Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the candidate who is unofficially running against Donald Trump to become the Republican Party nominee for the presidency, will be the leading American guest at Israel’s 75th anniversary. After his international journey to the Holy Land, he is expected to announce: “I am running for the White House.”
U.S. President and Democratic Party leader Joe Biden is expected to officially announce his candidacy for a second term on April 24. According to U.S. media reports, it will happen — significantly — exactly four years after he announced his first election run in 2019.
Onthe evening of Independence Day, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (age 45) is expected to arrive in Jerusalem. He will be here less than a day, during which he will meet President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. DeSantis is planning a keynote speech at the Jerusalem Post conference to be held at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. Dozens of businesspeople from Florida will accompany DeSantis, with the goal of strengthening business relations between that state and Israel.
DeSantis, who pledged to be “the most pro-Israel governor in America,” has increased trade between Florida and Israel by 65%. In addition, he has passed anti-BDS* laws, has intentionally fought against Airbnb efforts to remove advertisements for vacation apartments in the West Bank and has taken a long series of actions to strengthen the Jewish community in Florida.
However, his visit to Israel for the 75th anniversary has a much larger goal. Like Biden**, DeSantis has still not announced his run for the presidency, but he absolutely is visiting Israel on his path to the White House. Apart from Israel, his international journey includes Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Such a trip, common among candidates for the presidency, is intended to create an image as an international leader. This is all the more true when talking about the Republican Party and Israel’s holiday.
DeSantis is, in fact, the first candidate to visit Israel within the framework of the 2024 elections and that is how he will be received. In the few hours he spends here, he will meet with Netanyahu, Herzog and Foreign Minister Cohen, and he may also visit a location in the West Bank.
The leading opinion among Republican activists is that the governor will officially launch his run for the presidency two weeks after his visit — in the first third of May. DeSantis will make the announcement in a less positive position than was the case two months ago, for two main reasons: The first is the legal case against Trump. DeSantis was lagging behind the former president in the polls even before this, but the gap was smaller. The court case has strengthened Trump among hard-core Republicans and forced senior leaders in the party who were reluctant to support him to come to the defense of the orange-haired president. This is in fact similar to Naftali Bennett’s expressing criticism of Netanyahu’s court case while at the same time pretending to support him. The situation with DeSantis and Trump is similar.
The second weighty issue is the recently signed law to prevent abortion. The Florida legislature ruled that after six weeks of pregnancy, a woman cannot abort the fetus except in cases of rape or other unusual circumstances. DeSantis could have imposed a veto, but he abstained. The ban on abortions at such an early stage of pregnancy drew criticism against him, even from within the party. He is expected to respond by claiming that any state in the U.S. has the right to determine its individual abortion laws, as has been decided by the Supreme Court. This response may or not be convincing.
What is certain is that among all the Republican Party candidates, DeSantis is the only one with a chance to defeat Trump. In contrast to Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Chris Christie and others who barely scratch 5% in support, DeSantis reaches approximately 25% and sometimes even more. This is still significantly less support than that for Trump: According to polls, more than half of Republicans want a third competitive run by Trump for the presidency; however, things happen and who knows? Perhaps the journey to the Holy Land will create some miracles for the young governor.
Although serving presidents enjoy automatic support from their parties on the road to a second term, the renewed campaign by Biden is being met with great concern among many senior Democratic leaders who are troubled by the age of the 80-year-old president and its possible impact on his work.
Biden, in fact, has been conducting a campaign for a number of months, including visiting more states and making contact with people on the ground. While the president is refusing to meet with the Israeli prime minister and is even reluctant to send a senior representative for the 75th Independence Day anniversary celebrations, the leading American figure visiting Israel will be the rising star of the Republican Party and governor of Florida, DeSantis — who most likely will be Biden’s Republican rival.
*Editor’s Note: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions is a controversial 13-year-old Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments and economic sanctions against Israel, modeled on the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Many believe, however, that the movement is inherently antisemitic.
**Editor’s Note: Joe Biden announced his candidacy on April 25, 2023.
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