Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that the United States cannot let its Middle East policy be "subservient to the state of Israel," comparing the relationship to America's ties with NATO during an appearance at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles.
Vance was answering a question from podcast host Jason Calacanis, who asked about the state of U.S.-Israel relations, President Donald Trump's relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the administration's position on military cooperation with Israel. Calacanis noted that many on the right believe U.S. foreign policy is too heavily influenced by Israel.
Vance said Trump views Israel as an important partner on military technology and intelligence sharing, but that the two countries do not always agree. He said Trump, more than any president in the past 40 years, has been willing to break with Netanyahu when American and Israeli interests diverge.
"You see a similar push back when the president makes the argument that he's made about NATO, which is yes, obviously a lot of important partnerships in NATO, but that doesn't mean that we're going to completely make our European foreign policy subservient to NATO in the same way that we cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the state of Israel," Vance said.
"We're going to work with people when we work with them. We're going to disagree when we disagree. And we're going to pursue America's interest," he added.
Vance also said it was ironic that Democrats criticize Trump over his relationship with Netanyahu, since Trump has been willing to tell Netanyahu publicly when he disagrees with him. He argued that grounding the relationship in American interests allows for a rational debate over policies that may have become "a cliche or a slogan" over the past two or three decades:
"You know what the president has said is obviously Israel has been an important partner when it comes to military technology, when it comes to intelligence sharing, but also sometimes the United States doesn't always agree with Israel. And I think that more than frankly any president in the last 40 years, he has shown a willingness to actually part ways with Bibi Netanyahu when he feels like the interests of the American people are different from the interests of of the government of Israel.
And I find it a little ironic, Jason, that you have Democrats criticizing Donald Trump for his relationship with Bibi when Donald Trump is the one president of the last 40 years who's been willing to say, you know what, yeah, Bibi's a good partner, but also Bibi and I have a different sopinion on this, or Bibi's wrong about this, or maybe Bibi is right about this from the perspective of Israel, but the American people need us to go in a different direction.
So I just think that rooting this relationship like all relationships in America's interest is the way to actually have a rational conversation here because when you're talking about whether a given policy is in America's interest and you keep yourself laser focused on that, I think that's how you make sure that the American people know that you're fighting for them.
But I also think that it allows us to actually rationally and force ourselves to have a conversation about when something that maybe sounded good or maybe has become a cliche or a slogan for the past 20 or 30 years. Well, maybe we have to do something different now. And I I think that that's how we have to approach not just this relationship but all relationships ... That's the only way to have a rational foreign policy.
