Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday denied that Israel was a “protectorate state” or a “vassal” of the US after being questioned about the growing criticism of the US-Israel relationship and Israel’s reliance on US military aid.
“Well, I want to put it very clearly, you know, one week they say that Israel controls the United States. A week later, they say that the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash,” Netanyahu told reporters at his office in Jerusalem before holding a meeting with Vance.
“We have a partnership, 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 over the past year we have had agreement,” the Israeli leader added.
Addressing the question, Vance said, “We don’t want a client state, and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership. We want an ally here.”
The US vice president also appeared to respond to the criticism of the US monitoring of the Gaza ceasefire and the slew of high-level US officials visiting Israel this week. US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his advisor, Jared Kushner, were also in Israel this week, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make the trip on Friday.
“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,” Vance said.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that, according to several Trump officials, there is concern within the administration that Netanyahu may vacate the ceasefire deal and that the strategy is for Vance, Kushner, and Witkoff to prevent him from restarting the full-scale bombing campaign in Gaza.
The US military has established a monitoring center in southern Israel, where it’s expected to deploy about 200 troops. During his visit to Israel, Vance issued warnings to Hamas about violating the truce and hasn’t raised Israel’s repeated violations, which include attacks in Gaza that have killed at least 88 Palestinians and continued restrictions on aid.
