Fuck the governments of both countries to be clear. The pro-israel lobby in the US is doing damage control. They worry that the loudly genocidal members of Netanyahu’s coalition might prick Trump’s ego and cause MAGA to turn on them too.

“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not ​be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”

He said he would also remind those cabinet members that two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected Israel “have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.” The United States provides Israel with roughly $4 billion in military assistance a year, but the two countries are negotiating a new aid agreement.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a linchpin in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, has harshly rebuked the U.S.-Iran deal and insisted Israeli troops would remain in Lebanon.

Vance criticized Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in a New York Times interview released earlier on Thursday. “What is your ⁠exact proposal? You’re a country of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have,” Vance said.