JD Vance’s Allies Drive a Wedge Between Israel and America in Wartime

By Noah Rothman

Friday, March 27, 2026

 

One month into the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, a theocracy soaked with American blood, as well as the viscera of so many Middle Easterners, Europeans, and, indeed, Iranians, U.S. political and military officials have a lot on their plate. But it’s apparently important that we spare a moment or two to contemplate Vice President JD Vance’s internal torment as he executes with soldierly dedication orders with which he seems to disagree.

 

According to the sources in Vance’s orbit who gave Axios reporters Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo an earful, the VP “is ready to play his part if negotiations” with representatives of the Islamic Republic “ripen,” but he’s not at all pleased to be in that position in the first place. Indeed, Vance is reportedly viscerally frustrated with America’s ally in this war, Israel, for bamboozling the president into what he was gulled into believing would be a quick and triumphant war.

 

During a “difficult call” on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, Vance is said to have lashed out at the Israeli prime minister over what the VP’s people insist were his rosy predictions about how the war would progress. “Before the war, Bibi really sold it to the president as being easy, as regime change being a lot likelier than it was,” Axios’s “U.S. source” said. “And the VP was clear-eyed about some of those statements,” the source continued — presumably, unlike the president or his key subordinates (looking at you, Marco).

 

In addition, Axios’s well-placed source is fit to be tied over reporting earlier this week, which alleged that the surviving representatives of the Islamic Republic would prefer to deal with Vance over any other administration official, operating under the assumption that he is less inclined to support the war. Vance and his allies give observers that impression at every available opportunity, after all. Still, the source insists that the allegation is the result of a hostile Israeli intelligence operation targeting the vice president.

 

“It’s an Israeli op against JD,” said one administration official — a remark that dovetails with Vance adviser Andrew Surabian’s claim on social media that the claim is indicative of “a coordinated foreign propaganda op.”

 

Americans have a lot to worry about these days, but they should presumably also spare some time to fret over the vice president’s declining political stock. One source “close to Vance” wants you to know, “He has his own views” on so many things, the war apparently among them. And yet, the embattled VP “is going to work according to Trump [sic] instructions, and try and achieve an outcome that the president likes.” I guess we’re supposed to regard this as a noble and burdensome sacrifice.

 

If not the vice president himself, at least his people think that driving a wedge into the strategic relationship between the U.S. and Israel in wartime against an implacable foe is necessary. After all, Vance’s domestic political viability is on the line, and that’s what’s really important right now. At least they have their priorities straight.