Governor Ron DeSantis delivers keynote address in Jerusalem to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the founding of Israel

Press release from the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
JERUSALEM, Israel āĀ Today, Governor Ron DeSantis delivered the keynote address at theĀ Celebrate the Faces of IsraelĀ event held at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. The Governor spoke about his long track record of support for the U.S.-Israel alliance throughout his time in public service and laid out his vision for the future of the region and Americaās role in the world.
Read the Governor’s speech below orĀ watch here.Ā
Casey and I are really honoredĀ to be in the eternal and indivisibleĀ capital of the Jewish people, the greatĀ city of Jerusalem to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary ofĀ Israelās independence.
I want to thank Larry Mizel for inviting me and congratulations on this great project here: the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. What a remarkable achievement.
Iād also like to thankĀ Israelās President Isaac Herzog, we were ableĀ to meet and talk, and I appreciateĀ him making time for me. Mayor Leone, thank you for your comments. Great toĀ see. I would also like to recognize ourĀ former great US ambassador to Israel,Ā David Friedman. Thank you, David.Ā And Casey and Iās friend, theĀ great Doctor Miriam Adelson. Thank you soĀ much for being here.
Israel is more than three thousand yearsĀ old and yet seventy-five years young.
Throughout two thousand years of exile inĀ dispersion of the Jewish people, the bondĀ between the Jewish people in this holyĀ land was never severed. Both the BalfourĀ Declaration and the British mandate recognize the historic connection of the Jewish peopleĀ with the land of Israel and acknowledgeĀ the compelling basis for reconstituting their nationalĀ home right here in the Holy Land.Ā
Nevertheless, when David Ben-Gurion proclaimed theĀ establishment of the modern state of IsraelĀ seventy-five years ago, he did so knowing that the oddsĀ were long.
How could a ragtag groupĀ of sabras, refugees, and holocaust survivors possiblyĀ prevail against powerful Arab armies determined toĀ snuff out the Jewish state in itsĀ infancy? The odds were about as longĀ as the odds that a young shepherdĀ boy armed with rocks and a slingshotĀ could slay a giant. But just asĀ David defeated Goliath, the newly minted IsraelisĀ beat the odds, won their independence, andĀ preserved their right to self-determination.
Israelās victory meant the long-standing dream had become reality- a national homeland for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Now Winston Churchill noted, the establishment of the Jewish state was āan event in world history to be viewed in the perspective, not of a generation or a century, but in the perspective of a thousand, two thousand, or even three thousand years.ā
That Churchill continued as a standard ofĀ temporal values or time values which seemĀ very much out of accord withĀ the perpetual click-clack of our rapidlyĀ challenging moods and of the age inĀ which we live. This, Churchill concluded, isĀ an event in world history. And Winston Churchill was right. Israelās rebirth hasĀ been a momentous development in world history.Ā
Reconstituting the Jewish state, though, was just the initial challenge. Maintaining a democracy in the heart of the Middle East has been no easy task and Israel has faced perhaps more challenges than any country has in the ensuing seventy-five years after independence. We saw the momentous victory in the Six-Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967.
We saw a war of attrition waged by Egypt and other Arab states in the ensuing years.
We saw a war on Yom Kippur.
We saw Israel eliminate Iraqās nuclear reactor.
Weāve seen Intifadas andĀ the increase in the rise of Palestinian ArabĀ terrorism.
Weāve seen the targeting of IsraelĀ by international organizations and by movements such as Boycott, Divest and Sanction–BDS
And, of course, hanging over all thisĀ is the specter of a nuclear-armedĀ Iran, hell-bent on the complete destructionĀ of the Jewish state.
And yet, through all these challenges, Israel stands tall as a beacon of freedom in a troubled region, an engine of economic growth and opportunity and center of innovation and technology, that is the envy of the world.
Israel is also one of Americaās most valued and trusted allies. Maintaining a strong Israel relationship has been a priority for me during my time in elected office, and I know itās been a priority for the overwhelming majority of the American people.
Now the United States was the first nation to recognize the independence of Israel and President Truman did so within minutes of Israelās own declaration.
Our alliance with Israel rests on unique cultural and religious affinities,
The Judeo-Christian values that trace back thousands of years to the Holy Land and which have been essential to the American experiment.
When I was a US congressman, I represented the city of Saint Augustine in Florida, which is the oldest city in continuous operation in the United States, from the 1500s.
I used to thinkĀ to myself, man, our country was foundedĀ in 1776. This was twoĀ hundred years plus prior to that. HowĀ historic, how old!
Well, when you walk here in Israel, that vantage point changes because weāre talking about thousands of years, all the way back to the beginning of recorded history. History that the vast majority of Americans have familiarity with.
I can tell you a story about myĀ wife and I, actually it was her secondĀ trip with me to Israel. I wasĀ a US congressman at the time.
We didĀ not yet have kids, and so oneĀ of the things that Casey did whenĀ we were visiting the Sea of GalileeĀ was to take up an empty bottle ofĀ water and fill it up with waterĀ from the Sea of Galilee so thatĀ when we did have kids, we wouldĀ use that water from here in IsraelĀ to baptize our kids.
Our first daughter was born in 2016. No problem, we used the water.Ā Our son was born in 2018,Ā as I was running for Governor. SoĀ we decided to wait till after theĀ election and do his baptism in theĀ Governorās residence in Tallahassee, following my swearing-in as Governor. In January of 2019,Ā we used the water for that.
Unbeknownst to us, thereās people that comeĀ clean up after you when youāre in aĀ Governorās residence. We werenāt used to thatĀ in our own home and all theyĀ saw was a half-used bottle ofĀ water.
They didnāt know the difference, andĀ so the water gets spilled out andĀ we no longer hadĀ any. However, a week or two intoĀ my administration, we were down in Boca Raton at a synagogue–and I had announced that we, while we didnāt have another bun in theĀ oven, we did not have any moreĀ water from the Sea of Galilee.
WithinĀ 24 hours, there were people hereĀ in Israel digging into the Sea ofĀ Galilee, and I was sent, all theĀ way from Israel, this beautiful big glass jar filled with water from theĀ Sea of Galilee that sat on myĀ desk in the Governorās office in TallahasseeĀ until our third child was born and baptized, and we used that waterĀ to do it.
But just think about it. What otherĀ country in the whole world could you have a story like that?Ā
You canāt. The history and the connectionĀ are simply incomparable and thatās one ofĀ the reasons why, when I was aĀ US Congressman, I was an outspoken proponent,Ā an advocate of relocating our embassy fromĀ Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
When we were trying to cajole the previous administration to do it, I actually launched a very small delegation over here. We looked at a bunch of different sites. We had a big press conference to announce that this was going to happen.
We were confident, and there wasĀ a plethora of possibilities to be ableĀ to do. I chaired a major congressionalĀ hearing in the fall of 2017Ā leading up to the decision, probably theĀ most attended congressional hearing of my congressionalĀ career, and both sides of the aisleĀ acknowledged that this is something that neededĀ to be done.
Part of the thing that really was compelling to me was, you see how important these religious sites are to people, not just Jews, but to Christians and Muslims, and I can tell you, with Israeli sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem, people have the ability to practice their religion freely. They have the ability to visit sites freely.
That would just factually not be true if that were in other hands- and so we thought it was very important for that.
We alsoĀ just thought it was important to honorĀ the historical record. Jerusalem is in fact,Ā going back thousands of years, the eternalĀ capital of the Jewish people.Ā US policy should recognize the truth.
The US and IsraelĀ have many common interests. We also have manyĀ common enemies.
There is perhaps no adversary more hostile to both Israel and the United States than the Islamic regime in Iran.
As a US NavyĀ officer, I was deployed to Iraq duringĀ the Iraq War.
At the timeĀ we were stationed in places like Fallujah and Ramadi.
These are Sunni Arab areas inĀ the western part of Iraq, where reallyĀ the Al Qaeda in Iraq movement hadĀ started. That was really the task toĀ put that down, and USĀ forces did a very good job of doing that.
What I noticed as that deployment wentĀ on is that the overwhelming majority of theĀ casualties that we were starting to seeĀ in Iraq at that time, were not inĀ Sunni Arab areas, that was not atĀ the hands of Al Qaeda in Iraq.Ā
It was at the hands of the ShiaĀ militia that were funded and controlled byĀ the regime in Iran.
They were responsible for killing hundredsĀ of US service members during theĀ Iraq campaign, and, of course, were responsibleĀ for killing hundreds of US marinesĀ in Beirut in 1983 whenĀ they bombed the Marine Corps barracks.
Since its inception in 1979, the Islamic regime in Iran has viewed the United States as its foremost enemy and Israel probably close behind, and so we share that.
If you look at this, the strategic challenges that we see in this region, Iranās pursuit of nuclear weapons creates a risk unlike you have not seen in this region.
Their ideology, an apocalyptic ideology,Ā combined with the ability to use humanityāsĀ worst weapons, represents an existentialĀ threat to the state of Israel, andĀ it represents a threat to the United StatesĀ of America, and Iām just proud thatĀ as a congressman, like many of youĀ know, we saw through this many yearsĀ ago when they tried to do thisĀ Iranian nuclear deal.
We said that all it would do is empower Iran and guess what happened?
They got billions and billions of dollars flooded into their coffers. What did they use that money to do? Did they make the citizen lives better in Iran? Of course not.
They used that to fund terrorism all around the Middle East, and so we opposed it.
The deal failed, and I think itāsĀ important going forward, we learn from thatĀ and learn that you cannot approach themĀ in a way that is going toĀ empower the regime. You must hold theĀ regime accountable and thatās what USĀ policy should do.
The US has been proud to stand withĀ Israel in the face of Israel beingĀ singled out for unprecedented and unfair internationalĀ criticism and political attacks.
Since 2015, the UN has passed 125 condemnatory resolutions against Israel, but only 55 such resolutions for the entire rest of the world.
How could you possibly justify that type of action?
If you look at theĀ movement to boycott, divest and sanction theĀ state of Israel, so-called BDS, weĀ in Florida have stood against that fromĀ day one of our administration.
Itās fine to criticize the policy of anyĀ government. You can criticize Israel policy. YouĀ can criticize the state of Israel, butĀ when your focus is only on one JewishĀ state,Ā and, you hold them up to aĀ different standard than you hold up everyĀ other country in the world and indeed,Ā when you work to excuse bad conductĀ from so many rogue regimes throughout theĀ rest of the world, when you haveĀ that frame of reference, that is anti-Semitism. You are targeting the one Jewish state for disfavored treatment.
In Florida we made it veryĀ clear even before I took office, thisĀ was when Airbnb wasĀ going to penalize folks here in Israel,Ā and we made it very clear thatĀ thatās not going to stand with theĀ state of Florida.
We made clear that in Florida, BDS is DOA.
We proceeded to make sure thatĀ our pension funds would not be investingĀ in any of these companies. So weĀ put Airbnb on ourĀ disfavored companies list and guess what?Ā They reversed the policy. What we didĀ worked.
Florida led the way on combating the scourge of anti-Semitism.
My first year as governor, when we actually were here on our trade mission, I signed legislation to combat anti-Semitism in our public universities and thatās been a huge problem throughout our country.
In Florida, we treatĀ anti-Semitism the same way we treat racism.
If itās not appropriate toĀ attack someone on the basis of their race,Ā which it is not, it should not alsoĀ be okay to engage in anti-Semitic tropes.
In Florida, weāve stood on the side of combating anti-Semitism, as was mentioned, weāve provided millions and millions of dollars since Iāve been governor for security at Jewish day schools.
We understand thereās threats and weāre not going to let the bad guys win when it comes to our schools.
Weāve also led a nationwide effort to enhance education standards for the Holocaust.
We funded millions and millions of dollars for Holocaust museums throughout Florida.
It may not be quite at the level that you see here in Jerusalem, but itās important that we do that.
I wasĀ able to give the FloridaĀ Medal of Freedom to a man namedĀ Ben Ferencz, who was then the lastĀ surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials.
He was a hundred and three years old at the time, heās recently passed away, but he led an extraordinary life.
When you see somebody like Ben Ferencz, you realize the importance of Holocaust education.
The generation that survived theĀ Holocaust is, as the years go by, is passing from the scenes. It is notĀ going to be too long before weāreĀ not going to have any living, breathing, firsthand accounts of the horrors ofĀ the Holocaust.
I believe people thatĀ forget the history are doomed to repeatĀ it and when we say never again,Ā we mean never again.
In Florida, weāve also embraced the freedom ofĀ parents of all faiths to chooseĀ the best school for their children, butĀ that includes Jewish parents, who want theirĀ kids to get a Jewish education. YouĀ get scholarships in the state of Florida,Ā and you can make that decision asĀ a parent to send your child toĀ Jewish day school.
Weāre proud in Florida of the strong economicĀ ties that we have with the stateĀ of Israel.
As was mentioned, we didĀ a historic trade mission in 2019,Ā where we brought businesses, folks fromĀ our universities. It was really an unprecedentedĀ mobilization.
We did a cabinet meeting at the US embassy inĀ Jerusalem.
We signed our legislation to combatĀ anti-Semitism.
We visited the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.
We even heldĀ a public event at Ariel University.
We brought the delegation for prayer atĀ the Western Wall. The only thing IĀ can tell you is my prayer inĀ 2019 was that we would beĀ spared the upcoming hurricane season in theĀ state of Florida.
We were inĀ a situation as we got in theĀ height of hurricane season, you had a monstrous hurricane barreling west towards the Florida peninsula, called Hurricane Dorian. It was a category five,Ā a very strong category, five and itĀ was headed, basically going to ram right intoĀ our state.
Well, and at that time, when it was on that track, people were saying: well, God must not be listening to the Governor because we may be getting rammed here.
WhileĀ I can tell you, the storm wasĀ headed our way, it slowed down, itĀ turned all the way, ninety degrees andĀ went north and never impacted ourĀ coast. Iām chalking it upĀ to the prayer I put in theĀ Western Wall. People can offer whatever rationale they want.
But because of that trip, we nowĀ have Israeli businesses engaged in all kindsĀ of parts of Florida and Floridaās economy.
We have an issue in Florida of a big lake in the middle of Florida, in southern Florida called Lake Okeechobee.
Sometimes, because of runoff from fertilizer, this stuff creates algal blooms.
When the federal government Army Corps dispersed that in different streams, thatās not good! So we work to combat that a variety of ways.
Well, we have an Israeli companyĀ in Lake Okeechobee combating the algae thatās growing with their technology.
We haveĀ companies from Israel, who are involved in our medicalĀ space, theyĀ are involved in their path-breaking researchĀ on things like Alzheimer’s and helpingĀ with different types of brain tumors, so this is something thatāsĀ very significant.
We have a great relationshipĀ with Israel with respect to space. FloridaĀ is the epicenter of space launches inĀ the entire world in Israel. Israel nowĀ is a big part of doing that,Ā and so this is been a greatĀ relationship with the state of Florida.
Itās also been a great economic relationship between the United States.
Weāre very proud of those ties, and I think those ties are only going to go stronger in the future.
Weāre going to be theĀ only state that has two direct flightsĀ to Ben Gurion airport – Miami and FortĀ Lauderdale, El Al is going to do both.
So the task before us as AmericansĀ is standing strongly and forthrightly with IsraelĀ and with the Jewish people.
We must support Israelās right to defend itself, and that includes strong military and intelligence cooperation.
ItĀ also includes supporting Israel maintaining its qualitativeĀ military superiority with systems such as IronĀ Dome.
We must also ensure that, however the future political winds may blow, theĀ US embassy will always be rightĀ here in Jerusalem. Thatās never going toĀ change.
The US must defend Israel againstĀ disfavored treatment by the United Nations andĀ other international bodies and agenda-driven internationalĀ advocacy organizations.
We must reject those who reject Israelās right to exist as a Jewish state.
That is Anti-Semitism.
We must also, in America, respect IsraelāsĀ right to make its own decisions aboutĀ its own governance.
Youāre a smart country, youĀ figure it out. It shouldnāt be forĀ us to butt into these importantĀ issues.
The US should also recommit toĀ the framework of the Abraham AccordsĀ and build a strong alliance between theĀ US, Sunni- Arab states, and IsraelĀ against the threat posed by the IranianĀ regime.
I recently met in my office in Tallahassee with ambassadors from Israel and the UAE, a joint meeting between those two ambassadors and the Governor of Florida, that would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Look at all the progress thatās been made.
WeĀ should focus on common interests and futureĀ opportunities, not on past grievances. The US can work with countries to advanceĀ mutual interests with its natural partners andĀ stand by its allies.
This vision for a strong US-Israel relationship is one that enhancesĀ regional cooperation, stability, and security.
So letāsĀ hope that the next seventy-five yearsĀ will be just as good as theseĀ previous ones and that people will look backĀ and identify the strong partnership between theĀ US and Israel as a major factor in the continuing vitality ofĀ the Jewish state.
Now you look backĀ seventy-five years, Iām reminded of aĀ quote from David Ben-Gurion that saidĀ āIn Israel, in order to be aĀ realist, you must believe in miracles.ā
If you think about what this region looked like prior to modern Jewish settlement, this was not exactly the land of opportunity.
When Mark Twain visited inĀ the nineteenth century, he said he describedĀ the land of Israel as a hopeless,Ā dreary, heartbroken land, and yet againstĀ all odds, the people of Israel had takenĀ a barren desert and transformed it intoĀ an oasis of freedom and innovation. A vibrant society in the heart ofĀ one of the worldās toughest neighborhoods.
Israelās success should provide us all with a sense of hope.
Iāll just conclude by alluding to the very founding of the United States and really our best values and how weāve always supported the importance of religious freedom.
In 1790, George Washington traveled to Newport, Rhode Island shortly after Rhode Island had ratified the US Constitution. They were one of the last states to do so.
He received a letter on his visit from the local Hebrew congregation.
The letter praised Washington and America for their dedication of preserving and protecting religious freedom.
Washington responded to theĀ letter the following day by noting āIt is now no more than that toleration is spoken of as if itĀ was by the indulgence of one classĀ of people that another enjoy the exerciseĀ of their inherent natural rights. ForĀ happily, the government of the UnitedĀ States, which gives bigotry no sanction toĀ persecution, no assistance requires, only that theyĀ who live under its protection should demeanĀ themselves as good citizens, and giving itĀ all on occasion, their effectual support.Ā
May the children of the stock ofĀ Abraham who dwell on this land continueĀ to merit and enjoy the goodwill ofĀ the other inhabitants, while everyone shall sitĀ in safety under his own vine andĀ fig tree, and there shall be noneĀ to make him afraid. May the fatherĀ of all mercy scatter light and notĀ darkness in our paths and make usĀ all in our several vocations, useful here in its own do timeĀ and way, everlastingly happy.ā
I agree with President Washington. God bless the United States and God bless the people of Israel. Thank you very much.
Awesome pudding fingers.. maybe come govern here in Florida while we are we are having catastrophic weather and a fu%$ up homeowners insurance problem.. and Nazis leaving flyers on lawns and messages on major highways.. loving those freedoms here in the Freedom State
Catastrophic weather?
One storm in a small section of the Ft Lauderdale area does not mean that the state of Florida is having ācatastrophic weatherā.
Keep living in your small, paranoric progressive world.
Zion Don vs. Zion Ron vs. Zion Brandon. I wonder who wins?
Former Georgia Representative, Cynthia McKinney reports that she and other US Lawmakers in the House and Senate, were blackmailed by AIPAC to sign a pledge of support to Israel, often at the expense of the American people. If they didn’t sign the pledge, their AIPAC campaign contributions would suffer.
The Jewish religion has been largely hijacked by brutal Zionist politics and American Jews are distancing themselves from Israeli policies of terrorism. Read the 2018 book, “Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel”, by Dov Waxman.
Also, Holocaust survivor, Vera Sharav likens Israel’s dangerous mRNA injections and lockdown policies to the popular reputation of the NAZI doctor, Joseph Mengele, nicknamed “The Angel of Death”. Sharav says, “The [Israeli] Government is doing what Mengele didn’t finish”. – https://tinyurl.com/2x7jwbmt