J Street blasts Pompeo for making RNC address from Jerusalem

The president of the progressive lobby J Street issues a statement lambasting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his decision to address to the Republican National Convention in a pre-recorded statement from Jerusalem.

“The Trump administration continues to break new ground in their shameless efforts to use the State of Israel as a political prop and a partisan football. For a sitting secretary of state to make a partisan speech to a nominating convention is already unprecedented; to do so from one of the most diplomatically sensitive cities in the world, while on an official visit, is breathtakingly wrong,” Jeremy Ben-Ami says.

“It’s clear that US policy towards Israel under Pompeo is now — like virtually the entire administration — just a tool to promote President Trump’s political interests and to sycophantically celebrate him personally. It has nothing to do with advancing the genuine interests of the United States and Israel, or with acknowledging the actual realities facing the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Instead, it dangerously seeks to use Israel as the backdrop for extreme ideological symbolism and religious pageantry — with the goal of pandering to the president’s base of Evangelical Christian supporters,” he adds.

@SecPompeo appears to tape his RNC address from the roof top of the King David hotel in Jerusalem. A State Department spox said Sunday that “Secretary Pompeo will address the convention in his personal capacity” and “(n)o State Department resources will be used.” pic.twitter.com/b1zMmd3FdV

— CNN NationalSecurity (@NatSecCNN) August 24, 2020