Israel Is Not an Occupying Nation, Mike Pompeo says (with VIDEO)
Pompeo, secretary of state in the Trump Administration, declines to say whether he will make a run for the White House in 2024
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking at the Jerusalem Post 10th Annual Conference on Tuesday in Jerusalem, said the charge that Israel is an occupying state is an antisemitic canard.
Pompeo’s remarks repeated a theme that he spoke about the previous evening, when accepting the Peace Through Strength Award from former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman at the new Friedman Center in Jerusalem: “Israel is not an occupying nation,” he told the audience at the center’s gala opening at the new Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance.
Elaborating on this theme at the Jerusalem Post conference, Pompeo said: “The term is intentionally misused in order to misshape Israeli history. ‘Occupier’ is no more than a way of calling Israel a thief.”
“The truth is that Israel exists within its territory with full legal [status],” the former US cabinet secretary continued.
I’m going to continue the fight for freedom all across the world
Pompeo expressed regret that, unlike the Trump Administration in which he served, “the current administration of the United States is returning to this principle that Israel is an occupying state.”
A continuing strong US-Israel relationship is, he said “in the best interest of Israel, the region and the United States.”
Turning to the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, Pompeo said: “If the world must deny the Iranians a nuclear weapon, I pray that the US will be part of that.” Still, he said he hopes this could be done without violence.
“We were never going to let Iran get a nuclear weapon on our watch,” he asserted, defending the record of former President Donald Trump.
Asked about the Biden Administration’s plan to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem to serve as the United States’ official diplomatic mission to the Palestinian Authority, Pompeo responded that this is a “terrible idea” and “illegal under international law.”
Pompeo denounced the Palestinian leadership as “corrupt.” Palestinians, he said, live under a “dictatorship” and it is clear that the US has to stand with the one democracy in the region, Israel.
Asked if he thinks additional countries will join the Abraham Accords and normalize their relations with Israel, he said: “I’m convinced that there will be multiple nations who will.”
Finally, Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz, who interviewed Pompeo on stage at the conference, hinted that Pompeo may wish to take the opportunity to announce his candidacy for the US presidency in 2024. “There is no better stage than Jerusalem,” Katz said.
Pompeo, long rumored to be laying the groundwork for a run for the White House, remained coy rather than taking the bait. “I’m going to continue the fight for freedom all across the world,” he responded.
