WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday cited support from India, countering American Vice President J D Vance’s remarks that the US was its sole powerful ally “anywhere left in the entire world.”
Netanyahu told the ‘Fox News Sunday Briefing’ that Israel has the support of many other countries, including “a small country called India.”
“We have some other friends, like a small country called India, you know, it has 1.4 billion people and, boy, do we have tremendous support there,” Netanyahu said.
Last month, Vance told a briefing at the White House that Israel should respect the US-Iran peace talks.
Asked about reports that Israeli leaders were unhappy with the US-Iran agreement and were criticising President Trump, Vance said, “If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.”
Netanyahu said he was getting a lot of support from India on Facebook.
“You know, I have this Facebook thing, and I have overwhelming support there. I may have many others,” Netanyahu said.
He pushed back against Vance’s claim that Israel has no other allies.
“We have many, many friends,” Netanyahu said, among them countries seeking help from Israel’s top-notch cybersecurity experts.
“Many leaders, you know, call me up and say, ‘Hey, look, I’ve got this problem with public opinion, but I want you to know we respect you, and can we make some deals, and can you teach us some of the things that your military does, and can we have some of your AI and cyber expertise?’" Netanyahu said.
"Israel is the number two country in cyber in the world, and our technology is so good. So the relations are not quite as they appear,” he added.