'No client state': US VP Vance & PM Netanyahu emphasize 'tight-knit and trusting partnership' between their gov'ts

U.S. Vice President JD Vance met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the second day of his visit to Israel on Wednesday, with both leaders rejecting allegations of one state controlling the other and stressing their partnership.

Vance’s visit comes between those of key White House envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff – who arrived Monday and left Wednesday – and U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio.

Rubio was expected to arrive in Israel on Thursday, a U.S. official told The Times of Israel, while Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters he would meet Netanyahu on Friday.

Discussions with all four U.S. leaders are reportedly focused on consolidating and advancing the Gaza ceasefire. While the U.S. aims to begin talks on the second phase, Israel seeks first to recover all hostage bodies to complete the first phase.

After a closed-door meeting on Wednesday morning, Netanyahu and Vance issued joint remarks before answering questions from reporters.

“I want to put it very clearly,” Netanyahu said, addressing a question about allegations “that Israel controls the United States. A week later, they say the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash.”

“We have a partnership,” Netanyahu stressed. “An alliance of partners who share common values and common goals. We can have discussions, we can have disagreements here and there, but on the whole, I have to say that in the past year we’ve had agreement; agreement not only on goals but how to reach them.”

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

Netanyahu also praised Israel's “very tight-knit and trusting partnership” with the Trump administration, which he said succeeded in isolating Hamas “in the Arab and Muslim world, which I think the [US] president did brilliantly with his team,” after Israel’s military operations put “the knife at Hamas’s throat.”

The prime minister also addressed the question of whether Turkish troops will join the planned international peacekeeping mission in Gaza. “Israel will, obviously, have to decide together on who does that. So I have very strong opinions about that,” Netanyahu said.

His office later told The Times of Israel: “There will be no Turkish involvement.”

In his remarks, Vance confirmed his and the other U.S. officials’ visits are aimed at monitoring the ceasefire, while noting, “It’s not about monitoring in the sense of, you know, you monitor a toddler. It’s about monitoring in the sense that there’s a lot of work, a lot of good people who are doing that work, and it’s important for the principals in the administration to keep on ensuring that our people are doing what we need them to do.”

He said that he “had a lot of good conversations with our friends in the Israeli government but also, frankly, with our friends in the Arab world who are stepping up and volunteering to play a very positive role in this.”

Vance, who is widely seen as one of the main proponents of more isolationism in the administration, said that Trump believes Israel and the Gulf states “can play a very positive leadership role in this region, to where frankly the United States can care less about the Middle East because our allies in the region are stepping up, and taking control and taking ownership of their area of the world.”

He also noted that the ceasefire is “a critical piece of unlocking the Abraham Accords, but what it could allow is an alliance structure in the Middle East that… allows the good people in this region of the world to step up and take ownership of their own backyard. That’s in the United States’ best interests. I happen to think that’s in Israel’s best interests, too.”

Later on Wednesday, Vance met with Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, who told him that he was impressed with his book, "Hillbilly Elegy," and added, "I have believed all my life in the fact that we should assume responsibility and help people who are underprivileged with tools that will give them a real chance.”

“I was always impressed by your story and the way it was told in this incredible book; thank you for that,” Herzog continued.

“I truly believe that the fact you're here is another brick in building the future for peace. And thank you for that. Thank President Trump. We all are grateful to President Donald Trump for his steadfast insistence on moving forward.”

Vance then thanked Herzog, noting, “It's great to be in the Holy Land… 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.”

“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.”