US Vice President JD Vance castigated Israeli officials on Thursday for not backing the US’s nuclear deal with Iran, accusing far-right cabinet ministers of lacking appreciation for American support, as he made the case for the newly signed memorandum of understanding at a White House press briefing.
“You have seen people within Bibi’s cabinet, who have come out and attacked the deal, and in some ways very personally attacked the president of the United States,” he told reporters, using a nickname for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he exempted from his explicit ire.
“Number one, Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. And he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower,” Vance said.
“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.”
“The other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland, have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars,” he said.
“The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump. And anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in,” Vance concluded.
Vance’s comments referred to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, far-right partners of Netanyahu who have both called for Israel to disregard the terms of the deal, describing it as a danger to the country’s security.
Earlier, Vance told The New York Times that he found “this whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd,” suggesting that concern over the deal came from unjustified mistrust of the US.
“It’s clear that large segments of the Israeli political system and population are very sensitive about this deal,” he said. “But I also think they’re picking up on some misinformation about the deal and running with it and sort of panicking about it.”
Asked how he’d respond to the ministers, Vance said: “I guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”
With the deal in effect, Tehran obtained large-scale economic relief and agreed in principle to a subsequent dilution of its enriched uranium.
However, the MOU did not resolve any of the war goals declared by the US and Israel following their joint strikes that kicked off the war in February. Rather, it pushed off discussion of Iran’s nuclear program and other core issues to a 60-day negotiation period, which Vance said began on Thursday.
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