Former US Vice President Mike Pence sharply criticized Vice President JD Vance on Thursday over his remarks concerning America's relationship with Israel, warning against growing opposition to the Jewish state from both sides of the political spectrum.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, his first since the midterm elections, Pence expressed concern about the positions emerging from Vance's office and reaffirmed his longstanding support for the US-Israel alliance.
Pence said he has "great concerns about what I've heard coming out of the vice president's office with regard to Israel."
"If the world knows nothing else, the world should know that America stands with Israel. Israel is our most cherished ally. It is the only democracy in the Arab world," Pence emphasized.
The former vice president also warned that opposition to American support for Israel can serve as a cover for antisemitic attitudes, a phenomenon he said was evident on both the political left and right.
Pence said he's "very troubled at the way that criticism of Israel on the left and on the right collapses too often into antisemitism and antisemitic rhetoric. There's no place in America for antisemitism on the left or on the right and the people that are wringing their hands about US support for Israel, I get the feeling sometimes they're just using that as a thinly veiled excuse for their antisemitism."
His remarks followed Vance's suggestion that dissatisfaction with the Trump administration's relationship with Israel contributed to the Republican Party's defeat in the midterm elections.
The morning after Election Day, Vance attributed the party's losses primarily to the conflict with Iran.
"The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night," Vance wrote.
The vice president also cited an unnamed pollster who reportedly found that voters who had abandoned the Republican Party wanted the administration to end the war, address inflation and rising living costs, prioritize American interests and reconsider its relationship with Israel.
Pence rejected that interpretation, arguing that the administration's failure to bring the military campaign against Iran to a decisive conclusion, rather than its decision to launch the operation, had contributed to public dissatisfaction.
"I disagree with the vice president about the reasons for the midterm election outcome," Pence told Fox News Digital.
"There's no question that the war in Iran became a frustration for millions of Americans, but it wasn't because President Trump started the war or took on Iran. It's because we stopped short and didn't finish it," Pence said. "As Americans saw the politics of appeasement that the administration embraced, one negotiation after another, I think people became... frustrated with the lack of progress, frustrated with the price of fuel at the pump."
Nevertheless, Pence cautioned against attributing the Republican losses to any single issue.
He emphasized that "the reasons for this midterm election were much more complex than gasoline prices or the war in Iran. So, I respectfully disagree with my successor in that regard."
An ally of Vance responded to Pence's criticism with a personal attack on the former vice president and his foreign policy positions.
"Former Vice President Pence had to retreat into the think tank world because his politics never developed past the Bush-era neocon warmongering that dragged us into the Middle East in the first place. He is laughably out of touch with how people feel in the real world," the Vance ally told Fox News Digital.
President Donald Trump last week acknowledged Vance's assessment when questioned by reporters about the election results.
However, Trump maintained that he would still have authorized the military campaign against Iran if faced with the same circumstances again.