Governor Bush is committed to the security and prosperity of the Jewish State of Israel, and to America’s alliance with Israel. He believes this strategic relationship is founded not merely on shared interests, but on shared values and emotional bonds between the American and Israeli people.
He has visited Israel five times, and as Governor of Florida he signed a trade agreement with then – Trade Minister Ariel Sharon – an agreement that now is worth several hundred million dollars in annual trade between Florida and Israel.
Throughout his life, he has been an outspoken critic of anti-Semitism and bigotry, and he has been a champion of Jewish American institutions. In 2003, as Governor of Florida, he signed a bill dedicating January as Jewish History month. Florida was the first state in the country to dedicate a month to the celebration of Jewish American history.
When his father was Vice President, Governor Bush played a role in drawing attention at the highest levels of government to the plight of Ethiopia’s Jewish community. Thousands of members of this ancient community had fled their homeland due to famine for a refugee camp in Sudan. Jeb, hearing of the conditions in the camp and the persecution these Jews were suffering, suggested to Reagan-Bush officials that the United States had a duty to support a massive airlift. The resulting effort, Operation Moses, made history when Israeli planes, with American support, brought these Jews to the homeland of the Jewish people, the State of Israel.
Now, as a candidate for the presidency, he is a forceful and principled critic of the Obama Administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. Rather than continue with a failed strategy of appeasement, he has argued for a comprehensive strategy to confront the threat posed by Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, support for terrorism, ballistic missile proliferation, threats to destroy Israel, and human rights abuses. He has called out the growing threat of radical Islamist terrorism and was the first candidate to present a detailed plan to address it. And one of his chief foreign policy priorities is to rebuild America’s relationship with its longtime strategic ally and friend, the State of Israel.
Reprinted from Jeb2016.com.
