Thank you.
Welcome, Vice President JD Vance. You and your wife, our dear guests, friends, and the nation of Israel is overjoyed that you're here. And, uh, you, uh, per- -- on a personal level, I must tell you, as I told you, I'm a huge fan of your book, um, on the -- on the hillbillies, uh, since I believe all my, uh, all my life in the fact that we should assume responsibility and help people who are underprivileged in tools that will give them a real chance, I was always impressed by your story and the way you, eh, it was told in this, eh, incredible book.
And thank you for that. Eh, on your visit, you know, our former prime minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin, used to say when he tried to reach peace over 30 years ago and was assassinated in the plight for peace, he said that the torments of peace are much better than the agony of war. And I truly believe that the fact you are here is another brick in building the future for peace.
And thank you for that. Thank President Trump. We all are grateful to President Donald Trump for his steadfast insistence on moving forward. We must move forward. We must offer hope for, eh, the region, for Israel, for the Palestinians, our neighbors, and for the future of our children. So we are grateful for your efforts, and as, as the first step, of course, we insist and we want to see all our hostages back to respectful burial.
And, uh, I know you're gonna meet families now. I thank you for that. And let's hope that your efforts and the administration's efforts will lead to immediate results together with the Israeli government and all partners concerned. Thank you very much, and welcome to Israel.
Well, thank you, President Herzog. It's great to be with you and it's great to be in the Holy Land. Uh, we're, we're thrilled to be welcomed and honored by the, the kindness and the graciousness of you and your, your lovely wife. Uh, we're here to talk about peace. We're here to talk about how to ensure that the peace agreement that started about a week ago sticks, that we move into phase two, into phase three with success.
As the president said, uh, there will be torments along the way. It will be difficult. But I feel very optimistic, uh, based on my conversation with our Israeli friends and also with our Gulf Arab friends, that it's possible that we actually can make peace stick and that we can create the kind of environment where our Gulf Arab friends and our Israeli friends can build a better Middle East for everybody.
So that is the goal of the administration. We think that it's in the best interest of the United States. We also think that it's in the best interest of everybody who lives here. So we'll keep on working on it and working on it together. Thank you.
Shalom to you, my dear friend.
God bless you.
[Crosstalk]
Thank you, press. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, press.