Brad Benson was surprised to find a Board Resolution in support of Israel as an agenda item. Mr. Benson rose to object to the resolution on the grounds that Hernando County should not be supporting any side in any foreign conflicts; that Israel does not need our support; that permanent war; and that genocide and ethnic cleansing are WAR CRIMES, which the US helped to establish during the Nürnberg Trials and subsequently under the Geneva Conventions. Mr. Benson also noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in political and criminal jeopardy, that he needs this war and that it was difficult to believe that the vaunted Mossad and IDF were caught off guard by the Hamas Terror attack on October 7, 2023.

The experienced Statesmen and Foreign Policy Experts on the BOCC reacted with vehemence that a citizen would question the wisdom of such a Resolution--not because of their love for Israel, but because the Ron DeSantis RINO's that control this part of Florida wanted to issue this support statement to provide cover for Governor Ron DeSantis' decision to send both money and supplies to Israel on behalf of the Sunshine State, while also providing the opportunity to tout his support for "Bebe" on the debate stage on the following night.

Note the blatant RINO virtue signaling by these political hacks and the feigned indignity of Commissioner John Allocco, the head of the local Republican Party, and Commissioner Brian Hawkins, a Navy Vet who "was on the ground" with the Israeli's and bristles that someone might challenge his service to the Military Industrial Complex.

Following is a transcript.

UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT
November 7, 2023—Board of County Commissioners Public Meeting
Public Discussion Regarding a Proposed Board Resolution in support of the State of Israel

Commissioner John Allocco: Uhh…Mr. Benson, do you want to come up and speak on item 6?
Mr. Brad Benson: Uhh, yes I do, please.
Commissioner John Allocco: The floor is yours.
Mr. Brad Benson: Hello, once again, Brad Benson for the record. Look guys, for roughly 22 years, the United States has committed one war crime after another, in countries all around the world, based on what was essentially a false flag thing, 9/11. Whether it was 19 Arabs, whoever it was, the United States Military let it happen. We didn’t rally any airplanes. We didn’t do anything like that and the Patriot Act was already written and we used all this stuff to take away our Constitution and start wars that are unending.
We should not be supporting any wars or any side in any foreign wars. I’m not anti-Israel. I’m not anti-anybody over there. We shouldn’t be supporting the Ukraine. We shouldn’t be supporting Israel about this. This is not an issue, you know, they could have prevented this. They have all…as good of intelligence as we do, which ours isn’t any good. They kill our Presidents.
But at the same time, Netanyahu is in a lot of trouble politically. He needs this. They let that attack happen and they have really only produced false evidence or rumor or hearsay. You’ve seen very little on what these babies—heads cut off…you won’t see any of that.
We get Martha McCallum who goes on Fox News and says, “Well they shared it with a few of us and it just so upset me” and all that. We should not as a county, Hernando County, be passing any resolution to support any side in a war in which we have no frapping business. Okay? Period!
And…and…we shouldn’t be supporting Ukraine. Our Hernando Sun is pushing war in Israel now and, of course, they were pushing the Ukraine thing, and it’s just a never ending thing and we get people all psyched up, “We’ve got to go to another war!” We’ve already got US boots on the ground in the Ukraine and in Israel. They shouldn’t be there. We shouldn’t be supporting any side. Let Israel deal with itself. It’s not hurting.
Every time they have one of these wars, they seize more land. It’s ethnic cleansing and if we’re going to have a Resolution supporting Israel, because they were attacked by Hamas, then we need to have a Resolution supporting all the Palestinians who, on the West Bank, who systematically, in an apartheid system, are being denied their lands. It’s called ethnic cleansing. It’s against all International Law. We brought these International Laws to the world, at Nürnberg, okay, and…and from that we have the Geneva Conventions.
We are an aggressive, warring country, and it’s all about the arms. Now that they’ve shot up everything that we sent to the Ukraine and we found out that, if we get in a war with the Russians, we’re going to be forked! Okay? So, we now know that. This is all about the arms dealers. Let’s not support the arms dealers. Let’s not support Fox News. Let’s not support General Jack Keene and the Institute for the Study of War or any of the other Washington Think Tanks or even the stupid Hernando Sun, who must be taking money to produce these pro-war articles. So that’s all I got to say. There should be no Resolution supporting anybody on any side. You can…period…Thank you!
Commissioner John Allocco: Thanks for your opinion sir. Commissioner Campbell, you’re recognized.
Commissioner Jerry Campbell: Thank you Mr. Chairman and I do appreciate the right for anybody to have an opinion and I have a right to disagree with it and I disagree with Mr. Benson on this issue. I think, and you can read the Resolution. It’s online…
Commissioner John Allocco: I’m going to read it. I’m reading it!
Commissioner Jerry Campbell: So, listen to each word of this Resolution and tell me how any compassionate individual can disagree with any part of that. I unequivocally and unapologetically support Israel and their right to defend theirselves (sic) against terrorists. If you want to talk about ethnic cleansing, they want to wipe the Western Civilization off this planet. Right? And if we don’t wake up in this country and find a way to address this illegal immigration issue…I’m all for legal immigration and we need to…we need to address how that happens, because there’s definitely some opportunities to make that better. But, this illegal immigration, we’re going to wake up one day and what Ronald Reagan said, “that we’re one generation from being extinct,” is going to happen and I’m all for bringing the war over there before they bring the war here. Do I agree with everything? Absolutely not, but I unapologetically support Israel and the right to defend theirselves (sic) against heinous terrorists who want nothing more than to wipe them off the planet.
Commissioner John Allocco: Commissioner Champion, you’re recognized.
Commissioner Steve Champion: Thank you. I absolutely agree with every word that Commissioner Campbell says so, outstanding job sir and I support Israel 100% and I was listening to the Prime Minister the other day talk about like how Biden is asking him to ceasefire, etc. It’s like, you know, would you…when we were attacked on 9/11, did we listen to anybody about ceasefire? No we wanted blood for what they did to us. And, you know what, Israel needs to get revenge or at least security in their own country. I mean, they came in and slaughtered them unprovoked and they are an ally and we need to support them and I know that’s way above our paygrade doing a Resolution today, but I support it 100%. Thank you.
Commissioner John Allocco: Mr. Hawkins, you’re recognized.
Commissioner Brian Hawkins: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, one of the things that, I don’t know, if it’s just today or the last couple of meetings. It’s…it’s…, where did the dialogue go? You know, where did the, you know, the communication breakdown happen to where it’s, “You can’t do this! We’re going to do it. We’re going to do it. You can’t do this.”
You know it’s interesting how the National conversation has stopped. You know we’re not communicating any more. If you don’t agree with me, then I don’t want to talk to you and if I don’t agree with you, then I don’t want… It’s ridiculous! It’s ridiculous! And if you read this Resolution, it has nothing to do with supporting Israel in war. It has to do with us supporting our allies that they bled for, during 9/11, and the things that we’ve done over there.
Israel, I was on the ground sir. Israeli troops were…were allies of ours and were in our units. Umm…we need to protect that. We need to stand up for it and we need to say that they have the right to protect themselves.
Umm…that…as far as that’s concerned, I’m happy to have conversations with people but I’m tired…I don’t know. Maybe I’m just getting a little emotional today but, and that doesn’t happen very often, but I’m tired of people pointing fingers at everybody and saying, “This is the way it needs to be! You need to listen to what I’m telling you! Da, da, da, da, da, da, da!
It’s not the way we talk here in this country. It’s not the way that I was elected. Right? It’s not the way that I serve. It’s not the way that I’ve ever communicated with you sir! Never! And I…and I haven’t communicated with anybody like that in the public or in this political stand…at…at this political dais. I don’t communicate that way and I do not appreciate this…this lecture all the time of how, you know, “You’re doing it wrong! You, you, you, you, you, you, you!
You know, you’re not talking about anything that we’re doing positive. You’re not talking about all the amazing growth we’re having in this community, how—how—tax revenues are going up, how safety is going up…how we’re building fire stations and we’re taking care of our community members, how we’re building out affordable housing, how we’re talking about the homeless situation, all the good things, all the positive things that are happening within this…within this community…you know…you know, and I’m defending it on a regular basis, maybe not up here, maybe this is something that’s unusual, then I’m sorry that this may be a little more passionate than I normally get and a little bit more emotional, but…but you know I defend it on a daily basis, through emails, through phone calls, through meetings.
If you reach out to me, I reach out to you. All right? If we’re not able to schedule a meeting, we will reschedule it. I do not have an assistant and we’re not Pasco County. We don’t have two assistants. We’re not Pinellas County, where we have people managing our schedules. We have one person, Jessica Wright, who manages every one of these schedules up here and I barely ask her to do that. So when you respond to me or you call me or you ask me for a meeting, I’m responding to you. I do not have an assistant. Okay? So this is our job. This is what we stood up here to do and…I’m…I’m tired of it.
If you’ve got a problem with me, sir, or if you have a problem with things that are going on in this community, have a direct conversation with me instead of sitting at this dais, day in and day out, and pointing your finger at people. I’m tired of it and I apologize for getting emotional. I don’t normally get this way, but it’s gotten to a point where it’s ridiculous. (Applause)
Commissioner John Allocco: Well. Well. There’s a reason why there’s a lot of people walking alone by themselves. This is…this is how they get their friends I guess. I don’t know. It’s just frustrating. I…I…I’m going to read this resolution in just a second, but this…we have a group of people in this county that I don’t…that I don’t understand it, how we got to a point in society where we no longer look to make things better for the generations that come after us.
We have a segment of our society. We all get the emails from them and they would prefer that Hernando County die with them and that’s not…that’s not the way it works. We have to have opportunities for a lot of money putting our kids through the school system, whether we do it private school, home school or public schools and you know what…those children…we’d like to have them come back and be leaders in this community.
There need to have opportunities for them to have families and jobs and careers and…and…you know what…people are moving to Hernando County not because it’s a terrible place to be, but because they’ve been everywhere else and they prefer here and those that don’t like it, guess what, I-75 goes north. So’(doe)s 19. Go! Go! (Champion laughs). That’s, that’s the way I feel, but we’re going to move on with this. I’m going to read this Resolution…
Commissioner Steve Champion: Or south.
Commissioner John Allocco: No! No! ‘Cause they’ll still be in Florida.
Commissioner Steve Champion: Yeah! True! (laughing)
Commissioner John Allocco: All right, so: “Whereas Hernando County supports Israel’s right to exist and flourish as a nation that has become a melting pot of people groups in the Middle East, including those of Jewish descent and those practicing the Jewish Faith;
And whereas Hernando County condemns the October 7th, 2023 terrorist attacks by Hamas militants, who not only lodged unprovoked missile attacks on civilian populations, but also breached border security with thousands of soldiers on foot, I mean on ground, by boat and via air by paragliders; These Hamas militants indiscriminately gunned down peaceful citizens, broke into homes, killing unarmed civilians, kidnapping women and children and ultimately smuggling them out of the borders of Israel; And whereas Hernando County condemns the heinous crimes of terror, including but not limited to: rape, torture, beheading and burning alive, that was committed against these civilians, who were abducted against their will, including infants; And whereas Hernando County also condemns Hamas for restricting the exodus of civilian populations from the Gaza Strip, therein using them as human shields during military actions; Whereas Hernando County further supports Israel’s ability to defend its sovereignty, its citizens and its resources against any invading and attacking force, while also using all necessary…all efforts necessary to extract those who were kidnapped and smuggled outside of the borders of Israel; Now therefore be it resolved by Hernando County Board of County Commissioners as follows: The Board of County Commissioners hereby proclaim unwavering support for Israel and our Israeli Citizens in Hernando County, as the horrific realities of terrorism and war affect them and their families each day that this conflict continues. The Board of County Commissioners states that Hernando County joins cities, counties and states across the nation in declaring there’s no place for terroristic violence and condemns the acts of Hamas, which resulted in deaths, injuries and displacement of thousands, as of today, November 7th, 2023.”
I’m looking for a motion.
Voices of several Commissioners: Motion!
Commissioner Brian Hawkins: UNAPOLOGETIC SECOND!
Commissioner John Allocco: Okay, we got a motion from Commissioner Narverud…
Commissioner Steve Champion: Third! (laughing)
Commissioner John Allocco: …and a second from Commissioner Hawkins. All in favor, signify by saying Aye!
Commissioners in Unison: Aye!
Commissioner John Allocco: Any opposed? Show that it is adopted this regular session, 7th day of November, 2023. Thank you