Desantis is a true friend of Israel. So is Trump

T. Belman. I disagree with both Desantis and Netanyahu who say the lands are disputed. The Jews have the only claim to the land as confirmed by the San Remo resolution and the Palestine Mandate. The Arabs dispute this but they have no leg to stand on. In reality, their claims are baseless and should be ignored.

The presidential candidate spoke to an Israeli newspaper about the Biden admin.’s attitude to PM Netanyahu and the Iran threat.

Florida Governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis spoke with the Israel Hayom newspaper and criticized President Joe Biden for not inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.

“This is disgraceful,” DeSantis told Ariel Kahana, referring to the fact that the current US President has yet to invite Netanyahu since the latter took office over seven months ago. “The relationship should be cast as iron. We have no better ally in the Middle East, and we have cultural and religious ties with the State of Israel.

It is a mistake to turn our backs on Israel.” he warned.

“This is part of their (Biden administration’s) attitude towards the world, they prefer to bow down to Iran than to stand up alongside our allies. My position is that as president, we will have a very strong relationship with Israel, and that is something Americans can be proud of.”

When asked what he would do against Iran and its nuclear program, the governor answered, “The Obama-Khamenei agreement was a total disaster. Biden is trying to revive it. When you make concessions to Iran, they use the money to produce weapons. You have to put pressure on Iran and make sure they understand that pursuing the direction they are pursuing will have bad economic, political, and even military results for them.

The Governor added: “The only thing they understand It’s power. Being nice to the Iranians doesn’t work. We [the DeSantis administration] will support the Israeli plight and have a much stronger position against Iran.”

****

DeSantis to Israel Hayom: Israel has the strongest claim on Judea and Samaria

The Florida governor discusses a range of issues and vows that if he becomes president, he will stand by Israel as it defends itself against Iran.

 By  Ariel Kahana, IH 22.6.23

Governor Ron DeSantis, who has recently entered the Republican presidential primaries, gave Israel Hayom an exclusive interview on Thursday – the first to an Israeli outlet as an official candidate in the 2024 race. During the interview, he discussed a whole range of issues while attacking the Biden administration over its policies toward Israel and its government.

DeSantis, 44, announced his presidential bid in May, and according to the polls, he currently has the best shot at beating former President Donald Trump in the fight over his party’s nomination among all other contenders. His vocal message against woke ideology championed by Democratic progressives had him coast to reelection this past November, and he has vowed that he would run on the same ticket as the Republican standard bearer should he become the nominee.

Gray skies and relentless rain blanketed Tallahassee, Florida’s sleepy capital, as I walked into his office. His dual role as a presidential contender and governor means that his schedule is almost beyond what is humanly possible. When he campaigns, he hops between US states and travels thousands of miles in the air. If he is exhausted from the effort, it doesn’t show. DeSantis, it seems, has a lot of stamina.

Q: I would like to begin, of course, with the Israel-US ties. It’s been six months since the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office, and he is yet to be invited by the Biden administration. How do you view this policy? 

“I think it’s disgraceful. The US-Israel relationship should be ironclad. We have no better ally in the Middle East. And we have such strong cultural and religious ties to the State of Israel, for them to be treating Israel really with the back of their hand. I think it’s a mistake, but I think it’s part and parcel of how this administration sees the world. I mean, they’re more interested in kowtowing to Iran than standing by our allies. And so, you know, my view as president would be we’re going to have a really strong US-Israel relationship, and that’ll be something that Americans can be proud of.”

Video: Ron DeSantis speaks with Israel Hayom

Q: When it comes to Israel, our number one priority is Iran. If you become president, what will you do regarding Tehran and its nuclear facilities? 

“Well, the whole Obama-Khamenei deal [2015 nuclear agreement] was a total disaster and Biden is trying to resuscitate that and basically, when you give concessions to the Iranians, they use that money to be able to foment terrorism. They will put that money into weapons development. And so I think squeezing Iran, making sure that they understand that their pursuit of this is going to be bad for them economically, diplomatically, and potentially even militarily, that is the way the only thing that the mullahs understand – strength. You can’t try to cozy up to them. It just doesn’t work. So we would be supportive of Israel’s predicament. And obviously, we would have a much stronger posture against Iran.”

Q: As I recall, you had a part in pushing the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem. Would you support Israel applying its sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria or some part of it? 

“So just on the embassy, I don’t think Biden’s fully committed to keeping the embassy there. He doesn’t believe Jerusalem is going to be the undivided capital of Israel, but I think that their [Biden’s] view would be pre-1967 and we reject that. I mean, Jerusalem is the indivisible, undivided capital of the Jewish people. And so with me, it would be very clear that that’s just the way it’s going to ride.

“Now in terms of Judea and Samaria, I’ve always rejected this idea that it’s occupied territory. I mean, these are some of the most historic Jewish lands going all the way back to biblical times. Yes, there was a partition plan with the UN in the 1940s. But the Arabs rejected the Partition Plan. It’d be one thing if they accepted it. Israel was willing to accept, they rejected it. And then they chose to wage war for many decades.

“And so it’s not occupied territory. It is disputed territory, and I think Israel’s claim is the most superior in terms of anybody else for it. I was the first major elected official as governor in 2019, to do public events in Judea and Samaria. at Ariel University, and we wanted to break the stigma that somehow this is not appropriate to be doing and when we have imposed our anti-BDS sanctions on companies that have targeted Israel, it’s usually been they’ve been targeting Jews living in Judea and Samaria. And so we said that’s unacceptable. So whether it was Ben&Jerry’s or Airbnb, and then we most recently just did legislation. Morningstar tried to include BDS criteria for ESG. And we said ‘Absolutely not, that’s not going to fly in the state of Florida’.”

Q: So if Israel decided to apply its law on some parts of the Jordan Valley or other parts of Judea and Samaria, would you support it? 

“I think Israel has the strongest claim of right in Judea and Samaria. Of anybody. I do not believe it’s occupied territory. I think it’s been disputed territory, and I think they have the right to act appropriately.”

Q: When you say that only strength works, do you mean military action as well? 

“I think we have a great deterrent capacity, but it’s not as good as it used to be. One of the things I’ll do as president is rebuild some of our military capacity because – particularly when you look at our ability to project power – we have like 200 navy ships in the Navy. We used to have almost 600 back in [Ronald] Reagan’s day. So there’s a lot that we need to do. But at the end of the day, I can say this – Iran represents an existential threat to the State of Israel. Now they would love to wipe Israel off the map. They would love to wipe out America, don’t get me wrong. I mean, there’s no love lost for either.

“But given Israel’s geographic proximity to Iran, Israel’s relatively small size, they could potentially – if armed with nuclear weapons – try to completely annihilate Israel in a way that they may not have the capability to go after us yet. So I think for Israel, you don’t get a more significant threat.

“Using a nuclear weapon on another country is something that you would not want to do because you could get a nuclear response so why would you want that mutually assured destruction that kept the nukes in check during the Cold War, and it keeps most civilized countries in check from wanting to do that? However, this Iranian regime with the ayatollahs may view that as positive because it may coincide with their apocalyptic vision for the end of time. So I think from that perspective, Israel has a right to defend itself and the US should be supportive of them taking whatever action they need to defend themselves.”

Q: What is your opinion about the possible nuclear understanding between the US and Iran?

“First of all, you have to understand, obviously the US has suffered terrorist attacks, 9/11 and whatnot. But if you look at what nation-state has killed more Americans since 1979, Iran has killed more Americans, whether it’s the Marine barracks in Beirut, they killed at least 1,000 US troops in Iraq by funding Shia militia, and so the idea that we’re going to have some understanding, I just don’t see that in the cards.”

Q: I know you are a great supporter of the Jewish community here. But people who claim to be your supporters also have flags with swastikas and so forth. What do you tell those people?

“That’s a farce though you understand they’ll wear masks. The media doesn’t investigate who these people are. They are trying to manufacture some association with me. I can tell you, if someone honestly carried around a swastika, I’m the last guy they would want [to support]. I am the most pro-Israel governor in America. We have taken steps to support our Jewish community here, spending a massive amount of money for security for Jewish day schools because they could be targeted with antisemitic attacks. We just passed a bill to help combat some of the property crime antisemitic property crimes. We have the First Amendment you can burn a cross on your yard but you can’t put it in front of someone else’s property. You can display a swastika if you want. It’s protected under the First Amendment, but you can’t project that on a synagogue which is private property. So we’ve been very strong on that. But be very careful about what some of these political people are doing. They’re trying to create a narrative as if somehow these people have a foothold in Florida. That is not true. We have more Jewish migration into Florida, particularly Orthodox Jews, who are usually the ones targeted with antisemitic attacks than anybody any place in the United States and so if you see one of those as a journalist, go ask those people. Ask them, ‘Who are you? Why do you have your face covered? Why are you doing this?’ And the flags will oftentimes be creased, clearly they’ve never been used before. So they’re just being put out, so I’d be very careful and suspicious of that stuff.”

Q: America is deeply involved in supporting Ukraine. On the other hand, we see China become more and more involved, primarily in the Middle East. What is more risky for America? Is it Ukraine or China, which I just heard is now preparing to build a base not far from here in Cuba? How do you see all that?

“China is our number one geopolitical threat by far? First of all, they’re near-peer competitors, their economy has grown leaps and bounds over the last generation largely because of poor American policy that has allowed them to capture so much manufacturing strength, and our economy, unfortunately, has become very dependent on China for really key ingredients. When COVID hit almost everything we needed had to come from China. Why would you want to put yourself in that position, to have an adversary that you have to rely on? It’s not just medical, it’s ammunition, it’s things for our nuclear weapons. Almost everything that we do in some respects is tied to China. Not a good position for you to be in. What has Xi Jinping done? Xi is the most ideological Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. He has ambitions beyond Mainland China. And you see it obviously, of course in the Pacific, it’s discussed, but in our own hemisphere here in the West, what he’s done in Central America and now this news about Cuba, putting what an East dropping station, putting something a potential training base there, the US needs to have a 21st century Monroe Doctrine where we’re looking out for our backyard, and some of these other hostile powers should not just be able to come in come in here and do that. Why are they doing that though? They’re doing it because they know they’re not gonna get any pushback from Biden. They flew a spy balloon clear across the continental United States. The US government presumably knew or tracked this; they did nothing about it until it already finished going across the country. And if people had not noticed it, our US government may not have done anything about it. And so when they see stuff like that, that’s going to embolden them to project more power, but I think it’s very important that we maintain good alliances in the Pacific. South Korea and Japan are now getting along. They almost never get along. I mean, they’ve had tensions for decades, right, but they’re getting along because they both see the mutual threat posed by China.”

Q: As Florida governor who may one day be president, what would you do, for example, with such a base so close to Florida?

“Well, I can tell you what I’ve done as governor. We’re limited in what we can do. We recognize the role that Chinese influence has played in the United States. So we eliminated these Confucius Institutes from our universities. We didn’t have a lot of them. It’s basically propaganda for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) so we got rid of those. We also prohibited CCP-linked businesses and individuals from purchasing land in Florida because they want to gobble up farmland. They want to gobble up land near military bases and other strategic locations. So we said not in Florida, so we’ve taken really strong action to protect Floridians against it. At the end of the day, when you’re talking about something with Cuba. That’s something only the president of the United States is going to be able to deal with. I have not heard President Biden sound a peep about this. And I have no idea if he has any plans or if he’s just gonna let it happen. But you remember during the 1960s when Kennedy was president, they didn’t let the Soviets come and just put nuclear missiles in Cuba. That was viewed as a huge threat to us. So why would you want China to have a military outpost right there 90 miles off our shore? I think it’d be a huge threat to our security.”

Q: You are famous for fighting the woke agenda. Why are you so strongly against it?<

“It’s basically a form of Cultural Marxism in the United States. They’re trying to elevate identity politics, at the expense of merit and achievement. And they really are waging a war on truth itself. What is your identity? Where are you in the pecking order? And so for example, Woke is very anti-Israel. Why? Because Israel is a successful country and they buy into a lot of tropes about that. And so it’s very nasty in terms of how they view Israel.”

Q: Woke is a risk for Israel?<

“No question about that. I mean, they would side with Palestinian Arabs over Israel on any issue, they would be very supportive of making concessions to Iran, that mindset 100%. But it also ridiculous things like saying that men can get pregnant, they are saying that in the United States right now. And it’s like, wait a minute, is your society rooted in truth or not? You got to be rooted in truth two plus two has to equal four. And so we recognize that it’s a threat to just solid thinking, it also affects people’s lives in these ways. When woke overtakes the economy with things like ESG, the average person becomes poor as a result of those policies. When woke overtakes education, the average student ends up dumber. As a result of that, when woke overtakes criminal justice, the average family becomes less safe in their communities because, in places like San Francisco, prosecutors let criminals get away with crimes. You can rob someone’s house with some of these prosecutors, and they won’t bring charges against you; that hollows out those communities. And so as it infects institutions in American life, those institutions really become corrupted. So really, we’re fighting back here saying, we need to restore sanity in this country, and we need to return normalcy to our communities and our institutions have to have integrity.”

Q: There is a very famous trial going on here against the former president, what is your position about all the charges against him?<

“Well, look, I think people are innocent until proven guilty. We’ve had a problem in this country for many years now, with these Washington, DC agencies pursuing a political agenda, and we’ve seen it go back 10-12 years, when the IRS was targeting conservative groups. These are small conservative sit groups of citizens, nonprofit groups that the IRS was targeting with disfavored treatment. When Trump became president they [the agencies] concocted the Russia collusion hoax which was a conspiracy theory and it was designed to kneecap his presidency and even drag him out of office. He has obviously professed his innocence; he’s innocent until proven guilty. But what my mission is going to be as president…we’re going to clean house in those agencies. We are not going to let political power be weaponized against political opponents. We are going to make sure that there’s accountability because people have to have confidence in the justice system. Look at Hunter Biden. If he were a Republican he would have been in jail a long time ago and yet he gets a slap on the wrist he basically gets diversion on the gun charge, which usually people are not allowed to get. Why would he be treated that way? Well because he’s connected to the DC elite class. That’s not right. You can’t have two standards of justice and so you know his case. I think we see through that prism of how these agencies have been behaving in these regards.”

Q: Your abortion law in Florida, some say is too tough, with the cutoff being roughly six weeks. What do you say about that? 

“In Florida, these are done by legislature In the governor signs. The law restricts abortion when there’s a detectable heartbeat for the unborn baby, that’s when the protections are for life attached. They did provide exceptions for rape and incest and the life of the mother and victims of human trafficking. But at the end of the day, we want to promote a culture of life. I believe that abortion should not just be a form of birth control. We also take action. Not everyone’s born into perfect circumstances. You have people that are poor and so we’ve done a lot to lift people up. We’ve provided more health coverage, we’ve provided more foster and adoption services, we’ve provided more help for single mothers; that’s really making a difference even apart from that whole debate. If a mother feels like she’s going to have support, that’s going to be something that she’s gonna then be able to pursue. So we were able to do that and I think that’s something that’s going to end up working out very well for us.”

Since launching his campaign in a glitch-ridden online conversation on Twitter Space with Elon Musk, DeSantis’ standing has been far from ideal among Republican voters, who according to one poll support Trump decisively over his challenger 61% to 23%.

De Santis was barred from speaking freely about the campaign during the interview because of legal reasons: The conversation was held at the governor’s office in Florida. The law prohibits using state resources for campaigning.

And yet, there is no mistaking the very different tune coming out of DeSantis compared to what we have become used to from President Joe Biden when it comes to Israel. In fact, it looks as though there is almost no difference in the views he and Trump have on Israel.

“The Left is gonna absolutely destroy this country even more than it is if Biden remains in office,” DeSantis has recently warned on the campaign trail.

June 23, 2023 | 7 Comments »

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7 Comments / 7 Comments

  1. @Laura

    Trump needs to stop undermining DeSantis future chances of becoming president with his stupid attacks. DeSantis doesn’t owe Trump his loyalty.

    I am curious what attacks you might be referencing that are so stupid as to undermine Desantis’ future chance of becoming president. Perhaps you will provide a bit of clarity as to what you think Trump should not say and how it permanently undermines Desantis’ future presidential hopes.

    As to loyalty, I would suggest that Desantis and Trump each owe their loyalty to the Constitution. Notably, I believe the greatest reason why Desantis’ chances in presidential politics might be undermined is precisely because of his lack of consistency on this point, for which Trump has chastised him for good reasons. The number one topic in this election is the election theft which took place in 2020, for if the people have no control over who is Selected to rule over them, then the greatest connection between the people and their govt, ie the consent of the governed, is vitiated.

    Notably, Desantis, after initially helping make election integrity stronger in Florida, made it easier for fraud to take place in Florida elections without public circumspection. He also made it illegal in Florida to vote using paper ballots while mandating the use of machines despite their being open to being exploited as took place in the 2020 and 2022 elections. Even more notable was the fact that he did so even after evidence of fraud was demonstrated in the Florida 2020 election which Desantis refused to pursue. Hence, while Trump has raised many issues regarding Desantis in this election, by far the most egregious which should concern anyone would be Desantis’ support of the fraud which violates the sacred bond between the governed and the consent which they provide to those who govern over them.

    Also, despite your concerns that Trump’s commentary might doom a future bid for Desantis in presidential politics, I would argue that this would only be possible if Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Selection process which has replaced the election process in America actually is successful.

  2. Agreed. Though Trump needs to stop undermining DeSantis future chances of becoming president with his stupid attacks. DeSantis doesn’t owe Trump his loyalty. He only owes his loyalty to America.

    Desantis is a true friend of Israel. So is Trump

  3. @Ted But then he says, “and I think Israel’s claim is the most superior in terms of anybody else for it.” The Only presidential candidate who Ever was more unequivocal than that was my first choice in the Republican primary in 2016. In fact, I switched to Republican just for that election to vote for him. Trump and most of the others were indistinguishably third after Cruz whose platform he adopted after winning the primary. Actually, after Cruz, only one of the candidates wasn’t pro-Israel to that extent. I had no preference, though Trump made me nervous with his vague assurances that everyone would be happy.
    Because of this article, the year before:

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/huckabee-israels-claim-to-judea-and-samaria-stronger-than-us-tie-to-manhattan/

  4. Ron DeSantis: ‘Palestinian State in Gaza would be a hotbed of terrorism’
    Florida Governor said the war is not a minor dispute but rather an ‘existential threat to the survival of the world’s only Jewish state.’
    Israel National News

    Nov 19, 2023 at 6:19 PM (GMT+2)

    Florida Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, during an interview with CNN, expressed his opposition to a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip.

    CNN’s Jake Tapper mentioned President Biden’s a new oped this week that calls for a two-state solution ultimately. “Even before the October 7th attacks, you have cast doubt on President Biden’s calls for a two-state solution”, Tapper said, “How do you think this should end then for the Palestinians? Do you think Israel should occupy the Gaza Strip? What’s your view what comes after Hamas is defeated?”

    “I think the fatal flaw with a push for a so-called two-state solution is that the Palestinian Arabs have never embraced Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State”, DeSantis answered, “I mean that ultimately when Israel has made offers in the past – that was the sticking point. And so, you don’t want a two-state [solution] that ends up just being a stepping stone to the destruction of Israel……Now going forward, I think Israel needs to do what is best to defend themselves. I would note Gaza was not under Israeli occupation. They pulled out in 2005. They uprooted thousands of their own Israeli citizens and forced them to leave the Gaza Strip. And the idea was to give the Arabs down there an opportunity to make something of it. And unfortunately, they turned to Hamas and Hamas used money to build a big terrorist infrastructure and ultimately waged attacks for many years and then the devastating October 7th attack. Israel cannot allow history to repeat itself”.

    “I think that it would end up becoming a hotbed of terrorism,” DeSantis stated.

    “We need to let Israel win this war. We should support them publicly and privately to actually finish the job,” he added.

    The Governor explained: “If you just do some glancing blows, Hamas reconstitutes itself, we’re going to end up in this same cycle going forward. And Israel is in a situation where they suffered the biggest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. You have an organization in Hamas that wants to wipe Israel off the map. This is not some minor dispute; this is an existential threat to the survival of the world’s only Jewish state.

    So I think they have to do whatever they can to protect their people and to make sure that this never happens again,” he concluded.

  5. This article began with the oft repeated statement that this land, all of it, belongs to the Jews based on San Remo, etc. The only problem with this true statement is that there is no court, near or far, that would let you win your case according to it. Being in the right will still not let you win the coconut, only possession will. This is why our cousins, the Arab nations, keep trying to convince the rest of the world that they need help to achieve their dreams at our expense. In the court of public opinion, which is based on who possesses more oil and who you want to be your friend, the Arabs simply have more to offer, especially because these proud, stiff-necked Jews are willing to give up almost anything to gain friends like these. The countries that benefit most from Israeli largess like to declare their friendship to Israel while stabbing her in the back, all the time proclaiming that Israel needs to fix these issues of human rights, Arab representation, apartheid and so on while those sorely oppressed are busy planning the next terror attack. As Joe always says, wake up man!