Special forces to Israel? Ron DeSantis wouldn’t rule it out

Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t believe that the U.S. needs to send ground troops to Israel, but in a NewsNation interview Wednesday, he didn’t rule out other meaningful support if he were President.

Among that meaningful support described by DeSantis: “American resources to rescue Americans because I think that’s something that’s important.”

Interviewer Blake Burman asked specifically about “Special Forces,” and the Governor didn’t rule that out either, even though he stressed that any U.S. military entanglement would be “classified and secret.”

“Or others who can be involved in hostage rescue attempts and there may be something where this is being done by Israel and that wouldn’t be necessary,” DeSantis said. “All that, of course, would be something that would be classified and secret as it should be.”

Though DeSantis left the door open to the American military being engaged in “hostage rescue attempts,” he stressed that any engagement should necessarily be in a limited, support role.

“In terms of the overall conflict, it’s Israel’s war. They’ve never asked us to fight their wars for them. We have a long-standing military support relationship. I would continue that. But you wouldn’t see ground troops fighting in Israel if I were President.”

During the same interview, DeSantis also made the case again that President Joe Biden should be more forceful in supporting Israel.

“This has to end with Hamas suffering an unconditional defeat. Israel cannot live like this, where they suffered the most significant attack against Jews since the Holocaust and act like, that’s something that could just happen again in the future. So, they have to take care of that. I would not be urging restraint behind the scenes; I would tell them to get the job done,” the Governor said.