Vice President Vance was the featured speaker at Turning Point USA’s event at the University of Mississippi yesterday evening. Standing in for Charlie Kirk, Vance took questions from students in the packed house. There is room for dispute, but I take it from the tenor of his remarks that he has a cold, cold view of Israel. He doesn’t talk about Israel as a key friend and critical ally in an area of great strategic interest. I thought his comments on the subject were disappointing at best.
Given his close relationship with Tucker Carlson, Vance is foremost among those who should declare Carlson’s anti-Semitism out of bounds. Yet Vance appears to be on Carlson’s wavelength in his attitude to Israel, if not the Jewish people. In any event, it’s a time for choosing and Vance has chosen to remain silent.
If you’ve ever toured the holy sites in Israel, you know that Israel’s care for them is second to none. On his recent trip to Israel, Vance attended Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The National Catholic Register reported on his visit here. Immediate reponsibity for the site is allocated among is the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and four Oriental Orthodox churches, so there may be a wrinkle or two deriving from the division of labor (as there was when I visited the church in 2007).
One could see the Tucker effect in one of the questions Vance fielded from a student. The Jerusalem Post provides the relevant quotes. Here is the student’s question:
“I’m a Christian man, and I’m just confused why there’s this notion that we might owe Israel something or that they are our greatest ally or that we have to support this multi-hundred-billion dollar foreign aid package to Israel to cover this – to quote Charlie Kirk – ethnic cleansing in Gaza,” the student asked.
“I’m just confused why this idea has come around, considering that not only does their religion not agree with ours, but openly supports the prosecution of ours,” the student continued.
The crowd applauded before Vance responded.
Vance did not bother to respond to the false premises of the question. He humored them. His tone was entirely grudging. When it came to his visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, he implied that the administration had to work with Israel to “assaure safe access” to the site:
America First does not mean that the US will not have alliances from time to time, Vance explained, adding that “sometimes Israel has similar interests to the US and we will work with them, and sometimes they don’t.”
Vance also affirmed that Trump’s Gaza deal could “only get done by actually applying leverage to Israel.”
“So when people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the president of the United States, they are not controlling this president of the United States, which is one of the reasons why we have been able to have some of the success we have had in the Middle East,” he added.
So Netanyahu doesn’t control Trump. I guess we should be grateful for this revelation, but he would say that, wouldn’t he? He disputes the notion that “the Jews” are in control that extent. I guess we should be grateful.
On the religious question, this is what Vance had to say:
Vance also affirmed his view that there are “significant theological disagreements” between Jews and Christians, but that both sides can work together to preserve holy sites in Israel.
Vance notably visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem during his visit last week.
“My attitude is, if we can work with our friends in Israel to make sure Christians have safe access to that site, that’s an obvious area of common interest. I’m fine with that,” Vance said.
Why, that’s very big of you, Vice President Vance.
The student states that Judaism openly supports the prosecution of Christianity. I have no idea what he is talking about. In the United States, we just want to be left alone. In Israel, Christians are protected by law and practice their religion more freely than anywhere else in the Middle East. Vance, however, lets it ride. That is disappointing, to say the least.
Here is a truncated clip that includes the most offensive part of the question (including the assertion that the Israelis are committing “ethnic cleansing in Gaza”).
Insane anti-Israel question, full of propaganda, was posed to JD Vance — and responded by adding his own fuel to the fire. Absolute dumpster fire.
But now I understand why he’s such good friends with Tucker Carlson and why Tucker’s son works for JD. pic.twitter.com/cqt7K8oCvH
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) October 30, 2025
