US Vice President JD Vance said Israel was “losing the public opinion battle” in the United States, echoing comments he said President Donald Trump had also made publicly.
Vance warned that while foreign governments often seek to shape US policy, the concern arises when American leaders allow outside influence to “affect their judgment.”
He added that a foreign influence campaign had been funded to derail negotiations he was pursuing with Iran.
"There's a literal foreign influence campaign being funded to tank the very deal that I was pursuing," Vance said on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, citing a report published by Time Magazine on Monday.
"Many of the people who were receiving that money were actually attacking me in completely dishonest ways. You know, my response to that is: 'Well, go to hell'. ‘I'm going to do what I have to do for the American people," he said.
"I represent Americans first, and that's the way that I've tried to do this job."
Vance said, citing the Time Magazine article, that a former Trump campaign person, who he said had been paid by "certain elements within the Israeli government," had mounted attacks against him for pursuing negotiations with Iran.
"They're attacking me obsessively, saying that we should not be negotiating with Iran," he said.
He added that he knows "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that people within the Israeli government have tried to shift US policy because they want to continue the military campaign.
The Epstein connection
When asked about theories that Epstein was linked to Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Vance replied, "Yeah, Mossad or CIA or some other deep state, whether in America, Israel, or another country".
"He clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence," he said.
Vance added that Epstein "seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of centre" rather than right-of-centre politics.
Regarding the administration's handling of the Epstein case, Vance said, "If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein police, guilty. We did mishandle it, especially the communications of it".
He noted that the US Justice Department recently released more than 3 million pages in January under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
