US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was wined and dined this week as he paid a sentimental farewell three-day visit to Israel.
Pompeo’s visit spanned the country and he arrived with as many gifts as he could carry. He flew by helicopter to the West Bank settlement Psagot, setting a historic precedent for a visit by a US secretary of state to the settlements. He sipped from a bottle labeled “Pompeo Wine,” an honor second only to the one conferred on his boss, President Donald Trump, who has a future Golan Heights settlement named after him. Pompeo was then choppered off for a rare visit by a US secretary of state to the Golan, an area Trump recognized as sovereign Israeli territory. There, he received a briefing by former army chief and current Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.
“This trip was more of a pilgrimage,” a senior Israeli official in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “Pompeo was here on a visit more as an evangelical pilgrim than a secretary of state, but both sides enjoyed every minute.”
Throughout the last four years, the Trump administration has bestowed many presents on Israel and on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This week, Pompeo had one last gift before leaving his post: the US declaration by which from now on, Israeli products made in West Bank settlements would be labeled in the United States as “Made in Israel” rather than distinguished from other Israeli goods. “The only problem with all of this,” the Israeli official added, “is that it will all be over in just over a month. Let us hope these last-minute grabs do not anger [President-elect Joe] Biden’s people and lead them to overturn the declarations and actions of the final Trump days.”
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