Vice President JD Vance claims elements within the Israeli government and society are pushing to needlessly prolong the Iran war and tank the Trump administration’s negotiations.
“I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to actually shift us away from that policy because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance said on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience released on Wednesday.
“There are some people within their system, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely,” he added. “Again, not towards any objective, but just indefinitely.”
During the podcast interview, Vance also pointed with alarm to a recent magazine article claiming that former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale was running an online influence campaign on behalf of the state of Israel aimed at bolstering its image inside the US.
The TIME article cited a senior US official who suspected the operation included posts critical of the Trump administration’s recent actions surrounding the war.
“I have never funded, organized, or participated in any effort to undermine President Trump, ever, including his MOU or ceasefire proposal,” Parscale told TIME.
“The claim that I am coordinating an effort to prolong the war is completely false. The only people manufacturing a conflict between President Trump, Israel, and me are anonymous officials using background quotes to make me the bogeyman.”
Vance’s comments come amid increasingly open tension between the US and Israel, staunch allies which have been jointly carrying out the war against Iran since late February.
