Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership event in Las Vegas, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended the rights of Jews to live in Israel and said he doesn’t consider Yehuda and Shomron to be “occupied,” but rather disputed territories.
“I don’t care what the State Department said, they are not occupied territory; it is disputed territory,” DeSantis said.
“If you look at our record on issues related to Israel and supporting the Jewish community, it is second to none,” DeSantis boasted of his first term as Florida governor, noting proudly that he received the highest percentage of Jewish votes of any Republican in Florida history in his recent reelection.
“When I first became governor, one of the first things we did was fight back against AIRBNB, which was discriminating against Israeli Jews, and we won that fight against AIRBNB.
“We signed legislation combatting antisemitism. We are not going to allow the universities in the State of Florida to become hotbeds of anti-Jewish sentiment like they have all across this country.”
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10 Responses
I remember Bush saying the exact same thing…
Why is it disputed?
DeSantis, wise words….meam absolutely nothing….American means absolutely nothing and hasn’t since the balance of Jewish life os on Israel, we are Hashem protected…..so please, mini Germany spare your 1936 vocabulary, we have 217 years till 6000 and we are busy designing our homes in Olim Hava…….take a hike…..Trump reigns
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/334080
This article explains the idea of disputed rather than occupied territory. Here are the first few paragraphs:
The disputed territories are not “occupied territories”, as claimed by the Arab, Islamist perpetual political propaganda. The territories of Gaza, Judea and Samaria (wrongfully called the “West Bank”) are orphaned portions of the Palestine Mandate that, since 1948, have never been allocated to a sovereign nation (on that note, there has never ever been a sovereign Arab nation-state of Palestine) or assigned fixed boundaries.
Given the historical and legal record, the Jewish claims to the disputed areas are at least as strong as the Arab “Palestinian” claims, if not much stronger. Israel lost its rightful territories during its defensive War of Independence, when five Arab armies attacked with the intent to annihilate the only Jewish nation-state in the entire world ? Israel. The disputed territories of Judea, Samaria and Gaza were occupied by Egypt and Jordan illegally for nineteen years, from May 1948 through June 1967. Israel re-conquered its rightful territories when the Arabs again attacked with the intent “to push Israel into the sea.”
According to international law, when a nation is an aggressor and attacks another nation, it loses all claim to the land it loses.
Israeli control over its territories was never an “illegal occupation” and its so-called “settlements” do not violate international law.
it clearly doesn’t belong to the “Palestinians” as everywhere you look & dig you find artifacts of hebrew and Israelite history
nvm the fact that these “palestinians” are just arabs and are no different ethnically or culturally from jordanian or syrian arabs, and they only call themselves “palestinian” (a name which comes from the ancient philistines / פלשתים – which means foreign occupier or plunderer, a group we israelites fought with over 3000 years ago and who were finally killed off by King Nebuchadnezzar II) to trick the umos haolam into believing that they have a legitimate historical claim to the land.
so yes in that sense it is definitely “disputed”
The Jews have more of a legitimate cultural, historical, religious, ancestral, & archaeological claim to the land than the french have to France or the chinese have to China.
this also includes the territories of Western Jordan (מעבר הירדן), which ראובן, גד, וחצי שבט המנשה settled
Um… I mean, there are military checkpoints all over. There are soldiers permanently stationed all over. The IDF tries to adhere to international laws of occupation there. It certainly looks like a military occupation. The IDF would say of its own activities that it maintains an occupation. So, if it’s not occupied, then, um…. Anyway, DeSantis, who never visited the place, probably knows best.
Dear Sara Rifka, I don’t know you; but why call DeSantis, a proven Oheiv Yisroel, “mini Germany” & “1936 vocabulary”? And if you are referring to the United States in general; I’m befuddled by “Trump Reigns”? Trump is a narcissistic & self destructive very flawed human. By ALL metrics, he is extremely unlikely to win the Presidency. If DeSantis wins the Republican Primary, he stands an excellent chance of becoming President (unless Trump does a תמות נפשי …. & runs as an independent or similar).
Shmendrik, the IDF does NOT say that it maintains an occupation. Yes, it does try to adhere to the legal standards required of an occupation, but it does so voluntarily.
The Israeli government’s position for the last fifty-five years has been that the territories are ADMINISTERED, not occupied. They are not legally part of Israel, because the Knesset has not annexed them, but they are not part of any other country either, so they can’t be occupied. They are disputed territory whose final status must be negotiated, and Israel is the administration there.
Heshy, there’s no point in trying to make sense of anything SaraRifka writes.