In a speech Tuesday to attendees at the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas’ 146th annual training conference and expo in Fort Worth, Governor Greg Abbott compared attacks on Israel by Hamas—the militant group that killed around 1,200 Israelis on October 7—to crime and immigration in Texas.
“Long before even the war began, Israel was suffering challenges from daily missile launches by Hamas, by Hezbollah, by some others, and now you can add the Houthis to the mix, and it’s the kind of thing where we see,” Abbott said, pivoting to connect the issue to his Texas law enforcement audience. “You can use my analogy, not to the same magnitude of course, but you can use my analogy, something that Texas law enforcement deals with. You’re not dealing with a war, but you are dealing with ongoing assaults in your community. A different source: It could be gangs, it could be criminal organizations, it could be one rogue criminal by themself. Or it could be what I’ll be talking about later, and that is an invasion that’s come across the border.”
Abbott’s speech came after a representative from the Israeli military showed the sheriffs’ conference attendees a compilation of raw footage of Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel, including a clip which appeared to show a militant using a knife to behead an Israeli adult. The film included footage of intercepted radio communications, social media posts, dashcam and phone video from victims, and CCTV videos, among other sources. Before viewing the film, all attendees were required to sign non-disclosure agreements and hand in their cell phones and smart watches. The non-disclosure agreement described the video as “compiled of the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists without censorship or pixilation,” some of which was “attained by the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] under confidentiality restrictions,” and prohibited recording of the film.
