According to Google, Israel is 85 miles across at the widest point. That barely gets you to San Bernadino, CA. It certainly doesn't include any of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico. The southern tip of Arizona looks to be within 85 miles of the Gulf of California.
Desalinating water would help California's residents, but the energy requirements for desalinating and transporting water to the desert southwest (that shouldn't have been settled so extensively in the first place) continue to elude us.