In recent weeks, Vice President J.D. Vance took a break from holding down the couch in the Oval Office and actually formed a big-boy opinion, all on his own.
Unfortunately for him, that opinion was not well received by his real boss, Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to new reporting from Axios, Vance earned himself a stern talking-to in a private confrontation with the Israeli prime minister after the US vice president had the nerve to publicly criticize Israel’s government. Officials with both the United States and the Israeli government have confirmed that the pair had a one-on-one meeting at Blair House, described as candid but “direct,” following months of Vance’s increasingly public disagreement with Netanyahu over US policies toward Iran.
In June, Vance publicly chastized Israeli officials for criticizing the agreement Trump had struck with Iran, stating that Israel essentially had no business “attacking the only powerful ally” that the country has “anywhere left in the entire world” — implying that the US is all Netanyahu’s got and he damn well better be grateful.
At the time of this statement, the Israeli prime minister publicly pushed back, stating that Israel has “many friends,” effectively undermining Vance’s implication that the US is an island of support for his country.