Vance says US Middle East policy must not “be subservient to Israel”

US Vice President JD Vance made clear that Washington cannot allow its Middle Eastern foreign policy to “be subservient to the State of Israel.”

Speaking at a conference organised by the All-In Podcast, Vance acknowledged Israel’s importance to the United States as a partner in military technology and intelligence sharing, while stressing that Washington does not always agree with the Israeli government, Caliber.Az reports.

“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 noted, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his nickname.

According to Vance, President Donald Trump is the only US president in the past four decades who has been willing to openly acknowledge disagreements with Netanyahu when he believes they serve different interests.

“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 the US should approach its relationship with Israel, as with any other partnership, by grounding it in American interests in order to maintain a rational foreign policy discussion.

“[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.

“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,” Vance stressed.

By Jeyhun Aghazada