Vance declines to endorse Netanyahu a week before Israel votes, a day after Trump did

US Vice-President JD Vance has refused to back Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s election, a day after President Donald Trump threw his full weight behind the Israeli prime minister.

“I’m not getting involved in the Israeli elections,” Vance said in an interview on Monday. Pressed on whether that meant he opposed Netanyahu, he said: “I’m not anti-endorsing [Netanyahu], I’m not pro-endorsing him.” He added that the president already had “the most effective endorsement” in political history.

Israelis vote on 27 October, in a contest many see as a referendum on Netanyahu after the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack, the war in Gaza that followed and reports of settler violence in the West Bank.

Trump moved on Sunday. On Truth Social he gave Netanyahu “complete and total” support and called him a “great warrior” prime minister, warning that with a different leader in Israel, “America will have to do this work ourselves.” Only last week, asked about an endorsement, Trump had told reporters, “we haven’t even thought about it.”

The two men have not always been close this year. They clashed over Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in June Trump said Netanyahu needed to be “more responsible” there. The US and Israel began a joint war on Iran in February.

Vance’s reticence stands out because he has not been shy about foreign elections before. He campaigned for Viktor Orbán before Hungary’s April vote, which Orbán lost to Péter Magyar, and met Alice Weidel of Germany’s AfD in February 2025. For now, he says, his focus is on the US midterms.