By Ashleigh Fields, reposted from The Hill, July 16, 2026
Vice President Vance said Wednesday that some within the Israeli government “hate” the U.S.- Iran deal spurred by the 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed last month.
“There’s a lot of talk about how much the Israeli government is influencing American politics. There are certainly certain people within the Israeli government who hate the deal. And we see exact evidence,” Vance said during a Wednesday appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.
The MOU cemented a 60-day ceasefire, which has largely been abandoned. The deal intended to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran reaffirmed its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons and agreed to dispose of its enriched uranium stockpiles.
“There are some people within their system, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely,” Vance said to Rogan. “Not toward any objective, but just indefinitely.”
Conservative commentators including Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly have both suggested that the U.S. went to war with Iran at the request of Israel and that President Trump’s recent effort to back out of the conflict is less than ideal for the Israeli government.
“I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal,” the vice president told Rogan.
During their discussion, Vance referenced an article in Time that claimed former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale received $45 million to ensure the U.S. was all in on the war.
*See Time article below*
Parscale was paid to create an online campaign for Israel and produce 100 original pieces of content each month aimed to prevent young conservatives from turning against Israel, according to reporting from Time.
“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,” said Vance, a former Marine and senator who strongly opposed foreign forever wars.
“You know, my response to that is, well, go to hell. I’m going to do what I have to do for the American people. I represent Americans first, and that’s the way that I’ve tried to do this job,” he added.
Parscale has denied being paid to influence public perception on the war, noting in a post online that “there isn’t a single shred of evidence that I acted against the Administration.”
However, Vance said such efforts to undermine and influence American politics are expected.
“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,” he told Rogan.
“What bothers me is actually when American leadership allows that influence to affect their judgment and to affect what they are advocating for. That’s what really bothers me,” he added.
When asked if Trump would have struck Iran earlier this year without Israeli influence, Vance responded “yes.”
“I think the president, separate from any influence from Israel, believes very strongly, and again I agree with this, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to the Time article in a post on X, rejecting the motion that they attempted to violate U.S. law.
“All of our activities are transparent and are conducted in strict compliance with U.S. law. We hide nothing and we obfuscate nothing. We certainly do not interfere in any U.S. foreign or domestic policy,” their post on X said.
“The Ministry lawfully contracted with an experienced digital agency to combat the dissemination of hatred against Jews and Israel, and to strengthen support for the strategic alliance between the United States and Israel. Claims to the contrary, like those raised in the TIME magazine article, are malicious attempts to harm Israel’s good name,” it added.
Trump’s Ex-Campaign Manager Is Running An Israeli Influence Operation Targeting the MAGA Base
By Eric Cortellessa, reposted from Time, July 14, 2026
After the U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire deal on June 17, a senior U.S. official was monitoring the online reaction when they noticed something surprising.
President Donald Trump’s aides had expected his supporters to celebrate the agreement. Instead, online influencers in Trump’s MAGA movement were excoriating it on social media. One shared an Israeli op-ed titled, “You Could Have Been the Greatest President of All—But You Failed.”
Several posted the same video of Qatar’s prime minister appearing to snub Vice President J.D. Vance in Israel, arguing it showed regional powers dismissing the Trump Administration’s “naivete.” Others accused Trump of surrendering before achieving his stated objective of eliminating Iran’s nuclear program. Many of the posts appeared almost simultaneously, with similarities in language and tone.
The official began collecting screenshots, and came to believe it wasn’t a coincidence. Tracing tweets by prominent members of the online right, the official came to believe there was an unlikely figure at the center of all this criticism: Trump’s former presidential campaign manager and digital guru, Brad Parscale.
Last September, the global ad agency Havas hired Parscale’s firm, Clock Tower X, to conduct a digital campaign on behalf of the State of Israel, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings reviewed by TIME. Under the agreement, Parscale’s operation would produce 100 original pieces of content each month, with at least 80% aimed at Gen Z audiences across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and podcasts.
In a Services Agreement draft included in the filing, Parscale also pledged to amplify the campaign across social media and through “integration of narrative messaging into Salem Media Network properties and aligned distribution channels,” referring to the Christian conservative broadcasting and publishing company where he serves as Chief Strategy Officer.
Parscale vowed the effort would produce at least 50 million digital impressions per month, as well as influence how AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini characterized Israel and the war. For all this, Israel agreed to pay Clock Tower X $1.5 million per month.
Publicly, the campaign was framed as an effort to combat rising antisemitism online. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official familiar with the arrangement says there was another strategic aim: preventing young conservatives from turning against Israel. According to the official, Parscale presented himself as uniquely positioned to improve Israel’s reputation among young conservatives.
He stressed his experience at the helm of Trump’s political operation, with a grasp of both the architecture of the modern internet and the political movement Trump had built. His position at Salem—whose radio stations, websites, podcasts, and digital properties were part of the conservative media ecosystem he promised to mobilize—was a boon as well.
While Parscale acknowledges that the operation was intended to prevent young conservatives from drifting away from Israel, he says neither he nor his firms played any role in turning opinion against Trump’s objectives. “I have never funded, organized, or participated in any effort to undermine President Trump—ever—including his MOU or ceasefire proposal,” Parscale tells TIME. “The claim that I am coordinating an effort to prolong the war is completely false. The only people manufacturing a conflict between President Trump, Israel, and me are anonymous officials using background quotes to make me the bogeyman.”
*Read the rest of the article here*
Ashleigh Fields is an award-winning journalist specializing in coverage of lawmakers in the White House and Capitol Hill.
Cortellessa is a senior correspondent at TIME, based in the Washington, D.C., bureau. He covers Congress, Donald Trump, and national politics.
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