After meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Vice President JD Vance rejected claims that Israel is an American “client state” and emphasized their partnership in working to implement Washington’s plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip.

The two discussed progress on the next phases of the plan, including Hamas disarmament and Gaza reconstruction, with Vance describing the deal as an opportunity to strengthen regional alliances.

Vance had arrived in Israel the previous day, whereupon he projected confidence in US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan at a press conference held in the new US-Israel ceasefire coordination center in Kiryat Gat.

Top White House aides Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived on Monday — like Vance, to advance and bolster the Gaza plan — and reportedly departed on Wednesday afternoon.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was expected to arrive in the country on Thursday, a US official told The Times of Israel, and Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian later confirmed this, telling reporters that Rubio would meet Netanyahu on Friday.

“This is the secretary of state’s third trip to Israel since mid-September, which further shows the hand-in-hand relationship that Israel and the United States have as we mark this historic time,” she said.

‘Not a client state’

Netanyahu and Vance had a private sit-down on Wednesday morning before holding an expanded meeting with their aides. In joint remarks after the meetings, both leaders pushed back at the notion that Israel acts at Washington’s behest, framing the bond between their countries as one of equals working toward shared strategic goals.

“I want to put it very clearly,” the premier said in response to a question. “One week, they say that Israel controls the United States. A week later, they say the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash.”

“We have a partnership, an alliance of partners,” said Netanyahu, “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.”

Netanyahu said Israel has succeeded in “putting the knife at Hamas’s throat — that was the military effort guided by Israel — and the other effort was to isolate Hamas in the Arab and Muslim world, which I think the [US] president did brilliantly with his team.”

Vance made similar comments on the relationship between the countries, saying: “We don’t want a client state, and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership. We want an ally here.”

He said his visit and those of other senior officials were aimed at monitoring the ceasefire. But, he clarified, “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.”

“The president believes that Israel, with our Gulf Arab allies, 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 added.

“That doesn’t mean we don’t have interests here,” Vance continued, noting that the regional backing of the Gaza ceasefire could lay the foundation for expanding the Abraham Accords normalization agreements between Israel and neighboring countries — a goal shared by Israel and the Trump administration.

“We actually see this as an opportunity to build on the Abraham Accords, I think this Gaza deal is a critical piece of unlocking the Abraham Accords, but what it could allow is an alliance structure in the Middle East that perseveres, that endures, 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,” Vance said.

He later added that if the plan in Gaza is done right, it could “create a model for peace agreements all over the world.”

“We make the decisions for the security of Israel,” Netanyahu added. “But we make common decisions for the region, which I think can serve us both.”

‘Tough task ahead’

In additional comments following the meeting, Vance and Netanyahu highlighted the difficulties that lay ahead surrounding the next stages of implementation of the Gaza ceasefire framework, while saying that progress on achieving them was promising.

After Netanyahu hailed Vance’s “genuine friendship” toward Israel, the US vice president stated that “these are days of destiny, and we’re very excited to sit down and work together on the Gaza peace plan.”

“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas, to 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,” he said.

The vice president said that over the past day, there had been very good conversations with Israel and with Arab countries, “who are stepping up to play a very positive role in this.”

“We’re just creating an unbelievable day after, with a completely new vision,” Netanyahu said, adding that they discussed who would run Gaza and who would provide security in the Strip, and that there were some “very, very good ideas.”

Asked about a potential Turkish presence in Gaza, the premier said: “Israel will, obviously, have to decide together on who does that. So I have very strong opinions about that.”

Netanyahu’s office was more explicit in a comment Wednesday to The Times of Israel: “There will be no Turkish involvement.”

Herzog to Vance: ‘We must offer hope to region’

Later on Wednesday, Vance met with President Isaac Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

According to a readout from his office, the president expressed Israel’s gratitude to Trump “for his steadfast insistence on moving forward,” saying: “We must move forward, we must offer hope for the region, for Israel, for our Palestinian neighbors, and for the future of our children.”

He added that “we insist and want to see all of our hostages back for a respectful burial,” referring to the remaining deceased hostages held in Gaza.

Vance told Herzog that “we’re here to talk to about peace,” the readout added, saying: “We’re here to talk about how to ensure that the peace agreement that started about a week ago sticks, that we can move to stage two and stage three with success.”

In the president’s official guestbook, Vance wrote: “To the president and people of Israel — you have a beautiful country. Thank you for your kindness and welcome!!!”

Vance, along with US Second Lady Usha Vance and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, later met with a group of hostages’ families in Jerusalem. The delegation included former hostages, family members of deceased hostages who are still in Gaza, and family members of those killed in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, Vance’s office said.