Vice President JD Vance and Israeli Pime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting in Washington designed to clear the air between them this week. Israeli officials characterised the talks as “frank and candid”, White House officials said they were “direct”.
Disagreements between Vance and Netanyahu over the Iran war have been bubbling away for months. But the Vice President has also been brooding over whether Israel’s US allies have been briefing against him and undermining him politically.
Nearly halfway through Donald Trump’s presidency, Vance’s position as heir apparent is far from secure. You would think his reservations about the Iran war would shore up his support at a time when two-thirds of Americans oppose it, according to a new AP/Norc poll.
But the rumblings against Vance have continued, ranging from accusations that he has been undermining Trump on foreign policy to a report that he was allegedly demanding too many helicopter rides for his wife and children, causing Secret Service agents to feel “fed up”.
He has also been losing personal and political friends by flirting with the far-right fringes of the Maga movement. His former friend, the conservative commentator Rod Dreher, told a podcaster this week that they fell out when he urged Vance to take a stand against far-right, white nationalists in the Republican Party – “but he hasn’t chosen to do it”.
