Pompeo: Israel is not an apartheid state
By Tovah Lazaroff
The Jerusalem Post
October 11, 2021
Mike Pompeo speaks at the Psagot Winery
Israel is not an apartheid state and it does not “occupy” the
biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Sunday during a special visit to the Psagot winery in the West Bank.
“This is the rightful homeland for the people of Israel here in Judea and Samaria,” Pompeo said.
“We
recognized that this is not an occupied nation, this is not an
apartheid country. It is a democracy where faiths can be practiced from
all of the Abrahamic traditions,” Pompeo said.
The former top US diplomat stood on the hilltop winery outside of
Jerusalem, where, just 11 months earlier, he announced a historic change
in US policy that allowed for settler products produced in the West
Bank to be labeled “Made in Israel.”
He
was the first US secretary of state and the most high-level US official
to visit an Israeli-held entity in the West Bank, in this case, the
Sha’ar Binyamin Industrial Zone.
It followed an announcement Pompeo had already made in Washington. He said that former US president Donald Trump’s administration
recognized Israel’s historic, religious and legal rights to the West
Bank and believed that Israeli settlements were not inconsistent with
international law.
Pompeo was most associated with those policy changes, which have been loosely referred to as the “Pompeo Doctrine.”
Pompeo’s
visit coincided with that of outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
who spoke with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett about her opposition to
West Bank settlements. During her two-day trip she has no plans to meet
with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In Psagot, Pompeo recalled for the festive gathering that included
Netanyahu and settler leaders, the dramatic policy changes the former
Trump administration had with respect to Israelis ties to areas of the
country over pre-1967 lines.
It was obvious early on that the Trump administration “was going to break some glass,” Pompeo said.
This
included recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the
relocation of the embassy there and its recognition of Israeli
sovereignty on the Golan Heights.
Pompeo
– whose support of Israel is deeply connected to his Christian faith –
said he had already studied about Israel’s battles for the Golan Heights
in 1967 and 1973 when he was a student at the American military academy
of West Point.
Before
he entered politics and was a businessman in Kansas, he traveled to the
Golan Heights with his family so they could stand on those
battlegrounds.
But
he felt that perhaps the statement that “Israel was not an occupier in
Judea and Samaria” was perhaps his most important statement as secretary
of state.
He
recalled that at the time the Psagot winery created a special limited
edit
ion with his name on it. “I never imagined that I would have a wine
named after me,” Pompeo said.
Psagot winery’s Pompeo wine
Netanyahu said that Israel had resurrected its history and homeland
in a way that was a parable for humanity and provided universal hope in
a way that had made a tremendous impression on the leaders of the US
for a century.
But
Israel’s deep biblical connection to its land has been obscured with
lies that characterize the Jewish people as colonialists and conquerors,
Netanyahu explained.
“This is our land,” Netanyahu said, restating the line.
“We
have regained the high ground and we shall keep it,” Netanyahu said,
adding that he meant both the “physical and the moral high ground.”
In
this pursuit, the US has “no better ally than the United States,” said
Netanyahu, who is both the head of the Likud Party and the opposition in
the Knesset.
“In
the United States we have no better ally than Mike Pompeo and some of
his friends and we remember our friends,” Netanyahu said as he thanked
the former secretary of state for his work on Israel’s behalf.
Addressing Pompeo directly, he said, “you are part of our mishpacha (family).”
Former
US ambassador David Friedman, who had been present at the event only
briefly, was recognized in absentia for his efforts on Israel’s behalf.
Yesha
Council CEO Yigal Dilmoni highlighted Pompeo’s deep faith, explaining
that “you brought the voice of God into American policy.”
Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz pledged that there would never be a Palestinian state.
Ganz
told Pompeo that the Israeli citizens living in Judea and Samaria
thanked him for saying that “this holy land belongs to our nation,”
adding “you are doing what God wanted you to do.”
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