While Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli said, there’s no point to investing in Judea and Samaria because they “won’t be part of Israel”, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who in the recent midterm elections received the highest percentage of the Jewish vote of any Republican candidate in the history of the state, who is considered to be a strong candidate for the 2024 US presidential election, he affirmed that Judea and Samaria, the biblical homeland of the Jewish people, is not “occupied” by the Jewish state.
DeSantis said, “If you look at our record on issues related to Israel and supporting the Jewish community, it is second to none,” he said.
“We were the first statewide elected officials to do public events in Judea and Samaria”, he said. We know those are thousands of years of connection to the Jewish people.
“I don’t care what the State Department said, they are not occupied territory; it is disputed territory”.
Ron DeSantis – like Nikki Haley and other popular figures thought to be potential GOP presidential candidates – has not announced his candidacy; to date, only former President Donald Trump has done so.
In his 25-minute speech, the Florida governor addressed key Republican talking points, such as the party’s opposition to defunding the police. And he reiterated his stand on issues important to the Jewish community.
“When I first became governor, one of the first things we did was fight back against AIRBNB, which was discriminating against Israeli Jews, and we won that fight against AIRBNB”.
In 2019, the company announced it would ban listings of Jewish-owned properties in Judea and Samaria but later reversed its decision.
Also, DeSantis noted, “We signed legislation combating antisemitism. We are not going to allow the universities in the State of Florida to become hotbeds of anti-Jewish sentiment, like they have all across this country”.
It may be mentioned here that, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli told an audience on Channel 12 “it’s a shame to invest in a place that, at the end of the day, won’t be part of Israel”.
Shemesh replied that “right now, there are residents there. Israeli residents like you and me, who want to receive service like every other Israeli citizen receives – and there is no reason to deprive them”.
Shlomo Ne’eman, head of both the Yesha Council and the Gush Etzion Regional Council, slammed Michaeli’s comments.
Michaeli “is promoting an extreme and dangerous agenda” in which it’s acceptable to have transportation on the Sabbath but pointless to provide for residents of Judea and Samaria, Ne’eman said.
