Netanyahu Privately Confronts JD Vance on His Public Criticisms of Israeli Government

(Sipa USA via AP/Oliver Contreras)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly confronted Vice President JD Vance over his recent public criticism of Israel’s government during a private meeting in Washington on Tuesday.

Speaking to Axios, Israeli and U.S. officials both described the one-on-one meeting at Blair House as candid but “direct,” following months of increasingly public disagreements between the vice president and the Israeli leader over U.S. policy toward Iran.

A senior Israeli official told journalist Barak Ravid that Netanyahu addressed Vance’s recent remarks about the Israeli government and Israel’s standing within the Republican Party, calling the meeting “a frank and candid conversation.”

A U.S. official’s assessment was similar, noting: “The conversation was direct.”

Citing officials, Ravid noted that Netanyahu was frustrated by Vance’s repeated criticism, including accusations that the Israeli prime minister encouraged opposition to the now-defunct U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, which the vice president backed, and had failed to show sufficient loyalty to President Donald Trump.

In June, Vance scolded Israeli officials criticizing the Iran agreement, suggesting that they should “not be attacking the only powerful ally” the country has “anywhere left in the entire world.”

Netanyahu pushed back on the statement at the time, replying Israel had “many friends.”

The vice president later told comedian Joe Rogan, on a podcast released on July 15, that some Israeli officials were attempting to steer the U.S. away from diplomacy with Iran and toward continued conflict.

“I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal. And there was, again, there’s this Time article that came out yesterday — a friend sent it to me — it’s worth reading because it lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person, who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government,” Vance told Rogan.

In the same episode, Vance alleged that convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had ties to “the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”

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