A serious conflict is raging inside the White House, as if someone were attempting to bring about regime change not in Iran but within the White House itself.
US Vice President JD Vance is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and is gradually coming into conflict with US President Donald Trump as well. During the three-hour podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, Vance spoke about Iran, Israel, and Epstein.
Rogan asked him whether he believed that Jeffrey Epstein worked for the Mossad. Vance’s reply is beyond our wildest imagination: “Yeah, Mossad or CIA or some other deep state. Epstein clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence and Israeli intelligence.”
Vance suggested that Epstein, who had links to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, was connected to center-left elements of the Israeli deep state. It seems he does not realize the significance of what he is saying.
We once learned in Europe from former European Commissioner Frans Timmermans (at the time still a normal social democrat) that the new antisemitism manifests itself under the cloak of anti-Zionism and anti-Israel sentiment. Is Vance the antisemite whose arrival was foretold by Philip Roth in The Plot Against America?
Vance is still vice president of the USA and, as such, a member of the US government. Without any evidence, he is repeating a conspiracy theory propagated by antisemites in America. It’s as if someone were now to claim that Britain’s “deep state,” acting through Prince Andrew, was the driving force behind the Epstein horror.
Incidentally, Barak’s contact with Epstein cannot be compared to Prince Andrew’s contact with Epstein. Now the US government itself, led by Trump, is in danger of falling victim to a conspiracy theorist within its own ranks. That is very ironic. Those who elevate lying and conspiracy theories to the norm may one day find themselves victims of that very norm.
Vance directs all his attacks at the State of Israel – not at a minister or prime minister, but at the state itself. In that interview, he claims to be the target of an Israeli-funded propaganda campaign.
Funded? He provides no evidence. Who is funding this campaign?
Vance is unable to distinguish between a difference of opinion on policy towards Iran and a funded campaign against him. Yet he claims that “some members of the Israeli government are trying to influence Americans’ opinions to prolong the Iran war.”
Israeli and Iranian dissidents both in and outside the United States have criticized the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Iranian regime. I am not going to repeat my previous article on the subject, but I would like to highlight two points: a fund of $300 billion for the regime, and the complete failure to address the human rights situation in Iran.
Vance knows perfectly well that nobody is being paid to criticize him. I am doing so too: Vance wants an even worse deal with the Ayatollahs’ regime than Obama did.
Regarding the Iranian people, Vance stated that American ground troops would not be fighting the regime in place of Iranians. No Iranian has asked America to fight in their stead.
Vance should shift his focus
Although Vance likes to present himself as a Catholic, this convert is completely alienated from Christianity; otherwise, he would remember that on January 8 and 9, tens of thousands of protesting, unarmed Iranians were murdered by the Ayatollah regime. Iranian citizens have proven that they have gone to the very limits of their endurance.
It was precisely the Catholic faith that taught Catholics that humanity knows no ethnicity. Vance confuses humanity with ethnicity. It was also the American Founding Fathers who stated this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Is Vance’s Catholicism directed at a particular tribe – the far-right tribe? Of course, the primary responsibility of a political order is to look after its own citizens. However, as the leader of the free world, the United States of America also has a historic political and moral responsibility.
Trump was right to point out on a few occasions that Iranians cannot fight the regime with empty hands. However, the US will need to deploy a limited number of ground troops if the White House is to gain control of the Strait of Hormuz. But Vance is prepared to pay the criminal regime to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Vance, this criticism is free, independent, and unfunded.
His thinking lacks not only Christian morality but also logic, since he also claims that, once the regime is gone, 90 million Iranians will want to migrate to Europe and America. He compares it to Syria.
So, 90 million Iranians are going to carry out attacks in Europe and America. Anyone with even a modicum of knowledge of Iran knows that this comparison is historically and factually incorrect. Perhaps millions of Iranians will flee if Vance and his ilk set about reviving Iran’s despotic regime.
Naturally, you’re wondering why Vance is spouting this hostile nonsense about Israel and the Iranian people. He is the embodiment of Neville Chamberlain, with layers of anti-Jewish sentiment hidden beneath the guise of criticism of Israel. In Vance’s view, Ukraine and Europe, just like the Iranian people, deserve to be trampled underfoot by a despot.
In fact, European leaders ought to be praying for Trump’s health and power. After all, with Vance, Europe stands completely alone. This is not a matter of isolationism, but of indifference rooted in resentment and hatred towards other peoples.
Vance no longer cares what Trump thinks about these matters. If the Democrats win the November election, there is a risk of impeachment proceedings. Trump would then be a weak president, and if he were impeached, Vance would automatically become the president. This scenario should serve as a powerful incentive for the Democrats – better a reactionary isolationist than “Orange Man.”
Vance’s desire to revive the Iranian regime is a dangerous idea – particularly for America. Nobody wants another endless war. That is why America, together with Israel, must weaken the Ayatollahs’ regime and empower the Iranian people to overthrow the regime once and for all.