JD Vance: Who is Trump's pro-Israel vice president-elect?

JD Vance, a 40-year-old Ohio senator who many pundits see as Donald Trump's heir apparent and the 2028 Republican presidential candidate, was elected vice president of the United States on Tuesday.

The self-described hillbilly-turned-Marine-turned-Ivy League law-school graduate is perhaps best known among US voters for his rustbelt, conservative politics. 

In his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, Vance addressed the economic and social issues plaguing the US’s forgotten hinterlands. He sought to explain why Trump resonated among white working-class families like his own. 

Vance would later promote Trump's "America First" foreign policy and, in a January 2023 opinion article in The Wall Street Journal, argue that he preferred the type of statesmanship that pursued US national interests - but with great restraint.

Vance said the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and US-led regime change in Libya, amongst other wars, had not served "the nation’s long-term interest".

"Very few were ever challenged by a leader of national significance," Vance argued, adding: "That is, of course, until Donald Trump came along."

After he was announced as Trump's running mate in July, Vance worked to establish himself as a key surrogate on the world stage promoting Trump's "America First" global policy.

Although his foreign policy includes a deep suspicion of foreign entanglements and alliances, he has remained a strong supporter of Israel. Those views were on full display earlier this year when Vance opposed aid to Ukraine but insisted on backing Israel’s war on Gaza.

"I support Israel and their campaign against Hamas. I also admire the Ukrainians fighting against Russia, but I believe it's not in America’s interest to continue funding what seems like an endless conflict in Ukraine," Vance said.

"It's odd to equate Israel and Ukraine as similar issues. They're fundamentally different, and we should analyse them separately."

Supporter of Gaza war and normalisation deals

Vance saw his political career blossom once he cultivated ties with pro-Israel billionaire Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who bankrolled his senate campaign. 

Thiel is the co-founder of Palantir Technologies, the CIA-backed analytics firm that has played an important part in Israel's war on Gaza. Palantir is often referred to as the "scariest" of America's tech giants, while others have called it "the AI arms dealer of the 21st century".

Thiel introduced Vance to Silicon Valley following his graduation from Yale Law School and bankrolled Vance's 2021 campaign for the Senate with $15m.

It was the biggest amount donated to a single Senate candidate at the time. 

Vance's inclusion on Trump's ticket, together with Trump's bonhomie with several Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, has signalled that the administration will prioritise a pro-tech and pro-innovation approach to the economy as envisioned by Thiel.

In a speech delivered at the Quincy Institute in May, two months before he was announced as Trump's running mate, Vance addressed the contradiction between his conditional support for Ukraine and professed unconditional support for Israel. 

"A majority of citizens of this country think that their savior, and I count myself a Christian, was born, died, and resurrected in that narrow little strip of territory off the Mediterranean," he said.

"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.

"We want the Israelis and the Sunnis to police their own region of the world. We want the Europeans to police their own region of the world, and we want to be able to focus more on East Asia," he added.

Vance has since backed Israel's devastating military offensive on Gaza, which has killed at least 43,000 Palestinians, saying it was necessary to achieve a normalisation agreement between Israel and Arab Gulf states.

"Hamas initiated the conflict and now uses Palestinian civilians as shields. To learn from the past 40 years, our priority should be to dismantle Hamas as a military force," he said.

"You can't eliminate Hamas's ideology, but you can eliminate their commanders and military units, and I believe Israel should be empowered to do so."

At the same time, Vance has expressed concerns about an escalation involving Iran.

On 26 October, Vance indicated that US and Israeli interests won't always overlap and tied this stance to his opposition to a war with Iran.

"America's interest is sometimes going to be distinct," he told The Tim Dillon Show.

"Sometimes we’re going to have overlapping interests, and sometimes we're going to have distinct interests. And our interest very much is in not going to war with Iran. It would be a huge distraction of resources. It would be massively expensive to our country."

Instead of the US starting a war with Iran, Vance said that Washington should "let the Israelis and the Gulf Arab states provide the counterbalance to Iran".

"America doesn't have to constantly police every region of the world. We should empower people to police their own regions of the world. One, we would save a lot of money. Two, we'd save a lot of focus."