Louisiana Treasurer Candidate Hopes to Build Economic Bridges in Judea, Samaria

JERUSALEM, Israel – When many politicians and dignitaries visit Israel, they refuse to cross the “Green Line.” That means they do not enter Judea and Samaria – also known as the West Bank – mainly due to political pressure.

Many in the international community consider it to be “occupied” territory that belongs to the Palestinians, not to the Israelis, although most of the events in the Bible took place there. Yet in doing so, they may be missing a major facet of life in Israel.

Former U.S. Congressman and Trump economic advisor, Dr. John Fleming, is currently running for treasurer in Louisiana. That’s one reason he came to Israel – to build business for his home state. 

At a company called Fintech, Fleming minged with Israeli entrepreneurs in the Binyamin Regional Council.

Here in what is called the “start-up” nation, Fleming heard about new opportunities based in Samaria from Benyamin Tech, an initiative that supports and mentors new companies to get them established.

Fleming told CBN News, “I’m very interested in how the economy is evolving here, bringing in other types of jobs, particularly in cyberspace, digitization and again the things that you heard today where we talk about all sorts of specialized things like Fintech and really bring in the same sort of entrepreneurs and innovators into Louisiana the way they have done in Israel.”

To a greeting of,  “Welcome, welcome home,” Fleming also met with Israel Ganz, the governor of Samaria’s Binyamin Regional Council , the largest body of its kind in terms of population.in north-central Israel.

“Dr. Fleming from Louisiana, he’s preparing with us the first trade mission in Binyamin. And we’re waiting for our friends all the world to bring more trade mission. We together will build the bridges between the history and the future.”

Ganz noted that Binyamin is the biblical heartland of Israel and represents the return of the Jewish people back to their ancestral homeland.

“Most of the biblical stories happen in Binyamin. We have your sites like Bet El (Bethel), Shiloh, Eli, Anatot  and we are coming back and we have a mission to develop this area,” he said.

Ganz added, “All the prophecy (is) coming alive. We’re coming back. You know, before we came it was nothing here – no trees, no vineyards. Now you can see all the prophecy coming alive you, we, will see today. We will see vineyards, we will see the trees, we will see the people of Israel coming back.”

Ruthie Lieberman, co-founder of the Yes! Israel Project, helped organize Fleming’s trip.

She noted, “We are having him meet with our friends in government from the highest position in government, the prime minister, on down through the ministers of finance and economics and development, so that they can give him the tools that he needs to be able to enable these investments between Louisiana and Israel.”

And Fleming hopes, in that way, to boost the economy of Louisiana.

Lieberman believes it’s important that the international business world recognize the value of Judea and Samaria, a land known more accurately as disputed, rather than “occupied” territory, according to the 1993 Oslo Accords.

“And we don’t want to leave this part of the story out,” LIberman explained. “We’re standing in the Binyamin region, and the governor has just described to Dr. Fleming how this is one of the most important bases of the high-tech being developed in Israel, in Judea, in Samaria and Binyamin. These were regions that were shunned by the boycott movement. If BDS (Boycott Divestment & Sanctions movement) had its way, then no state in the U.S. would be investing here because we –whatever you’d like to call us – but we see ourselves as a vibrant part of the state of Israel.”

Fleming hopes to take what he has seen and heard here back home to the people of Louisiana.

“I want to see trade and partnership between Louisiana and Israel. Israel is smaller than most states in the United States, but they are really leaping forward when it comes to economic innovation and even in the area of national defense,” he said. “We have a lot to learn from our brothers and sisters in Israel.  And I would love for Louisiana to be a conduit for that.”

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