The White House said U.S. Vice President JD Vance will not visit Israel on Tuesday following his attendance at Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration on Sunday, as previously reported by Channel 12‘s Amit Segal.
Segal’s report, picked up by numerous outlets, said that Vance’s trip was meant to signal that relations between the U.S. and Israel remain strong despite U.S. President Donald Trump skipping the country in his recent Mideast tour.
“Israel sees the visit as important, due to Vance’s affiliation with the isolationist wing of the administration and also as a signal to the region that relations between the U.S. and Israel are still stable and strong,” Segal posted to X on Sunday.
He referred to Vance’s strong endorsement of Trump’s “America First” policy, which has raised concerns about the vice president’s commitment to an active U.S. role in world affairs, including support for Israel.
However, during the presidential election Vance expressed support for continued American involvement. “The idea that there is ever going to be an American foreign policy that doesn’t care a lot about that slice of the world is preposterous,” he said.
He also espoused traditional Republican positions, calling the 2015 Iran nuclear deal a “disaster,” describing Israel as America’s “most important ally” and endorsing Trump’s decision in his first term to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates between May 13-16 raised some concern among Israel supporters.
It marked his first official trip as president, during which he locked in more than $2 trillion in business deals and investments, including $600 billion from Saudi Arabia, $1.2 trillion from Qatar, another $243.5 billion in commercial and defense deals, and $200 billion with the UAE.
Trump also accepted a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from Qatar, referred to as a “flying palace” due to its opulence. Trump plans to use the plane as Air Force One. White House lawyer David Warrington concluded it would be “legally permissible,” ABC News reported.
The Qatar visit, along with the jet gift, generated the most criticism, with detractors pointing out that Qatar supports Muslim Brotherhood terrorist groups such as Hamas, and is aligned with Iran.
Also of concern to supporters of Israel was Trump’s meeting in Saudi Arabia with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The president agreed to remove U.S. sanctions from Syria.
Al-Shaara leads an Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. In March, his forces carried out mass killings against Alawite areas in western Syria. Al-Shaara condemned the attacks and set up a fact-finding committee to investigate.
On May 15, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which they discussed Trump’s meeting with al-Shaara and reiterated the mutual U.S.-Israel commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, according to a State Department readout of the call.
Further details weren’t given.
