A.G. Gancarski
A small matter like a Knesset dissolution didn’t stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from meeting with the Florida Governor.
Ron DeSantis met with the Prime Minister on Thursday evening in Jerusalem, just hours after the ruling body voted to dissolve, setting up a snap September election.
That election is just weeks before pre-trial hearings on corruption charges against Netanyahu.
The Netanyahu meeting was a high priority for DeSantis, who has branded himself as “the most pro-Israel Governor in the country.”
The meeting was the capstone of the Florida trade delegation visit to Israel, which started Sunday and ends Thursday.
However, with existential questions about Netanyahu’s future (he faces a corruption trial soon after the September election), we wondered if the Governor was worried that he had bet too aggressively on the Likud horse.
He was not.
“He won what was considered to be a real strong victory, given [the dynamics] of Israeli politics,” DeSantis said.
“I think that the fact that didn’t happen was based on one individual. I’m not a prognosticator, but most voters are going to vote the same way. They just need to work out the coalition,” DeSantis said.
“It does make me appreciate America having a winner takes all system, not proportional representation, not parliamentary,” DeSantis added. “It’s cleaner.”
“They’ve never had this second election. To go to a third would be unprecedented,” DeSantis said.
But if Netanyahu lost?
“I’ll work with whoever’s there. From the perspective of Israel, they need allies,” DeSantis said.
However, DeSantis stuck to Likud, Netanyahu’s political party, this trip, and did not reach out to any of Netanyahu’s opponents.
One comment
Lisa S.
May 30, 2019 at 1:32 am
“We are investigating groups in Asia, Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East. And we are seeing cross-pollination between groups that historically have not worked together. Criminals who may never meet, but who share one thing in common: greed.
They may be former members of nation-state governments, security services, or the military. These individuals know who and what to target, and how best to do it. They are capitalists and entrepreneurs. But they are also master criminals who move easily between the licit and illicit worlds. And in some cases, these organizations are as forward-leaning as Fortune 500 companies.
This is not ‘The Sopranos,’ with six guys sitting in a diner, shaking down a local business owner for $50 dollars a week. These criminal enterprises are making billions of dollars from human trafficking, health care fraud, computer intrusions, and copyright infringement. They are cornering the market on natural gas, oil, and precious metals, and selling to the highest bidder.
These crimes are not easily categorized. Nor can the damage, the dollar loss, or the ripple effects be easily calculated. It is much like a Venn diagram, where one crime intersects with another, in different jurisdictions, and with different groups.
How does this impact you? You may not recognize the source, but you will feel the effects. You might pay more for a gallon of gas. You might pay more for a luxury car from overseas. You will pay more for health care, mortgages, clothes, and food.
Yet we are concerned with more than just the financial impact. These groups may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called ‘iron triangles’ of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat.”
– Robert Mueller, “The Evolving Organized Crime Threat,” a speech Mueller gave January 27, 2011, to the Citizens Crime Commission of New York.
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/speeches/the-evolving-organized-crime-threat
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