Vice President JD Vance remains optimistic that peace will hold in Gaza between Hamas terrorists and Israel, but he stressed the U.S. is not going to "babysit" Israel.
"We don't want a vassal state, and that's not what Israel is," Vance told reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We don't want a client state, and that's not what Israel is.
"We want a partnership. We want an ally here."
Vance said he wants to get to a peace where the "U.S. 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."
Vance said "the opportunity to build on the Abraham Accords" will help the U.S. be more hands off in a region long roiled by jihad and terrorist attacks.
"It's not about monitoring in the sense of, you know, you monitor a toddler," Vance said. "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."
Netanyahu blasted the media rhetoric in trying to drive a divide between Israel and President Donald Trump's America and peace efforts.
"One week they say Israel controls the United States — another week they say the United States controls Israel: This is hogwash," Netanyahu said. "We have a partnership."
Ultimately, the Middle East allies and the leadership of Israel guiding them on Gaza security can bring the "everlasting peace" Trump talked about last week, according to Vance.
"I think that we have an opportunity to do something really historic, so we're going to keep working at it with all of our friends in the Israeli government," Vance said.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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