Rep. Fine visits Israel, vows to continue fight against antisemitism: ‘I’m just getting started’
JERUSALEM, Israel – Jewish lawmaker Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, is visiting Israel and spoke with Florida’s Voice on his continued fight against antisemitism, and shared ideas for the next legislative session if elected to the Florida Senate.
Fine is in Jerusalem representing Florida on what he calls the “most important visit of his life,” amidst the eight-month-long conflict between Israel and Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Gaza.
“I got invited on a trip to talk about anti-semitism in the United States and the work that we’ve done in Florida, and frankly, to talk to other states about replicating some of that over there,” Fine told Florida’s Voice.
“It’s important to me because I’m Jewish, and I have two Jewish boys and there are hundreds of thousands of Jews in Florida who don’t feel safe. Certainly, they’re safer than they would be in the rest of the country, but we have not solved the problem,” Fine said.
In the past few legislative sessions, Fine has been a staunch supporter of Israel and has championed legislation providing funding for security at Jewish Day Schools.
In Israel this past week, Fine said he met with the Foreign Ministry to talk about antisemitism and discuss the joint American-Israeli fight against “Muslim terror.”
The lawmaker has been documenting his trip on his Facebook page, which has garnered over 40k followers.
“While I’ve been here, all of these places have had rockets shot at them, so it’s a real eye opening situation about what’s going on over here and why it’s important that we support Israel – but we also make sure we fight antisemitism at home,” Fine said.
Fine visited the memorial at the site of the Nova Music Festival, where hundreds of innocent festival-goers were killed or kidnapped.
To date, it has been reported that some hostages still remain unaccounted for.
“[I’m] sad that it happened. I’m angry that Muslim terrorists would do this, and angry that the Muslim terror supporters around the world will deny it and try to put handcuffs on Israel as they try to win this war,” Fine said.
“Every time you see someone in Florida wearing one of these Muslim terror scarfs around their face, every time you hear them yelling ‘ceasefire now,’ every time you hear them criticize – they’re supporting Muslim terror. They live among us, and we all need to be cognizant of that fact,” Fine said.
Fine said he attended a “Save the Hostages” rally in Tel Aviv and shared a video where thousands of people attended the event.
“Turning around and looking at all the people that were behind me and seeing the both the sadness and determination that these people felt… there are 120 people still being held hostage by Muslim terrorists, including a bunch of Americans and so making sure we deliver the messages,” Fine explained.
“There’s nothing they shouldn’t do in order to get those people home,” Fine said.
“There is evil in this world, and they are fighting it every day,” he said on social media.
Additionally, Fine said part of his trip was to talk about anti-semitism in the United States and the work that has been done in Florida to fight it.
“Jews have a right to feel safe in Florida, and the fact of the matter is the same people who want to kill Jews in Israel, and want to kill Jews in Florida, make no mistake, when they’re done with the Jews, they’re coming for you, and so that’s why it’s important that everyone care about these issues,” Fine explained.
He also planned to meet with government officials from Judea and Samaria to “talk about how we can work together.”
Fine, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump and among many Florida lawmakers, is running for the Florida Senate in November.
If elected, he has more ideas in the works for next session.
“I hope this message goes out loud and clear – any university that has SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] on their campus, when I start in session next year, is going to have a bad session, they can take that to the bank.”
Last fall, Gov. Ron DeSantis and State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues ordered universities to dismantle various student chapters that have been aligned with support for “Hamas terrorism”; however, the University of Florida’s Students for Justice in Palestine group filed a lawsuit and claimed to be “fully autonomous from the national SJP organization.”
Fine said the entities that are acting on college campuses across the country are “not grassroots.”
“These are professional, orchestrated Muslim terror proponents,” Fine said.
“We’ve got mandatory Holocaust education, clearly, we have some university students who didn’t learn enough, so you may see some ideas there. Also, we’ve said we don’t want Chinese influence in our universities, we should not want Qatari influence in our universities,” Fine said.
Lastly, Fine said if students come from a country that “hates Jews” they should “not go to any of our universities.”
“If people think I’ve done a lot before, I’m just getting started,” Fine said.
Fine said there are 600,000 American Jews living in Israel and stressed the importance of their vote in the upcoming election and said he’s speaking to people to “make sure they get their ballots in.”
“We’re going to have to decide in November, are we going to have a country or not anymore. And unfortunately, a vote for Joe Biden is probably a vote saying ‘let’s not be America any longer.'”
Fine said the Senate campaign is “great” thus far, and reported they have already distributed over 2,000 yard signs requested by constituents.
“There were some who tried to recruit people to run against me, and it didn’t work. Now, I have a little bit of opposition in the primary, and a little bit in the general,” Fine said.
Fine is running against Democrat Vance Ahrens and Republican Chuck Sheridan, according to the Division of Elections.
“What I will tell you is it’s pretty clear, it’s going to be fine,” he said, referencing his campaign hashtag, #ItsGoingToBeFine.
