Vance refuses to support Netanyahu as Trump praises

US Vice President JD Vance has refused to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after President Donald Trump offered his support for the leader’s re-election next week.

“The president has the most effective support in American and international political history,” Vance said in an interview on Mark Halperin’s 2WAY Tonight published Monday. “I support American candidates and that’s what I will focus on in the midterms,” he said.

Vance said he was not criticizing Netanyahu: “I’m not against supporting him. I’m not in favor of supporting him,” he said, adding that “I’m not getting involved in Israeli elections.”

The remarks are a departure from the approach of President Donald Trump, who has thrown his support behind Israel’s prime minister in next week’s election.

Trump praised Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, on Truth Social on Sunday as “a Great Warrior Prime Minister and an even greater partner for peace in the fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” In a social media post, Netanyahu thanked Trump for his “tremendous support and collaboration.”

Vance has weighed in on foreign policy before. He campaigned in Budapest in April to publicly support then-Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s re-election bid. Orban was later ousted after 16 years in power. Last year in Munich, at a security conference, Vance met Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, which Elon Musk also supported at the time.

Next week’s Israeli vote will be the first national election since Hamas attacked Israel in late 2023.

The comments also come as U.S. public support for Israel, historically strong among Republicans and Democrats, has fallen sharply. There has also been vigorous debate in the United States over the Netanyahu-led government’s response to the Hamas attack.

In June, Vance said Israel had almost no friends left in the world and should think seriously before attacking the one it has.