Vice President JD Vance defended the Trump administration’s Iran deal during an interview with Ross Douthat on the podcast “Interesting Times,” arguing that critics in Israel are reacting to “misinformation.” Vance also stressed that Trump will put American interests first and said Israel “can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem.” Read the full transcript here.

ROSS DOUTHAT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: There is another country in the Middle East that thinks of itself as having a very intimate knowledge of the Iranian regime. Not just the Gulf States, that’s Israel. I don’t think this deal is popular in Israel right now. I don’t think you’re an especially popular figure in Israel today. We’ll see where things are in six months. And one perception I think that people have after watching this war unfold is that there is a certain misalignment maybe between the kind of pragmatic American interest that you just described the president having and the more existential sense of the stakes that Israel has. And one key criticism of the Obama deal from people in the Republican Party, people in Israel, elsewhere, was always that it was focused on the nuclear program and wasn’t focused on Iranian proxies, their support for terrorism around the Middle East, their support for Hezbollah and Hamas. So I’m just curious, do you think there’s a misalignment between the U.S. and Israel? Do you think Israel has incentives to not want this deal to continue? And is there a vision for how you get to a point where Iranian support for Hezbollah isn’t sending rockets into Israel on the regular? VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Well, what I’d say here is that it’s clear that large segments of the Israeli political system and population are very sensitive about this deal. But I also think they’re picking up on some misinformation about the deal and running with it and sort of panicking about it. And I fundamentally believe this deal will be good for the entire region and for the world. That includes, of course, the Israelis. Now, I think it’s important to say that while I do believe that, I do believe that this deal will be good for the entire world. Fundamentally, we’re worried about what’s in the best interest of the American people. And to the extent that, and I think the president has shown this, where he sees misalignment between the goals of the political system in Israel and the goals of the American people, he’s willing to say that we’re going to pursue America’s interests where there are divergences. So there are certainly going to be disagreements from time to time. I think that’s normal. I will say, I don’t, I don’t know, maybe I’ve missed this. I don’t think Bibi himself has actually criticized the deal because I think he’s maybe a little bit more familiar with the details of what’s in it. But yeah, you’ve seen people in their system, Ben and Smotrich, who’ve attacked the deal. And I guess my response to them would be, what is your exact proposal? And, you know, you’re, you’re a country of, of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have. Look at what we’ve accomplished. First of all, Americans have protected a lot of Israeli lives through our missile systems and through our missile programs over the last few months. We have destroyed their nuclear program. We have got the Iranians in a point where they’re offering things again, whether they’ll actually act on them, we’ll see. But they’re offering things that would have been the stuff of dreams even six months ago. So let us play this negotiation out. Let us see if the Iranian actions actually meet the Iranian words and give a little bit of credit to the United States of America, which I think has been an incredible partner for the Israeli government for a long time. DOUTHAT: In the best case, do you think that this deal changes how Hezbollah works? VANCE: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I think that they, there is this, this weird panic almost in the Israeli system that I’ve picked up on, where they assume that everything that is contemplated that is good for Iran will happen, but that will happen without the Iranians changing any behavior. And I just don’t know why anybody would think that’s true. That’s not how the deal is written. The United States has all the financial leverage, like the president of the United States or the secretary of the treasury have to release all these sanctions. Do they actually think we’re going to release sanctions on the Iranian system if they’re still funding a terrorist organization? The answer is of course not. So I find this whole freak out in Israel a little bit odd because I think that it comes from a place of mistrust. And I think that America has earned the trust of that region of the world. We’ve done a very good job by that particular country and that particular government. And I think that the idea that we’ve made a terrible deal is not supported by the facts, but just doesn’t make any sense if you consider the broad length of the relationship.

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