ByJERUSALEM POST STAFFJUNE 18, 2026 18:18Updated: JUNE 18, 2026 18:35US Vice President JD Vance defended Washington’s agreement with Iran, questioning Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's criticism of the deal in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday.“What is your exact proposal?” he asked. “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.”Ben-Gvir responded to Vance’s comments by saying that the plan is “​to deal with the Nazis of the 21st century, just as the United States dealt with the Nazis of the 20th century.”Vance noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not scrutinized the deal to the same extent as Smotrich and Ben Gvir have, stating that the lack of criticism may be because Netanyahu is “a little bit more familiar with the details of what’s in it.”Vance asserted that US President Donald Trump, who signed the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday in France, has noticed a “misalignment” between the goals of Israeli officials and the American public.“He’s willing to say that we’re going to pursue America’s interests where there are divergences,” Vance told the NYT. This is a developing story.Follow us on Google