JERUSALEM, Israel – The steady stream of U.S. officials visiting Israel continued with the arrival of Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, just after Vice President JD Vance left, and Vance was preceded by Trump mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Some have wondered why so many visits were crammed into one week, but as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted, these are “days of destiny.”
Netanyahu met with Rubio shortly after his arrival.
The prime minister told Rubio, “This is a circle of trust and partnership. You’ve been an extraordinary friend of Israel, and now we face days of destiny. We want to advance peace; we still have security challenges, but I think that we can work together and, by working together, both address the challenges and seize the opportunities.”
Rubio observed that it was just over a week since the “historic day” in which President Trump’s work led to the “extraordinary” breakthrough, with the release of the 20 living hostages in Gaza.
“Now, we have more work ahead of us, but we feel very positive about it. We’re making good progress. It’s amazing that in just seven or eight days, the kinds of things and systems that have been set up,” Rubio stated. “No one’s under any illusions. This is – we’ve already done the impossible once, and we intend to keep doing that, and we can, we have good partners that we’re working on. But we feel confident and positive about the progress that’s being made. We’re clear-eyed about the challenges, too.”
Rubio believes the Gaza peace deal is Trump’s “top priority,” evidenced by all the officials he has sent to the region.
“It’s a very important achievement, but there’s more work to be done and bigger achievements that lie ahead. And so we’re here to work on that, and we feel very positive and confident that we’re gonna get there despite substantial obstacles. We’re gonna get there,” Rubio said.
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The secretary of state arrived just after a small number of Knesset members passed the first reading of a bill to extend Israeli sovereignty over biblical Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank.
Time Magazine released its interview with President Trump, in which he said Israel won’t annex Judea and Samaria. The magazine quoted Trump as saying, “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”
When asked about the Knesset vote, Trump told the reporter not to worry about it, that Israel isn’t going to do anything.
Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying, “The Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel. The two bills are sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset.“
Vance called the vote “an insult” and declared, “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
Tech columnist and Israel advocate Hillel Fuld tells CBN News he sees the vote as part of a global political trend to tear down the political opposition.
“It’s sort of like, anything to embarrass Bibi and JD Vance. Vice President JD Vance was visiting Israel, and so the opposition said, ‘Oh, here’s a good way to give it to Bibi. I’m gonna – we’re going to vote for, you know, sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and just annoy the vice president,’ which they did. And it worked because he said he was offended, which is a very strange statement to make,” Fuld said.
Regarding Trump’s statements on annexation, Fuld believes Trump is a real friend to Israel, but he cautions that could change.
He cautioned, “If Netanyahu makes one wrong move or even says one wrong word, I have a feeling that that friendship, that love affair, is going to come to an end. And unfortunately, right now, you know, whether it’s a right move or a wrong move to take sovereignty – and in some area, I think it’s a little bit, absurd, for lack of a better term – that the United States of America thinks it has the right to dictate to Israel, a decision that’s internal to Israel, let alone a security issue.”
Meanwhile, there’s been no movement in the last few days regarding Hamas returning the bodies of the 13 deceased hostages remaining in Gaza.
Thousands of supporters met Matan Angrest, who was freed from Gaza last week and went home from the hospital on Thursday.
