Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used his speech in Jerusalem to underscore his support for Israel ahead of its pending bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Axios reported that this is DeSantis’ fourth visit to Israel. His office described the trip as an “international business mission,” but it was also an opportunity for DeSantis to highlight his foreign policy and diplomatic credentials as potential presidential candidates.
The trip included stops in Japan and South Korea, and he will also visit the UK before returning to the United States.
The American website reports that although DeSantis made it clear during a trip to Asia that he was not a Republican presidential candidate, he was accepted as a candidate in Israel. On Wednesday, he met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and on Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
DeSantis presented the decision of former President Donald Trump’s administration to move the US embassy to Jerusalem as his own achievement, saying he worked to “convince” the former president to take the move without naming Trump.
He also emphasized that he opposes the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, saying that “Iran’s possession of nuclear weapons would create an unprecedented threat in the region. If you combine their extremist ideology with nuclear weapons, it will be an existential threat to Israel and a threat to America.”
He stressed that the United States must “respect Israel’s right to make its own decisions about its own governance, and we must not interfere in these important matters.”
On this occasion, DeSantis had lunch with Miriam Adelson, Trump’s biggest financial backer in 2020, and Larry Meisel, businessman and Trump’s 2016 campaign chief financial officer.
Source: Axios
