Standing side by side in the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance pushed back on growing chatter that Israel had become a “client state” of Washington, insisting instead that the two countries are working as equals to implement President Donald Trump’s sweeping Gaza peace plan.

The meeting came as senior American officials fanned out across the region to monitor progress on the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and to coordinate the next phase of Trump’s 20-point “Gaza Transition Framework” — the plan to disarm Hamas, reconstruct the battered enclave, and pave the way for new local governance.

“One week they say Israel controls the United States. A week later, they say the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash,” Netanyahu said pointedly. “We have a partnership — an alliance of partners who share common values and common goals.”

Vance, on his second visit to Israel since taking office, met privately with Netanyahu before joining an expanded meeting with aides and top U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who arrived earlier in the week to accelerate implementation of the Gaza plan. The trio’s presence underscored Washington’s hands-on approach to stabilizing the post-war landscape — and Trump’s determination to brand the ceasefire as a diplomatic milestone.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was set to arrive Thursday for further consultations, marking his third trip to Israel since mid-September. “It shows the hand-in-hand relationship the United States and Israel have as we mark this historic time,” Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said.

The agenda in Jerusalem centered on disarmament logistics, Gaza reconstruction, and the design of a new international oversight board to manage aid and civil administration — all politically fraught issues that will define the ceasefire’s durability.

“We don’t want a client state, and that’s not what Israel is,” Vance said. “We want a partnership. We want an ally here.”

He described his visit as part of a broader effort to ensure “our people are doing what we need them to do” — an acknowledgment that U.S. officials are effectively embedded alongside Israeli counterparts in the new ceasefire coordination hub in Kiryat Gat.

While Israel relies heavily on American military and diplomatic support, Netanyahu stressed that ultimate control remains in Jerusalem’s hands. “We make the decisions for the security of Israel,” he said. “But we make common decisions for the region, which can serve us both.”

The prime minister praised Trump’s team for “brilliantly isolating Hamas in the Arab and Muslim world,” crediting the U.S. for rallying Gulf and North African states to endorse the ceasefire. “We have succeeded in putting the knife at Hamas’s throat,” Netanyahu said. “The next phase is ensuring they never rise again.”

Israeli officials have described the current stage of the ceasefire as “managed peace” — fragile but functional, maintained through U.S.-backed intelligence sharing and drone surveillance over Gaza. Netanyahu made clear that any renewed Hamas aggression would trigger an immediate Israeli response.

“If Hamas lifts a finger,” he warned, “the full weight of the IDF will return.”

For Vance, the visit was as much about messaging as management. At a press conference Tuesday inside the Kiryat Gat coordination center, he projected confidence in Trump’s Gaza plan and framed it as an opportunity to “build on the Abraham Accords” by strengthening regional alliances that could ultimately lessen America’s day-to-day involvement in Middle East conflicts.

“The president believes that Israel, with our Gulf Arab allies, can play a very positive leadership role in this region,” Vance said. “Our goal is that the United States can care less about the Middle East — because our allies are stepping up and taking ownership of their area of the world.”

Vance cast that approach not as disengagement but as empowerment. “It’s about creating an alliance structure that endures,” he said, one that “allows the good people in this region to step up and take ownership of their own backyard.” If successful, he added, the Gaza model “could create a template for peace agreements all over the world.”

The vice president’s remarks echoed Trump’s vision of a Middle East stabilized by local power centers and economic reconstruction rather than direct U.S. intervention. But his tone — part populist, part realist — also reflected his own political brand: blunt, transactional, and skeptical of endless entanglements.

Both Netanyahu and Vance acknowledged that the hardest work lies ahead. Hamas’s disarmament remains incomplete, and Gaza’s reconstruction will require billions in international aid. Questions about who will govern the territory — and under what security framework — are unresolved.

“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us,” Vance said. “To disarm Hamas, to rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people there, but also to ensure Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel.”

He said his meetings with Israeli and Arab leaders showed “very good conversations” and an emerging willingness among regional powers to play “a positive role” in enforcing the ceasefire and funding Gaza’s recovery.

Netanyahu, in turn, promised a “completely new vision” for Gaza’s future — one built on Israeli and U.S. coordination but rooted in Arab participation. “We discussed who will run Gaza and who will provide security there, and there are some very, very good ideas,” he said. When asked about Turkey’s potential involvement, the prime minister was unequivocal: “There will be no Turkish presence in Gaza.”

After wrapping meetings with Netanyahu, Vance met Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who thanked Trump “for his steadfast insistence on moving forward.” Herzog called for a regional vision that offers “hope for Israel, for our Palestinian neighbors, and for our children.”

Vance, accompanied by Second Lady Usha Vance and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, also met with hostage families and survivors of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “We’re here to talk about peace,” Vance told them, according to his office. “To ensure the peace agreement sticks — and that we can move to stage two and stage three with success.”

In the guestbook at the President’s Residence, the vice president left a note that mixed diplomacy with Midwestern warmth: “To the president and people of Israel — you have a beautiful country. Thank you for your kindness and welcome!!!”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)