Vance Drops the Pretense

By Abe Greenwald

JD Vance's Jew-baiting is no longer hiding in plain sight. It’s no longer something that has to be inferred from his choice of anti-Semitic allies, his serial flirtations with the rhetoric of the podcast right, or his clear displeasure whenever the Jewish state asserts itself in a way that conflicts with his political faction's priorities. It’s now out in the open.

“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government,” he said today, “I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” Vance then added that Donald Trump is “the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”

We get it. Everyone hates Israel, and maybe they’re all onto something. Vance has been itching to say this for a long time, and Donald Trump’s failure in Iran finally gave him the opportunity. The president is letting JD be JD. Turns out, he’s exactly who I thought he was.

Vance’s premise, it’s worth noting, is false. Israel has relations with dozens of countries and maintains significant strategic partnerships throughout the world, even with countries that criticize it obsessively. And while Vance claims that Israeli cabinet members are personally attacking Trump, they’ve merely commented on the Iran deal and what it means for Israel.  

But the real problem here is moral. Vance's formulation is intended to put Israel in a position that Jews know all too well: that of a people whose fate depends on staying in the good graces of a powerful ruler. And Jews in this circumstance, Vance was saying, should really know when they’re pushing their luck.

The vice president wasn’t describing an alliance. He was describing dependence—a dependence that strips a nation of the right to disagree. The logic runs as follows: Because Israel needs American support, Israel must refrain from criticizing the American president. Because Trump is sympathetic to Israel, Israel should suppress its own judgments whenever those judgments conflict with his. It doesn’t matter that Israel hasn’t let a day of Trump’s presidency pass without expressing its gratitude for his support. What Vance is talking about is obedience.

That’s not how alliances work. The United States has never expected Britain, France, Japan, or any other ally to surrender its voice in exchange for American protection. In a healthy alliance, partners are free to speak candidly when interests diverge. The alliance works because it’s rooted in shared aims and shared values, not because one side has purchased the silence of the other. But Trump doesn’t speak the language of shared values and, anyway, it’s time Israel was reminded that it’s subject to different rules. So Vance was instructing the Jewish state to remember who its protector is.

Of course, Zionism emerged, in part, as a rejection of the idea that Jews should live at the mercy of leaders whose favor could be granted one day and withdrawn the next. That’s why anti-Semites can’t tolerate it.

And the anti-Semites loved Vance’s reprimand. The anti-Jewish left cheered along with the groyper-adjacent right. “Finally!” Cenk Uygur wrote on X. “This is the kind of energy we need from our leaders. I hate to give @JDVance credit, but he’s obviously correct here. It’s infuriating to see them assume they can boss us around when we’re their only remaining ally and they owe us everything.” 

Actually, Israel is the only country “at this moment in time” that’s been unwavering in its support for the president and the only country that’s proved itself fighting alongside the United States in ages. You could say it’s the only powerful true ally that this administration has. And it will not be bound by the terms of Trump’s Iran deal or chastened by the scolding of JD Vance.

Abe Greenwald is the executive editor of COMMENTARY.