Vance, seen as highly involved in Trump’s foreign policy, arrives to oversee move to phase 2
U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel early Tuesday afternoon for meetings with Israeli leaders, as the White House hopes to keep the tenuous Gaza ceasefire in place.
After Israel announced its agreement to the ceasefire, and the Hamas terror organization said that it had accepted some of the terms of the agreement earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a historic peace deal between the two, commencing with a ceasefire and the release of all Israeli hostages.
Shortly after President Trump’s announcement, which came via a Truth Social post, the Israeli government announced its acceptance of the Trump Peace Plan, and instituted a ceasefire and a withdrawal to the “yellow line” as specified in the deal.
The announcement of the peace plan also led to Trump’s first visit to Israel since winning reelection, and the first address by a sitting U.S. President to the Knesset since 2008. President Trump then went to a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where several partner countries to the peace deal held a signing ceremony.
However, the newly signed peace deal appeared to be under threat within just a few hours after it was agreed upon, when Hamas began intense efforts to reestablish itself in areas vacated by the IDF.
After videos of Hamas fighters publicly executing opponents began to leak on social media, President Trump suggested that he would be open to Israel resuming its fight against the terror group.
The next day, however, Trump appeared to be losing patience with Hamas, writing on Truth Social, “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
After Hamas committed several violations of the ceasefire over the weekend and early on Sunday morning, leading to the death of two soldiers, the IDF carried out several strikes against “dozens” of Hamas targets.
The Israeli government later announced the renewal of the ceasefire, with some news sites claiming that Israel bowed to pressure from President Trump’s advisers, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
Vice President Vance’s arrival in Israel, coming right after talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. envoys Witkoff and Kushner, also comes as a Hamas delegation is meeting with mediators in Cairo.
According to a report in The New York Times, the Trump administration is purportedly concerned that Netanyahu could “dismantle the U.S.-brokered agreement,” due to pressure from his coalition partners.
That report claims that Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner are trying to prevent Netanyahu and Israel from launching “an all-out assault against Hamas.”
However, President Trump has continued to make statements indicating he could allow Israel to resume operations against Hamas if the terror group doesn’t “behave.”
“We made a deal with Hamas that, you know, they’re going to be very good. They’re going to behave. They’re going to be nice,” President Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “And if they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them if we have to. They’ll be eradicated. And they know that.”
Vance’s visit comes as Israel and Hamas will be required to take more difficult steps to move into the second phase of the deal, including the disarmament of the terror group.
Hamas remains opposed to disarming, as outlined in the peace agreement, and recently has made statements indicating it intends to remain part of the governance of Gaza, which is also against the terms of the deal.
Vance, who is seen as highly involved in the administration’s foreign policy, has previously described the peace agreement as tenuous, involving “fits and starts.”
On Sunday, Vance said that there would probably be several road bumps along the way.
“Hamas is going to fire on Israel,” he said. “Israel is going to have to respond. Some of Hamas’ cells will probably honor the ceasefire, and many of them will not. To properly disarm Hamas, we’ll need Gulf Arab states to get forces in there to apply some law and order and security keeping on the ground.”
This article was originally published at All Israel News
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