Vice President JD Vance, whose Friday trip to Switzerland for U.S.-Iran peace talks was postponed owing to another bloody exchange between Israel and Hezbollah, paused to reflect and speak with the host of BlazeTV’s “Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey” this week about the current political moment, where he’s coming from, and where America might be headed.
Besides discussing chicken farming, the need to emulate the enduring hope of Christian martyrs, what Catholics and evangelicals can learn from one another, and what messaging changes the pro-life movement should make to win the “persuasion battle,” Stuckey and the vice president broached the correlated topics of the Iran deal and Israeli influence in American politics.
‘Outsized’ Israeli influence? ‘Israel derangement syndrome’?
Stuckey noted that the right has been roiled by a disagreement — especially in the wake of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination — about whether “Israel has an outsized influence in the U.S.”
‘Already, the critics of the deal are being proven wrong.’
Vance, who on Thursday blasted Israeli critics of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding and insinuated that Israel had previously sabotaged the peace process via escalations in Lebanon, told the BlazeTV host, “I certainly think that Israel, like a lot of other countries, tries to influence American politics. I sort of take that as a given.”
The vice president noted further that “American leaders have to be very careful that when we pursue something, we’re doing it for America’s best interest and not for any other country’s best interest,” adding that “it’s just not true” that America’s interests are always aligned with Israel’s — or with the United Kingdom’s, France’s, or any other partner’s interests, for that matter.
Vance cited the ongoing disagreements between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how best to bring the Iran war to a close as illustrating the occasional divergence between the two nations’ interests.
RELATED: Trump signs Iran deal, blasts ‘fools’ after meltdowns by Sens. Cruz and Cassidy
Ken Cedeno/AFP/Getty Images
While cognizant that criticism of Israel and Israeli influence sometimes “bleeds into Jew hate” and that “sometimes criticism of the Israeli government can be expressed in a way that’s anti-Semitic,” Vance — who has faced intense criticism by Iran hawks and Israeli officials this week — underscored that it’s just “not the case that every criticism of Bibi Netanyahu’s policy decisions leads to anti-Semitism or is anti-Semitic.”
The vice president identified two “critical mistakes” he perceives advocates for Israel routinely making: first, failing to delineate between American interests and Israeli interests; and second, “always conflating criticism of a particular government with Jew hatred — because if everything is Jew hatred, then nothing is Jew hatred.”
Stuckey generally agreed but highlighted an ideological condition she has observed on the right — which she termed “Israel derangement syndrome” — in which certain critics of Israel attribute all of their problems to the foreign power, its influence, and its people.
Vance affirmed that “both are bad” but suggested he has been “particularly sensitive” in recent days to Israeli influence and criticism of America’s resistance to it because of his defense of Trump’s decision to end the Iran war.
Clarification on the Iran deal
Democrats in Congress, Iran hawks, Israeli officials, and some Republican lawmakers have complained incessantly this week about the Iran deal.
One of the chief concerns raised about the deal is the sixth of the agreement’s 14th points, which states, “The United States of America undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Vance noted, “It’s not our money.”
A source with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters that the fund is a private investment vehicle and will not include any government money or grants. Companies around the world have reportedly agreed to commit financing.
President Donald Trump said this week that the U.S. was “not investing; we’re not putting up 10 cents.”
“The biggest misconception, by far, is this idea that the deal has all these benefits to Iran,” Vance told Stuckey. “The underlying way that it’s structured is that they don’t get any of the benefits — not a single thing — unless they perform a change in behavior.”
With their military destroyed, their ability to threaten their neighbors largely diminished, their nuclear program and ability to enrich uranium “gone,” and their economy in shambles, Vance said the Iranians are in a “tough spot.” They now have the choice between getting “quite literally nothing” besides further turmoil — or behaving like “a normal regime,” developing a positive relationship with the U.S., and securing investment from Qataris, Emiratis, and others in the region.
As for whether the deal will bear fruit, Vance cited the resumption of bloodless, toll-free maritime traffic down the Strait of Hormuz over the past few days as a good sign.
“Yesterday, we got more oil out of the Strait of Hormuz than we have at any point since the beginning of the conflict,” said Vance.
“Already, the critics of the deal are being proven wrong in some of what they’re saying that the Iranians have gotten but also what the United States has gotten.”
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