Gov. DeSantis to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel

Are Benjamin Netanyahu's days numbered as a politician?

“America’s Governor” and Israel’s Prime Minister are slated to meet again this month in Israel.

On Face the Nation Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Gov. Ron DeSantis would get an audience with him for the first time since the last Florida trade delegation to Israel in 2019.

“It’s my job,” he said Sunday morning.

“I’m not avoiding the question,” he told Margaret Brennan. “I’d meet with every American representative, governor, senator, members of Congress.”

Netanyahu added that it was “important for Israel’s bipartisan support in the United States” and that he would meet with “Democratic governors and Republican governors.”

Back in 2019, DeSantis called the Israeli Prime Minister, whose leadership position was in flux given coalition challenges at the time,  “a great friend of Florida” and “ a model of strong leadership for Israel throughout the course of his tenure in public service.”

While Florida Politics won’t be on this upcoming trip to Israel, we were there in 2019 when the Governor and the state delegation, which included the then-bipartisan candidate and legislators from both parties, gamely worked to get an audience with PM Netanyahu.

As a measure of the Governor’s commitment to that meeting, he did not meet with opposition parties, and he shook off concerns about Netanyahu’s leadership position when we asked him directly.

“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.”

However, DeSantis added that he would “work with whoever’s there. From the perspective of Israel, they need allies.”

The Israel trip, part of a four-country itinerary, will include remarks at the Jerusalem Post and Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem ‘Celebrate the Faces of Israel‘ event on April 27.

The Governor will speak to a crowd of 400, including 120 “philanthropists,” in a visit that is timely given his expected run for President in 2024. He will, per the Jerusalem Post, “speak about the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, especially in difficult times.”