Mike Pompeo and Michal Doran at Hudson Institute on November 9, 2023. (Madeline Yarbrough)

As Iran and its proxies accelerate their terrorist operations in the Middle East and beyond, American support for Israel is crucial to keep the United States safe.

In a conversation with Hudson Senior Fellow Michael Doran, Hudson Distinguished Fellow Mike Pompeo, the seventieth US secretary of state, explained why.

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Key Insights

1. Deterring Iran to prevent future attacks is not an escalation. It is the only way to deescalate the conflict.

“This is the same logic that said, ‘We have to make sure we don’t provoke Vladimir Putin.’ It’s this constant fear that, if you take serious action and you draw a red line and then enforce it, you’ll be provocative. I think they have it exactly backward to the extent we allow Iran to hide behind the Houthis or whomever, [Palestinian Islamic Jihad], whoever we allow them to hide behind. I think the ayatollah says, sure enough, ‘If you’re not going to call me out, I’m going to keep at it.’ When you fire at an empty weapons munitions facility in Syria in response to the Iranians killing Americans . . . in what school of thought would deterrence be reestablished?”

2. Supporting Israel to destroy Hamas is in the US interest—and helps America’s Arab allies.

“It's not about politics, it’s about, How do you keep Americans safe? And the answer can’t be, We should do everything we can to slow the Israelis down from taking Hamas off the chess board for the ayatollah. In fact, we should be doing just the opposite. We should be telling them go fast, go hard. I’m also confident that Gulf Arab leaders—while they will not say it—they think the same. This extremism, this radical political Islam, is something that they know undermines their efforts to move their nations forward. We saw it with the Abraham Accords; it’s the direction that they want to go. They think it’s in the best interest of their nations to do so. And so, I am very confident that it’s not only the Israelis that want Hamas gone in the region. Save for Iran, I’m convinced everybody else in the region wants them gone as well.”

3. After Mossad foiled a Hezbollah plot in Brazil, it’s clear that Iran’s terror proxies threaten Americans.

“We have a wide-open southern border. The plot on October 7 was at least in the making for 12, 14 months. During that time, I think it’s 1.6 million people that we know of got away from our border. Query: What’s taking place here in the United States today? I don't know, I have no intelligence that presents this. But we should not for a moment think that there is no risk, and if we are not serious about deterring Iran, then it won't just be something that happens in Oman or in Kuwait or in the Emirates. Then it’s something in Denver or Chicago or Houston goes boom.”

Quotes may be edited for clarity and length. 

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