A day after warning Israeli cabinet members against launching attacks on United States (US) President Donald Trump over the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Iran, Vice President JD Vance has stated that overusing accusations of antisemitism risks diluting the true meaning of the term.
Speaking during a podcast, Vance compared the dynamic to how political progressives utilise language. “If everything is Jew hatred, then nothing is Jew hatred,” he said, adding that the situation mirrors how progressives “for 20 years called everything racist”.
“And if everything’s racism, nothing is racism.”
Vance cautioned against weaponising the accusation to achieve specific geopolitical outcomes, stating that the US must “be very careful not to, in order to serve a certain foreign policy objective, try to criticise somebody who’s antisemitic when they’re just not”.
Addressing debates surrounding US Iran agreements, Vance rejected the idea that US policy must automatically align with foreign interests, and clarified the Israel administration’s stance on the agreement.
“Israel’s opinions matter, but fundamentally they are separate,” he said.
The podcast remarks followed separate, direct criticism aimed at the Israeli administration from within the White House when Vance warned Israeli cabinet members about the strategic risks of straining their relationship with Washington.
“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,” Vance told reporters during a press briefing.
He also highlighted the scale of American support to Israel, pointing out that more than half of the defence equipment used to protect the country was “built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars”.
The statement referred to the estimated $4 billion in annual military assistance that the US provides to Israel.
