Good morning. Uh, a few days ago, we had our historic visit by President Trump that will be etched in the annals of our nation's history. We're fortunate today to have a visit by Vice President JD Vance. Uh, and I want to tell you a few things about that. First, in the last year, we've had an unmatched alliance and, uh, partnership with the United States.
That is changing the Middle East, and it's also changing the world. It creates opportunities not only for security, but for the expansion of peace, which we're working on very, very diligently. Uh, and it's, it's just unmatched. I've been here a few years, you know? I've been through several administrations.
I welcome the partnership and the assistance we've had, but there's never been anything like that. And President Trump said that it's like a partnership. It's never, never happened before. Well, that includes a close circle, both on our side and on the American side. And President Trump knows who he picks for that circle.
One of the members, to put it mildly, is the Vice President. We've had the opportunity to make decisions jointly in a very, uh, tight-knit and trusting partnership. And I was impressed. I was impressed with the, I was impressed with your clarity, with your incisiveness, with your solidarity for our common cause, and the, uh, just a genuine friendship that, uh, uh, I saw in, uh, both in our conference meetings, but also in our private meetings.
And it's in that spirit that I very much welcome you to Jerusalem in these, uh, days of destiny. We're changing the face of the Middle East. Uh, and, uh, I have to say, uh, I was gonna say, you know, bring your family, uh, next year in Jerusalem. But welcome this year in Jerusalem, our great friend JD Vance.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, and thanks to your entire team for your hospitality and for having us. Uh, as the Prime Minister said, these are days of destiny. And, uh, 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, but rebuild Gaza to make, uh, life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel.
Uh, that's not easy. I think the Prime Minister knows that as well as anybody, but it's something that we're committed to in the Trump administration. And I think that we've, even in the past 24 hours had a lot of good conversations with our friends in the Israeli government, but also, frankly, with our friends in the Arab world who are stepping up and volunteering to play a very positive role in this.
So we're gonna keep working at it. I didn't know what to expect, honestly. I know the president was here a week ago to welcome the hostages home and actually sign the deal a week into it. There's a lot of work to do, but I feel very optimistic about where we are. So thank you for the partnership. Uh, thanks for your willingness to continue to work on this, and I think we're gonna do great things here.
It's not gonna be easy. I know that there are some folks in the media who I think are rooting against, uh, this, this proposal, but I think that we have an opportunity to do something really historic. So we're gonna keep working at it, uh, with all, all of our friends in the Israeli government. So thank you so much for having us.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Mr. Trump. Mr. [Inaudible] Prime Minister, Mr. Vice President, you mentioned the media. And now in the media say in recent days that Israel is becoming some kind of vassal state or protectorate of the United States, not only advising what to do, but also commanding what to do. Why do you both comment on that?
And al- -- also another comment on, will you allow Prime Minister Turk, uh, Turkish security personnel to get inside Gaza?
Well, I want to put it very clearly. You know, one week they say that, uh, 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 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. And I think we're, uh, pursuing them successfully. We've been able to, uh, do two things. Put 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 president did brilliantly with this team.
So those two things produced the hostages. Nobody believed we'd get them out.
[Inaudible]
It was, it was done by a cooperative --
[Inaudible]
I, I, I --
-- on the Turks --
[Inaudible]
-- on The question of the Turks. I think, let, let me call the, uh, vice president from yesterday. He said that I have very strong opinions on that.
[Laughs]
And he also said we have to do it with, uh -- You know, Israel will be, obviously decide together on who does that. So I have very strong opinions about that. You want to guess what they are? Yeah, you know them. Okay.
[Inaudible]
I just, I, I want to, guys, for a second --
[Inaudible]
-- I, I, just for a second. I want, I wanna address that. So, look, we don't want, in Israel, we don't want a vassal state, and that's not what Israel is. We don't want a client state, and that's not what Israel is. We want a partnership, we want an ally here. And the president believes very strongly that if Israel takes -- Israel, honestly, with, 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.
Now, that doesn't mean we don't have interests here. 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, and then 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 interest. I happen to think that it's in Israel's best interest too.
[Inaudible]
We're not taking any more question from the foreign press. One more, and that's it. [Inaudible] press here, please.
Vice President Vance, you say that --
Yeah.
-- the ceasefire isn't on the verge of collapse, but why is it that the president sent, uh, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, now yourself, and then Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Israel this week if that's not the case? And if I could, you said that there were joint agreements between the two of you today.
Could you please explain what those were?
Well, to answer your question, look, this thing takes monitoring, and it's gonna take a lot of work. I was in the CMCC, which we opened up yesterday. Uh, a lot of our Israeli friends working together with a lot of Americans to actually mediate this entire ceasefire process, to get some of the critical infrastructure off the ground from the International Security force to some of the reconstruction in Gaza.
Uh, it's not easy. I, I never said it was easy, but what I am is optimistic that the ceasefire is gonna hold, and that we can actually build a better future in the entire Middle East, but that requires some work. So it's not about monitoring ins- -- 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 and the administration to keep on ensuring that our people are doing what we need 'em to do.
Mr. Vice President, how do you --
No, we're not [Inaudible] Prime Minister.
Can you comment on the foreign countries not willing to send troops to Gaza, afraid of Hamas?
[Inaudible] please let the prime minister answer the question.
Uh, the first thing I gotta say is, relative to the previous question, is that when it comes to Israel's security, we do what we have to do. Uh, that's always the case. That's not a, a question, but America has an interest in a strong Israel, as you just heard from the Vice president. Uh, and, uh, I- -- Israel has an interest in a strong America.
America has other interests in this region. Where we can be flexible to accommodate that, that's good, because a strong America is in our interest. And equally, as you just heard the Vice President say again, a strong Israel serves America's interest in stabilizing this very unstable region, and you can't stabilize it without a strong Israel.
So, we make the decisions for the security of Israel, but we make common decisions for the region, which I think can serve us both, and that's what we discussed today. We discussed this idea of the day after. Remember, everybody said, "You don't have a day after, you don't have a day after." We're just creating an unbelievable day after, with a completely new vision of how to have the civil government, how to have the security there, uh, who could provide that security there, again, with Israel taking care of overall security always.
And we discussed that, and I think we have some very, very good ideas how to proceed. It's not gonna be easy, but I think it's possible.
Yeah, I mean we're really creating a peace plan and an infrastructure here, where nothing existed even a week and a day ago. That's gonna require a lot of work. It requires a lot of ingenuity. But again, I, I just, having seen what's already been built in just the past seven days, I think that we're on an incredible pathway here to do something that has never been done, and I think it, you know, you, you've heard Steve Witkoff say this, you've heard the president, I believe, say this, that if we do this the right way, it could create a model, I think, that could lead to other peace agreements all over the world, because it shows what's possible when you're willing to think outside the box and actually put some elbow grease to get it done.
[Crosstalk]
Thank you very much. Thank you. We're done, thank you very much. Thank you.
[Inaudible] Thank you, guys.
Thank you. Thank you.