Sen. J.D. VANCE (R-Ohio) speaks to reporters after the CNN Presidential Debate between U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, on June 27, 2024. Photo courtesy of Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.
By DAVID ISAAC
JNS
The choice of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as Donald Trump’s running mate has sparked concerns among European diplomats fearful of an isolationist America. Should Israel also be worried? The short answer appears to be no.
Israel Support
Vance, who turns 40 in August, has stumped for Trump’s “America First” foreign policy in recent years. He opposes funding a “never-ending war in Ukraine” and recently told Europe “to wake up to the fact” that the United States needs to pivot toward East Asia. While such statements naturally trouble Europeans, Vance has expressed traditional conservative, even evangelical-like, support for Israel, although a Roman-Catholic.
Speaking at a foreign policy conference sponsored by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and The American Conservative on May 23, Vance said:
“A big part of the reason why Americans care about Israel is because we are still the largest Christian-majority country in the world,” and that means “a majority of citizens of this country think that their Savior, and I count myself a Christian, was born and died and resurrected in that narrow little strip of territory on the Mediterranean.
“The idea that there is ever going to be an American foreign policy that doesn’t care a lot about that slice of the world is preposterous.”
Similarly, he told The Jerusalem Post during his first visit to Israel in 2022 shortly after his Senate election, “I got it intellectually, but emotionally, I didn’t realize. [Jerusalem] is the most important cultural heritage site in the world. If Israel didn’t control this land, I would never understand this experience.”
He also espoused traditional Republican positions, telling the Post, “The Iran deal was a disaster, Israel is our most important ally and Trump was right to move the [embassy] to Jerusalem.”
In his Quincy Institute speech, Vance also advanced practical considerations regarding America’s support for Israel, describing the Jewish state as “one of the most dynamic and technologically advanced countries in the world,” noting that Israel’s work on the Iron Beam system, a laser defense initiative, would give the U.S. “missile-defense parity. That’s a very important national security objective of the United States of America.”
The vice presidential nominee has criticized the Biden administration’s interference with Israel’s Gaza war, telling CNN in May: “I think that our attitude vis-a-vis the Israelis should be, look, we’re not good at micromanaging Middle Eastern wars, the Israelis are our allies, let them prosecute this war the way they see fit.”
He supports the Abraham Accords model, according to which the U.S. encourages ties between Israel and moderate Arab states. “Our goal in the Middle East should be to allow the Israelis to get to some good place with the Saudi Arabians and other Gulf Arab states,” he told CNN.
Negative On Biden Approach
He reiterated that approach to the Jewish Insider at the Quincy Institute conference, saying, “The Abraham Accords model is the perfect way of building a counterpoint to the Iranians in the Middle East.”
He argued for a strong Israel that could act independently of the United States rather than as a client state. “We have to sort of ask ourselves, what do we want out of our Israeli allies? And more importantly, what do we want out of all of our allies writ large? Do we want clients who depend on us, who can’t do anything without us? Or do we want real allies who can actually advance their interests on their own with America playing a leadership role?” he said.
When U.S. President Joe Biden combined military aid for Israel and Ukraine in a single $105 billion package, gambling that Republicans opposed to Ukraine aid wouldn’t vote against $14.3 billion to help bolster Israel’s aerial defenses, Vance opposed it.
“What Biden is doing is disgusting. He’s using dead children in Israel to sell his disastrous Ukraine policy to skeptical Americans,” he tweeted last October. “They are not the same countries, they are not the same problems, and this effort to use Israel for political cover is offensive.”
Support For Trump
In his Quincy Institute speech, Vance stressed that his opposition to Ukraine aid didn’t extend to Israel: “It’s sort of weird that this town assumes that Israel and Ukraine are exactly the same. They’re not, of course, and I think it’s important to analyze them in separate buckets.”
Vance has defended Trump’s criticism of American Jews who support Biden as not sufficiently supportive of Israel. “Any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined,” Trump had said.
Vance told CNN, “Do I think it’s reasonable to look at this situation and say that if you’re a Jewish American who cares about the State of Israel, who cares about these anti-Semitic riots, and say you should be on the side of Republicans in 2024 because they govern effectively on some of the issues that you care about? I think it’s a totally reasonable argument to make.”
At the same time, Vance has defended U.S. Jews as a wave of anti-Semitism ripped through college campuses in the wake of Oct. 7.He has criticized the anti-Israel encampments, saying, “You don’t get to turn our public places into a garbage dump. No civilization should tolerate these encampments. Get rid of them.”
He has advocated for prosecuting anti-Semitic acts, telling The Jerusalem Post, “If you beat up a Jew and don’t face consequences, the attacks will continue and get worse.” However, Vance has been criticized for not sufficiently condemning anti-semitism on the right, defending Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), saying that she “did nothing wrong,” after she attended a far-right conference organized by notorious anti-semite Nick Fuentes.
