DeSantis in Israel: Baptisms and notes in the Western Wall
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is currently paying his fifth visit to Israel. Ostensibly, he is in the Holy Land on an international trade mission focused on generating lucrative business deals. Perhaps the worst-kept secret in American politics is that the governor intends to announce his intention to challenge former-President Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate for the 2024 election.
After landing in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, DeSantis met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. He then attended a dinner where he met with Miriam Adelson, the widow of billionaire conservative philanthropist Sheldon Adelson who passed away in 2021. This is considered significant as Adelson was Trump’s strongest financial backer in his unsuccessful 2020 campaign, contributing at least $90 million. The Adelsons were also supporters of the Florida governor, contributing at least $500,000 to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC when he ran for governor in 2018. Other prominent Trump supporters were also in attendance.
On Thursday morning, DeSantis keynoted the Celebrate the Faces of Israel event, a project of the Jerusalem Post and the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem. In his address, DeSantis described the decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as his own, saying he worked to “cajole” the former president to make the move. He also touted his part in opposing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“Iran with a nuclear weapon will create an unprecedented threat in the region. If you combine their radical ideology with nuclear weapons it will be an existential threat to Israel and a threat to America,” he said.
He also alluded to the Biden administration’s attempts to pressure the Israeli government into abandoning the proposed judicial reforms, saying that the US “must respect Israel’s right to make its own decisions about its own governance – you are a smart country you figure it out – it shouldn’t be for us to butt into these important issues.”
Perhaps most significantly, he referred to “the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria”, eschewing the politically slanted terms normally used by anti-Israel media and politicians.
“It’s disputed territory. Okay, you had a [U.N.] Partition Plan and ’48. Israel obviously declared independence, they were willing to accept that partition. The Arabs rejected the partition, they went to war rather than accept partition,” DeSantis said at the conference.
“Those are the most historic Jewish lands there going back thousands and thousands of years. There’s never been a Palestinian Arab entity,” he continued.
He said that he would not fund the Palestinians or organizations such as UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) if they engage in terrorism.
In his address, he related an anecdote that took place when he first visited the Holy Land as a congressman with his wife, Casey, which underscored his connection to Israel as a Christian.
“We did not yet have kids, and so one of the things that Casey did when we were visiting the Sea of Galilee was to take up an empty bottle of water and fill it up with water from the Sea of Galilee so that when we did have kids, we would use that water from here in Israel to baptize our kids.”
His first two children were indeed baptized with the water from Israel but the bottle was misplaced when he moved into the Governor’s Mansion. He mentioned the mishap while giving an address in a synagogue in Boca Raton.
“Within 24 hours, there were people here in Israel digging into the sea of galilee, and I was sent, all the way from Israel, this beautiful big glass jar filled with water from the Sea of Galilee that sat on my desk in the Governor’s office in Tallahassee until our third child was born and baptized, and we used that water to do it,” DeSantis said.
In 2019, Desantis concluded his trip to Israel with a visit to the Western Wall. While at the Jewish site, Desantis offered up a silent prayer. Before leaving, he inserted a note between the rocks, as per popular custom, with the words, “Good Lord, spare us hurricanes this year.”
DeSantis was also a member of the Israel Caucus and made an undivided Jerusalem one of his major issues
De Santis signed the “Public Nuisances” bill, making it a felony for hate groups to harass people for their religion or ethnicity. He also signed CS/CS/HB 741: Anti-Semitism into law which is aimed at preventing discrimination on the basis of religion in Florida public schools.
Later in the day, DeSantis had a low-key meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The PM’s office did not make an official announcement though the governor posted a photo of the meeting to Twitter.
Always great to see Prime Minister Netanyahu! pic.twitter.com/eaMukE9hX6
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) April 28, 2023
Some political commentaries suggested that Netanyahu was hedging his bets, downplaying his meeting with Desantis in order to not alienate Trump who, according to most polls, is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
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