Israel Stung by JD Vance Criticism, Sticks to Its Red Lines on Lebanon

Israeli officials were shocked by U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s attack on cabinet ministers, but chose not to answer publicly or react impulsively. The restrained response reflected a desire in Jerusalem not to widen the rift with President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days and again set out his expectations in a late-night post, including for Israel.

Trump wrote that the United States is committed to peace, urged people in the Middle East to let negotiations proceed, pointed to lower oil prices and rising stock markets, and said, “We expect a complete ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel.” Israeli leaders are almost unanimously opposed to the emerging deal with Iran, but Netanyahu has avoided attacking it publicly, apparently believing no final agreement will be signed and that the next chance to act against Iran may only come after the U.S. midterm elections in November. In the meantime, the instruction to the IDF is to prepare to act against Iran alone.

The deeper reason for Israel’s silence, officials say, is its determination to hold firm on Lebanon. Israel opposes withdrawing from southern Lebanon, and Netanyahu said at the opening ceremony for the Bible Trail that Israel must preserve its security buffer there and will not leave as long as security needs require it, meaning until Hezbollah withdraws north of the Litani River. He said Israel had pushed back the ground invasion threat and crippled Hezbollah’s missile force, but added that “there is still work to do.”

Netanyahu also stressed that Israel must keep a “close relationship” with the United States, while continuing to secure northern communities. He said, “We will not leave there as long as Israel’s security needs require it,” and added that Iran will not get nuclear weapons, “and as long as I am prime minister of Israel, that will not happen.”

Vance told reporters his message to cabinet members was twofold: Trump is now “the only leader in the world” who is sympathetic to Israel, and “during the past few months two thirds of the defensive systems protecting your homeland were manufactured by American hands and paid for by American taxpayers.” He also said, “The problem Israel has is not Donald Trump,” adding that anyone in Israel who thinks otherwise should “wake up and recognize the reality” the country faces. In a New York Times interview, Vance singled out Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich and asked what their alternative was, saying Israel, with 9 million people, cannot solve every security problem by “killing more and more people.”

Ben Gvir responded on X that his answer was to confront “the Nazis of the 21st century” as the United States did in the 20th century. Likud minister Miki Zohar replied that Israeli intelligence has saved countless American lives, Israeli technology is used by the U.S. military before anyone else, and the partnership is vital to the free world.