JD Vance Says US Is Israel “Only Ally”. Bennjamin Netanyahu Cites “1.4 Billion Indians”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called India one of the greatest supporters of Israel, as he pushed back against JD Vance’s recent comments that the country has no “powerful ally” other than the United States.

In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu said Israel has “tremendous support” in India.

“We have some other friends, like a small country called India. It has 1.4 billion people, and boy, do we have a tremendous support there,” the Israeli leader, who has received significant backlash from around the world over the wars his country has been engaged in with Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon.

Netanyahu further said that he respected US Vice President JD Vance, and called President Donald Trump the “greatest friend” Israel has ever had in the White House.

“But it doesn’t mean that I agree with everything that he (Vance) says and I have to point out this,” he said.

Netanyahu’s remarks come weeks after Vance warned Israel not to mess with its “only powerful ally”.

The Israeli Prime Minister further claimed that he is “flooded by the overwhelming support” from India on social media platform Facebook, and asserted that his country has many other allies.

Without naming anyone, he went on to say that in many countries, it is “fashionable” on social media to have “anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic material”.

But leaders from these supposed countries, he claimed, call him up to sign deals or ask him to “teach us some of the things that your military does”.

“So the relations are not quite as they appear, and we have, we have many, many friends,” Netanyahu said.

Vance’s remarks, made during a press briefing at the White House, appeared to signal a new course in US-Israel relations as ceasefire talks with Iran advance.

“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance said, while defending the US’ memorandum signed with Iran last month in a major breakthrough to end the war.

Netanyahu Clarifies Stance On Lebanon

While the memorandum signed by the US and Iran has a provision for Israel to withdraw his forces from Lebanon, the country has not given in to the demand despite multiple ceasefire announcements.

On Sunday, Netanyahu clarified Israel’s stance on Lebanon, and claimed that some Christian villages in southern Lebanon had asked to be annexed by Israel, in order to be protected from Hezbollah militants.

“Christian villages in Lebanon, some of them have actually asked to be annexed to Israel, because we protect them against the Hezbollah, Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them, and we do the same things with Christians everywhere,” Netanyahu told Fox News.