Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he\u2019d \u201cof course\u201d meet with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a high-profile trade mission as DeSantis weighs a presidential bid.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course<\/a>,\u201d he said Sunday morning on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation\u201d when he was asked whether he’d meet with DeSantis. \u201cI’ll meet with everyone. Why not? I meet with Republican governors and Democratic governors. I\u2019m not avoiding the question, and actually I\u2019m rushing right into it. \u2026 I think it\u2019s my job, and I think it\u2019s important for Israel\u2019s bipartisan support in the United States. I make a point of it.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019 office has not confirmed it has scheduled a meeting with Netanyahu, and it did not reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Until now, it had not been clear whether DeSantis would get a meeting with Netanyahu.<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019 announcement Friday of a global trade mission specifically noted that he would meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, as well as British Foreign Minister James Cleverly. But notably, it made no mention of whether he\u2019d meet with Netanyahu in Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n Netanyahu is seen as a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, who\u2019s running for a second term and has been relentlessly attacking DeSantis over the past few months even though DeSantis has not officially entered the presidential race. In the past, Netanyahu has been reluctant to weigh in on U.S. elections.<\/p>\n As DeSantis considers a possible 2024 presidential bid, he has drawn criticism \u2014 even from some in his own party \u2014 for a perceived lack of foreign policy experience after he referred to the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute<\/a>.” He later downplayed<\/a> the comments and switched to harsher language against Russia.\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis has long touted a strong relationship with Israel as one of his top priorities, but Netanyahu\u2019s close ties to Trump sets up a thorny dynamic as Trump and DeSantis gear up to clash in the presidential race.<\/p>\n DeSantis is scheduled to speak at the Celebrating the Faces of Israel conference in Jerusalem on Thursday. In a news release, his office said he would meet with \u201cgovernment leaders\u201d and \u201cIsraeli companies that have invested or are interested in investing in Florida.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The release noted that bilateral trade between Florida and Israel reached $651 million in 2022 and that it has grown by 65% over the last five years.<\/p>\n