Vice President Vance, Heritage’s Kevin Roberts Distance from Israel, Double Down on Christ

“Globalist class” and “venomous coalition” are denounced; Vance says “Christianity is the pathway to God”

Vice President Vance fields an anti-Israel question on Wednesday October 29. “When people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the president of the United States, they’re not controlling this president of the United States, which is one of the reasons why would we be able to have some of the success that we’ve had in the Middle East,” Vance said.

Two significant figures in Republican politics, Vice President Vance and the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, are distancing themselves from Israel and its American supporters while emphasizing America’s Christian character.

The moves come as the Democratic Party’s nominee for mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, has been running a boycott-Israel, arrest Prime-Minister-Netanyahu campaign that has attracted endorsements from mainstream Democratic figures such as the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, and the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries.

Taken together, they suggest that the U.S.-Israel relationship may be headed for turbulence. Some of Israel’s supporters have comforted themselves that while Democratic support may be eroding, Republican backing remains strong. Yet the recent statements by Vance and Roberts indicate that the two major parties, who once competed for pro-Israel votes, may be moving toward a new phase of competing for anti-Israel votes, especially those of younger Americans indoctrinated by social-media streaming stars on TikTok, X, and other platforms.

Vice President Vance’s remarks came Wednesday October 29 at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi.

Repeatedly throughout the hourlong appearance, Vance dwelled on Christianity. In responding to two questioners at the event, he also addressed Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

“I really believe that one of the reasons why the president of the United States knocked out the Iranian nuclear facilities but never got the United States into a protracted military conflict and never lost a single American in a Middle Eastern conflict is because we had the wisdom and the good sense to recognize that the American people are done with American troops dying in unnecessary foreign conflicts,” Vance said.

“Jesus Christ is the author of the fate of human history. And we are charged to do everything that we can to effectuate that vision,” Vance said.

“Freedom of religion is actually a Christian concept. And the reason and the reason it’s a Christian concept is very simple because Christianity, imago dei, the idea that we are all made in the image of our creator means that we must respect the free will of every single person.”

“I make no apologies for believing that Christianity is the pathway to God,” Vance said. “But I’m not going to force you to believe in anything because that’s not what God wants and that’s not what I want either.”

One questioner asked, “I have a question about Israel, uh, and Trump’s policy towards it. Um, do you think it’s a conflict of interest for Miriam Adelson, an Israeli donor to give millions of dollars to his campaign and then Trump have pro-Israeli policies?”

Vance replied, “Well, if you’re asking, do I think the president of United States has a conflict of interest? No, I do not. Because I know how the president of the United States makes his decisions and I see it behind the scenes. Now, as the president himself has said, Miriam Adelson, who by the way, I know and I have a very good relationship with her. She is very clear about the fact, she doesn’t hide the fact that she really loves Israel and that is part of what motivates her political giving. That is a reality. At the same time, the president of the United States is America-first through and through.”

Vance went on, “And let me give you just a couple of examples of this. Number one, we have heard from some pro-Israel voices, some people who really love the state of Israel that they don’t want us to have a relationship with certain Middle Eastern countries. Well, the president, his attitude is we need to build relationships with any country where we have shared interests and he’s going to do it if it’s in the interest of the American people and he’s done exactly that.” Vance did not make clear what countries he was talking about. He might have been talking about Qatar or Turkey, but the objections in those cases would not be to the countries but to the Hamas-hosting unfree regimes leading them, and to their behavior.

Vance went on, “I remember when people said that the president of the United States was going to get us into a multi-hundred-thousand-troop regime change war for Israel. This was four months ago, this was 6 months ago. Now, the people who accused the president of the United States of wanting to get us into a regime change war for Israel, I wonder if they’ve stepped back and said, you know what, we were wrong about that. Because the president of the United States did not want to get us into a regime change war for any other country. He wanted to knock out a nuclear facility and get everybody back home. And that’s exactly what he did. So I understand there’s some frustrations out there, but I think the president of the United States, more than any president of my lifetime, is willing to stand up to anybody if he thinks it puts the interests of the American people first. Thank you.”

A second questioner also asked Vance about Israel. “I’m a Christian man and I’m just confused why that there’s this notion that we might owe Israel something or that they’re 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. I’m just confused why this idea has come around considering the fact that not only does their religion not agree with ours but also openly supports the prosecution of ours.”

Vance replied: “So let me let me say things a few things about this. First of all, when the president of the United States says America first that means that he pursues the interests of Americans first. That is our entire foreign policy. And that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to have alliances, that you’re not going to work with other countries from time to time. And that is what the president believes, is that Israel, sometimes they have similar interests to the United States, and we’re going to work with them in that case.”

Vance went on, “Sometimes they don’t have similar interests to the United States. In this example, the most recent Gaza peace plan that all of us have been working on very hard for the past few weeks, the president of the United States could only get that peace deal done by actually being willing to apply leverage to the state of Israel. So when people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the president of the United States, they’re not controlling this president of the United States, which is one of the reasons why would we be able to have some of the success that we’ve had in the Middle East.”

Vance went on, “Now you ask about, you know, sort of Jews disagreeing with Christians on certain religious ideas. Yeah, absolutely. It’s one of the realities is that Jews do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Obviously, Christians do believe that. There are some significant theological disagreements between Christians and Jews. My attitude is let’s have those conversations. Let’s have those disagreements when we have them. But if there are shared areas of interest, we ought to be willing to do that, too. For example, I really care about, one thing I really, really care about is the preservation of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Christians believe that that is the site where Jesus Christ was crucified and also that his tomb is right there as well. My attitude is if we can work with our friends in Israel to make sure that Christians have safe access to that site, that’s an obvious area of common interest, I am fine with that. What I’m not okay with is any country coming before the interests of American citizens. And it is important for all of us, assuming we’re American citizens, to put the interest of our own country first. That’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we try to do every single day. I promise you. Thank you.”

Vance’s comments are problematic on a number of levels.

He could have pointed out that Adelson is not only an Israeli but also an American. He could have rejected the “ethnic cleansing” libel. His comments could leave a listener thinking that Trump successfully fended off an effort by Israel’s advocates to cause a multi-hundred-thousand-troop regime change war for Israel. The notion that America “could only get that peace deal done by actually being willing to apply leverage to the state of Israel” ignores that America could only get the deal done by building trust with Israel over the years through pro-Israel policies, and that the “deal” so far has brought a hostage-prisoner exchange but not peace, as Hamas remains armed and in control of parts of Gaza.

The line about how “when people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the president of the United States, they’re not controlling this president of the United States,” leaves open the idea that Israel was somehow controlling previous presidents of the U.S. As Eugene Kontorovich put it, “The implication seems to be they Israel controlled Biden - who imposed sanctions on Jews for protesting aid to Hamas and tried to stop the war well short of victory, and that Israel controlled Obama, the most anti-Israel president in history.”

Even crediting Christianity with “the idea that we are all made in the image of our creator” fails to acknowledge that that idea comes from Genesis, from the Hebrew Bible, from Judaism. The whole tone is off–as if Vance is acknowledging that, yeah, Israeli Jews are yucky, but pragmatism requires that we hold our noses and work with them at times when American and Christian interests demand it. Meanwhile, the policies that Vance implies somehow are in U.S. interests—leaving Khamenei in power in Iran, leaving Hamas armed and in power in Gaza—may not in the end turn out to serve U.S. interests so well, anyway. When Vance says, “Christianity is the pathway to God,” he doesn’t allow room for any other pathways.

The Heritage CEO, Kevin Roberts, quote-tweeted Vance approvingly and added his own statement. “Christianity built America, and we all benefit because of it.”

Roberts also mentioned Vance in a video Roberts put out responding to calls for Heritage to cut its ties with Tucker Carlson after Carlson—who has repeatedly stoked Jew-hate—had racist Jew-hating conspiracy theorist Nick Fuentes on his streaming program.

“I want to be clear about one thing. Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic, and of course, antisemitism should be condemned,” he said. “My loyalty as a Christian and as an American is to Christ first and to America always. When it serves the interest of the United States to cooperate with Israel and other allies, we should do so, with partnerships on security, intelligence, and technology, but when it doesn’t conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist class or from their mouthpieces in Washington.”

Roberts went on, “The Heritage Foundation didn’t become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people and we won’t start doing that now. We don’t take direction from comments on X, though we are grateful for the robust free speech debate. We also don’t take direction from members or donors, though we are inherently grateful for their support and we are adding more every day.”

“This is the robust debate we invite, with our colleagues, our movement friends, our members and the American public,” he said. “We will always defend truth, we will always defend America, and we will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains—and as I have said before always will be—a close friend of the Heritage Foundation. The venomous coalition attacking him are sowing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail.”

Roberts went on, “Most importantly, the American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right. I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer either. When we disagree with a person’s thoughts and opinions, we challenge those ideas in debate, and we have seen success in this approach as we continue to dismantle the violent ideas of the left. As my friend Vice President Vance said last night, what I am not okay with is any country coming before the interests of American citizens, and it is important for all of us, assuming we are American citizens, to put the interest of our own country first. That’s where our allegiance lies, and that’s where it will stay.”

This is a really troubling statement from Roberts and Heritage. When he says “of course, antisemitism should be condemned,” and then proceeds to denounce “the globalist class” and a “venomous coalition” and suggesting they are putting another country “before the interests of American citizens,” he is making the same move that Zohran Mamdani does, ritualistically and rhetorically denouncing antisemitism while proceeding to engage in antisemitism by falsely accusing Jews of being a bunch of snakes who are putting Israel ahead of America. And he’s doing it on the back of the vice president of the United States.

The context for this is Pew polling—from before the ceasefire deal—showing public opinion unhappy with both Republicans and Democrats on “policies related to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.” There’s some erosion in support for Israel among young people who have been the subject of a Qatar-and-Iran-and-Chinese Communist Party-and-Palestine Liberation Organization backed social media and grassroots campaign aimed at demonizing Israel, who get their news largely from short video clips shared on social media, who have never read the Hebrew Bible, and whose religious and historical education doesn’t include learning about the Jewish people’s relationship to God and to the land of Israel.

It’s going to take a lot of work by Israel’s friends in America to turn this around. The strongest arguments may be that abandoning Israel and cursing the Jews are not in America’s interest. Look at the historical record of other countries (Spain, the Soviet Union) that have done it and declined. Look at God’s promise to Abram in Genesis:12: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” Look at George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Savannah, Georgia Hebrew Congregation: “May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivering the Hebrews from their Egyptian Oppressors planted them in the promised land—whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation—still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.” It’s a moment for some leadership by Heritage trustees such as Robert George, Larry Arnn, Rebekah Mercer—and by President Trump.

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