US Vice President JD Vance stressed that the US does not want to control Israel during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.
"Israel is not an American protectorate," Netanyahu stated, adding that the country would “have the final say regarding her security."
Vance's meeting with Netanyahu came as part of the US VP's schedule in Israel, and was centered around the “challenge of holding the ceasefire and rebuilding Gaza.”
"We have a very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel," Vance said, and added, "It's not easy. I think the prime minister knows that as well as anybody. But it's something that we are committed to in the Trump administration."
I think we've had a lot of good conversations with our friends in the Israeli government, as well as with our friends in the Arab world who are stepping up and volunteering to play a very positive role in this. So we're going to keep working at it."
Vance’s schedule in Israel also included meetings with President Isaac Herzog and Yehoshua Shani, father of the late Capt. Ori Shani and chairman of the Gvura Families of the Fallen Forum.
Vance meeting with Herzog, families of the fallen
"It is clear to the US that Hamas must be completely removed from Gaza in order to restore security," said Vance during his meeting with Shani and the families of the fallen soldiers.
"I ask you to work toward decisively defeating Hamas and returning the hostages. The United States must allow Israel to complete the mission of destroying the enemy," Shani asked Vance.
"We are working on this with the Israeli government,“ the US Vice President answered and then added, "I cannot guarantee that everyone will return, but we are working on this together with the other partners to make it happen as quickly as possible."
“We're here to talk about peace. We're here to talk about how to ensure that the peace agreement that started about a week ago sticks, that we move into phase two, into phase three with success,” said Vance during his meeting with Herzog.
“As the President said, there will be torments along the way. It will be difficult, but I feel very optimistic based on my conversation with our Israeli friends and also with our Gulf Arab friends, that it's possible that we actually can make peace stick, and that we can create the kind of environment where our Gulf Arab friends and our Israeli friends can build a better Middle East for everybody,” he concluded.