Vance says Israel has no intention of ending war, tried to manipulate US public opinion

US Vice President J.D. Vance has publicly criticized elements of the Israeli government for attempting to manipulate American public opinion to keep the war with Iran going and for working to undermine end-of-war negotiations. The remarks come as President Donald Trump has also expressed frustration with Israel's military actions, with the rift between the two countries increasingly breaking into the open.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Vance made the comments during an approximately three-hour interview on the conservative podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience."

"We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are people in Israel who are trying to manipulate American public opinion in order to keep this war going indefinitely," Vance said, adding that "their goal is not to achieve a specific objective — it's to keep the war itself going."

Vance, who led truce negotiations with Iran last month, said Israel's domestic influence campaign in the United States had undermined diplomatic efforts to reach a resolution.

He also said certain factions within Israel had run a campaign to derail the end-of-war negotiations with Iran. Israel awarded a $45 million lobbying contract to a former Trump campaign official to shore up American support for the war and improve Israel's global image.

Vance cited a Time magazine article reporting that some of that money had been used to pay online influencers to attack him. "According to Time magazine, there was a 'foreign influence campaign' being funded specifically to kill the very deal I was trying to get done," he said. "A number of the people who received that funding attacked me in ways that were, in fact, completely unconscionable."

He went on to say his response to such campaigns was blunt. "My reaction to this campaign is: go to hell," he said. "I'm going to do what I need to do for the American people. I represent Americans. America first."

On the ongoing armed conflict between the United States and Iran, Vance said "the situation is going to get very complicated, and we're going to continue to see negotiations advance and then fall back again."

The Wall Street Journal said the remarks represented a more public airing of the tensions between the United States and Israel, its closest ally in the Middle East, and came from Vance, who is widely seen as the leading contender to succeed Donald Trump.