Vance slams Israeli ‘freakout’ over Iran deal: ‘You can’t just kill your way out of solving’ every security problem

US Vice President JD Vance pushes back on what he calls an Israeli “freakout” over the recently signed US-Iranian memorandum of understanding in an interview with The New York Times, suggesting Israel relies too much on military force to address its problems, that it should give more “credit” to the US as an ally, and that concerns that the agreement emboldens Iran or its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, are misplaced.

“I find this whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd because I think that it comes from a place of mistrust, and I think that America has earned the trust of that region of the world,” he says. “We’ve done a very good job by that particular country and that particular government, and I think that the idea that we’ve made a terrible deal is not supported by the facts, but just doesn’t make any sense if you consider the broad length of the relationship.”

Vance, who has become the face of the Trump administration’s defense of the MOU, has spoken several times about how the United States needs to pursue its own interests in negotiating with Iran, regardless of whether Israel agrees.

At another point, he says, “There is this weird panic almost in the Israeli system that I’ve picked up on where they assume that everything that is contemplated that is good for Iran will happen — but that will happen without the Iranians changing any behavior. And I just don’t know why anybody would think that’s true.”

Vance notes in the interview that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has avoided criticizing the deal, but acknowledges that the premier’s far-right partners National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “have attacked the deal.” Netanyahu’s allies in the media, in addition to members of the opposition, have also decried the agreement as harmful to Israel’s security interests.

“It’s clear that large segments of the Israeli political system and population are very sensitive about this deal,” he says. “But I also think they’re picking up on some misinformation about the deal and running with it and sort of panicking about it.”

Regarding the deal’s Israeli critics, he adds, “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.” (Israel’s population is roughly 10 million.)

Vance claims that the US “destroyed their nuclear program,” although the text of the MOU refers to Iran’s country’s stockpile of enriched uranium, and says that for now, Iran “will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program.”