Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against Vice President JD Vance’s criticism of him and Israel during a Sunday Fox News interview.
In June, Vance, speaking at a White House press briefing, put it bluntly as he addressed far-right Israeli ministers who’ve called for the war with Iran to continue: “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.”
At that same conference, Vance referred to the U.S. as Israel’s sole remaining “powerful ally”, which Netanyahu sought to refute on Sunday.
In response, Netanyahu sarcastically quipped that Israel retains the “tremendous support” of “small” India, which is home to over 1.4 billion people.
“Many leaders call me up and say, ‘look, I’ve got this problem with public opinion. I want you to know, we respect you, and hey – can we make some deals?’” Netanyahu added.
His comments came in direct response to Vance but it was the President Donald Trump who supposedly gave the Israeli prime minister more than a stern lecturing in a phone call last month.
Trump called Netenyahu “crazy” and accused him of ingratitude over Israeli’s actions in Lebanon, which threatened to derail the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, Axios reported.
In that fiery call, Trump reportedly screamed that Netanyahu had lost the support of Jews around the world, even as he’s publicly argued that Jews in America (who largely vote Democratic) should vote Republican and support his close relationship with Israel.
“You’re f****** crazy,” Trump said on the call, according to Axios. “You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
U.S. officials including Trump himself have not denied the reported blow-up between the two leaders, even as Netanyahu proclaimed during his interview Sunday that Trump was the greatest friend Israel had ever seen in the Oval Office. On Saturday, Trump said that Netanyahu had requested to come to the White House for a meeting, which the president said could come as soon as this week after the Nato summit in Turkey.
The terms of the MOU will see the U.S. provide sanctions relief and the unfreezing of Iranian funds in U.S. financial systems, terms identical to those Trump once criticized when they were part of the nuclear agreement signed by President Barack Obama with Iran in 2015. The Trump administration has insisted that no financial incentives will be provided until Iran begins complying with the agreement and begins negotiating terms for the U.S. to acquire and destroy its remaining enriched nuclear materials. But the White House has begun allowing Iran to sell oil and gas under sanction waivers as part of the MOU, while Iran has reopened the Strait of Hormuz.
Critics of the administration, including Republicans in the Senate like Bill Cassidy, argue that Trump achieved little more than a resumption of the status quo with his agreement to extend the ceasefire while Iran is reaping major economic benefits.
