A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
As Israel continues to strike Hezbollah in Lebanon, thousands of foreign nationals are trying to leave the country for safety, including Americans. While multiple governments, including the U.S, are taking steps to help their citizens leave, the Biden administration is hearing criticism that it isn't doing enough. For example, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan accused the State Department of abandoning Americans in Lebanon. For more on this, we're joined by Alabas Farhat. He's a Democratic state representative in Michigan whose district includes one of the largest Lebanese communities in the U.S. So Representative, before we get to what the U.S. is not doing enough of, what, to your understanding, do you know that the U.S. is doing to help American citizens in Lebanon?
ALABAS FARHAT: Yeah. So far, my understanding is that the United States is offering a reserved number of flights on the few commercial flights that are going out, about 300 flights a day. Now, we're hearing that there's about 50,000-80,000 Americans currently in Lebanon. At a rate of 300 flights a day, it's going to take a very long time to get them out. State Department yesterday shared that they were successfully able to get 250 Americans out so far, and this is a conflict that we're seeing drastically escalate. We've already had to tragically bury a father of four, an American citizen who was killed in an airstrike not 72 hours ago. And so we're urging state officials to hurry this process up and do what other nations have done. Do what Spain has done. Send evacuation flights to pick people up and bring them back home.
MARTÍNEZ: You mentioned how few seats there are to get out. How expensive is it to reserve a seat on some of these flights?
FARHAT: Yeah, if you go the commercial route and you try to book it yourself, you're talking north of $8,000. So for a family of four, that's $40,000 to get out, right? If you go through the State Department and you're lucky enough to get awarded one of those seats, it's a subsidized cost of $350. But this has been so prolonged, so protracted that many Americans there either don't have the money to do it or are using those resources to find shelter, to find accommodation (ph), to find food, right?
And right now, these crisis intake forms, just to point out, are inaccessible. People are being sent links by the State Department to open over there, and I've had people call me and say, Representative, I can't open this link. I get it, but I can't open it. And so it's creating this back-and-forth where they have to find a loved one here willing to do that paperwork, and then they have to stay in communication with them with an eight-hour time delay. It's creating dangerous implications for the safety and well-being of those Americans.
MARTÍNEZ: What would you say about the sense of urgency that the Biden administration has on accomplishing getting its citizens out of Beirut and Lebanon?
FARHAT: You know, I'll be honest, I think they recognize the harm. But they have to meet that with action. I mean, the response so far has been nothing short of pathetic. We, right now, are seeing American civilians being put in harm's way. And this is the greatest country in the world, where being an American citizen means no matter where you are, if you're in trouble, if you're in danger, we will come and get you. And right now, thousands of Americans are in trouble, they're in danger and they need their country to bring them back home. Their families here are counting on their country to bring them back home.
MARTÍNEZ: And you've expressed this to the State Department.
FARHAT: We had a very exhaustive conversation. We talked at length about the implications for families here. I shared the stories of loved ones who right now call me. This morning, I was listening to voice notes that were sent to me just over the night of people saying, please, we're begging. We're begging to be brought home. One gentleman is on his last vial of insulin, and he's essentially told me he's accepted his fate. He's either going to die because he can't get insulin, or he's going to die because of an airstrike. And to me, that's unacceptable. As the greatest nation in the world, we should be able to bring our citizens home. We should be able to protect them where they are. And to me, it's just unacceptable that Americans are losing faith in their country to bring them back home.
MARTÍNEZ: Just about 20 seconds to go. What's the one thing - if you could just wave a magic wand, what's the one thing you would want the U.S. to do?
FARHAT: I mean, the greatest thing I'd want is a cease-fire in the Middle East right now. That's going to save the most lives. But for right now, you know, I want the United States to do what they've done in Ukraine and other countries in the world, when they were in Afghanistan and in Israel just last year. Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate American citizens. Send private flights. Send in the ships. Bring them back home. Bring them here safely. It's the right thing to do. It's the American thing to do. And it's the thing that many in this nation are looking to their country to do right now in a time of such crisis in the Middle East.
MARTÍNEZ: Michigan State Representative Alabas Farhat. Thank you very much.
FARHAT: Thank you.
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