Vance warns Israeli officials against attacking Trump, their ‘only powerful ally’

Vice President Vance warned Israeli officials Thursday against speaking out and criticizing the peace deal negotiated by President Trump’s administration with Iran, suggesting Israel should be grateful for partnership with the U.S. while it is isolated on the international stage.

“If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance said at a press conference at the White House.

“The other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two-thirds of the defensive weapons that protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.”

Vance was responding to a question about a report in Axios that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “fuming” over the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the U.S. and Iran.

Vance said the report is “not reflective of the conversations that I’ve had with him, but maybe he’s saying something to somebody else that he’s not saying to me.”

Trump and Netanyahu’s clashes have spilled out in public, with the president cursing the Israeli leader for taking military actions in Lebanon that he said threatened the deal with Iran. Netanyahu has acknowledged that he and Trump don’t always see “eye to eye” and has promised to put Israel’s security first.

As details of the MOU emerged, Israeli officials across the political spectrum slammed the deal as one that ties the hand of Israel to address threats from Hezbollah in Lebanon and from Iran and its proxies. They have further criticized Netanyahu for failing to influence Trump’s negotiations with Iran.

A key pillar of the MOU with Iran is a ceasefire in Lebanon. Senior administration officials have said that they expect Iran to hold back Hezbollah from attacking Israel, but Trump and Vance have also criticized Israel as overreacting to Hezbollah strikes.

“What the president has grown frustrated, sometimes, is that we seem to be right on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement, and then all of a sudden there’s a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That’s not acceptable,” Vance said.

“That’s the sort of thing that we’ve asked for closer coordination, so that we ensure it doesn’t happen.”

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