Vance: US cannot let its Mideast foreign policy be ‘subservient to Israel’

US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that Washington can’t let its policies in the Middle East be “subservient” to those of Israel, and must place its own interests first.

Speaking to a conference organized by the All-In Podcast, Vance said of US-Israel ties: “Obviously Israel has been an important partner when it comes to military technology, when it comes to intelligence sharing, but also sometimes the United States doesn’t… agree with Israel.”

He said that US President Donald Trump is ready to place his country first if need be.

“I think that more than frankly any president in the last 40 years, he has shown a willingness to actually part ways with Bibi Netanyahu when he feels like the interests of the American people are different from the interests of the government of Israel,” Vance said, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname.

“Donald Trump is the one president of the last 40 years who’s been willing to say ‘You know what, yeah Bibi’s a good partner, but also Bibi and I have a different opinion on this,’ or ‘Bibi’s wrong about this,’ or maybe ‘Bibi’s right about this from the perspective of Israel, but the American people need us to go in a different direction.'”

Vance argued that “rooting this relationship, like all relationships, in America’s interest is the way to actually have a rational conversation here.”

The vice president said this was true for NATO as well.

“[We have] a lot of important relationships, a lot of important partnerships in NATO, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna completely make our European foreign policy subservient to NATO, in the same way that we cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the State of Israel,” Vance said.

“We’re gonna work with people when we work with them, we’re gonna disagree when we disagree. And we’re gonna pursue America’s interests. That’s the only way to have a rational foreign policy.”

JD Vance just said “we cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the state of Israel.”

Our U.S. foreign policy has never been subservient to Israel’s foreign policy. He knows that. Why would he need to say that unless he’s trying to politically gain some… pic.twitter.com/JT5jJClCU0

— Heather Johnston (@HeatherJ_Israel) September 16, 2026

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the Ynet outlet in an interview published Wednesday that the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu “is still strong and solid.”

Israel and the US, he asserted, “work incredibly close together, more than most people will ever, ever understand.”

Asked about the drop in support for Israel in the US, the envoy put it down to “misinformation.”

“I think most of it is misinformation, because I would ask myself, what are they critical of?” he said.

The war against Iran is in America’s interest, he noted, not just Israel’s.

“When we are partnering against Iran, we’re not defending Israel, we’re defending the United States,” he said, recalling that for decades Tehran has been saying, “Death to America.”

“Israel is maybe the appetizer, but we’re the entree,” he said.

Huckabee rejected the claim that Israel pushed Trump into the war with Iran, which began with joint Israel-US strikes on February 28 aimed at degrading the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, distancing threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and “creating the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.

“He did it from his own volition,” Huckabee said of Trump.

Asked if America would go to war with Iran or some other power to defend Israel against an existential threat, Huckabee said only, “If it was in America’s best interest, the president would act. But that’s what he’s required to do.”

Huckabee also addressed extremist settler violence in the West Bank, which he has previously condemned. He clarified that, in his view, the extremists do not represent the settler community as a whole.

“I have never attributed all of these actions to settlers,” he said. “In fact, I say they’re not settlers, they’re unsettlers.”