16 September :US Vice President JD Vance has said that Washington’s Middle East policy must not become “subservient” to the state of Israel, stressing that US strategic decisions must be driven entirely by American interests rather than serving another country’s agenda.
Speaking at a conference organised by the All-In Podcast, Vance discussed relations between the United States and Israel, describing Israel as an important partner in military technology and intelligence sharing. However, he acknowledged that differences sometimes emerge between the two countries.
“Speaking frankly, over the past 40 years, Donald Trump has shown the greatest willingness to take a different path from Netanyahu,” Vance said, particularly when the president believed that the interests of the American people did not align with those of the Israeli government.
Vance added that Trump was the only president in the past four decades who had been willing to say openly that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be a good partner, but that the two leaders did not agree on certain issues.
He said Trump had also made clear that Netanyahu could be wrong on particular matters. At other times, Trump had argued that Netanyahu might be right from Israel’s perspective, but that the United States would still need to follow a separate path in the interests of the American people.
According to Vance, the only realistic approach to such relationships is to base them solely on US interests, as with any other international partnership.
He applied the same argument to NATO. Vance said the United States had many important relationships and partnerships with the alliance, but that this did not mean Washington should make its entire European foreign policy “subservient” to NATO.
“In the same way, we cannot allow our Middle East policy to become subservient to Israel,” he said.
Vance stressed that the United States would work with those it needed to work with, while accepting disagreements where differences existed.
“We will protect only America’s interests. That is the only effective way to conduct a rational foreign policy,” he said.