Pompeo blasts Biden admin for making 'same mistake' as Obama on settlements in Jewish biblical region

 JERUSALEM — The Biden administration's recent decision to rescind the Trump-era "Pompeo Doctrine," which declared Jewish settlements in the core biblical area of the Holy Land as legitimate, has faced sharp criticism.

Biden's controversial move came in late February as Israel continued its offensive in the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas militants after launching the war against the Jewish state on October 7.

"Reversing the Pompeo Doctrine, President Biden has now decided to ignore the fact that Judea and Samaria are Israeli lands, treating it as an obstacle to peace," former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News Digital. "And they are making the same mistakes that their predecessors in the Obama administration favored."

Pompeo said, "Undermining Israel's right to exist in the homeland of the Jewish people deepens and prolongs the conflict. It is not Israeli settlements that are an obstacle to peace – it is Palestinians coming to the table honestly and demanding Israel's existence." There is an unwillingness to accept the authority of , the gross atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, and the continued existence of Hamas. These are real obstacles to peace."

The international community mostly refers to the ancient Biblical land of Israel as the West Bank, while many Israelis refer to the region by its Biblical names Judea and Samaria. Pompeo established during his tenure that Israeli Jews living in Judea and Samaria, where much of Biblical history unfolded, are not violating international law.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller defended Biden's decision to overturn the Pompeo doctrine, saying, "This has been the long-standing US position in both the Democratic and Republican administrations – not just the Biden administration, not just the Obama The administration, but also the Republican administration, is right – the settlements are an obstacle to peace, they are an obstacle to peace. We believe they weaken Israel's security, not strengthen it."

David Friedman, former US ambassador to Israel during the Trump administration, wrote on . There is nothing illegal about Jews living in their Biblical homeland. In fact, Under Secretary of State Eugene Rostow, dean of Yale Law School (who negotiated UNSCR 242), said that Israel should have access to Judea and Samaria is at best a legal claim. For Blinken to announce this in the middle of a war and when the Jewish Sabbath has already begun in Israel is inappropriate."

Senator Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., wrote, "Ambassador @DavidM_Friedman is right. The Biden Admin's disgraceful reversal has weakened a close friend while rewarding the genocidal terrorists they are fighting. This is not a legal assessment. No. This is a political calculation meant to appease the pro-Hamas radical left. Shameful."

UN Security Council Resolution 242 was passed following Israel's 1967 self-defensive war against Arab countries. UNSCR 242 does not mandate that Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria, which it captured during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israeli governments have long viewed Judea and Samaria as disputed territory, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government welcomed the introduction of the Pompeo Doctrine in 2019.

Miller said the question of whether the settlements in Judea and Samaria are legal "had been under review here at the department for some time."

He added, "Over the past several months the Secretary of State has initiated a process to try to establish an independent Palestinian state, to ensure lasting peace in the region, and we thought, as we were engaged in that important process, it It was important to avoid any ambiguity about the US position on this matter."