Netanyahu rejects idea Israel is a US client state: ‘Hogwash’; Vance: We’re monitoring ceasefire, but not like ‘you monitor a toddler’

After his meeting with US Vice President JD Vance, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the idea that Israel is an American client state as “hogwash.”

“I want to put it very clearly,” he says 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,” says 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 says 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 makes similar comments on the relationship.

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

He says his visit and those of other senior officials are aimed at monitoring the ceasefire. But, he goes on, “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 adds: “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.”

“That doesn’t mean we don’t have interests here,” Vance continues. “That doesn’t mean we don’t care about what happens here. But 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.”

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