Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Tells Cheering AIPAC Crowd of 18,000: "Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism"

News Staff : Mar 26, 2019
JNS.org

"Don't get me wrong. Criticizing Israel's policies is an acceptable thing to do in a democracy. But criticizing the very right to exist of Israel is not acceptable. Anti-Zionism denies the very legitimacy of the Israeli state and of the Jewish people." -Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

(Washington, DC)—[JNS.org] "Let me go on the record, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a massive cheering crowd at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference on Monday. (Image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deliver joint statements at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem on March 20, 2019/Credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90/via JNS)

"Just a short while ago, President Trump, alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu, signed a decree—a decree affirming Israel's sovereignty over the Golan," Pompeo told the crowd of 18,000. "What a truly great two days for two great nations."

The signing took place at the White House just before Netanyahu left for Israel following a missile attack from Gaza on a house in the upscale neighborhood of Mishmeret, north of Tel Aviv. Pompeo, who was in attendance, had visited the Golan just a week earlier as part of a visit to Israel and other countries in the vicinity.

Criticizing supporters of the BDS movement, including new congresswomen Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Pompeo said "this bigotry is taking on an insidious new form in the guise of anti-Zionism. It's invested on college campuses in the form of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. It's discussed in our media. It's supported by certain members of Congress, I suspect none of whom are here tonight."

"Don't get me wrong," he continued, "criticizing Israel's policies is an acceptable thing to do in a democracy. But criticizing the very right to exist of Israel is not acceptable. Anti-Zionism denies the very legitimacy of the Israeli state and of the Jewish people."

Also addressing the AIPAC plenary on Monday, US Vice President Mike Pence said "support for Israel ... has been a long, bipartisan tradition in Congress, spanning generations. But how things have changed."

He told participants in attendance that the Democratic Party has been "co-opted by people who promote rank anti-Semitic rhetoric." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

[Reprinted with permission of JNS.org]