(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Vice President JD Vance spoke at a Republican Jewish Coalition event on Monday, where he called the US-Israel relationship “one of the most important alliances in the world” and discussed how to sell the special relationship to the growing number of skeptics in the United States.
What was supposed to be an off-the-record conversation was leaked to the media and published in full by the Daily Wire. Vance’s appearance at the event was seen as an effort to assure pro-Israel Republicans that he still supported the US-Israel special relationship despite recent criticism of Israeli officials.
Vance was asked by Norm Coleman, the chair of the RJC, what his position on the US-Israel relationship and whether it was important to US national security, and replied, “Well, certainly it’s extremely important to America’s national security. It’s obviously, you know, I would say one of our most important alliances in the world and certainly our most important regional alliance.”
Citing President Trump’s view on Israel, Vance said that the “Israelis have been a great partner for a number of things, whether it’s Midnight Hammer or intelligence collection, technology sharing, they’ve been a great partner.”
The US vice president said that the US and Israel “sometimes have different views on things” and described himself as a “foreign policy realist” who believes different countries will pursue their own interests but that “there are a few countries—Israel, the UK—where there’s a much deeper cultural symbiosis and harmony than exists with most other countries.”
Vance acknowledged that there is a “growing suspicion” among Americans under 40 over the US-Israel relationship. “And I think my view is what we have to do is articulate why this is in the best interest of the United States of America, and actually get out there and talk about the ways in which it is in the best interest of the United States of America,” he said.
He added that a “very obvious example” of a benefit the US gets from its relationship with Israel is technology sharing, which he said was needed for President Trump’s plan for a massive missile defense system to cover the entire territory of the United States, which is estimated to cost over $1 trillion, far beyond what the Trump administration has requested for the project.
“We’re working with the Israelis on some extremely top-secret technology that is very, very important for the North American Missile Defense Shield. Because I love my kids, because all of you in this room, we love our kids, we love our grandkids, we want to make sure that if God forbid a bad country shoots a missile at the United States of America, we are safe,” he said.
Vance is expected to run for president in 2028, and he has come under criticism from both the pro-Israel right due to what is seen as insufficient support for the Jewish state and from Israel skeptics on the right, as he has attempted to thread the needle between the two sides.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
