‘Not getting involved’: US Vice President refuses to endorse Netanyahu

US Vice President JD Vance has declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the October 27 elections, Al Jazeera reported. Speaking to journalist Mark Halperin on Monday, a day after President Donald Trump explicitly endorsed Netanyahu, Vance said he preferred to stay on the sidelines and focus on the US midterms.

“I’m not anti-endorsing him. I’m not pro-endorsing him. I’m not getting involved in Israeli elections,” Vance said. “I endorse American candidates and that’s where I’m focused on is the midterms,” he added. Vance last backed a foreign leader in April, when he supported Hungary’s former Prime Minister Victor Orban, who lost in a landslide to Peter Magyar.

Polls have shown the Yashar party, led by former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud party. It remains unclear whether Trump’s endorsement will boost Likud, with some polls indicating wariness of the US president over his perceived attempts to restrain Israeli operations in Lebanon.