Vice President JD Vance issued stark warnings to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, demanding they stop criticizing President Donald Trump and the U.S. agreement with Iran.
“The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump,” Vance told reporters Thursday at the White House. “Anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of [their country’s] situation.”
Though Netanyahu has remained mostly silent since the U.S. enacted a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, Axios reported Wednesday that the Israeli prime minister has been privately fuming.
Vance denied the parts of Axios’ report about Netanyahu, saying it was “not reflective of the conversations” he’s had with him. But Vance was less forgiving when talking about the members of Israel’s cabinet who have openly criticized Trump in the wake of the deal.
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If he was an Israeli cabinet member, Vance said, he “might not be attacking the only powerful ally” they have left in the world. He also pointed to the extensive defensive weaponry “paid for by American tax dollars” that the U.S. has provided to Israel.
Israel has continued attacking Lebanon, targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, with airstrikes reported by Reuters just hours before Vance’s briefing. Axios reported that Israeli officials say they aren’t bound by the U.S.-Iran deal and want Hezbollah disarmed before they withdraw troops. Strikes over the weekend complicated the initial timeline for the MOU, straining the once-close relationship between Trump and Netanyahu.
At the Group of Seven summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, Trump tried to reassert control over the situation.
“Bibi [Netanyahu] is a good man. He gets a little excited sometimes. But we have an amazing partnership. We are the big partner and he is the very small partner,” Trump said Wednesday.
Trump railed against Netanyahu after Israel’s strikes in southern Lebanon threatened to break down the pathway to the final agreement, telling Axios the prime minister had “no fucking judgment.”
When asked about the Lebanon component of the MOU — which states that Israel will have to withdraw from the neighboring country under any final agreement — Vance remained somewhat vague and told reporters that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been running point on managing that portion of the broader conflict.
“This is about regional peace,” Vance said. “Sometimes these ceasefires are a little messy.”
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