Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told an Israeli newspaper while President Joe Biden seemed to express the “right words” of support for Israel during the recent war with the Hamas terror group, his actions, including releasing money to the Palestinians, told a different story.
“Yes, Biden definitely came up with the right words,” Pompeo told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. “But I think that most people who were watching understood there was really an entirely different message.”
“Just as he was uttering words of support for Israel, he was also releasing funds to the Palestinians.”
“In the previous administration, we would have done it differently. We would have immediately clarified our unconditional support for Israel,” he said.
The Trump administration cut aid to the Palestinians over its boycott of the U.S. as well as its so-called pay-for-slay scheme, paying salaries to Palestinian terrorists and their families.
The Biden administration resumed aid to the Palestinians in a bid to restore what it called “credible engagement” with the Palestinians and work towards resurrecting the long-dead two-state solution.
As Breitbart News reported, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday ordered the family of a Palestinian terrorist who murdered two Israelis be paid $42,000 and be given new houses, marking the first high-profile payments to terrorist families since the Biden administration took office, and running counter to claims made by senior Palestinian officials that the pay-for-slay policy would be revisited as part of an effort to rebuild severed ties with Washington.
In the interview, Pompeo gave other examples of Biden’s doublespeak.
“At the exact moment that his mouth was talking, he removed the designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization. At the exact moment he gave that speech, American representatives were sitting in Vienna and speaking — albeit indirectly — with the Iranians, about several million dollars that they’re about to give the same bastards who fund Hamas.”
Pompeo also said that the deal for the U.S. to sell F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates was a key part of the Trump-brokered normalization deal with Israel, known as the Abraham Accords.
He told the newspaper:
There have been a series of actions that have allowed the agreements to move forward and eventually be signed, including the [sale of the F35s]. Also the assassination of [top Iranian commander Qasem] Soleimani is also deeply linked to the Abraham Accords. It has proven to the whole world that the United States is determined in its war against Iran.
The decision to provide the Saudis with great help in their air defense systems; the decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem; my decision to declare that not all settlements are illegal – all of these have led leaders around the world to conclude that…we, the Trump administration, are serious and determined. I think it has given leaders around the world the confidence to move forward.
But those leaders also needed assurances in other ways so that they would know that we value them as partners in the path and defense of peace. Beyond the capabilities that the jet fighter gives to the Emirates, the very sale itself says that Israelis and Americans alike believe that the Emirates can share their security interests. And that is very, very important.
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