Gone are the days when you would find the most interesting and thoughtful commentary in the pages of The New Republic. Today, you can find the lightest straw men there. A recent article concerning the Iran war and the surrounding political commentary highlights this change.
On June 19, 2026, Hafiz Rashid penned a piece entitled “Republicans Turn Against JD Vance After His Stark Warning to Israel.” Republican supporters of Israel had criticized Vice President Vance after he warned Israel not to question President Donald Trump over the Memorandum of Understanding reached with Iran, which Vance had negotiated and Trump had signed. Rashid begins by quoting some detractors and Vance’s response.
Then, the article takes a sharp turn:
The backlash to Vance reveals that many conservatives want Israel to have a blank check, regardless of U.S. interests. Vance is also getting off easy compared to Democrats, who are called antisemites for anything resembling criticism of Israel, as Abby Phillip pointed out on CNN Thursday. Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and continues to kill civilians in Lebanon, trying to prevent any checks on its actions and block any hope of peace.
On Gaza, Rashid cites another New Republic article from 2025, which makes the same tired argument that is so stubborn that even facts cannot penetrate it.
His assertion about Lebanon, on the other hand, is peculiar. True, Israel killed civilians in Lebanon, as the United States did in World War II and Ukraine currently does in Russia. Civilians have always been victims in every conflict, including just wars. The fact itself is not a stain on Israel’s honor, unless Rashid believes that the war against Hezbollah—which Rashid treats as a non-entity except for a single, secondary reference when quoting a critic—is unjust. That would simply be bad writing to pose such a thesis and without ever backing it up with evidence.
The last line, “trying to prevent any checks on its actions and block any hope of peace,” combines non-sequiturs and platitudes, and is best left ignored.
The assertion regarding a “blank check” is worth the most attention. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has received about $22 billion in foreign military assistance. We can start there: The check is not blank.
It comes with strings attached. Throughout the Gaza War, the United States required Israel to facilitate the delivery of food and medication into Gaza. Remember the controversy around the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation? That was literally adding strings to the military assistance America provided to Israel. The United States ensured similar treatment to the Afghan and Iraqi populations during its own wars.
Such actions are historically rare; the United States had never imposed them on a partnered belligerent before. When President Franklin Roosevelt gave destroyers to the United Kingdom, he certainly did not demand that the British Army feed Germans. Likewise, President Barack Obama did not demand the Iraqi government treat the Iraqi people humanely when providing military assistance in the fight against the Islamic State. Both the Obama and Trump administrations gave the Saudi and Emirati governments a free hand in their botched war against the Houthis in Yemen. The Jew among nations is the only one that must go the extra thousands of miles.
Furthermore, U.S. laws and ratified international treaties constrain the provision of military assistance. Several statutes require the executive branch to report the provision of aid to Congress and explain how Israel uses it according to those constraints. Rashid might have had a better idea of how Israel is not deliberating targeting civilians had he read those reports. They might be dull, but a good journalist would do more than mindlessly repeat platitudes and propaganda.
Alas, The New Republic no longer hires such journalists.