US Vice President JD Vance has refused to endorse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s coming election, taking a position at odds with that of President Donald Trump, who recently gave the Israeli prime minister his full support, CNN reported.
In an interview with journalist Mark Halperin aboard Air Force Two, Vance said he endorses only American candidates and that his attention is entirely on the coming US midterm elections. He made clear he did not want to get involved in Israel’s election. Saying he was taking no position for or against Netanyahu, he said: “I’m not for endorsing him, and I’m not against him. I’m not getting involved in the Israeli election.”
Despite that stated neutrality on Israel, Vance travelled to Budapest earlier this year to support Trump-backed Viktor Orban in Hungary’s election. Orban, the long-serving prime minister, lost that election.
Trump has taken the opposite line. Although he told Time magazine in an interview earlier this month that he would stay out of Israeli politics, on Saturday he gave Netanyahu his full backing, calling him a “great wartime prime minister” in a social media post.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has made an unannounced visit to Israel just days before the Israeli election. According to a source, he met Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz on Monday evening.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report