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Christian group to Pompeo: ‘Don’t condition sovereignty on acceptance of PLO state’

CIPAC sees danger in the Trump peace plan advocating Palestinian independence in Israel’s heartland.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News  

The Christians’ Israel Public Action Campaign (CIPAC) is urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to insist that Israel accept the idea of a Palestinian state when he meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday morning.

A “PLO state in Israel’s heartland” would be “unthinkable,” CIPAC, a pro-Israel U.S. nonprofit, said in a statement.

The Trump administration’s peace plan calls for a Palestinian state to be established on 70 percent of Judea and Samaria, if it adheres to a series of conditions that include demilitarization, stopping all incitement against the Jewish state and ending its financial support of jailed terrorists and their families.

Siding with Defense Minister Naftali Bennett and the right wing of Israel’s political map, the veteran lobbying group argues that a Palestinian state would constitute a grave danger to Israel’s security.

On the other side of the coin, the group approves wholeheartedly the part of the so-called deal of the century that backs Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and all the Jewish towns and villages built on land liberated by Israel over 50 years ago.

CIPAC head Richard Hellman pressed Trump to “stay the course” on “the two key issues of affirming Israel’s advancement of sovereignty over Judea/Samaria and continuing maximum pressure on Iran.”

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Iran’s continuing insidious meddling in the region, as well as the two countries’ efforts in combating the coronavirus pandemic, are two other issues expected to be discussed in Wednesday’s meeting.

Calling Pompeo and U.S. Ambassodor to Israel David Friedman “the Jewish state’s best friends in the administration,” Hellman said he believes that they “will not try to extract any new concessions from Israel.”  In contrast, he warned, “others involved in US-Israel relations might try to condition sovereignty over the Jewish communities of Judea/Samaria on acceptance of a PLO state.”

“We must thank President Trump for the otherwise good course he has set,” the group added.

CIPAC bills itself as the only registered lobby in Washington D.C. that “represents Christians and Jews in the United States and worldwide who recognize the People and the State of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.”