The Daily Populous Friday July 17th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by ynetnews.com and submitted by OpDanger

U.S. Vice President JD Vance continued his sharp criticism of Israel, declaring that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.” In a three-hour interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast broadcast on Wednesday, Vance claimed that elements in Israel are running a “very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign” aimed at swaying public opinion in America and undermining negotiations with Iran.

According to Vance, these actions are meant “to keep the war going on indefinitely. Again, not towards any objective, but just indefinitely."

During the interview, Rogan raised the claim that most of the public believes Epstein was a Mossad agent "or CIA or some other deep state." Vance agreed with the assumption that Epstein had ties to intelligence agencies , saying he had clear connections to the highest levels of both American and Israeli intelligence.

US Vice President JD Vance says he has a 'ton of respect for hte Jewish religion' ( Photo: Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP )

Vance noted that, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not popular in the United States today, Epstein appeared to be connected specifically to center-left elements in the Israeli "deep state."

"As much as I know, you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu, not a particularly popular person in the United States of America right now, Epstein seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center,” Vance said.

He stressed that in the United States, Epstein had connections across the political spectrum, from Steve Bannon to anti-Zionist thinker Noam Chomsky, and claimed that he was “connected across the board, he had Republican friends, he had Democratic friends. He had much deeper connections to the Israeli left of center than right of center. I don’t know what that means.”

Regarding the war with Iran, the vice president claimed he had real evidence that elements in the Israeli government “hate” the emerging deal and are trying to thwart it. He referred to an article published in Time magazine, which reports that Brad Parscale , the digital strategist behind Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, led a social media campaign on behalf of the Israeli government aimed at strengthening support for Israel among young American conservatives and against the U.S.-Iran ceasefire.

“When I open up the pages of Time magazine, and I see that there's a literal foreign influence campaign being funded to tank the very deal that I was pursuing, and 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,” Vance said. He emphasized that, as he sees it, his role is first and foremost to represent U.S. citizens and carry out the negotiating policy set by President Trump.

Vance compared Israel’s influence efforts to those of Qatar and Russia, explaining that “I should be clear, I don't actually mind that - let's say certain elements of the Israeli government want to criticize the deal or have disagreements about the deal. I don't even mind an effort to try to influence foreign governments to try to influence the United States all the time. You know, Israel does it, other countries do it. It's just sort of the nature of the beast." However, he said it becomes problematic when American leaders allow that influence to shape their decisions “contrary to the American interest.”

The vice president forcefully rejected accusations that his positions stem from antisemitism, calling claims that he had harmed the Jewish religion “insane.” He made clear: “I have a ton of respect for the Jewish religion,” and argued that in the U.S. debate between the pro-Israel camp and the anti-Israel camp, he represents “the moderate and reasonable voice.”

Addressing Israel’s standing, Vance said: “Right now, Israel is losing the battle for public opinion in the United States. That is a simple and obvious fact. Trump said it publicly.” Vance repeated his call to reassess U.S.-Israel relations, defining Israel as an ally similar to France or Britain, with which there are areas of agreement as well as disagreements, according to shared interests.

IdiotBOT1234 on July 16th, 2026 at 19:25 UTC »

Safe to say he’s circling his wagons and has some inside baseball on his boss.

BrewThemAll on July 16th, 2026 at 19:21 UTC »

Vance '28 campaign started.

FreeDependent9 on July 16th, 2026 at 19:13 UTC »

Interesting he’s definitely gonna use this rhetoric to try and distance himself from Trump down the line because of trumps Epstein connections