Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida’s 10th Congressional District, which encompasses UCF and much of North and West Orlando, has apologized to UCF’s Jewish community for his recent ‘No’ vote on the House resolution condemning antisemitism at a town hall event hosted by Central Florida Hillel last night, and issued a press release to that effect the next day.
Rep. Frost listened to comments from community members at the event, who often chastised him harshly for his actions. One community member recalled how, prior to his ‘No’ vote, Rep. Frost had comforted her at a Jewish community event and professed his support; she noted her feelings of betrayal and disappointment. Other community members described how events in Israel had affected them personally, with one viscerally describing how he had watched a friend of his die in his arms following a terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
Rep. Frost was generally apologetic throughout the event, even disavowing his prior support for the Palestinian Feminist Pledge, correctly describing support for Hamas terrorism as fundamentally incompatible with feminism, the two-state solution, and other strains of progressive thought. He even expressed his shock at the profound antisemitism of his former allies on the left. Yet, in what would become the first of a series of dishonest remarks during the event, he described his opposition to the resolution as rooted in its language regarding Brandeis University. From the resolution, the offending text reads:
Whereas on October 22, 2023, the Brandeis University student government voted down a simple resolution condemning Hamas and calling on the immediate release of all hostages back to their families unharmed;
Despite Mr. Frost’s assurances that the above statement was mostly false, and thus worthy of voting against, it is indeed entirely true, verifiable with a simple Google Search.
In a separate interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Rep. Frost noted a similar, yet different complaint: that it mischaracterized the incident at Cornell where a professor referred to Jewish death as “exhilarating”. He noted that the professor was placed on leave, and he considered the issue addressed as a result; he neglected to mention that this was because the professor had himself asked for leave from the University. Notably, leave is a temporary measure: the professor has not been fired from Cornell, and will presumably be free to call for more Jews to be killed when he returns.
Another student exposed Rep. Frost’s gaps in reasoning while confronting him over his ‘No’ votes for the SHIP Act, Hamas International Financing Prevention Act, and anti-nuclear Iran resolution. Rep. Frost gave two reasons for voting ‘No’ on these issues: that they would escalate the conflict instead of resolving it, and that Congressionally-imposed sanctions would undermine the President, who he claimed was responsible for creating and imposing sanctions.
The latter statement is, at best, duplicitous. While the President is indeed authorized to impose sanctions, this authorization was granted by Congress. Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution specifically states that the power “[to] regulate Commerce with foreign Nations” rests with Congress, not the President. While Congress may have devolved that responsibility partially through legislation, it retains the right to impose sanctions itself, which it has done and continues to do. Rep. Frost’s desire to avoid “undermining” President Biden does not withstand scrutiny: it takes a whole-of-government effort to defend our allies, and assisting that effort does not represent an “undermining” of authority.
The former statement — that these bills would escalate the conflict — deserves attention due to the dangerous thinking it represents. It is something we have seen before, in a different (yet very similar) time: Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement prior to World War II. Iran’s government and its proxies are institutionally committed at their very core to the death of Jews, Israel, and the United States, just as Nazi Germany was institutionally committed at its very core to the death of Jews and the conquest of Europe. Their deterrence does not rest on the avoidance of “escalation” by America, but rather on the ability of their enemies to defeat them if provoked. The image of a weak America, one that fails to properly address the threat of pure evil, instead focusing on peace with an enemy committed to war, non-escalation with an enemy committed to escalation, and other forms of appeasement, is an image that the evil we deal with today craves. Ironically, Rep. Frost’s commitment to appeasement, if it should spread to other members of Congress, may bring about the exact scenario he wishes to avoid.
When pressed on his support for the pro-Hamas ceasefire resolution, Rep. Frost avoided the issue yet again, voicing his support for the Biden administration’s position on the matter and supporting a humanitarian pause. This is despite Rep. Frost cosponsoring the ceasefire resolution, which notably contains defamatory language regarding Israel by describing Gaza as “occupied” — an easily disproven claim.
Perhaps the most powerful question of the evening came from an audience member who beautifully described the phrase “from the river to the sea” as the equivalent to a cross burning in the eyes of the Jewish people; noted that Rep. Rashida Tlaib has used the statement; and demanded that Rep. Frost denounce Rep. Tlaib for doing so. The answer, as you might expect at this point, was equivocal: he refused to condemn Rep. Tlaib, stating he would like to have a “conversation” with her about the language she used, and noted that this conversation had not happened yet.
The overall impression which attendees held after the event was that Mr. Frost, while not an antisemite, was unclear regarding his positions on the conflict and — despite his assurances otherwise — had a track record of caucusing with antisemitites in Congress. The best indicator of future actions are past ones, and from that perspective the outlook of Jewish students was only slightly improved by the town hall. One described Rep. Frost’s appearance at Central Florida Hillel as “trying to have his cake and eat it too,” especially given his past support for pro-Hamas organizations. All stated that if Rep. Frost cleaned up his voting record, their concerns would be resolved.
It remains to be seen if Rep. Frost will improve his record on Jewish civil rights issues. You can track his legislative actions here. His actions in the coming months shall speak far more loudly than his words yesterday evening.