Speaking at the US Capitol at a special event marking the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem's liberation and unification, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) called on the administration to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.
DeSantis was flanked by Martin Oliner, President of the Center for Righteousness and Integrity and of Religious Zionists of America. This is the text of his speech:
Well, it's great to be celebrating this 50th anniversary of Jerusalem Day. I know they'll be doing that next week in Israel, and for me, what better time to finally follow through with our promise and relocate the American embassy to Jerusalem.
We've been promising it for a long time, we have 50 years, we have to do it. And you know people said, "You can't move the embassy, oh my gosh, all these bad things are going to happen".
Let me tell you, I think there's a lot of risk if we don't follow through with our word to move the embassy, to our security and Israel's security.
When you look at some of the Arab states, what they respect is strength and decisiveness. And so when have an American president that follows through on his word – they may not necessarily like that, but man, they're going to respect it. If you have a president on the other hand who gets cowed by some of the threats of violence and this and all tumult, and then backs away from a promise – to me that leader's estimation goes down in the eyes of these Arab rulers.
People will say "Oh, you can't do this because you'll never have peace with Palestinian Arabs." Look, I think that at this point, not recognizing Jerusalem as the unified and indivisible capital of Israel, I think that actually hurts the peace process, because I think Palestinian Arabs still believe that somehow Israel is a transient country that will eventually be wiped off the map.
So moving the embassy there is a great statement, to say – Israel is here to stay, and if you want to act constructively, fine. But we're not going to play these games and act like we don't know where the Western Wall is located. We've got to get beyond that and we've got to do what's right.
So I'm not necessarily predicting that that is going to happen, but I think if you're ever going to do it, with all the celebration that is going to be going on next week, just think of how much energy this would add to that, not only in Israel but here in the United States, for the millions and millions of Americans who would like to see this happen.
So we've got to do it, thank you guys for what you're doing, and G-d bless this great, holy city, which as was mentioned earlier, 50 plus years ago, I would not have been allowed to go pray as a Roman Catholic, Jews would not have been allowed to go pray, the city – and I've visited numerous time since I've been in Congress – the city is flourishing unlike ever before because of the Israeli values that are reflected there, of freedom, pluralism and opportunity. We've got to keep it that way.