Israel’s three principal airports remain closed as the Middle East security situation deteriorates. The United States has issued an urgent directive for American citizens to depart Israel immediately, though the logistics of such an exodus remain complex and uncertain.
Into this vacuum has stepped Brian Stern, chairman and founder of Great Bull Rescue, who has mobilized a comprehensive private evacuation effort.
“Our current status is, we have between 1,100 and 1,300 individual requests for rescue.”
While he and his team travel internationally, he runs this nonprofit out of Tampa. Who is this team? It’s made up of veterans and intelligence professionals. They have serious backing — Florida Senator Jay Collins is enroute to assist them, along with Florida’s Division of Emergency Management supporting their efforts.
“If your passport looks like mine, and if you’re an American and your passport looks like Governor DeSantis, we want you home and out of the danger.”
So how does this work? Americans can fill out a form on their website. Then what?
“We’re picking them up either by car, van or bus, and then bringing them to where they need to go, usually to another bigger bus, and then take that big bus filled with people and bring it either to the port or bring it across the border into a country like Jordan or some variation thereof.”
According to Stern, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management is funding all the flights back to the U.S. On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Israel said it wasn’t in a position to evacuate Americans or directly assist with getting them out of the country.
The State Department has also raised its travel warning for Israel to Level 4 — that’s “do not travel,” their highest alert level. For more details on how to sign up for evacuation assistance, visit this website.
“It is not war zone Uber. People are very frightened. People are very scared. when are we coming back? We don’t know yet. We buy one way tickets. We don’t come home till the job is done.”
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