Judea and Samaria is the "rightful homeland for the people of Israel," former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Pompeo made the remarks on a visit to the Psagot Winery in Judea and Samaria, the same place where, nearly a year earlier, he announced the US would label settlement products as "Made in Israel." The former secretary of state made history when he became the first such senior US administration official to visit a Jewish community in the region.
Speaking on Sunday, Pompeo said: "We recognized that this is not an occupied nation, this is not an apartheid country. It is a democracy where faiths can be practiced from all of the Abrahamic traditions," The Jerusalem Post reported.
Noting the shift in former US President Donald Trump's approach toward issues such as Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, Pompeo said it had been clear from the outset of Trump's presidency that the White House "was going to break some glass."
Pompeo, a religious Christian, noted he had studied the battles that took place in the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War while studying at the US Military Academy in West Point, NY. He said he had visited the region with his family before entering politics.
According to Pompeo, the most important statement he made as US secretary of state was when he said that Israel was not occupying Judea and Samaria, according to The Jerusalem Post report.
Also in attendance during Pompeo's visit to the winery was Opposition and Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who served as Israel's premier during the former senior US official's previous visit to Psagot.
"This is our land," Netanyahu said. "We have regained the high ground and we shall keep it," he said, clarifying he was referring to both the "physical and moral high ground."
The former prime minister said Jerusalem has "no better ally than the United States."
"In the United States, we have no better ally than Mike Pompeo and some of his friends, and we remember our friends," he said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Addressing Pompeo, Netanyahu said, "You are part of our mishpacha," using the Hebrew term for family.
Asserting a Palestinian state would never be established, Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Gatz informed Pompeo Israelis in Judea and Samaria sought to thank him for saying "this holy land belongs to our nation."
"You are doing what God wanted you to do," Gatz told Pompeo, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
