Vice President JD Vance on Thursday delivered a stunning message to Israeli officials who have criticized the Trump administration’s controversial peace deal with Iran: Shut up or risk losing American military aid.
Vance was wrapping up a briefing with members of the White House press corps when he was asked about an Axios report indicating that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been “fuming” over the agreement after other news outlets reported on criticisms of the 14-paragraph memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran offered by far-right Israeli cabinet members Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir as well as other Israeli officials.
After first suggesting that Netanyahu had offered a more positive opinion of the deal in private conversations, he told reporters he is personally “bothered” by “people within Bibi’s cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal, and in some ways very personally attacked the President of the United States.”
Vance then claimed that President Donald Trump “is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time” and warned that were he in Israel’s government, he “might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world” before implying that American weapons exports to Israel could be imperiled if Israeli cabinet ministers continue to criticize the president.
“The other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars,” he said.
“The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump, and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the President of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.”
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