America just split over backing Netanyahu and Iran could decide the outcome
2 hours ago · 20 October 2026Share
Vice President JD Vance speaks to U.S. Marines with Weapons Training Battalion at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. File photo. Cpl. Joaquin Dela Torre · Public domain
And two days before that, Donald Trump backed him completely.
So what did Vance actually say? He was on a show called "2WAY Tonight", talking to the journalist Mark Halperin. The interview came out a day ago.
Vance was asked straight out about Netanyahu's reelection campaign.
He says he endorses American candidates, and that's where he's focused in the midterms. He says he's not getting involved in Israeli elections at all.
Then he made it even clearer. He told Halperin he isn't anti-endorsing Netanyahu, and he isn't pro-endorsing him either.
So that's not an accident. That's a vice president choosing, on purpose, not to back the exact thing his own president backed two days earlier.
Now here's what Trump actually said. He posted it on Truth Social. He called Netanyahu quote "a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combating the Islamic Republic of Iran."
And then Trump went further. He wrote that if Israel picks anyone other than Netanyahu, America will have to confront Iran on its own — and that he's not inclined to do that.
So Trump has tied Netanyahu's reelection directly to whether America fights Iran.
That gap between them opened up nine days before Israelis actually vote.
The rest of this story is for members.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a phone call to President Donald J. Trump in Jerusalem, Israel on March 21, 2019. File photo.U.S. Department of State from United States · Public domain
Here's the twist. Trump used to hold Vance's position. Earlier this month, Trump told Time magazine he's not involved in Israeli politics anymore. Then a day before this latest split, he reversed that completely. So Vance is now standing exactly where Trump stood a few weeks ago.
And Vance has been here before. Earlier this year he flew to Budapest to campaign for Viktor Orbán, a leader Trump had endorsed. Orbán lost. So Vance holding back this time, after that result, says something on its own.
While all this plays out, other parts of the administration are already moving. Pete Hegseth, America's Secretary of Defense, made an unannounced visit to Israel a day ago and met Netanyahu in person.
He also met Israel Katz, Israel's Defense Minister, at Ovda Air Base in southern Israel. That's according to two people familiar with the trip, reported by Axios.
Nobody has said whether Hegseth's trip is connected to this endorsement split, or whether it's about separate military planning. It's not known.
Netanyahu has thanked Trump publicly. Exactly what he said depends which outlet you read — a video message, a post on X, and separate remarks reported in other coverage. Nobody has reported Netanyahu saying anything about Vance specifically.
So what happens next? Israel votes in nine days, on 27 October. It's the country's first national election since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. Netanyahu's Likud-led coalition is up against an opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party.
And here's what we still don't know. Is Vance's refusal a real split inside the Trump administration over fighting Iran — or is it just Vance staying focused on America's own midterms, which land in about two weeks, on 3 November?
Some commentary has suggested Vance is part of a wider group inside the administration uneasy about Netanyahu pushing for US strikes on Iran. But that's a reading of events, not something Vance has confirmed himself.
Trump has backed Netanyahu and tied that backing to how America handles Iran.
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