Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Saturday, Sep 06, 2025

Mike Pompeo plans trip to Israel

Mike Pompeo plans trip to Israel

The former secretary of State is going to a Mossad retirement party. He could overlap with the current officeholder, Antony Blinken, who is en route now.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is making plans to travel to Israel later this week, three people with knowledge of the plans said.

Pompeo’s potential trip could come the same week that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also traveling there, and as conflict between Israel and Hamas has roiled the region.

A person close to the former secretary of state said the plans are not finalized because of Israel’s Covid protocols. That person added that Pompeo, a former CIA director, would travel as a private citizen to celebrate the retirement of Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad.

Pompeo may also meet privately with nongovernmental officials, according to the person, who added that Pompeo alerted Blinken of his plans.

The former secretary of State was a staunch defender of Israel during his time in office. Pompeo was America’s top diplomat during the negotiation of the Abraham Accords — bilateral deals that normalized relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries.

His stance toward Israel has sometimes generated controversy. Pompeo spoke to the 2020 Republican National Convention from Israel, a speech that drew complaints for violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by sitting U.S. government officials. Pompeo said the speech was lawful.



A few days after the networks called the 2020 election for Biden, Pompeo visited an Israeli settlement in the West Bank — the first U.S. secretary of State to make such a trip. Much of the international community views these settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Pompeo is seen as a likely 2024 Republican presidential candidate. Pro-Israel evangelicals will be a key voting bloc in the primary.

“The Israelis are simply trying to defend themselves,” Pompeo told Fox News last Tuesday. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is trying to defend Arabs and Jews and Christians and Muslims alike and he’s trying to make sure he doesn’t kill civilians. Israel has every right to do all that it needs to not only defend itself against the current rocket attacks but to make sure that that kind of attack can never happen again. They need to complete that mission. It’s absolutely essential for the security of Israel that they do so.”

Republicans, meanwhile, lambasted the Biden administration’s response to the conflict and accused the president of abandoning Israel.

Pompeo joined the chorus in saying that the Biden administration’s stance toward Israel was responsible for “inviting precisely the kinds of violence we are seeing in the region today.”

“Simple things like President Biden delaying his call with Israeli leadership and re-starting funding to the Palestinian Authority through the United Nations all tell Hamas and terrorists in the West Bank that America sees Hamas violence and Israeli demands for its own security as morally equal,” Pompeo wrote in an essay for the American Center for Law and Justice, where he is senior counsel for global affairs. “Team Biden appears to be placing less value on the relationship between Israel and the United States than even the Obama Administration did.”

During the 11-day conflict, Hamas militants launched rockets into Israel which killed 12 people, including two children. Israeli attacks killed more than 240 Palestinians, including 66 children.

In the wake of the violence, a number of Congressional Democrats lambasted the Israeli government’s response — a sign of rapid erosion of the longstanding bipartisan support the country has enjoyed in Washington. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the U.S. government to “draw a harder line with the Israeli government and demand that these settlements and these evictions and these displacements stop.”

In delicate diplomatic language, President Joe Biden said he supported a cease-fire on Monday, May 17. It took two more days for the White House, under increasing pressure to help bring an end to the violence, to release a readout of a call between the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that said Biden “conveyed to the Prime Minister that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire.”

On May 21 local time, Israel and Hamas — the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza — entered a cease-fire.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Trump Backs Putin’s Land-for-Peace Proposal Amid Kyiv’s Rejection
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
United States Sells Luxury Yacht Amadea, Valued at Approximately $325 Million, in First Sale of a Seized Russian Yacht Since the Invasion of Ukraine
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
×