Vance urges Netanyahu to "give a shot" to Gaza deal
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Vice President Vance before their meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Photo: Nathan Howard/Pool/Getty Images
Vice President Vance on Wednesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "give a shot" to the Gaza ceasefire deal and help implement it, two U.S. officials and one Israeli official familiar with the meeting told Axios.
Why it matters: Vance met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem as an air train of U.S. officials began arriving in Israel to work on stabilizing the fragile ceasefire, the Trump administration's biggest diplomatic breakthrough so far.
- Ahead of the trip, Vance and other senior U.S. officials were concerned about Israel's recent unilateral actions — such as stopping aid to Gaza — that could lead the deal to collapse, a U.S. official said.
- On Thursday, Vance is expected to visit the Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv and receive intelligence and operational briefings from Israeli officials about Gaza and other issues.
Driving the news: Secretary of State Marco Rubio will arrive in Israel on Thursday to work on implementing the deal, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
- "This thing takes monitoring ... not in the sense of, you know, you monitor a toddler .... It's about the fact that it's a lot of work," Vance said in a press conference at the end of his meeting with Netanyahu.
Behind the scenes: During their private meeting, Vance told Netanyahu to "give the deal a chance and give us time to make things happen," U.S. and Israeli officials said.
- Netanyahu replied that he's willing to do that and stressed he wants to see the agreement succeed and move to its next phases.
- In recent days, U.S. officials said, Netanyahu had expressed skepticism to U.S. representatives about the ability to implement the next phases of the deal, which would involve further Israeli withdrawal and deploying foreign troops in Gaza for security.
Between the lines: A senior White House official said that two weeks after the Gaza deal went into effect, the Trump administration is satisfied with the progress made so far and that the U.S. has managed to keep both sides mostly in line, despite clashes over the weekend.
The big picture: While Vance met with Netanyahu, President Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to other countries in the region to try to mobilize support for the next phases of the deal, a U.S. official said.
- On Tuesday Witkoff and Kushner visited Saudi Arabia and met senior officials in Riyadh. On Wednesday they were in Abu Dhabi to talk with senior Emirati officials.
- The visit to Saudi Arabia came a few weeks before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to Washington, in mid-November.
- A senior U.S. official said the administration is trying to marshal Arab support — financial, military and diplomatic — for the international stabilization force that is expected to be deployed in Gaza in the next few months.
- The U.S. also is talking with Persian Gulf countries about establishing a "Board of Peace" that would be headed by Trump and oversee fundraising for Gaza's reconstruction and that process, the U.S. official said.
